If you’re at all serious about hunting, a quality headlamp is an absolute, no-questions-asked. A lot of hunting happens on both sides of the daylight, whether you’re hiking to a glassing point before sunrise, following a blood trail after dark, butchering an animal, or simply trying to find your shoes in the tent at 4 a.m. A bad headlamp is one of those pieces of gear that you quickly learn not to tolerate.
This piece of gear alone will help you fill more tags as it doesn’t let you miss morning/evening opportunities. Some of the essential points of a headlamp for hunting are good battery life, durability, usable red light, good visibility through white light and locking feature.
dark energy oracle Not only does it come at a reasonable price, but it checks all the boxes… mostly.
in short: Hunters looking for a quality headlamp made by hunters will be pleased with Oracle. Just be prepared for there not being a locking feature and act accordingly.
battery life
up to 50 hours
lumen
900 at brightest setting
Pros
- affordable
- great battery life
- Easy layout and navigation through light mode
Shortcoming
- It does not have locking feature
Dark Energy Oracle Headlamp Review
overview
Until now, Dark Energy has always been in the business of providing portable lightweight power and charging capabilities. If you’ve never had the pleasure of using the Poseidon Pro before, I highly recommend it. However, the newest addition to the dark energy lineup is related to light.
The Dark Energy Oracle is a 900-lumen rechargeable headlamp with a 3,500mAh battery. Like all Dark Energy products, this thing is built to last and has a water- and drop-resistant armor. It is a one-button headlamp with a USB-C charging port on the button side and access to the internal battery on the other side. Both can be accessed by opening each end.
As far as lighting modes go, we’ll go into more detail about that below, but there are seven different modes that can be accessed via a button on the side of the body. Talking about the body, the entire unit weighs 4.4 ounces and has an IP66 weatherproof rating. You can also remove the headlamp from the clasp on the headband.
Inside the case, you’ll find the headlamp itself attached to an adjustable headband, a card with a QR code in the manual, and a cord for recharging.
features
7 lighting modes
With Oracle, you’ll have seven different lighting modes, which are incredibly simple in a good way. On the front of the unit, you’ll see two bulb lenses. One is white, and one is red. White has super-bright (900 lumens), medium and low. Red also has bright, medium and low.
What’s even better here is how to access the lighting mode. It is really that simple. Press the button on the side once to turn on the white light. Press that button repeatedly to cycle through the brightness levels. Press and hold the button for 2 seconds to turn off the lamp.
For the red light, which is pretty cool, if I do say so myself, press the button twice. Now, you are in raid mode. Press the button continuously to cycle through the brightness levels.
The best thing about red light is that you can change the headlamp to red mode right from the start. This means you don’t have to cycle through white to reach red or only have access to it once the lamp is on. A big plus here for hunting scenarios.
clearly labeled
A small but nice plus of the Oracle is the fact that it is clearly labeled which side is for charging and which holds the battery. This is a more efficient way of working and ultimately saves time. When looking at the headlamp there is a charging symbol on the left and a battery symbol on the right. You are never lost. It is usability in its purest form.
up to 50 hours of use
For backcountry hunting, especially, battery life is currency. Apart from our phones, the other thing that rings a bell is the headlamps. Nature was not kind enough to install vacant lighting in the mountains. So, a headlamp with great battery life is much appreciated, and Oracle checks the box there.
With up to 50 hours of use at the minimum brightness setting, you’ll be covered. Think about how much headlamp use we are doing on average every day. maybe 2 hours? One in the morning and one in the evening. Without including the promising late-night packouts, you’re talking about 14 hours of use on a week’s hunt. It doesn’t matter even 50 hours.
my experience
I’ve been a big fan of dark energy for years, from power banks to solar panels. Oracle was something I was very happy to have to test. If it were like other dark energy products, it would be of great use on future hunting trips.
Right out of the box, Oracle told me, “Yes.” I immediately noticed the easy layout on the device. The fact that the battery side and charging port side were labeled brought a smile to my face. Things like this make the user experience more seamless. There was some allegation on this as well. So, I was able to start Oracle right away and cycle through light mode.
Cycling through various modes was very user friendly. Each mode is easy to access, and they all have practical uses. I often don’t feel like I’ll use every mode on a headlamp. The brightness level of red light is also very good. You can easily go 100% with this, which is rare for headlamps. I understood everything without looking for any direction. In fact, I questioned whether I had missed something, but the truth is that I had not missed anything. Again, user friendly. Nice work, dark energy.
In addition to playing with Oracle at my house, I’ve taken the headlamp out for some black bear scouting adventures here in Arizona. As far as I can tell, battery life is great. The headlamp came in a lot of use as we navigated through darkness, rain and general camping life.
For the most part, I use white light levels 2 and 3, which were bright enough for hiking. Of course, I also tested the red light while hiking and I was pleasantly surprised, as was my hunting partner. Level 2 and Level 3 will be used most for that. Level 1 is like making coffee in a morning glow kind of way.
What’s wrong
Okay, now to address a potentially bigger issue. The Dark Energy Oracle does not have a locking feature. I was pretty surprised when I heard this, as the locking feature is somewhat of a standard in the high-end headlamp game. But, alas, here we are.
However, I have a little hack for creating your own locking feature. If you turn the battery side of the headlamp a quarter turn away from the battery, the headlamp will not turn on. You still have plenty of thread real estate, so you don’t have to worry about caps and batteries falling in/out of your pack.
final thoughts
Headlamps aren’t something to be messed with if you ask me. Without fire/torches, this is the only way to “illuminate the darkness” before you. Having reliable gear like the Oracle will pay huge dividends and make life easier on hunting trips, whether it’s wading through the dark or cooking dinner at camp.
This is a very practical piece of gear that isn’t going to break the bank. And one of the best parts is that you can choose a hunting company and support it. With hunting season upon us, so is my time oracle It is not over yet.
