How to set up a feeder light for hog hunting

What a feeder light is actually for

A feeder light is not a search light and it is not a substitute for thermal. It does exactly one job: it makes the corn scatter visible so you can identify what is standing on it and place a shot. That framing settles most of the setup decisions, because it means the light belongs pointed at the feed, not at you and not down the field.

It is also the cheapest honest route into night hunting. If you are not ready to spend on a thermal, a feeder light plus a day scope covers the distance at which most hogs actually get shot. We lay out that whole route on how to hunt hogs at night without thermal, and rank the lights themselves on best hog feeder lights.

Where to mount it

Three options, in order of how well they usually work:

• On a T-post or tree 10 to 15 feet to one side of the feeder. Our preference. Lighting the scatter from an angle gives you shadow and shape, which is what lets you judge body size. A light directly overhead flattens everything into a pale blob.
• On the feeder leg. Simplest, and what most of these lights are designed for. Straps or brackets, no extra post, and the solar panel is already up where the sun is.
• On the blind or stand. Only if nothing else is possible. A light at your position lights the ground between you and the animal, lights you if anything is behind it, and ruins your own dark-adaptation every time it comes on.

Whichever you pick: put it so the light falls across your line of sight rather than straight back toward you. A light shining into your scope is how people end up unable to see the animal they have lit.

Height and aim

Height: about 8 to 10 feet. High enough that hogs cannot reach it, rub on it or root the post over, and high enough to throw a pool of light across the whole scatter. Low enough that you can reach it with a short ladder to clean the lens and check the battery, which you will be doing more than you expect.

Aim: down, at the feed. Set it so the bright center of the pool sits on the scatter and the edges fade into the dark. Two specific aiming errors to avoid:

1. Too flat. A light aimed horizontally throws into the brush and silhouettes anything standing in it, which looks dramatic and tells you nothing about whether that is a sow or a shoat.
2. Hot spot in your sight picture. If the bright center of the beam is in your scope, your pupil closes down on it and the animal at the edge disappears. Walk to your stand and look before you call the install finished.

Also think about the wind and the approach while you are up the ladder. The light should cover where hogs come in from, not just where the corn lands, so you see them arrive rather than discovering them already feeding.

Which color to run

Green or red. The full argument, including what the published colour-vision research does and does not support, is on red vs green light for hog hunting — the underlying study on pig colour vision is Neitz and Jacobs (1989), and it is more limited than the marketing around it suggests. The practical summary:

• Green gives the human eye the most usable brightness per watt and the best detail for identification. It is the default on most feeder lights for that reason.
• Red preserves your own night vision better and is the quieter choice on a feeder that gets hunted often.
• Amber sits between the two; several lights offer it and few people have a strong view.
• White: no. Not on a feeder you intend to hunt repeatedly.

A light with switchable colours is genuinely useful here, because you can run red for weeks of conditioning and step up to green only on nights you intend to shoot.

Motion, photocell or always-on

If your light has an all-night low mode and a motion-triggered bright mode, that combination is the one to run. The low mode does the conditioning work; the bright mode gives you the identification when something arrives.

The two-week conditioning routine

This is the part people skip and it is the part that decides whether the light works. Texas A&M's research summary on feral swine activity patterns and behavioural modification describes animals shifting their routines in response to pressure. A new light at a feeder is pressure until it is furniture.

1. Days 1-3: light on, no hunting. Photocell or low mode, dusk to dawn. Do not go near the feeder after dark.
2. Days 4-10: keep it running, watch on camera. A cellular camera tells you whether hogs are feeding under it and at what time, without you walking in. See best cellular trail cameras.
3. Days 11-14: confirm the whole group is comfortable. Not the first brave shoat — the sounder.
4. Then hunt it, once. Then leave it alone for a week or more.

If hogs stop coming when the light goes in, turn it to its lowest setting or to red and start the clock again. Patience here is worth more than any feature on the box. And if you are feeding on a timer, our when are hogs most active page is worth reading alongside this — matching the feed time to their routine shortens the whole process.

Lights that suit this setup

Solar panels and batteries

A feeder light that dies in week two of conditioning has cost you the whole routine, so power is not a footnote.

• Aim the panel south and tilt it. A panel strapped flat to a vertical feeder leg collects a fraction of what it could.
• Watch for shade. The tree that shades the feeder in summer is the reason the light stops working in September.
• Clean the panel and the lens. Dust and pollen on a small panel matter a lot; spider webs across a lens look like fog in a scope.
• Carry spare batteries on every feeder trip. You are already there with a bucket of corn.
• Expect less in winter. Short days and low sun; a light that just managed in July may not in December.

If you are running a motion-activated light on batteries alone, the activation count drives the drain — a busy feeder with raccoons on it all night will flatten it far faster than the spec sheet implies.

Mistakes people make

• Hunting it the first night. The single commonest mistake. Give it two weeks.
• Mounting it too low. Hogs rub, root and knock over anything at their height.
• Aiming it at the shooting lane instead of the feed. You want to see the animal, not the grass.
• Putting the beam's hot spot in your own sight picture. Go and look from the stand before you finish.
• Running white. It works once.
• Maximum brightness, always. Use the least light that lets you identify. More output is more pressure and more battery.
• Forgetting the panel faces the sun.
• No camera on the feeder. Without one you are guessing whether the conditioning worked.