I'm looking to make or buy an IR flood light for hunting. Either something that can be mounted to a wood blind, or set on the ground, to illuminate a hunting area (feeder). Distance from me to feeder is 50 yards max

I'll be in the woods, so unable to use standard plugs. Looking to run something off a battery bank, 12v battery, or other portable power source.

Anyone have experience with this? I see some inexpensive IR flood on Amazon but am unclear how to wire them up to a proper power source, and don't know how to calculate how long it will operate on said source.

ETA Here's a unit I've built

Again to reiterate my goals - I'm on a hunting lease where most of my shots are within 50 yards looking over feeders from blinds.  I have a SiOnyx Aurora digital night vision monocular that works great under full moonlight, but in no-moon/complete darkness situations, it really needs some IR.  I have an IR flashlight on my helmet, but when you're sitting in a blind, the walls of the blind 'catch' the IR light and wash out the picture, not really allowing you see at distance without turning the flashlight to flood and orienting your head to 'point' out of the blind window.  Anyone that's hunted in a blind can imagine this.

So I wanted to build a portable light setup I could walk around with...and place where I wanted to illuminate an area.  This would allow the light to be outside of the blind and allow me to sit in a blind (rain, scent, noise, etc).  Even if I was sitting exposed in the elements, the IR-box would allow me to save my flashlight battery as a last resort since I can only get about 1.5-2 hours out of it.

Purchased Items:
Box - Plano Shot Shell ammo can - This can fits a 12v sealed acid battery just fine, with room for cabling and the light itself.  I might try to rig up an an extra light to have two...that's for a future post.  Obviously a larger can will allow you to fit more but I intentionally wanted something small, easy to carry and travel with
Battery - Game Winner 12v, 7Ah battery from Academy
Light - 12v, 2A IR light.  @cm suggests these use significantly less power than advertised, so I'm hopeful to get 5-6 hours out of a full battery charge for one light.  https://www.ebay.com/itm/DC-12V-2A-Infrared-IR-Illuminator-CCTV-Camera-Security-Night-Vision-Floodlight/322850658694
Cabling - Heat shrink connectors and 2.1mm x 5.5mm adapters to connect to the light plug.  I probably could have gone without these and simply spliced directly into the light wire, but I thought I would give these a chance.  They are cheap on Amazon.
Connectors - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B075MXCH49
2.1mm x 5.5mm adapters - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07DLSY8RN

Pictures include assembly steps, final product, and illumination images from my backyard.  Both images show the farthest fence-line is about 25 yards.  I still need to figure out a mounting strategy to mount the light(s) to the ammo box itself - I want something that's easy to setup and teardown, but also something that's waterproof in the event I'm using this in the rain.  More to come on that soon.









Update 2

Needed a trip to Home Depot this afternoon for a few things and, as I always do, I stopped by the clearance section.  Well wouldn't you know it...Home Depot [apparently] sells ammo cans.  They had some Plano "field boxes" on sale so I grabbed one.  It's not as long as the shotshell box, but taller.  This appealed to me because it seemed I could fit 2 of the 12v batteries in the can vertically, and still have room for connectors and the lights themselves.  Looks like this will work great.

I added some velcro to the light bases and to the lid of the ammo can.  Also put some U-shaped notches in the lid/base of the ammo can in order to fit a rubber grommet.  The cord on the lights is about 3/16, so a 1/4 grommet fit perfectly.  I cut them in half and super glued them into the notches I built.  Overall it seems this will work pretty good.  The lid of the ammo can overhangs the base, so the grommets don't line up on a horizontal plane, but I think it'll be OK.  I'll need a grab a second battery next time I'm at Academy and will post up pictures of how it works once I'm hunting

Purchased Items:
Plano Field Box: https://www.amazon.com/Plano-131250-1312-Ammo-Box/dp/B005IURN5M
Rubber Grommets (My HD didn't have 1/4" grommets sold separately, so I bought a variety pack which included 2): https://www.homedepot.com/p/Gardner-Bender-Grommets-Assortment-2-Each-1-4-in-3-8-in-1-2-in-3-4-in-8-Pack-GHG-AST/202522461

Pictures of the new box ready to rock

Get a Solarforce IR flashlight with rechargeables.

Or spend more and get something like a Rigid D2 IR light. Mate the cables to a 12v Cig lighter and pop that into power source or just use alligator cables to make the connection.

This was a DIY Remote I found a couple of years ago.
I never made one, but it looks pretty cool.

Updated OP

Potential upgrades include:
1.  Larger ammo can to support an additional battery for longer run-time and/or an additional light.  Each light could run off its own battery
2.  'Arms' connected to the ammo can to raise the lights into the air a bit.  I think this would help get more depth out of the lights as less would 'catch' on the ground.  I'll have to think about a way to pull this off while still retaining a waterproof design in the event I'm caught in some showers.
3.  Larger lights.  I started with small lights in an attempt to save weight, bulk, and also to not wash-out my target.  Too much IR is not necessarily better.  Of course larger lights may require me to rethink my battery source.
4.  Method of holding the battery in a stationary place. For this I'm thinking about wooden dowel rods, cut to length, on each side making a # shape with the battery in the middle. Maybe use washers glued to the walls to hold the rods in place. That would be lightweight and cheap

I'm headed to my lease next weekend and should be able to get some additional pictures as well as provide feedback on how this setup works in the field.

Another member has the same lights and found they only draw ~300mA. I'm only running one light for now and would expect this to last 10-12 hours with 50% drain on the battery

You were in my other thread here
https://www.ar15.com/forums/general/This-is-an-electricity-thread-Help-me-out/5-2206576/

That's a really bad@ss idea!

hey guys.... we could make this the official ir light box thread thread, if you like, and continue the conversation here, instead of scattered in the other threads.

if you unscrew the cover on the lights, they black lens holder over the leds will pop off, if you pull gently on it. I don't think they have any adhesive on them, only friction fit, at least on the two styles of lights that I have. that would possibly give you a greater flood effect than with the lenses.

Also, you are not going to get as much distance in illumination with the syonix as compared to a gen3 device, unless you adjust the syonix, but at the expense of details in the image.

check how much of an area one light lights up, and what describe what you need, or get a picture of the light, lighting up an equivalent area at night, so we can do some suggestions.

Updated OP with a new box and some additional development

The shots at my hunting lease are all within 50 yards, so I'm thinking this will be fine for now.  I still have an IR torch on my helmet that allows me to throw a focused beam if I needed more light at distance.  Not looking to tinker or modify the Aurora.  Thanks for your help and input, I'll definitely continue to update this thread as time goes on and I get to use this setup.  I'll be at my lease next weekend.
Still have not tested the draw of the lights.  With my newer setup, I'll have a dedicated 12v battery for each light.  The batteries should well outlast my willingness to sit in a blind at night.  Up and walking around is one thing, I can be out all night...but sitting I might only get 3-4 hours.  My lease is very dense with some vehicle trails and shooting openings, not wide open spaces.

I might tinker with adjusting emitters once I have the chance to learn more about what I have and improvements I could use.

The tripod is an interesting suggestion, thanks for that!  I do some some small stools I was thinking about setting the ammo can on for now, but I can see how an adjustable tripod could really be beneficial on uneven ground or if I indeed need the lights to be higher.

To keep the batteries from moving around, I bought a 3/8" dowel rod and some flat washers.  I'll probably glue 2-3 washers together in a stack, cut a piece of dowel to fit the inside dimension of the can, and put one stack of washers on each side of the dowel glued to the ammo can.  Almost like a barbell-type shape.  Leave enough wiggle room to easily slide the battery in and out, but snug enough it won't jar around.  Thank you, too, for your input and suggestions!  So far this has been a neat project and I look forward to using it in the field

Nicely done!

Used the box for the first time on Friday night.  Worked great!  I ended up buying an additional battery, so each light is using its own.  We were out for maybe 3.5 hours and the lights were full brightness with no signs of stopping.

You can see quite a bit of throw on the ground - I might try to work on getting these up into the air a bit.  The tripod is still a great suggestion, just not sure I want to add that to my 'grab and go' setup.  Since I also have two boxes configured, I might split the lights up and put them in two different areas to see if it gets any better.  Overall it worked really well

Pictures are from a SiOnyx Aurora about 50 yards from the feeder.  I was sitting in a blind looking out a window.  The lights were about 20 yards from the feeder

Awesome!  I've often thought about doing a project like this...I've got a 110v setup now, but would really like a battery rig to take out farther from the house.  Nice work and thanks for sharing!

Pigs are color blind to red and green light. Just how we are color blind to infra red light.

However, pigs can see LED. Just like how we can see IR led.
Though, small amount of light is visible, but you can still see light emitting.
Something to keep in mind

I'm really digging this idea for coyotes.   Then you could wait till you see their eyes shine without constantly sweeping it around.

Thanks OP.