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Deer sense colors toward the violet end of the spectrum, so they can see blues and probably even ultraviolet (UV) light. Deer show a slight sensitivity to yellow, but tests indicate that green, orange, and red appear to them as shades of gray. (field and stream)
i would prob go with the red light if you think you will be hiking thru the elk
I go in in the dark, I have a headlamp and will only turn it on if I absolutely need it. I will turn it on crossing a creek or something.
ok so here's what I found out on my"recon" trip Green work better then red. got to 15 yards of an elk with green and 50ish yards with red.Two different elk on different meadows each meadow was 100 yards wide.Wish it could have been on the same elk that would have been fun!
Thanks everyone for the feedback. Pretty much what I was guessing would be the case, except for your field test mthuntress, I never thought about green. So thank you again to everyone and good hunting!
I use green when deer hunting and i have had deer scare me to death because the dont react till i get within about 10 to 15 yards of them, its like they dont know what it is so they just stand there.
A lot of the deer breeders here in Texas will use Red lights when they are working the deer through the vaccination barns. They don't see red as well as a lot of other colors. They do pick up the ultraviolet light that is reflected off of clothing or unnatural colors in their surroundings. Thats why you see a Red Glow around Game Cameras at night and also are starting to see quite a bit of camo clothing with Red patterns. The research is showing that deer (in daylight) can distinguish different colors of green and blue, but have a very had time picking out different shades of red. From my understanding of it that's also why wearing hunter orange is not a terrible thing, because it is in the red spectrum (supposedly) and deer don't see it as well. Elk are in the deer family, so I would think some of this would transfer across from whitetail to mule deer to elk.
When going to my deer stand in the morning, I use a red light or walk in the dark. If I know deer will be in a certain area I will shine the red light in their direction. I've walked within 50 yards of 4 or 5 deer with a red light shined at their eyes and they never moved.
What about blue lights?