Lighting

Every camp needs at least two lights. One goes on your head so both hands stay free, and one hangs inside the tent so nobody digs for the zipper in the dark. The stand and the truck usually want a third. This aisle carries Streamlight, Olight, Nightstick, Cyclops, Browning and Energizer, from AAA headlamps and keychain lights to handheld spotlights that reach across a field.

Shop lighting by type

• Headlamps and hat lights: hands-free light for camp chores, the walk in and field dressing, including red and green modes.
• Red, green and multi-color lights: headlamps, lanterns and penlights that keep your eyes adjusted to the dark.
• Pocket and EDC flashlights: penlights, keychain lights and flat lights that clip in a pocket like a knife.
• USB rechargeable flashlights: lights that charge from the same cable as your phone, including multi-fuel models that also take CR123A cells.
• AA and AAA flashlights: lights that run on batteries you can buy at any gas station.
• Tactical flashlights and weapon lights: Streamlight ProTac, Stinger and Strion duty lights, plus rail-mount lights for rifles.
• High lumen flashlights and spotlights: 1,000 lumens and up, topping out at 10,000.

Headlamps

• Streamlight Bandit: USB rechargeable, 180 lumens on high for 2 hours or 35 lumens on low for 9.5 hours, IPX4 weather resistant, with a visor clip for wearing it on a cap brim.
• Streamlight Enduro Pro USB: 200 lumens, a head that tilts 45 degrees for reading or tying knots, and a low spot mode that runs 48 hours.
• Nightstick Multi-Function 210: a white spotlight beam plus white, red and green floodlight, with a ratcheting tilt head. The colored modes are the ones to use around camp after dark.
• Energizer Vision 200: runs on AAA batteries and costs little enough to keep one in the truck and another in the blind bag.

Lanterns

The Streamlight Siege family covers this job, and the runtimes are the reason. The Siege AA puts out 200 lumens for 7 hours or 50 lumens for 37, and its red LED runs 8 days. The Siege Alkaline steps up to 340 lumens for 30 hours, with a 33 lumen low setting that runs 295 hours. That is a full week of deer camp on one set of batteries. The Super Siege is the rechargeable version, 1,100 lumens on high and 125 lumens for 35 hours.

Why red light matters

Your eyes take a long time to adjust to the dark, and one blast of white light resets the clock. A red mode keeps your night vision intact for the walk to the stand, and it does not wake the whole tent when you get up at 4 a.m. The Nightstick headlamp and every Siege lantern here have one, and the rest are in red and green hunting lights.

Spotlights and flashlights

Lumens tell you how much light comes out. The reflector decides where it goes. Handheld spotlights pack their output into a long, tight beam for checking decoys from the boat or finding the truck at the end of a long walk out. The Streamlight Waypoint 400 is waterproof, rated at 1,000 lumens, and runs from 3.75 to 87 hours depending on mode. For raw output, the Browning High Noon XL is rated at 3,200 lumens and the Cyclops Revo at 4,500. The brightest of the bunch are in high lumen flashlights and spotlights.

For a pocket, the Streamlight ProTac HL-X puts out 1,000 lumens from an anodized aluminum body that is waterproof to 1 meter for 30 minutes, and it ships with batteries and a holster. The MicroStream USB is the small one that clips to a shirt pocket and charges from any USB port. More small lights are in pocket and EDC flashlights.

Predator and weapon lights

Night predator and hog hunting needs a light that mounts to the gun and reaches past the call. The Cyclops Varmint is a rechargeable weapon-mount light rated to mark targets out to 220 yards with its green module. The Streamlight ProTac VIR Pro mounts to a rail, and the Nightstick Long Gun Light Kit runs 800 lumens with a switch. See all of them in tactical flashlights and weapon lights, and build out the rest of the setup with our coyote hunting gear guide. Rules on hunting with artificial light vary by state, so check with your wildlife agency first.

Hang a lantern in one of our camping tents, keep a headlamp in the side pocket of a hunting cot, and set up the rest of camp with hunting coolers and camping chairs and tables. More gun-mounted lights are under flashlights for guns. The full Streamlight lineup has its own page, and everything else is in camping gear.