Hog light ideas?

[killinstuff]

What are you using for a hog light?  I've tried the red cellophane on my flash light,  brake lights hooked up to a couple of 6 volt batteries, stuff like that but I want a better light. Not interested in pricey lights like the Hawg Maunder or Primos lights. I'd like to put something together or buy something for under $40. Ideas?

[rice]

Have used an old car headlight, wire and a marine battery in the past and it worked well. I put red taillight repair tape on light to get red light effect. Just taped it to the tripod I was hunting out off of.
Learned the headlight trick from my dad, that is what we used for light when I was a kid when we went catfishing at night. Its cheap and effective.
For stalk hunts at night, we just buddy hunted with a big six volt flashlight, one guy up front, second guy with mag light behind. Stalk up to shooting distance, guy in back switches on light that is pointed at the sky and slowly brings it down toward the hog until enough light reaches hog for front guy to pick a spot and shoot the hog. Don't point the beam directly at the hog, he will spook. Lots of hogs have died using this method.

Hope this helps,
Chris

[Terry Green]

Do a search....thread last year or two with lots of info.

[reddogge]

Tippit had a neat one on here recently.

[Jake Fr]

I have a buddh that is making a sales them on a Web site ill see if I can find it

[Jake Fr]

Darn double post

[tippit]

Sniper Hog lights in red are really, really nice in mini sniper light with or without the bow mount screw in adaptor...tippit

Mounted on Morrison ILF without a stabilizer insert

 

Heavy leather strap is very stable with the shot

 

Bow mount in stabilizer insert with on/off switch you can attach to the riser

 

 

[TxAg]

Solar powered garden lights from the local hardware store work great....and they're cheap. Just get them off the ground (tree or t-post) so the hogs don't smash them rooting around.

[Gatekeeper]

It seems like I am messing with this or thinking about how to improve my night hog hunting setup a lot.

My first attempt was placing a headlamp on my head a little off of strait ahead. For me being a left hand shooter that meant pointing the light to my right. The trick is to get the light to point where I am looking, so that means practice before going out. The only disadvantage I found for this setup comes after the shot. I have problems seeing the arrow’s flight and where it hits the pig. Because after the release of the bowstring and while the arrow is in flight the top bow limb jumps across the beam of light and the arrow disappears into the blackness and I don’t get to see the arrows flight or see it hit.

The next attempt was a setup similar to the Tippit’s rig except I used the strap-on Gadget Adapter from Tree Rivers.  http://www.3riversarchery.com/product.asp?i=5045

A TacStar Universal Barrel Mount from Cabela’s
 http://www.cabelas.com/product/TacStar-Universal-Barrel-Mount/742450.uts?Ntk=AllProducts&searchPath=%2Fcatalog%2Fsearch.cmd%3Fform_state%3DsearchForm%26N%3D0%26fsch%3Dtrue%26Ntk%3D AllProducts%26Ntt%3Dbarrel%2Bmount%26x%3D0%26y%3D0%26WTz_l%3DHeader%253BSearch-All%2BProducts&Ntt=barrel+mount&WTz_l=Header%3BSearch-All+Products

A .75” length of .50” diameter metal electrical conduit filled with JB weld and inserted a .3125” 18 X .50” hex bolt into the JB weld material. The conduit assembly was screwed into the Gadget Adapter (after the JB Weld dried) which created a solid mount for the TacStar Barrel Mount to connect onto and the TacStar also held the flashlight.

I used this setup with and without the tactical gun pressure switch. (Tippit’s switch looks different then the switch that I used. His looks like it has a permanent on and off switch.) The pressure switch I used makes the light come on when pressure is applied and the light goes off when the pressure is released and there in lies the problem with the pressure switch. When I drew the bow the light came on and everything looked perfect, but when the string was released the pressure went away and so did the light. Not good!

So I tried this same setup without the pressure switch and it worked okay but again there were times that I couldn’t see the arrows flight or impact, during practice, because the light was not mounted to a solid or none moving surface. At the release of the string the bow would move enough that the halo of the light would move off the target enough that I would loose the arrow in flight.

The next attempt was a stationary light that can be placed anywhere and controlled remotely up to 100' or more away. This is pretty cool.

The power source is a square 12V battery from a trailer supply store. This is the type of battery used for trailer brakes. The battery and the remote switch are housed in a plastic box designed to hold small 12V batteries. This box can also be found at trailer supply stores.

 

 

This is the switch inside the battery box

 

  This picture shows the battery and the switch inside the battery box  

The switch is a four channel remote controlled switch that cost around $25 and is sold on the Internet. Here is an example of where to find it, but if you decide to do this look around you may find it for less somewhere else.  http://www.outletpc.com/c7299.html?utm_source=googlepepla&utm_medium=adwords&id=20206522684&utm_content=pla&gclid=CIemhNadwrICFWGnPAodkSgAjg  There is also a single channel switch out there, but why buy one channel when you can buy four.

The light source is a LED light made by Super Bright LED’s. It is found in their car tail and brake light section on their web site.  http://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo/tail-brake-turn/1156-led-bulb-single-intensity-3-x-1.3-watt-high-power-led/805/

This light has a beam pattern of 130 deg and lumen rating of 135.  I bought the white light but they also make this light in a red. The fixture that I put this light in is a homemade contraption.

The socket the light plugs into is a three wire 1156 taillight / blinker / brake light socket sold at most auto parts stores. There are two black wires coming out of the socket and one white wire. One of the black wires makes the light more intense (brighter) then the other wire, you’ll know it when you see it. The wire that makes the light the brightest is the one you want and you can cut the other wire off or tape it up so you don’t use it.

To house the plug and the light I used a 2.5” piece of 1” PVC water pipe and an end cap that fits the pipe. Drill a hole in the end cap big enough to slip the two wires from the auto plug through. After plugging the bulb into the auto plug slip the two wires through the hole in the end cap and then wrap electrical tape around the wires to hold the plug assembly and the end cap together. On the free ends of the plug wires attach an electrical connectors to each wire. Attach a male plug to one wire and a female plug to the other.

 

The light in the end cap with the wire connectors attached  

Next slip the end cap and plug assembly onto the 2.5” section of 1” pipe. You should see that the front of the bulb is flush with the front face of the pipe. You don’t want the light to stick out past the front of the pipe because it may interfere with your vision at night when you’re shooting.

 

On the remote switch find the channel one wires (black and white) and attach a wire connector to each of these wires. The connectors for the switch must match up with the connectors on the light’s wires. The white wire connector on the light (for this setup is ground) and if you used a male connector for the light’s ground wire you will need a female connector for the switch’s ground wire. The wires on the switch are labeled as 12V and Ground.

Now you’ll need a way to mount the light. I use a small spring clamp and an electrical conduit hanger both can be purchased at any hardware store. Under the rubber grip on the handle portion of the spring clamp is a predrilled hole big enough for a .25-20 bolt to fit through, but you’ll have to drill a hole through the rubber grip on the clamps handle. Now connect the conduit hanger and the clamp together with a short .25-20 bolt and a wing nut. Slip the light assembly into the conduit hanger and tighten the hanger to the light assembly. With this setup the light can be clamped to a small branch, t-post, treestand platform or some other object and the light can be pointed to where you expect to see hogs. If there are no small objects around to clamp to, I’ll use a cheep-o bow hook. Screw the bow hook into a near by tree and clamp the light to the hook.

 

Light assembly with spring clamp

 

Light assembly with bow hook


If I want to hang the light up high or set the battery box away from the light I made a 10’ section of wire with the same male and female connectors on it as the light and the switch so that I can set the light and the power source / switch away from one another.

 

  Light, bow hook, 10' of wire and power / switch box

This setup is pretty slick and has worked well so far.
There is a slight click when the switch is activated but it’s not to bad. I activated the switch a few times last year around Texas deer feeding at a feeder to see how they reacted. They flinched and looked around but eventually they went back to feeding. This setup should work great on one of those wise old boars that scent checks the bait before coming in. It would allow the hunter to sit away from the bait and activate the light remotely and then sneak into the bait for the shot.

[Gatekeeper]

Here is my last setup and its much lower tech. This is a 4.5” x 5” piece of leather with five hooks riveted to it and three holes drilled in it. Three hooks are on one side and two on the other. The side with two hooks also has a hole drilled at each end. In the center of the large piece of leather is a smaller piece of leather that measures 2” x 5”. The smaller piece has a single rivet through its center and into the center of the larger leather piece. On one end, on the outside, of the small piece of leather is a “hook” section of Velcro that is glued on. On the inside of the opposite end an equal amount of “loop” section of Velcro is glued on. The reaming inside section of the small piece of leather has a piece of non-slip rubber material glued in place. I don’t remember where I found this rubber stuff, but it’s a tool drawer liner material. Through the two exposed holes of the larger piece of leather is a 6’ section of bungee cord, knotted off on one end and a cord lock on the other. The bungee cord came from The Nocking Point.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The concept is this. The larger piece of leather, with the bungee cord, is to work like an armguard. The leather is to wrap around a tree trunk, limb, branch, post, ect. So that the light can be secured in the primary direction of interest, in this case a bait pile. The small section of leather is to wrap around a 1” diameter flashlight and the single rivet point between the larger piece of leather and the smaller piece of leather will allow the hunter to point the light where it needs to be pointed. This design will put a stationary light out in front of the hunter and eliminate the lost arrow flight that I have encountered in the past. Of coarse in order for this setup to work the light has to be within reach of the hunter so the light can be turned on.

[TxAg]

Sweet!