T217 Hunter Mk4

Speras T217 Hunter Mk 4 rechargeable LED flashlight. 1,400 lumens 1,400 metres, the best in the bush! Customer reviews

The perfect hunting and game-watching torch must strike a balance between lumens and candela, hot-spot and spill-beam, heat and runtime, form-factor and user-interface – see my article on beam profiles for more.

For the past couple of years my legendary T70 Hunter Mk3 got these factors just right, but it's finally made way for an even better long-ranger, the all-new T217 Hunter Mk4!

The new Hunter delivers twice as many candela, increasing the beam distance to 1,400 ANSI metres, which is a real-world throw of five rugby fields end to end – a whole field further than the old model!

The bigger 21700 lithium ion (Li-Ion) batteries means the runtime is dramatically extended – in fact, turned down one notch (from "turbo" to "high") the new Hunter shines just as far as the old one... for more than twice as long!

Better yet, the new Hunter features internal battery charging via a USB-C port, so you no longer need to take the cells out to charge them – simply connect your torch to the USB port in your vehicle or a multi-connector, or use a compatible cellphone charger!

The torch comes with two 5,000mAh Li-Ions shrink-wrapped together so they stay "in balance", but you can also use two industry-standard 21700 button-top cells so you're not blackmailed into buying an overpriced battery pack when yours reaches the end of its service life, 3-5 years from now.

The new Hunter builds on all the best features of the old in terms of handling and endurance. You turn the torch on and off at the tail-switch, which is easy to find in the dark, hard to turn on accidentally and "mechanical", so there's no gradual draining of the batteries when the torch is turned off.

The torch remembers your last-used brightness level when you turn it on, then you adjust it through four intensities and two special modes (defensive strobe and SOS signal) from the side switch, which also includes a battery-status indicator. You can even trigger the strobe from the tail-switch!

The brightness levels range from "turbo" (five rugby fields for nearly four hours), "high" (four fields for more than seven hours), "medium" (one and a half fields for forty hours) and a 10-lumen "low" for walking around at night without drawing attention to yourself – for more than 300 hours!

The Hunter features Speras' S50 LED which is a modified Osram chip. The beam is beautifully proportioned with an incredibly intense hotspot surrounded by a pale and even spill-beam – perfect for long-range work. 

The hotspot has a very slight green tint, not visible in the field, which is the colour to which our eyes are most sensitive, unlike (other) animals which are less likely to be dazzled or spooked by it.

The new Hunter is forged from aerospace-grade 6061 aluminium alloy with type-3 (military spec) anodising, a hardened and coated lens, and sealed to IP68 waterproof (submersible) standards. In short, it's designed for hard use in rough conditions.

It comes with a holster, USB-C charging cable, spare o-rings, a factory manual and my famous Operating Guidelines to get you going. I offer an optional red filter for responsible game viewing and a remote pressure switch to operate the torch when it's mounted on a rifle.

Speaking of weapons-mounting, the new Hunter has a 25.4mm battery tube, so it fits into a standard one-inch scope-mount, and it has springs at both ends of the battery tube so the light shouldn't "blink" under recoil. It's 254mm long, 64mm across the head and 392g complete with batteries.

If you've been waiting for the ultimate long-ranger, your patience has been rewarded!