Wicked Lights vs Sniper Hog Lights for hog hunting

Both brands build scope-mounted lights for night hunting, both sell through Amazon, and both offer red, green, white and infrared. The real difference is how you get from one color to another, and how much each maker tells you about what its light does. This page puts two lights from each side next to each other: Wicked's 3-color A67iC and 4-color A75iC, and Sniper Hog's compact Hyperion 40 and long-range Hyperion 66.

We haven't tested these units; scores come from published specs and the rubric on our How We Choose page. Every figure in the spec table links to the maker's page or the Amazon listing it came from, and seller performance numbers (throw, lumens, runtime) are labeled as the maker's claim. If you're still deciding whether a scope light is the right tool at all, start with our ranked hog hunting lights, which covers budget kits from other makers too.

Two different ideas of a hog light

Wicked Lights builds its A-series around what it calls a center-axis rotational LED system. The A67iC has red, green and white LEDs built into one light. The A75iC adds an 850 nm infrared LED to the same idea. You change color by rotating the head, and Wicked says the zero holds when you switch. Both use a rheostat tail cap that turns the light on at any intensity level. What Wicked doesn't publish for either light: lumens, runtime, weight or an IP rating.

Sniper Hog Lights takes the other road. A Hyperion Gun Hunters Kit is one light body, one adjustable Predator Pro mount and one LED module. Modules come in red, green, white, 850 nm IR and 940 nm IR, and you change color by changing modules. In return, Sniper Hog publishes far more: lumens and throw for each color, runtime at full power, weight, length and a warranty broken out part by part. Every Hyperion uses a dial dimmer and a focus you can lock between flood and spot.

So this isn't really one brand against another. It's convenience (every color on the rifle, all the time) against reach and documentation (one color at a time, with the longest throw claims we track). Which matters more depends on where your hogs show up and how sure you already are about color.

Four kits side by side

The table uses the same spec labels for all four lights. A dash means the maker and the listing we read don't publish that figure; it doesn't mean the light lacks the feature.

The dashes tell most of the story. Wicked publishes no lumens, runtime or weight for these two lights, and the A75iC has no throw figure on its maker page or its listing. The A67iC's 400-yard figure comes from the Amazon listing with no stated test method. Sniper Hog fills in every one of those rows. All four sit in the under-$500 budget tier, and the Hyperion kits' extra color modules are separate purchases.

Color: one head or one module

Every kit here covers red and green, the two colors most hog hunters shop for. The evidence behind that habit is thinner than the marketing. Pigs have two types of color cones, peaking in the blue and green-yellow range (Neitz & Jacobs, 1989). Hunters use red and green lights on the theory that hogs see those colors poorly; how hogs actually respond varies, and we haven't found a field study that settles it. The 1989 study abstract is short and worth reading, and our red vs green light comparison covers what it does and doesn't prove.

That uncertainty is the best argument for Wicked's design. With an A67iC or A75iC you can run red, switch to green and switch back in the same sit without taking anything apart, and see for yourself how your hogs react on your place. With a Hyperion, the kit ships with one module. A second color is a second purchase, and changing it means a module swap in the field.

If you already know you want green, a one-module kit costs you nothing, and our best green hog lights list is the place to compare green options across brands. If you aren't sure, the Wicked head removes the guesswork from the buying decision.

Infrared

Infrared only helps if you hunt behind a digital night-vision optic. The A75iC puts an 850 nm IR LED in the same rotating head as its three visible colors. Sniper Hog sells both 850 nm and 940 nm modules. On every Hyperion, the 940 module's throw claim is half the 850's: 1,400 against 700 yards on the 66, 1,200 against 600 on the 50, and 1,000 against 500 on the 40. If IR is the main job, our IR illuminator picks compare dedicated units as well.

Reach: what the throw claims mean at hog distances

Throw is where Sniper Hog pulls ahead on paper, and it's worth doing the arithmetic before you pay for it. All of these are the maker's claims.

• Hyperion 40: red 650 yd, green 1,130 yd, white 980 yd.
• Hyperion 66: red 1,150 yd, green 1,770 yd, white 1,600 yd.
• Wicked A67iC: 400 yd visibility (listing claim, color not stated). No figure for the A75iC.

Going from the Hyperion 40 to the 66 buys 500 more yards of claimed red throw (650 to 1,150) for about 5 more ounces (15 to 20 oz) and a head an inch wider (1.75 to 2.75 in.). Over a feeder 100 yards out, the 40's red claim is 6.5 times the distance. Cut it in half as a safety margin and it's still more than three times what you need. Even the A67iC's 400-yard claim is four times a 100-yard feeder shot.

The long lights earn their weight across open fields, where you want to put light on something far out and decide what it is. That's identification, not a shooting distance. A beam that reaches 1,000 yards doesn't make a 1,000-yard shot sensible, and at any distance you need to be sure of the animal and of what lies behind it.

Dimmers and switches

All four kits dim. Wicked uses a rheostat tail cap that turns the light on at any intensity level, so it can come up from dim instead of snapping on at full power. The A75iC kit also includes a coil cord tail cap for pressure-style control. Sniper Hog uses a dial dimmer tail cap on every Hyperion. On paper the control is similar. Neither maker publishes how low its dimmer goes or how many steps it has.

Many hunters want to ease a light up rather than hit a sounder with full brightness. As with color, we haven't found a field study on how hogs respond to that, so treat dimming as control you'll probably want rather than a proven advantage. It's also a feature budget kits often skip: the LUMENSHOOTER A8Plus, for one, has a single brightness setting. Our hunting lights hub sorts the rest of the field by job and budget.

Mounting, tube sizes and weight

This is the section most likely to decide the purchase for you, because it depends on the scope you already own.

• Wicked: the A67iC and A75iC kits include a quick-detach adjustable mount and a Picatinny scope mount for 1 in. and 30 mm tubes. Wicked's add-on scope mount is listed for 1 in. and 30 mm tubes only.
• Sniper Hog: the Predator Pro mount fits 35 mm, 30 mm or 1 in. scope tubes, or a Weaver/Picatinny rail. The Hyperion 40 page lists windage and elevation adjustment, and the Hyperion 66 page says the mount clears objectives up to 60 mm.

If your scope has a 35 mm main tube, only the Predator Pro lists it. Neither brand lists 34 mm, so ask the maker before you buy for a 34 mm scope. A mount with windage and elevation adjustment lets you line the beam up with your reticle; Wicked's pitch is that its center-axis head keeps the beam where you set it when you change colors.

Weight is published only on the Sniper Hog side: about 15 oz for the Hyperion 40, 17 oz for the 50 and 20 oz for the 66. Twenty ounces on top of a scope is something you'll notice on a rifle you carry. On a rifle that sits in a clamping tripod over a feeder, it matters much less.

Batteries, runtime and warranty

Batteries. The A67iC runs on two rechargeable 18650 cells with a 2-position charger and AC/DC adapters. The A75iC uses 21700 cells with a charger. Every Hyperion runs on one protected 21700; the 50 and 66 list a charger with USB, 110-240V AC and 12V DC plugs, and the 40 lists a dual-bay fast charger.

Runtime. Sniper Hog claims about 2.5 hours on red, green or white and 1 hour 50 minutes on IR, at full power. Wicked doesn't publish runtime. To put 2.5 hours in context: that's 150 minutes of full-power light. If each look at the feeder takes 5 minutes, that's 30 looks on one charge. Neither maker publishes runtime at lower dimmer settings, so carry a charged spare on a long night either way.

Warranty. Read both before you buy, because they cover different parts for different lengths of time.

Wicked covers the body for longer. Sniper Hog covers the LEDs and the switches for longer. The parts you'll handle most in the dark are the tail caps and switches, and there Sniper Hog's two years beat Wicked's one. Terms are from the Wicked Lights warranty page and the Hyperion kit pages.

Wicked Lights ScanPro: a spec review

People comparing these brands often run into the Wicked Lights ScanPro and ask how it fits. It isn't a gun light. The ScanPro iC GEN4 is Wicked's night-hunting headlamp, and we don't track a Sniper Hog headlamp to set against it, so this is a short spec review rather than a head-to-head.

• Colors: green, red and white with a center-axis color change (per the Amazon listing), and full brightness control (per the maker).
• Beam: a spot-to-flood bezel.
• Power: two 21700 rechargeable cells, a 2-position charger and two 18650 adapter sleeves in the 3-color kit.
• Fit: an adjustable elastic cloth headband and a rubberized halo shield.
• Warranty: 1 year, far shorter than the lifetime housing coverage on Wicked's gun lights.
• Not published: throw, lumens and runtime.

The case for a scanning headlamp is simple: you can look for eyes and walk to the blind without sweeping a rifle across the pasture to do it. The case against is the 1-year warranty and the missing output figures. One more thing to check: Wicked's warranty page links a ScanPro recall notice without details on the page itself. Before you buy, confirm with Wicked that it doesn't touch the unit you're getting. The maker's ScanPro page has the current kit contents.

Which one to buy

Choose a Wicked Lights kit if

• You want red, green and white on the rifle from day one, without buying extra modules.
• You want to switch colors mid-sit, with the maker's claim that zero holds when you rotate.
• You hunt behind digital night vision and want IR in the same head as your visible colors (the A75iC).
• Your scope has a 1 in. or 30 mm tube, and lifetime housing coverage matters to you.

Choose a Sniper Hog Lights Hyperion if

• You light and identify hogs across open fields and want the longest published throw.
• Your scope has a 35 mm tube, or you want a mount with windage and elevation adjustment.
• You want published lumens, runtime and weight before you spend.
• You already know your color, so a one-module kit costs you nothing.

Which model within each brand

On the Wicked side, the A67iC does everything most hog hunters need; the A75iC is worth it only if you own a night-vision scope or monocular for its IR channel. On the Sniper Hog side, the Hyperion 40 reaches well past feeder distances at the lowest weight; the 66 makes sense when your hogs come out across big open ground and you're willing to carry about 20 ounces on the scope.