Another Light Thread: Doggy Duty

[GuanoLoco]

I frequently walk my dog late at night in the woods, it’s maybe a 1.5 mile circuit on a trail that I cut or spliced out of game trails. I find a decent headlamp that is on the weak/wide beam side to be most useful, and have used everything from 100-250-500-1000 lumens hand flashlights to light up the various critters of the night that I encounter. If it’s anywhere near a full moon I might not run a light at all, except the one clipped to the dog.

500 is more than adequate most of the time although I have recently used 500 + 1000 to light up a small herd of deer running right past us. You get some light splash back from the closer trees, this is the primary drawback of going with the more powerful lights while in the woods. This would be less of an issue in more open areas.

[RevolverRob]

A headlamp gives you much more use of both hands...whether for something mundane, or something of an emergency.

When I walk with one of my handhelds at night, I miss the headlamp. It's that much better. (At least in my environment.)

Absolutely they are useful. Just not necessarily in a context where you might want to cycle the light quickly.

I use head lamps all the time when doing cave excavations, general spelunking, or working on a car. A Petzl and a 1000+ lumen Fenix with external battery pack that balances on my caving helmet nicely.

But when I'm walking the dog in urban Chicago? That'd be kind of a weird place to use a 1000+ lumen head lamp. Like...odd-odd, maybe we should call the cops odd.

Not too mention to cycle most head lamps, you need to reach up and activate them. When working in an environment where I'm potentially going to encounter someone that is also pretty heavily lit by ambient street lighting, I prefer a handheld light. Something that is compact, easy to run, easy to conceal or conceal the draw of it, etc.

[blues]

Makes sense, Rob. When I lived in NYC, I never needed a light when I walked my dog at night. (The gun was handy to have along, though.)

[Trukinjp13]

I prefer a headlamp as well for walking the dogs at night. Most of the time if the moon is out we will use it as primary light source. I often use a light that is in the 75-150 lumen range. We walk in the woods in the middle of nowhere there is a lot of light that reflects off the multiple lakes. The wife carries the handheld which is 350 lumens if necessary.

I am always carrying with a x300u on my pistol (600 lumen) or the tlr7 for critter control.


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[scjbash]

I've had a lot of luck with Nitecore lights and chargers. I use the HC60 headlamp. It's "only" 1000 lumens but it gets twice the battery life of the HC33, which is nice when I'm using it to mow grass after dark. It's a good lamp for people who don't have an 18650 charger because it also has a USB charging port.

https://flashlight.nitecore.com/product/hc60

Edit: just noticed that's the HC30 you use. The 33 is the same lamp externally but is pushing 1800 lumens.

[matt7184]

I agree with the headlamp; I tried a handheld for a long time but the headlamp is like a godsend and allows me to have both hands free. I use a Petzl Tikka.