Need a new Headlamp - Recommendations?

[flightattendant100]

You are right. You loosing it!

The one thing that stuck in my head from being in hunt club with hardcore, crazy serious deer hunters was "do not give away your location". I think that the brighter you light, the more deer you will spook from farther away. Using as dim a light as you can get away with and holding it low makes a difference. I have an S1R Baton II and use the moonlight function clipped on my baseball cap but found those cheap little lights are perfect. So as much as I may be losing it I think strategy is better than using a bright light let alone a bright light attached to my head.

Don, I have used a green flashlight in a headband for several years. I like it really well. It is bright! I can see much better so I am much more quiet and to my knowledge I havent spooked anything with it. Since green sort of takes the contrast away, I like the bright to distinguish obstacles on trail. I think the added quiet outweighs the brightness factor, but it may just be me.

[flightattendant100]

When I hunted public land 90% of the time there were these yahoo’s that would wait until you didn’t need a light to walk into the woods. I wanted to kick them in the pants. Anyway, I went to using a climber to avoid hunting one spot or three, I would seek out nasty places to hunt right after the season ended for the following year. My mission was to avoid others, and to clear a usable path to these areas without making them visible to everyone. That made it very easy to get in with a small light that was not very bright. As Boo said, pointing it right in front of you maybe a few yards out is all you need unless you’re running! I usually use the red lights on my cheap Energizer light and push pins with glow tape around eye level.

Dan, I am new to this Public Hunting land thing. I purposely didnt mark my trail in with reflectors or tape so all others wouldnt see. I also figured it was somewhat like the public land in Colorado, in that the farther from trailhead you got, the fewer hunters you would encounter. Last Saturday morning I set up an hour and about 10 minutes before legal shooting time. 7 minutes before legal time I heard something and here comes hunter, wearing a bright white headlight, pulling a deer cart that was pretty noisy. I shined my light at him and whistled "bob-white". He whistled back and set up 42 yards from me! Dang!!! I couldnt believe it. Guess it is time for some more scouting and a new spot.

[Normous]

^^ that moron set up 42 y away...Yikes
That Sucks!!

[flightattendant100]

^^ that moron set up 42 y away...Yikes
That Sucks!!

Norm, yep, I ranged him!

[xcaliber]

Yep, plenty of jerks on the public land. Crazy as this sounds we found a place many years ago on public land that had a ton of hunters using. They would go maybe 1/4 mile in or more, and often East of the main road through this area closer to the private land with crop fields. One day while hunting this area I cut through at an angle to get back to my truck on the opposite side of the road and kicked up a huge buck and several doe. I saw no stands in there, and decided to wait a couple days and got in there about two hours before daylight. I was the only one in the lot when I left to hunt with my climber on my back. I got a nice buck that morning that got spooked out from the other side of the road. It was about ten minutes before legal light when I heard him sneaking in. This spot was a short walk from the parking area. I goofed up and told a buddy, that was the end of solitude!

[robertyb]

I once had a guy on a WMA walk in front of me after daylight so I let him know I was there and he turned and waved at me. He then walked about 50 yards out in front of me and sat down on a stump. I thought very seriously about shooting the stump he was sitting on but I was ground hunting so I just got up and eased off a few hundred yards to another spot. There are some true idiots that hunt public land.

[flightattendant100]

Yep, plenty of jerks on the public land. Crazy as this sounds we found a place many years ago on public land that had a ton of hunters using. They would go maybe 1/4 mile in or more, and often East of the main road through this area closer to the private land with crop fields. One day while hunting this area I cut through at an angle to get back to my truck on the opposite side of the road and kicked up a huge buck and several doe. I saw no stands in there, and decided to wait a couple days and got in there about two hours before daylight. I was the only one in the lot when I left to hunt with my climber on my back. I got a nice buck that morning that got spooked out from the other side of the road. It was about ten minutes before legal light when I heard him sneaking in. This spot was a short walk from the parking area. I goofed up and told a buddy, that was the end of solitude!

Dan, Almost all the trails that people have flagged take off to the East. SIL told me a couple of weeks ago that walking out there were lots of eyes on West side. Im going to do some recon to see if I cant get away from my buddy.