Blood trail light
KC
but here goes:
I've never used one but here's what I understand from my search of the
things. A blood trail flashlight consists of a white, red, and green
l.e.d. and costs $40-$50. Best as I can tell, the white is for
finding your way to the start of the trail, then you switch to the red
& green led's. The red & green led's are angled offset so that the
color pattern is red-mixed-green. As you sweep that light pattern
across the trail, the blood splatters will stand out because the red
will be enhanced.
I'm a very frugal person, always looking for an easier or cheaper way
of doing things. So here's my question: The lights cost $50, but a 5
light clip-on l.e.d. in red, green, blue. or white costs $6.99 each.
So could you clip a red and green cheapie on a hat, twig, etc, and get
the same results? Yeah, I know if it's a trophy quality buck you
wouldn't take the chance, but if it's just a meat-pot doe that's a
whole different thing. Any comments?
KC
Advocate54
> of doing things. So here's my question: The lights cost $50, but a 5
> light clip-on l.e.d. in red, green, blue. or white costs $6.99 each.
> So could you clip a red and green cheapie on a hat, twig, etc, and get
> the same results? Yeah, I know if it's a trophy quality buck you
> wouldn't take the chance, but if it's just a meat-pot doe that's a
> whole different thing. Any comments?
>
you are indeed frugal, I'd expect you would pass on this gimmick altogether.
big john
old fashioned Coleman gas lantern.
If you have a Coleman camp light, just cover the back side with foil -
it makes a good reflector and protects your eyes. We keep one around the
ranch just for that purpose. Somebody is always shooting a deer at
sundown that has to be tracked!! f you happen to have a have a gas
lantern that you have rigged for flounder or frog gigging (with foil on
the back side to keep the light out of your eyes) -- it makes an
excellent tracking light.
Frank
I've got a cheapie Winchester led blood light but have yet to test it
and light output is not high. I accidentally cut my finger in the woods
the other evening and blood was bright red under light but light had to
be close to it.
For finding my way, I have a 3 watt Cree Lowes led that only cost $30
but puts out over 100 lumens. The cheap leds are just not that bright.
Fine for close use but they do not project at any distance.
I'd say, better one good light than a bunch of cheapies.
Long Ranger
> wouldn't take the chance, but if it's just a meat-pot doe that's a
> whole different thing. Any comments?
>
> KC
Just the statement for setting off the anti-hunters. We typically want to
make the same effort to track down anything we wound or kill, whether it be
a rabbit, or a trophy Moose.
Jim Hurley
for us has been getting close to the ground with a bright light,
noting the direction and pattern/frequency of the blood trail. Care
not walking on it, allowing for turns and guaging distance between
drops works pretty well.
Jim
KC
>
As I said, I've never tried one, but the literature on one of them
stated that a weaker light was better than a bright one because the
brighter ones cause more deep shadows/contrast that makes the blood
spots harder to distinguish from the background.
I've always hunted deer with a shotgun (South East) and all kills with
3" OOB were bang flops and I never had to track one. Now I'm using a
rifle over food plots and I guess I've been watching too many hunting
shows where every perfectly hit deer still runs off. Then too those
deer are hunted in sparsely wooded areas compared to thick woods with
underbrush in my area. Tracking one is going to be a challenge and
I'll need any advantage I can get.
KC
HHsupply
mart, about $1.00. Fill a used spray bottle (not transparent, peroxide looses
strength in light, that's why its sold in brown bottles) with the Hydrogen
Peroxide. Tracking: spray suspected blood with it, if blood wet/dry it will foam
up.
If you want to go fancy pick up some Fluorescein, same stuff Ophthalmologist
puts in your eye to look for cornea scratches, or foreign objects. Mix it with
the peroxide, it will fluoresce in blue light (UV not needed)
Frank
After responding to post, I looked at light at Cabela's and it does
appear OK with the Cree LED. Still not sure I'd want the combo.
I do a lot of afternoon bow hunting and activity being greatest after
sunset, I have a lot of experience in night time blood trailing. It is
extremely rare to have a bang flop with a bow and I've had even double
lung shot deer run 200 yards.
I actually carry 4 lights in my pack: the 3 watt Cree LED, the
Winchester blood light, a head lamp with LED's and regular bulb and a
cheap 4 LED light. Fortunately newer lights don't weigh much and need a
ton of D cells. When I bow hunted at friends camp, I always took my gas
Coleman lantern.
Fortunately or unfortunately this year with my current set up I don't
have any good blood trailing experience.
jaf
Get a UV flashlight. Blood will glow when lit up.
There is a company that sells a UV LED conversion for Maglites. Check ebay.
http://cgi.ebay.com/TERRALUX-UV-Ultra-violet-LED-for-MINI-MAGLITE-TLE-5UV_W0QQitemZ330370649470QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item4ceba00d7e
John
"KC" <koh...@HOTMAIL.COM> wrote in message news:71d4fabe-245c-47ba...@s31g2000yqs.googlegroups.com...
yoda
Strange as it sounds, I was once given the same advice and spent all
night trying to follow a blood trail with a coleman lantern. It didn't
work. I ended up sleeping the last two hours before daylight and then
followed the trail in daylight which is a whole lot better than a
lantern.
Chris Barnes
For those of us who are color blind, and have a hard time seeing a POOL
of blood on the ground, would it make a difference?
Serious question. I've never used one before. But when I'm looking for
a downed deer, I almost always end up looking for the deer itself,
rather than a blood trail.
Frank
lights. Bought one for $25 which advertises Cree LED and 115 lumens
using 2 A cells. They had another with, I think, the same Cree at 115
lumens including red and a green LED's advertised for map viewing and
another use, not blood, for $30 using 2 AAA cells.
I'm giving the $25 light to wife trying to wean us off incandescents as
battery life is far superior with LED's. You can take "dead" batteries
out of incandescents and use them in LED's.
On another note, ammo supply at Wally World was a little better and I
got another brick of .22's.