Once upon a time in a land far far away, (called Australia), a man had a very expensive hunting spotlight which he purchased from LightForce. It was a good light. It allowed the man to penetrate the darkness that surrounded him when he was out and about culling feral animals on the farm; Piercing the darkness was important because it allowed him to locate targets, identify them quickly and dispatch them efficiently and humanely. The light was reliable and had a few little features that made it a little better than the rest; The man really enjoyed owning and using it which justified the expense of buying it.
Alas, one day whilst unloading his truck the man dropped a very heavy tool box on the ground...Right where he had placed the light only moments earlier. There was cracking sound, a crunching like bones breaking...But it wasn't bones that broke. It was the light.
The man let forth an impressively creative, and lengthy phrase of expletives featuring the F-word and the C-word peppered with a few Mother-F^^ker's over and over however no matter how hard he cursed the light remained broken. In the end he ran out of puff and just stood there staring at the light wishing he had taken more care.
OK, so if you haven't worked it out, the man is me...Yep, I smashed the fuck out of my hunting spotlight. I was devastated, still am really, as it's $400 worth of spotlight, and I am still really annoyed at myself for not taking more care. I am usually really careful of my equipment and am pretty pissed off I dropped that tool box right where I did. A good thing it wasn't dropped on my culling rifle which cost me $11,000 to build up huh?
Anyway, as you'll see by the photos I have Dr. Frankenstein'ed the shit out of it and have got it working. It took some delicate electronics work (Had no idea what I was doing) and then some delicate cosmetic work. The base of the light, right where all the electronics are, is the area that was smashed and the screws which hold the base together no longer bite into anything. Thank goodness for duct tape right?
The light uses a powerful LED chip to throw the light and the beam is adjustable from an open search light beam to a very tight spot. It's a rechargeable unit, operates off a large portable battery or off a socket in the truck so has a lot of flexibility. It also has 4 light modes which all have different applications.
As you can see above the light shines white and red. There is a small thumb-toggle switch to select between white and another colour of the operators choosing. I use red as my secondary colour. I use white, the most powerful beam, for searching targets and then as soon as I find something flick it over to red. The red light is less visible for most animals and so they tend to sit rather than run from the white light which can stress them more through being so bright.
The light also toggles between green and orange which a press of a button (whilst in white mode) which are colours used for different game. Mostly the red is suitable however the green light is quite popular for pig hunting. Hogs have more trouble seeing the green light. The orange light is better when haze, fog, storms, dust and sand storms strike although I'd probably pack up and go home in those conditions. To be honest I have never used the orange light option.
So, tonight I managed to fix my light with a liberal application of duct tape, a small amount of soldering and some blind luck! I'm pretty pleased that I saved it to be honest. Sure, it's fucked up, but it works and will do what I need it to. It was a good wake-up call to be honest. As I said, I'm quite careful with my equipment although one can never be too careful. I shudder to think how I would have been if I'd dropped that tool box on the rifle. I'll be more careful for sure.
One of my good mates is mates with the son of the owner of LightForce and NightForce so there's a small chance I might get a replacement light although I'm not holding my breath. One thing is for certain, I'll not be dropping any toolboxes in the near future.