Hey guys,

Does anyone here bow hunt at night for hogs? I have a group of guys headin to Texas next week and want to know what kind of light to use for shotting a bow at night.
I was considering a bow mounted type, But also thought about the remote operated kind placed over the feeder. What do you guys recommend for night shooting? Does the light spook the hogs when you shine it on them or do you use a red lense filter of some kind?
Any insight would be appreciated.
Fordfreak

the light on the bow is ok if you use the red filter and dont move around to much the shadow of the background moving freaks them out when you move the light.

we use a 12 volt led aray to see them and get close to sighted in then turn on the bow light

or use a red dot or laser and shoot them under the moon or small leds

I bought a unit from Cabelas that mounts a Mini maglite on the stabilizer of my bow and I have shot my bow like that at hogs before.

Good luck

IF you can just

Common practice down here is to hunt lighted feeders or corn sendros and roads and spot and stalk during bright moonlit nights.
A trituim sight pin is excellent for an aiming aid.

There was a black and white photo posted on the 'net a year or so back that showed pigs under a feeder. It was pitch black, and the pigs were illuminated by one of those "green lights" used for fishing. It was gray looking in the photo. The light was equipped with a solar cell that turned it on when daylight got dim. Supposedly the light was subtle enough that the hogs either didn't pay it any mind or couldn't tell it was on at all.

I haven't rigged up one of them yet, but it sure is tempting!

Thanks for the replies. I have a scope mountable varmint light with a red lense filter but dont really want to attach it to my bow because of the weight. My other option is a remote operated LED lantern from cabela's. Im worried the blue LED's will spook the hogs. Has anyone used the red lenses for hogs? Im curious if they will spook the pigs.

Miss your avatar, fordfreak

heh

When I was at the Hog hunting expo I heard a discussion on using lights to hunt hogs at night.

These guys had lights under their feeders.

They said it did not seem to make any difference it the light was white or red, the important thing seemed to be that the dividing line between the light area and the dark area be a soft transition not a harsh line.

We hunt them all the time at night with our bows. We have lighted sight pins that use watch batteries and for spot lights I have used white, red, green and blue filters with varied results. Seems like we have less spooking with the red. If you have time to set up a light under the feeder that works well also, like leopard hunting in Africa, a brake light taped under the feeder on a 12 volt batter works but not very portable. I have actually used a "surefire" flashlight in my hand that holds the bow and shot a lot of pigs, kind of clumsey but I can put a filter on it as well. As others have stated, soft transitions on any light spook the pig less. Living in Central Texas we have the opportunity to hunt them any night we can get to the river bottoms. They normally won't hang around long under any light so be ready and practice at night at home with whatever system you choose. We bought a "reostat" from Radio Shack that we can vary the intensity of the voltage to the brake light that we bought at walmart. We use a deep cylce battery fom our boats or campers. Doing it your self cost about 12 dollars excluding the battery or you can buy something from Cabela's or Gander mountain that is all in a kit. We will many times set up double hanging stands, one of us works the light switch and camera, the other gets the shot. Know your distances before it gets dark, hard to judge the distance with the red light etc.,,,, good luck..drwes

Red lights, or lense's are supposed to be unseen by animals. Whether they are or not I can't say. But, I've read that many times because most of them have different type eye make up than people do.

But, in the Army, we had red lense's on our vehicles and the ground guides carried and used red lensed flashlites to guide the drivers in night manuevers. I always thought it was stupid because I could see the lites. But, at a distance things illuminated by them were much harder to see than when a white lite was used.

George