Hunting at night is not an easy task. Your safety depends upon the type of instrument you use for lighting purposes. In ancient times people used to do hunting with traditional lamps or candles, whereas today we see people using the torch, headlights, etc. for hunting, but this can be costly. Your safety while hunting at night depends upon the quality of the headlamp you use. Therefore, using a trustworthy headlamp while hunting must be your priority. See also our recommendations on the best compound bow, best crossbow for hunting, crossbow safety tips, and different types of crossbows.
What is a hunting headlamp?
Headlamps or headlights are nothing but a form of the small bulb or LED wire attached to an elastic band. You can wear it with the help of an adjustable band to carry out any outdoor activities in the night time with safety.
Anyone going for night trips, camps, hiking, and night hunting can use the best hunting headlamps. A hunting headlamp is nothing but headlight provided with a battery and the belt to give you enough light while hunting at night.
Hunting headlamps are useful in many ways. They are not just helpful in providing light at night time. But any group member can follow other group members with the help of a headlamp, which is visible to all. Because of the Headlamp, you can indeed check upon further roads & obstacles in between the journey. Thus there is ‘n’ number of headlamps available in the market depending upon battery type, beam distance, cost of use, etc.
Headlamps come in various colors. They can also be useful to you while setting up a tent in the forest because there is no sunlight or any light in the night other than a headlamp. Therefore there are a lot more uses of headlamps.
Every headlamp model won’t be best suited for each condition because every model comes up with its specialty, so choosing them with a good view can surely give you a better result.
See also: Trail Cameras for Hunting
How to choose Hunting Headlamps?
Everyone looks for its properties, specifications, cost, etc. before purchasing any specific product. So, while selecting headlamps, there are few things you should check upon. You should consider the below-mentioned factor while choosing a hunting headlamp.
1) Cost:-
Cost is one of the foremost filters everyone chooses while selecting any product. You often see people talking about price and not about the quality. But everything can’t be compared to the price because some products come with higher prices while some come up with lower prices.
The cost of a headlamp has to be decided by the purpose you are purchasing it. If you are going for night hunting, then there’s no point in looking at a product’s price because nothing is costlier than your life. While on the other hand, if you are looking for a headlamp for various other purposes, you can opt for some mid-range cost. But again, one thing to mention is, it’s nothing like that if you purchase an expensive product, you will have a quality product. It depends upon the feature it comes with.
2) Durability:-
It is one of the most important aspects while choosing any hunting headlamp. Because if you are hunting, then you must select your headlamp according to that. Suppose you are selecting a headlamp with low light while going for hunting, then you are making a complete mess. Therefore it is advised to all readers out here to choose your headlamp according to hunting.
Your headlamp should withstand in all weathers and temperature because if it fails to make it up to a point, then what’s the use of investing money on such a product. Therefore choosing the right quality headlamp while going for hunting over low-quality products will be the smartest decision.
3) Beam Distance:-
This technical term is more important than any other facts you should look upon while choosing a headlamp. Beam Distance is the distance your headlamp can cover with the help of light, or you can say the sight distance you can see with the headlamp because a brighter headlamp will always give you longer sight distance than compared to a light headlamp.
The headlamp of which beam distance you should choose again depends upon the location of your hunting. Because light is the main factor, you should look upon while hunting at night. Various other factors, like your output to the headlamp and even weather at specific points, play a vital role in your sight distance. Choosing a brighter model over a dull model in night hunting can be an essential factor for you considering safety concerns because it will surely give you more sight distance in the night time.
4) Light Output:-
This is the essential thing you should check while choosing or buying any headlamp because it is a crucial aspect that your headlamp should give you enough light output whenever you require. For this factor, battery backup is as vital as light output because you can’t have enough light at the end of the day if the headlamp’s battery backup is too low. This output will undoubtedly depend upon what you have a luminous flex or lumens. Because the higher your lumens, the brighter your light will be.
If you are visiting any forest or going for any night trek, then the brighter light is the foremost priority for any of you. Therefore choosing a brighter light headlamp can be a wise decision over any cheap or low-quality headlamp as it will give you assurity about everything & anything.
See also: Best Tree Stands for Hunting
Features to look for in Hunting Headlamp:-
Hunting headlamps come with several features that can help you to have a wonderful and safe hunting experience at night. But it’s tough to choose the hunting headlamp with the most appropriate features. We have shared a few of the essential features which you should consider while choosing the best hunting headlamps to include:
Value of Lumens:-
Lumens is a unit of measuring the brightness of the light. You must consider headlamps, which have a high value of lumen and offer the right amount of light in the night. Headlamps with more value of lumen will assist you in having a better hunting experience in very dim or no light.
Your gear must be friendly for you because you have to operate the headlamp in the night with as low noise as possible.
On the same point, Lumens is a much important consideration for you because your light must be at least that much visible that it can assist your partner from a distance to be able to locate you and reach towards you with ease.
Light mode & beam types:-
There are many light modes and beam types, but you should choose to depend upon your use. Every beam-type has its unique characteristics, so let’s see them one after the other.
There are three types of beam available in headlamps
1) Wide/flood beam
2) Spot beam
3) Strobe beam
1) Wide/Flood beam:-
It is a primary type of beam which gives you a panorama type of view for light purposes. It may be useful where there is another light source available to you. Because due to its light capacity, you can’t have sufficient sight distance with this beam. It will give you a clear vision for your surroundings but is not enough for long sight distance.
2) Spot Beam:-
This type of beam is mainly useful for all the trekkers who do the night trek. It has the feature of concentrating light focus. Due to this, you can have sight of longer distance than a flood beam type of headlamps. Many cyclists use this type of headlamp in night journeys.
3) Strobe beam:-
The strobe beam has a unique feature. This feature includes a flash headlamp or zig-zag headlamp. It is mostly useful in group trek because, unfortunately, if any group members leave behind, you can give them a signal by using a strobe beam. Many cyclists use this in the rear part of the cycle to provide indications for other people.
Which color beam headlamp you should prefer?
The color of your hunting headlamp will depend on when & where you are hunting. There are three types of colors available in the headlamp, but each color serves various purposes.
Three types of colors in headlamps are as follows:-
1) Red
2) Green
3) White
1) Red light is generally used for night hunting because a red filter provides you with sufficient light at night so that you don’t have to interrupt your night vision. In it, you can adjust back & forth on your headlamp only because of your night vision. One more advantage of red light is it’s a pure form of light compared to white light.
2) A green light will also be a better replacement for a red light in night hunting. One main advantage of green light is that it is brighter than red light, in contrast, so you can have a clearer vision and can use it in a night trek for more comfort and light. But the drawback of green light is you have to regularly adjust your night vision so that it would be an irritating task.
3) A white light will give a more precise image than red light & green light. But you have to play with night vision when you use white light. One of the major concerns of using white light is, you have to manage or adjust the eyes to the darkness when white light turns off. You should use white light only when you want to have an exact sight distance because of the white light, and you can easily see the shadow of every person around you.
Fit & Adjustment:-
Headlamp fitting and adjustment is one of the essential considerations you should never miss upon. You should always prefer having a hunting headlamp with the band that you can easily adjust.
There are various straps available for headlamps depending upon your requirements. Rubber straps will accurately fit your head and will give you enough protection from moisture. But if your hunting is of longer duration, then rubber strap won’t be the right choice.
For a long duration of hunting, you can use a fabric strap as this will be more comfortable and moisture absorbing.
Therefore depending upon your choice, you can use a variety of straps to your headlamp.
Straps alone are not a concern here but choosing a headlamp in which strap can be adjusted equally essential. Because if you can’t modify a headlamp quickly, then what’s the use of taking it with you. So dropping the headlamp, which is not best suited for you, will be a wise choice.
Lightweight headlamps:-
Like other features, it’s essential to check the headlamp’s weight too because you have to carry your headlamp on your head so you must be able to take the headlamp with comfort. Adding more weight will lead you to discomfort while hunting and will make you irritate.
Battery:-
This is the essential aspect of your headlamp. You can use lithium-ion rechargeable batteries over traditional batteries for better use. If you have a battery station available with you on the field, then it would be one of the best choices you would make. But you should note that the charger will be added to your equipment weight, so you should consider the same thing as well while packing your bag. This type of headlamps is costlier, but it would be a one-time investment, so nothing is invested in the same.
Carrying extra batteries in case you are using a single-use battery will be beneficial for you. Single-use batteries will cost you less compared to other batteries.
IP Ratings:-
The Ingress Protection (IP) rating is an international method to identify how well a light fitting is protected from liquid & solid objects.
It is listed as ‘IPXY,’ where ‘X’ represents reliable particle protection capability in 0-6 numbers.
When no solid protection is given, then it would look like ‘IPX4’. It won’t have the first number.
Easy to use:-
You will have lots of equipment with you, so always prefer headlamps which won’t be problematic in operation.
If you roam in the market, you will get many more single button headlamps that won’t be difficult to operate. So always prefer them over any complex headlamp.
Shock Resistance:-
You can’t say that there won’t be any problems when roaming around at night. Problems come all of a sudden, so you must be prepared to face them. You can mistakenly drop your headlamp anywhere, may it be mud, any waterlog, etc. so it must be capable enough to withstand such happenings.
Tips on using best-hunting Headlamps:-
This article must be getting very long for all the readers out there. Still, it’s essential to cover all the practical points that are useful for you because there are very few articles that will cover headlamps in such depth, so it will be an excellent opportunity to express the same.
When it comes to using the headlamps, everyone must be having some questions in their mind, but we are sure that you all will be relieved after reading this point:-
1) Don’t lend your headlamp to your trek partner:-
It’s human nature to help our friends, relatives, etc. in any possible way. But giving your headlamp to your friend or trek partner won’t be a good option. Because head sizes differ from person to person, if you lend your headlamp to your friend/ partner, then strap length will indeed reduce or increase, resulting in changing the same. So this help can turn out to be costly to you.
2) Always Bring Extra Batteries:-
As we all know, problems can arise anytime; imagine you are in the middle of your night trek, and the battery goes out of charge at that time. What a miserable situation it would be. So keeping an extra pair of batteries won’t make any bad deal for you, so if any problems occur like that, then you must be ready with all guns out.
3) Always carry your scent:-
You will get sweat while doing any trek or hunting activity. So the strap you are using for headlamps will surely get wet due to your sweat, and it will leave odor there only. So you won’t like to complete your rest journey with such odor, so it is advisable to carry your scent and use it whenever you get sweaty.
Benefits of choosing the best hunting headlamp:-
A headlamp is always a good option for any trekkers, cyclists, and adventure lovers who love to enjoy their respective thrills in the night. Headlamps always come up with positive sides, and advantages so let’s see the pros of hunting headlamps one by one in the list below.
1) Effectiveness:-
Night hunting or going for treks at night, enjoying cycle rides at night will always be challenging. But this challenge can be reduced to a certain amount if you use any useful tool as a helping hand to you. Because a helpful tool or you can say, equipment will be the crucial difference between your adventure’s success and failure.
2) Safety:-
Safety is always the top priority for anyone, then let it be night hunter, trekker, or cyclists. Because nothing is more important than human security, having enough sight distance in the night time is not only related to doing good hunting but also it can be a difference between your survival and unfortunate error. Therefore you must choose a product of good quality by neglecting the price of the same because your products will be the ones who will be saving you from future dangers.
3) Comfort:-
Comfort is the most critical point for everyone out there because using hunting headlamps will be comfortable for you can be a boon for you. Otherwise, you opted for a product which is not that comfortable for you can turn out to be a curse for you & it will surely spoil your thriller. Choosing the best hunting headlamp can offer you a high level of comfort and relaxation so you can enjoy your hunting experience wisely.
Final Words:-
Hunting headlamp can be your real partner in the night time while hunting. Many varieties of hunting headlamps are available in the market, so choosing it wisely and having its best possible use is in your hand.
In this guide, we have covered all aspects of choosing the best hunting headlamp. You should keep a note of all the points shared above while choosing the best hunting headlamp because the wrong choice of hunting headlamp will directly hinder your hunting experience.
We hope this buying guide on hunting headlamp was helpful to you.