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This is a true story that happened a couple of years ago on the last weekend of deer season.
About 5:30 AM in the morning, a hunter is on the way to his newly relocated tree stand. The area was a prime location for bagging this years buck. The stand over looked a creek, about 30 yards from a crossing spot. The whole area was filled with oaks - pen oak, red oak and water oak.
A couple of days before, a cold front had blown through. The wind was going to be calm, and the stands location was going to be down wind from the crossing.
The day before the hunt, the winds had shifted so that the tree climbing stand would now be downwind of where the deer were crossing the creek. Everything was perfect, the weather, the wind, the location - everything.
The hunter is walking along the trail, using a 2 cell AA flashlight to find his way. Then the unthinkable happens, his flashlight goes out - NNNOOOOO!!!! The hunter thinks he can find his way to the stand in the dark, but just winds up stumbling around. So finally he sits down, gives up finding his stand and waits till sunrise. Needless to say the hunter did not see a single thing that day, well except for some squirrels. That hunter was me - Kevin the owner of this site.
How can you, the reader help prevent this story from happening to you? The next time you are in the market for a new flashlight, look at an LED, not an old fashion bulbed flashlight. What happened that fateful morning, the bulb went out right when I needed it the most. So when my wife asked me what I wanted for fathers day, I told her an LED flashlight - she bought me a Brinkman LED flashlight
![DSC03052.JPG]()
This is a Brinkman Model 809-2050-0, it uses three AAA batteries for a run time of 70 hours. A hunter can make a lot of trips to the deer stand with 70 hours of light. All three batteries are held inside a module, that slips inside the rear of the flashlight.
![DSC03060.JPG]()
The on - off switch is the black bulb on the rear of the flashlight. Because of the housing being made out of ABS plastic, the flashlight is both light and tough. Both ends have O-ring seals to help keep moisture out. The flashlight fits well in the hand. The on off switch on the rear is a nice change to the button being on the side, or the twist head type. The on - off switch also has a half - on. Just push the button just a little and the light will come on, release and the light goes off. Or push the button all the way and the light will stay on, push again to turn off.
![DSC03068.JPG]()
With the LED instead of a bulb, you can be almost certain that this flashlight will not burn out on you when you need it the most. Brinkman claims the bulb will last over 100,000 hours - thats a long time.
![DSC03069.JPG]()
Bottom Line: I like this flashlight; it fits good to the hand, the push button switch is nice. The only complaint, there is no where to attach a lanyard. To fix the lanyard problem, after this story was written I tied some cord around the handle and made a lanyard.
LED flashlights are the "in" thing. With battery life 10 times that of a normal flashlight, there is no reason not to buy LED. Sure, the prices are still a little high, but the cost of the batteries will off set that. The flashlight in this article puts out almost enough light to take it night time rabbit hunting. There are even replacement LED bulbs for maglights, both AA and the bigger D size units.
![DSC03066.JPG]()
About 5:30 AM in the morning, a hunter is on the way to his newly relocated tree stand. The area was a prime location for bagging this years buck. The stand over looked a creek, about 30 yards from a crossing spot. The whole area was filled with oaks - pen oak, red oak and water oak.
A couple of days before, a cold front had blown through. The wind was going to be calm, and the stands location was going to be down wind from the crossing.
The day before the hunt, the winds had shifted so that the tree climbing stand would now be downwind of where the deer were crossing the creek. Everything was perfect, the weather, the wind, the location - everything.
The hunter is walking along the trail, using a 2 cell AA flashlight to find his way. Then the unthinkable happens, his flashlight goes out - NNNOOOOO!!!! The hunter thinks he can find his way to the stand in the dark, but just winds up stumbling around. So finally he sits down, gives up finding his stand and waits till sunrise. Needless to say the hunter did not see a single thing that day, well except for some squirrels. That hunter was me - Kevin the owner of this site.
How can you, the reader help prevent this story from happening to you? The next time you are in the market for a new flashlight, look at an LED, not an old fashion bulbed flashlight. What happened that fateful morning, the bulb went out right when I needed it the most. So when my wife asked me what I wanted for fathers day, I told her an LED flashlight - she bought me a Brinkman LED flashlight
This is a Brinkman Model 809-2050-0, it uses three AAA batteries for a run time of 70 hours. A hunter can make a lot of trips to the deer stand with 70 hours of light. All three batteries are held inside a module, that slips inside the rear of the flashlight.
The on - off switch is the black bulb on the rear of the flashlight. Because of the housing being made out of ABS plastic, the flashlight is both light and tough. Both ends have O-ring seals to help keep moisture out. The flashlight fits well in the hand. The on off switch on the rear is a nice change to the button being on the side, or the twist head type. The on - off switch also has a half - on. Just push the button just a little and the light will come on, release and the light goes off. Or push the button all the way and the light will stay on, push again to turn off.
With the LED instead of a bulb, you can be almost certain that this flashlight will not burn out on you when you need it the most. Brinkman claims the bulb will last over 100,000 hours - thats a long time.
Bottom Line: I like this flashlight; it fits good to the hand, the push button switch is nice. The only complaint, there is no where to attach a lanyard. To fix the lanyard problem, after this story was written I tied some cord around the handle and made a lanyard.
LED flashlights are the "in" thing. With battery life 10 times that of a normal flashlight, there is no reason not to buy LED. Sure, the prices are still a little high, but the cost of the batteries will off set that. The flashlight in this article puts out almost enough light to take it night time rabbit hunting. There are even replacement LED bulbs for maglights, both AA and the bigger D size units.
