Hot light for feeder on the cheap?

So I came back from a hog hunt- didn't see any hogs btw. I had the pleasure of using a brand new Kill Light from Elusive Wild Life... Had three options on there: On Auto Constant. Neither worked for me b/c the lights were on constantly! I like the ones with the PIR sensor on it- motion activates the lights to turn on. So they are really expensive too. So i'm making my own...



I purchased a closet light with motion activation from amazon for $16


Tore it all down




Purchased green LED (also from amazon) for $6. I need 15 out of the 25 LEDs. I will need to desolder the old ones off and put the new ones on. To be continued once I go pick the LEDs up.!!!

If it doesnt work out, check out the piggy poppers on ther forum here. I love mine

Just searched for it. Nice setup on the 308 but it's expensive ($500). I can't justify that for now though. I mainly sit my butt in the box stands and shoot away. For others who don't have hoglights at their lease, I'll use (the one i'll be modifying) this one. I shoot hots with a 300wsm (over kill but dead is dead i suppose). The ammo alone on this rifle is a fortune hehe.

You know, instead of buying the green LEDs and having to do all the soldering, the easy fix is to go to Hobby Lobby and buy a $5 or $6 package of colored overlays. They are .005" thick and you get red, green, orange, and yellow or blue in the package (4 or 5 colors).

I found that for red with my Mr Beams lights, that I could use 2 layers of the overlay inside of the lens to block the white light sufficiently to make it the correct color/brightness I wanted. Whether you need 1 layer, 2, or maybe 3 will depend on what you want from your lighting.

Just a thought if you make another or want to experiment with different colors, something not as easily done if you solder in a given color.

Yeah I thought about that too when I did the flashlight conversion. I am looking for the correct wavelength (515-517.5nm) green LEDs and green overlays won't give the same wavelength- or at least I don't think they do. Again, I don't know for sure myself. Thanks though.

They will probably get used to white and you don't have to do all that tedious work. I used the hobby lobby method to for a good color.

Lol than what the heck is all the hype about green LEDs ! I suppose since I have all the stuff already that I might as well finish it. I guess green is the cool factor is all.

Personally, I kind of think blue is cool too.

I have the Hog Kill Light but it is only on while I'm at the lease. I wanted a motion light so I could leave it at the feeder & let the hogs get used to it.

I got one of these <Click here from Amazon for less than $20 delivered. I bought a scrap of green window tint from the hardware and used some outdoor adhesive to cover the light portion (leave the sensor as-is). It puts out enough light to see under the feeder from my blind.

What I hope to gain is being able to sit in the blind & wait for the light to come on. I have a rifle mounted light in case I need more illumination. I'll know how it works after next weekend.

Correct wavelength? Okay, I will bite. What are the criteria that make that extremely specific narrow range of wavelength correct for a hog light?

What were you trying to bite? I wasn't talking about a specific light for hogs- with all hog things aside: each color has a specific wavelength when it comes to LED color. I'm simply trying to match it instead of using a green plastic cover.

Now if you want to get really specific- hogs can't see in that wave length. They can see the source of light coming from the flashlight or beam itself b/c it will appear white and really bright but what is emitted from the source and onto the ground- they have a hard time seeing. That's just my understanding and I might not be necessarily correct.

Way back before LEDs, we had regular spotting flashlights with colored plastic (red, green, etc) lenses we could swap out to go hunting with. Worked out great and the lights were expensive and HEAVY. So like I said, all hog things aside: I'm positive a piece of green plastic covering white LEDs will work. Cheers

I would be interested on how this setup works out for ya! Update when you can.

Okay, why match that very specific wavelength as opposed to just matching green generally?

Hogs seen green just fine. That IS the part of the spectrum the see particularly well. It is the red part of the spectrum that they don't see so well.

http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/user_upload/animalwelfare/1_download.pdf
http://www.pig333.com/what_the_experts_say/pig-vision-and-management-handling_981/

Personal preference and thank you for the good read my friend!!!

Took me half an hour to desolder the old LEDs and install the new ones in. So far, I'm completely happy for a product I can carry along with me and use when I go and there are no hog lights to help my poor eyes.

Cheers!!!

I have 3 of these lights on a few of my feeders and they work great. Just zip tie them to the legs and you're good to go. I'm sure you can find them cheaper but those are the ones we used.

http://www.lowes.com/pd_335738-59179-SPS2-P1-BK-T24_0__?productId=3316786&Ntt=solar+landscape+lighting+fixtures&pl=1&currentURL=%3FNtt%3Dsolar%2Blandscape%2Blighting%2Bfixtures&facetInfo=

Just to clarify a couple things regarding lights, because I get asked this quite a bit on our website and thought it may help here as well.

When a light source specifies that it produces light within a certain range of nm's, it is simply telling you how "pure", or "impure", that color is. The scale which we need to pay attention to has to do with the temperature of the light, which is measured on the Kelvin scale. The colors temperature determines how the light is actually perceived by the eye. Pure white light for example has a temperature of about 5,500K, give or take a few degrees. That does not mean that the light emits a temperature of 5,500 degrees, lest it melt everything around it. The scale works off of an old system which involved heating an iron rod. The colors would change as the temperature of the rod increased, which gives us our comparative scale.
So when mrchiro says he is going to build a 515-517nm light, all that means in plain English is that his goal is to produce a pure green light, with no blue or yellow hues. Since pure green is about 527nm, he is getting about as close as one can get without using lasers. The difference between 517 and 527 is imperceptible to all but the most visually acute animals...and arthropods.

Hope that helps clear up any confusion regarding nm's and temperature.

+++!!!

Stuko- they hogs just get use to the white light and doesn't bother them during feeding times I assume?

Doesn't bother them at all once they get used to it. Wish I would have taken a picture last weekend with the pigs under the light.

I put my game cam up last weekend so I will have pictures to post in a few weeks.

Although these are not my "exact" set up, mine looks almost identical to the pictures on this thread.

http://www.texashuntingforum.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/4012392/1

Pics of hogs under lights?

The pictures I have wont do it justice since my game cam has IR for night time pictures.

Stuko, the link you sent is pretty dang cool! If your setup is like that, you got something good there! What times are the hogs hitting your feeder? The regular 6pm, 2am etc? It's been cold lately and the hogs aren't coming out as much on a regular basis!

Yes our set up is exactly like that. Our stands are about 75 yards away from the feeder and the 3 lights do just fine illuminating the pig to get your cross hairs on them.

Some people get the impression it's going to be as bright as a football field under the feeder. That is not the case what so ever so if that's what you want, this set up isn't for you. They illuminate just enough for you to make out whatever it is (deer, coon, pig etc.)and see the silhouette

Our pigs are coming out usually every evening around 7pm and come back around 3am. We set out some pig pipes a few weeks ago so I haven't seen those game cam pics yet (cant wait to see them)

I will try to get some pics with my cell phone in the coming weeks of a pig under the lights.

Cool looking forward to seeing them hogs under them lights

Green, blue, purple, red, white, yellow it don't matter. On at dark, motion activated it don't matter. If it is on the feeder the pigs get used to it. I have a cheap white led motion light on my varmint cage pointed straight down. I chill in the blind until the light comes on. Pigs, coons, coyote, bobcat it don't matter. I also have spotlights that are solar powered and been successful with those too.

Just be consistent watch the wind and be patient.

I agree, if they get used to it, it doesn't matter.
My daughter and I tried the big bulky spots with red or green lenses from the blind. We would turn them on and before we could shoot the pigs would scatter like someone had already fired off a rifle. These same pigs would come up to the house and we could watch them run around and destroy the yard. The porch light had a motion sensor, they expected it to come on.

Yup I can agree to that. Something about green light turning on with motion makes the game more interesting for me.