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Wolf Eyes Sniper II Hunter
Lumens: 1,000 lumens (Yes, you read that right!)
Runtime: 50 mins regulated high, 70 hours + low
Length: 15.5cm
Complete with charger and rechargeable battery
This torch has Free Registered Post (or free Express Post but Auspost doesn't offer insurance on Express) included - no postage cost to you.
The Wolf Eyes Sniper II Hunter Hunter Hunter is a compact high intensity LED tactical torch with 4 output levels including disorientating strobe and huge 1,000 lumen high beam. It comes complete with dual tailcap and removable tapeswitch, rechargeable battery and Australian approved charger.
The Wolf Eyes Sniper II Hunter is a development of the regular Wolf Eyes Sniper 260 Hunter but with a 1,000 lumen LED. The body is slightly longer to accomodate the new deep reflector specially designed for this new LED. There is a heptagon (nut like sides) at the base of the head to prevent rolling and a dual tailcap which allows attachment of the included tapeswitch. The head has very mild crenullations to protect the lens of the torch and if used in an emergency to break a window, concentrate the force of the blow. This torch due to it's modest head size makes a great dual purpose hunting and general usage/security torch.
Light Output
The Wolf Eyes Sniper II Hunter puts out a large 1,000 lumens from it's Cree XM-L T6 LED with the deep reflector giving a good mix of long distance spot and flood. The high beam runs for 50 minutes, medium beam for 4.3 hours and low beam for over 70 hours. There is also a strobe mode.
Beam Pattern
The beam of the Wolf Eyes Sniper II Hunter is designed for fast target acquisition. To this end it has a bright hotspot surrounded by spill light. This means you can aim the hotspot at your target, if your target moves they are still within your beam, you only have to move your light directly onto them, rather than searching in the darkness with a pencil beam. The Wolf Eyes Sniper II Hunter is pre-focussed between 0 - 100 metres, as focussing takes valuable time and of course if a torch is focussed for 15 metres it will not be in focus at 100 metres.
The beam of the new 1,000 lumen Sniper II Hunter on top compared to original 350 lumen Sniper 260 Hunter below, both at 100 metrtes (click for larger).
Sniper II Hunter at 100 metres
Sniper 260 Hunter at 100 metres
Construction
The Wolf Eyes Sniper II Hunter has an incredibly rugged construction, probably unlike most other torches or flashlights commonly used in Australia for hunting. Constructed of aircraft grade aluminium with a brass liner, the Sniper II is designed to have a 25.4mm (1") diameter body, making it both easy to hold and easy to mount, 1" being the standard firearm mounting size. The Wolf Eyes Sniper II Hunter is a high output torch with modest size. Most people don't realise that LEDs put out considerable heat, but unlike an incandescent torch which projects the heat out the front, LEDs heat the base they are mounted on. Overheating an LED results in permanent damage and reduced light output for the life of the LED. To remove the possibility of damage to your LED, Wolf Eyes have a brass liner inside the torch and a substantial aircraft aluminium body. The brass liner, as well as maintaining high electrical conductivity, mates to the mount of the LED and conducts heat along the body of the torch or flashlight, using the mass of the body as a heatsink to dissapate the heat.
Regulation
Wolf Eyes torches are regulated, meaning they don't dim or lose intensity like many other torches including other LED torches. The regulation has two advantages, it means the power to the LED is consistent, so the LED will be running at it's optimum with the battery being boosted as it is being depleted, the second advantage is you don't overboost the LED which can permanently damage it, this happens with torches not designed for rechargeable batteries or accumulators. Of the 50 minutes runtime of high intensity light this torch is capable of, the first 43 minutes is regulated, with a slight dimming in the last minutes.
Australian Approved Charger
The Wolf Eyes Sniper II Hunter LED Hunting Torch comes complete with rechargeable battery and Australian approved charger. We have noticed a number of torches on the Australian market with non approved chargers. The advantage of an Australian approved charger is that it is both safe and legal to connect to an Australian power supply, meaning it meets OH&S requirements and also your insurance is ok in a residential or business situation.
Rechargeable Batteries
The battery utilised in the Sniper II Hunter LED torch is the LRB168A (18650) rechargeable lithium ion battery. Utilised predominantly in notebooks, this battery provides large outputs (including rapid discharge high amp outputs) from a relatively compact package. So powerful is this battery that it powers the Tesla Roadster electric car (an electric car built on a Lotus Elise chassis with a 0-100kmh time of 3.9 seconds). One huge advantage of the Wolf Eyes Sniper II Hunter LED flashlight is that it has been built with these rechargeables in mind, rather than disposable CR123 batteries (which cost $10 each in shops in Aus).
All Wolf Eyes batteries are protected, meaning they have a small computer chip built in to one end, this controls charging and discharging, designed to reduce the risks of powerful batteries. We have seen lithium ion batteries explode and would never sell an unprotected version.
Environmentally, rechargeable batteries are a winner. Like most quality lithium ion batteries, our rechargeable batteries are rated for 1,000 recharges under ideal conditions. Even if you took 500 recharges as a reasonable figure, each rechargeable battery you use would save 2,000 AAA batteries, 1,500 C cell batteries or 1, 000 CR123 batteries from landfill, a wothwhile saving (based on a 2 x CR123, 3 x C cell or 4 x AAA torch providing similar runtime). Even if the environment isn't your priority when purchasing a torch or flashlight, the financial saving is huge and as a bonus you get to feel good about the environment.
Upgradeable
The Wolf Eyes Sniper range of torches are upgradeable to a brighter LED when they come out. Unlike older design torches and flashlights, the Wolf Eyes modular design allows replacement of the LED when a brighter unit (or different wavelength such as red, green or infra red, etc) is available. We have regularly upgraded 100 lumen, 130 lumen and 170 lumen models up to a higher level and expect to be doing the same to 1,000 lumen units in years to come. We have installed many coloured and IR LEDs in existing torches. The extremely durable construction of Wolf Eyes mean they last for years, reassuringly upgrades are available to keep your torch at the forefront of lighting technology.
The LED and control module/regulator removed showing the brass liner of the torch which mates with the brass base of the LED module for thermal and current transfer. This also illustrates how easy it is to change or upgrade the LED module in the future.
Cold Weather Performance
One of the huge advantages of rechargeable lithium ion batteries, besides their huge outputs, is the ability to operate in colder temperatures. Many have been frustrated by the loss of power in AA and NiMh batteries in cold temperatures. That is not a problem with Lithium Ion. To take the photos here, we turned a torch onto low, placed it in a tray of water in a freezer for 4 days till the water became an ice cube, then removed and photographed. The torch was on for the 4 full days in the freezer!
Rifle and Firearm mounting Torches & Flashlight thoughts.
There are a few options when mounting a torch or flashlight to your rifle or firearm. The first is what sort of mount to use, the three main sorts of mounts being ones which attach to the barrel, mounts which attach to the rifle scope and lastly mounts or integrated grips which attach to picatinny rails. If you have picatinny rails on your firearm it is often a natural choice to use them, in a tactical firearm this will often allow other devices such as cameras to be easily located. In a recreation firearm it allows quick removal of the flashlight or torch from the rifle for daytime use.
If you don’t have picatinny rails on your rifle, should you choose barrel or scope mounting? Barrel mounting usually allows easy placement directly under the barrel which is easy to manage and keeps the torch out of the way. The disadvantage of this form of mounting is it slightly affects barrel harmonics. A noted writer noticed 6mm difference on point of impact on a .222 at 100 yards. While this is negligible for most game in Australia, psychologically we do not suggest this mounting for long range shots. This is well suited to reflector model torches and flashlights such as the Sniper II Hunter, Digital Police Hunting or Hawk, which provide a good mix of spot and flood up to 150 metres. Well suited to say a pig gun or rimfire being used on bunnies, in both cases the flood would help with quick target acquisition and reacquisition.
Scope mounting is well suited to aspheric models such as the Sea Lion Hunter, NiteHunter and Defender III which provide only spot out to longer distances. Knowing the scope mount will not affect point of aim will help the shooter mentally, while providing a quick method to attach and remove the flashlight or torch. Many mount the torch directly above the rifle scope, but the weight is low and it is suggested that shooters also consider mounting down and to the side of the scope (say the 8 O’Clock position when viewed from the scopes eyepiece) as this allows the shooter to peer over the top of the scope when looking for game, rather than their view being blocked by a large spotlight or torch.
What's in the box
Comparison between the Sniper II (1,000 lumens) and the Sniper 260 Hunter (350 lumens) over 100 metres
This torch isn't 'just as good as a Wolf Eyes' - it is a Wolf Eyes!
You deserve it.
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