Thread: Torch/spotlight colours ?

Just wondering what colour torch/spotlight people are finding most effective for use on light shy small game?
I have the opportunity to shoot rabbits on small lifestyle blocks and a couple of farms in my neighbourhood. Every year around this time we see an increase in the number of rabbits and when pressured they move in closer to houses, buildings, firewood stacks etc. After a bit of night shooting they seem to get quite a bit scarier and before you say it, no we don't miss many.
We generally use a white LED spotlight and/or a Maxtoch from a quad or S x S.
I recently purchased a green torch from Jacob at Piercing the Darkness and have tried it as well as a red filter on the spotlight or maxtoch. With both of these the rabbits seemed to be less scary leading to better success. I noticed with the green light one neighbour's Alpacas remained relatively undisturbed but went nuts when a white light was shone near them.
When using these lights we run the bikes on most of the places with the lights off or with a small red or green pilot light on some places (just enough to see where we are driving and open gates etc.)
I find the green light easier to see the game in and was wondering what others have found best or use.
I have seen on youtube a couple of pest controllers in Australia using either Green or red lightbars on their bikes with good success and am wondering which colour would be best before I go that way.
Sorry in advance if this has been asked in previous threads.

Try holding centre of beam OFF the bunny once you have found them...they often will sit thinking perhaps your looking elsewhere,you can still see them in the not so bright outer edge of light. It's a trick we used back in the commercial spotlighting days. Another thought is have person on foot as well as one on bike,if spooky animals encountered let bike move off and then shoot on foot while they focused on bike. I find green easier to see to navigate with... Limited experience but had Kathmandu headlamp with colour options and used it push biking back n forwards to work.

Convoy L21B with green led is what I settled on for spot torch. Good beam range and animals seem to tolerate light well. As MD said holding brightest part of beam off animal helps. Use a white/red led on red for navigating around when needed, both supplied by Piercing the Darkness. Used a Maxtoch before that. Also a good spotting torch but spooked a few animals with it, gave it to boy to use.

My experience is this. Led lights, especially white ones are much less than ideal for lighting up rabbits/possums at night....in actual fact for all night critturs including deer.
Next time it gets dark, get your mate to shine a white led spotlight in your eyes from 50-60m away......Your first reaction is to turn your head away as its too painful to look directly at it .
Imagine its effect on any animal like rabbits/possums which have far better night vision than humans.When LED lights/torches came out I switched from incandescent bulbed spotlights to Led ones and found my success rate plummeted.
I gave away all my Led spotlights and reverted back to old style incandescent spotlights, especially the ones that are slightly yellow or orange in colour.
A 35watt bulb I found to be more than adequate. Lo and behold, my success rate rose back to previous levels.
Fit a cigarette lighter plug to your quad...Mine is in the side of the trx500's headlight housing, and get yourself a handheld 'old school' spotlight.
Buy a couple of Burglar alarm batteries and put them in a small pouch on your belt and wire the light to them if you are going to walk and shoot.
I also have a pair of 35watt driving lights mounted on the quad with orange bulbs and use them instead of the white headlights.

Now I have handheld and rifle mounted thermals that do the job.....but every now and then I go 'old school' with hand held lights.
I also have an old led lenser H7 AAA battery powered headlamp and I colored the lens with a red permanent marker and use it on a low setting when walking around. It gives just enough light to see where I am stepping.

The other thing about Bright Leds is that the shadows created by clumps of grass/thistles and other things are sharply defined, when you move the light, the shadow moves in the opposite direction which can and will spook animals. Incandescent lights are more diffused and the shadows dont appear as starkly as Leds...
Just my opinions, based on 50+ yrs of chasing night critturs. Your mileage may differ....

In my experience even with green and red lights, intensity matters. My first attempt with a red light was the Convoy C8, it was very effective out to around 200m, I have had deer continue to graze while being lite up, so I though the L21B would be even better due its higher output, WRONG, yes it was brighter and worked well at longer ranges but closer in it spooked animals due to, I believe, the increased brightness. What Mikey says is right if you are using a bright light keep the animal out at the edge of the beam. Whatever you do the animals will eventually learn and become more light shy. Green lights are also better than whiten and are give a lot more clarity than the red but again you need to back of on the intensity, also consider only lighting up the target when you are set to shoot.

great advice on here yup the modern LEDS are way to bright red filter yes but try other colors

I use a green Conroy on rabbits and fallow one as a hand held and one rifle mounted.
If you want to shoot more ditch the bike.

Sent from my CPH2531 using Tapatalk

The slight yellow of the dedomed maxtoches does well on deer, BUT never light them up in the centre of the beam. Hold them on the edge of the beam, or put the beam between them and possible cover they may want to head towards, while your mate gets the bipod out and engages them from the prone position

Say it’s invisible to game. I have not used one but maybe someone else on here has.

https://nightvision.co.nz/product/sy...40nm-ir-torch/

Originally Posted by Cobb

Say it’s invisible to game. I have not used one but maybe someone else on here has.

https://nightvision.co.nz/product/sy...40nm-ir-torch/

Yeah it is invisible to game but only useful If you are using a Night vision scope. Otherwise its invisible to you to.

I have found with spotlighting possums the person with the old hid spotlight spots the most possums even though it isn’t as bright as the convoy torches. There eyes seem to reflect better. Curious how well a green light works on possums. The bright led is fine for shooting just noticed the person using the hid always spots the most.

Thank you all for your advice and words of wisdom. I think you are correct on the intensity scaring game as have noticed that some of the animals further away seem to hold better.
So green light seems to be more popular?