The Guide to Buying the Best Varmint Hunting Light
The best varmint hunting light is one that is designed with a varmints strengths and weaknesses in mind, and ultimately focuses on putting the odds in favor of the varmint hunter. We are going to go into detail about the common strengths and weaknesses varmints have, and how the best varmint hunting light can take advantage of those weaknesses and put the odds forever in your favor as a varmint hunter.
VARMINT STRENGTHS
Many varmints, such as the raccoon, have quick reproduction cycles. Raccoon babies can be born as quickly as 65 days and their offspring can be active and venture away from the nest as quickly as 5 weeks. This is part of the reason varmints are so abundant. Similarly, raccoons can also learn very quickly which has led to them figuring out how to climb up deer feeders and spin the plate under the bucket to make corn come out.
A study at the University of Oklahoma was conducted by placing raccoons inside boxes that require several manipulations to escape. The conclusions of the study suggested that raccoons have cognitive abilities better than a cat or dog and were at the primate level of processed reasoning and problem solving.
How does this apply to varmint hunting? Well you have to be aware that the same tricks don't always work twice.
We've gone varmint hunting on several occasion and when we use conventional spotlights, we've noticed that raccoons were able to figure out that their eyes give off a shine and so when we would shine the light at them, they would close their eyes and look away. This makes it very difficult to spot them since they blend in well with their surroundings. Predators and other animals do not tend to behave this same way, they prefer to investigate the light source or take off running if something doesn't feel right. This is where varmint hunting lights can make a huge impact on your success.
Another strength varmints have is that they are very aware of their surroundings. They can often hear the slightest move and their eyesight is second to none in terms of locating movement. Thus, a problem some people may have when varmint hunting is "blasting" the varmints with a spotlight. It is important to utilize adjustable intensity varmint hunting lights so you can gradually increase the intensity on a varmint to pull a shot off rather than "blast" them right off the bat with an intense beam. 
VARMINT WEAKNESSES
Varmints are mammals and because of this, they have dichromate vision. Humans are the only mammals who do not have dichromate vision. What exactly does this mean? Dichromate vision refers to them only having two pigment cones to blend colors together. As a result of this, the maximum wavelength they are capable of visually seeing is approximately 540 nm wavelength. 
If you look at the color spectrum, this is marked right at the heart of the green color. Green is a color that is easy for the human eye to pick up, which is part of the reason green varmint hunting lights has gained popularity. The problem with green hunting lights is that it is literally right on the border of color blindness for animals. In other words, some varmints may actually be able to see green and pick up the light. Therefore, we recommend varmints hunters to utilize primarily red lights for varmint hunting. On the color scale, this gives the varmint hunter a 100 nm pad to make sure your target varmint species is not able to see the color of the light you are shining, which helps you lie low in the shadows while your LED varmint hunting lights do the searching.
REQUIREMENTS FOR THE BEST VARMINT HUNTING LIGHT
We have discussed in detail some of a varmints strengths and weaknesses and now we are going to explain what varmint hunting lights such as the Predator Cannon Hunting Light must have in their arsenal to be capable of outshining and outsmarting varmints while you're out hunting.
As we discussed, a strength of the raccoon is its cognitive problem solving capabilities which have led to it being able to feel an intense light beam hitting their eyes and then they know to close their eyes and look away so you can't see them. A weakness to this counterpart is that raccoon, along with other varmints, are dichromate vision mammals and they are not able to see wavelength beyond approximately 540 nm.
Therefore, varmint hunting lights must have a red 660 nm wavelength beam that is capable of intensity adjustability. This allows you to light up varmints without them knowing their illuminated and adjust the brightness of the beam as needed to pull a shot off. These are technically two features within varmint hunting lights: red 660 nm wavelength beam and brightness adjustability, but both of these features are extremely important.
In terms of manufacturing, red color starts at approximately 600 nm and goes over 700 nm wavelength. A true deep red color that is great for varmint hunting is about 660 nm wavelength. The problem with this wavelength is that manufacturers are rarely capable of designing the LED chips such that they are able to have a high luminosity output at this wavelength rating.
This bring me to my final point - brightness. A white light is going to appear the brightest because it is the shortest wavelength light and it is easy for both humans and varmints to visually pick up on. The strategy here is to be able to increase brightness of varmint hunting lights that only humans can visually pick up on and varmints struggle to pick up on. Thus, focusing on a high brightness red light is the key ingredient which is also very hard to successfully master. The vast majority of red lights out there may claim to get eye shine at 500 yards, but when you hit the field with them you can rarely light up a shiny tin can at 100 yards.
The Predator Cannon Hunting Light is one of the few varmint hunting lights that has a true 660 nm wavelength red light, which is capable of fully intensity adjustability and has the power to shine out over 1,000 yards. The Predator Cannon has been proven to light up the full body of a varmint in order to successfully identify and pull of an accurate shot at 500 yards.
For more information on our varmint hunting lights and other predator hunting lights perfect for your next hunting trip, get in touch with us today! We’re happy to help.