I have and use several predator hunting lights, two Optronics (Now Primos), and a Lightforce from Australia. The Optronics lights were standard 6 volt systems with smaller 6 volt SLA batteries, but were modified with new 12 volt Halogen 55 watt bulbs, and connected to my Lightforce battery pack/dimmer setup. The Lightforce setup comes standard with an 8 amp/hour battery with dimmer control/three way switch mounted on top of the softside battery carry case. The switch center position is off, left position is dimmer control, and the right position is "full-on", or full power to the light.
If you've ever seen or owned the Optronics lights, you're probably wondering how we can get a 55 watt 12 volt halogen bulb into the light without experiencing heat problems and melting plastic. The fact is that when teamed up with an electronic dimmer circuit, they are never putting out full power, so there's no worry about heat buildup, unless you have the light "full-on" for a long time period. At that point you might see a problem. If you are concerned about full power, we can replace the plastic lens with a glass lens as we did for one of our fellow hunters.
I've modifying all types of lights for our fellow hunters and will do so according to your particular style of hunting, so call and I'll speak to you about your hunting style and light selection.
Transitions:
Hunters adapt their style and equipment usage to best suit their needs. I, like some, in the "early" days used a scope mounted light which was attached to a 1" camo wooden dowel rod. This was used to both scan and shoot. Once I saw eyes, I then brought the dowel/light up alongside my Henry .22 mag to finally lock in and take the critter. (This, of course, was before we had a gun mounted light law passed) I've tried using several different setups in regard to lights, and last year I used a modified Nite Lite Hat attached to a modified Optronics gun light.
The hat light is used for scanning (See picture below), as I find it's easier to turn my head rather than shifting around and using my arm/wrist to scan. You're probably wondering why I used this specific light, as it looks big, etc. Reason being that's what I had so I figured I'd modify it to see how it worked....... It looks big on the hat, and takes a bit of getting used to, but it's the most efficient for "getting out there". My gun mounted light is either a Lightforce or the other Optronics light. I made up a three way switch which is epoxied to the cigarette lighter plug. All wiring, which is not shown, is wrapped in McNetts Camo Tape for quietness and strain relief. Now I can scan with the hat light, follow the eyes, hit the switch to turn on the gun light, then hit the switch again to turn off the hat light. In this way my lights are always on the critter, and there's nothing lost in the "transition" from scanning light to gun light. This takes a bit of getting used to, but I find it works well with a bit of practice.
