Energizer 4 LED headlightMany years ago, like many other hunters I discovered the benefits of using a head lamp instead of a regular flashlight.   The hands-free operation was the ticket for early morning hikes to the tree stand or the duck blind.  It was also handy for most tasks after dark, since it freed up my hands to handle the work. 

The problem with those early headlights was that they were usually big and bulky, with huge battery packs and traditional bulbs.  Wearing one for any amount of time was guaranteed to give you headache.  But they were powerful and bright.

Technology moves fast and seems like everything gets smaller and smaller (have you seen cell phones these days?), and headlights are no exception.  The arrival of the “micro” bulbs and halogen meant that flashlight and headlight bodies could get smaller and smaller.  To keep things small, tiny batteries were implemented.  Unfortunately, the bulbs in use still burned through the juice pretty fast. 

Then somebody figured out that LED lights could be just about as good as traditional bulbs, were much smaller, and they barely drew any juice.  I’ve got a couple of old LED headlights right now that are several years old and still going strong on the same AAA batteries! 

Smaller headlights certainly made it nicer to use them for all the standard tasks, but one limitation always bugged me.  These little lights are cool, but they simply don’t work so well for blood-trailing and tracking.  I made it a mission to look for a small headlight that provided enough light to follow a tough blood trail and pick out tracks on a dark night. 

So far, I’m still looking, although I saw a couple at the 2009 SHOT Show that were promising.  Unfortunately, getting test samples didn’t pan out in the months following the SHOT Show, and I sort of put it off for the time being.  I simply don’t have the funds to go out and buy all of these things myself, so I’ve been making due with my Princeton Tek Aurora, and a couple of others I’ve acquired over the past couple of years.  When I need to trail, I break out the big MagLight just like I’ve always done.

Well, a couple weeks ago I got an email from Steve Remington, the fellow who pays the bills to keep this blog running as part of the Skinny Moose network.  The folks from Energizer wanted to know if a few of us bloggers would be willing to try out their new, 4-LED headlight and provide a little write-up.  Well, heck yeah! 

I received my light, ripped open the box, and started playing with it.  The very first things I noticed, as you’d expect were the physical features.  The profile is sort of clunky, but the unit is reasonably lightweight.  Like most headlights, the body is hinged to allow you to aim the light where you need it, and it has a single, adjustable, elastic strap.  Nothing outstanding here, but nothing to complain about either. 

Now anyone who’s ever read one of my reviews knows I don’t get all wrapped up in the technical and theoretical stuff.  So when I look at a light, I don’t really spend time testing the lumens and all that stuff.   The info on this light says it produces 28 lumens, which isn’t outrageously powerful (compared, say, to the SureFire “Saint” at 100 lumens), but at a suggested retail price under $20 (compared to $185 for the SureFire), you shouldn’t expect a pocket-sized solar flare. 

Point is, if they say it’s 28 lumens, I’ll take their word for it.  What I want to know is how that translates in the field. 

The light offers two operational modes, a red lamp which is good for preserving your night vision (and supposedly won’t spook game) and the white spotlight mode.  I was immediately impressed that there are not 20 different functions for the single switch.  I hate those lights that do something different every time you touch the button, but never do what you wanted.  This one does three things.  One push turns on the red light.  Another push turns on the white.  And then it turns off. 

Both light modes seemed pretty good to me when I fired it up in a darkened room, and just as good when I took it outside.  The red light was particularly bright, and seemed to provide a lot more light than the red mode on one of my older headlamps.  I can see where that would be handy for fixing gear and such.  Some of the other red lamps I’ve used are too dim to see that kind of detail. 

The white light was pretty good too, and it definitely provides plenty of light for most tasks.  While I haven’t been lucky enough to use it for this yet, I’m pretty sure it’d be perfect for field dressing in a dark canyon, or for finding dropped gear on a midnight ridgeline.  There’s no question that it’s plenty bright enough for finding your way in the dark.  I’ll definitely be putting it to work in the marsh when waterfowl season finally opens up. 

However, I don’t know that it’s going to suit the need for a blood-trailing light.  Sure, it’s bright enough if you have a trail that looks like someone dumped a bucket of blood on the ground, but the beam simply isn’t bright or sharp enough to pick out the finer elements of a track or to spot tiny droplets in the duff. 

The only other shortcoming is that this light is “weatherproof”, but not waterproof.  That’s not the end of the world, of course, but I have ruined more headlights than I can count by dropping them in the duck marsh while setting or picking up decoys.  I don’t know much about the manufacturing requirements for these things, but it seems to me that it shouldn’t take that much to make the light body waterproof without jacking up the retail price… but that’s just me. 

Criticism aside, this is a pretty good headlight.  It will work very well for most purposes, and the price is right for any hunter’s budget.  For all practical purposes, it’s every bit as good as some of the more expensive headlights I currently own, and if I were shopping for an inexpensive, replacement headlight, this one would definitely be a good pick.

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