Hunting/Tracking Light Recommendations

Gentlemen. I would like your recommendations for a flashlight(s) to be used for tracking wounded game (wild boar and deer). The hunting is in pine forest and swamp lands both of which are heavily vegetated. Most game ideally is found within 2-3 hours. Having read and studied this forum I've got a few ideas. Option #1:The AE Powerlight PL24 with a blue filter (for blood detection) and a spot beam flashlight such as a Streamlight Stinger or Surefire M4, all with extra batteries carried. The Powerlight would be used for both tracking and general illumination while moving through the woods and the flashlight would be used to move around alot to highlight and investigate areas of interest. My questions with this option are; (a). would the Powerlight with the blue filter installed be adequate general illumination in the woods? (b). having read that red or green lighting interferes the least with night vision will the blue light interfere with night vision? (c). will the Powerlight yield enough light with the blue filter installed to detect blood? (d). having read that spot lights would have less reflection off of vegetation than flood lights is this true and would the Streamlight Stinger or Surefire M4 be good choices? Option #2: A low wattage floodlight like a Streamlight Litebox 8W for general illumination and a spot beam flashlight such as a Surefire M4 or M6 with a blue filter for blood detection and highlighting, all with extra batteries. My questions with this option are; (a) would the Litebox 8W have to much reflection and (b) would the M4 or M6 yield enough light for both blood tracking and highlighting? Option #3: A single searchlight such as the AE Powerlight PL24 and switch back and forth between a flood filter and a blue filter or perhaps just use the blue filter alone. Questions (a) would the flood filter on this light yield to much reflective light? and (b) would this light without a filter be too bright in the woods? The lights must be sturdy, water resistant, long lasting and dependable as there is nothing quite like being stranded in the woods at night in the rain or cold/heat without light. I thank you all in advance for your suggestions.

Welcome to the forums.
I have been well served by a PT Aurora in my coat pocket and a minimag with a 3W sandwich and a kroll clickie on my belt. Both get used on those dark to dark hunting treks.
Jim

Welcome Timber! I like my L4 with two way switch for hunting in open timber and just a general EDC. If you want a light strictly for hunting go to uvflashlights.com. Good luck with whatever you choose!

Thanks guys. It's interesting. I went to uvflashlights.com and they have two flashlight models that utilize Red flashing LED's to 'reflect' back blood. Both Surefire and AE Powerlight recommend Blue filters to identify blood. Curious. Would the AE Powerlight with the red or blue filter work for tracking a wounded animal? I'm thinking the more lumens the better because don't filters really cut back on the amount of light passing through as well as coloring the light?

Blue light should make blood trails stand out. maybe a powerlight with a blue filter is what you need. Off topic! Wow 2 to 3 hours to find wounded game? Maybe a better shot placement will help.

AlexGT

I don't know if it has been released yet, but scroll down to the Gerber Carnivore tracking light: http://www.pocketlights.com/blog/archive/2006_02_01_archive.html

Personally, I prefer to use my SF M3 with a blue filter, best set up I've had yet for tracking blood.

AlexGT. This is embarrassing. I recently shot a 150# sow. It was shot, poorly I'd admit, broadside in the gut with a 270win. It was almost 30 minutes after sunset (the legal time limit where I hunt) with no moonlight. The hog fell, squealed loudly, then got up and ran. I listened to the direction it ran and waited about 10 minutes for it to settle down. So by now it's pretty much dark. I had a surefire G2 with me and started searching in that direction and found her about 1 and 1/2 hours later. Here's the kicker: the hog was lying down behind a palmetto bush about 20 yards from where I first shot it! I must have walked past that bush 4 or 5 times. There was blood on the ground, hence my thoughts on a filtered light for tracking. None of my hunting friends use filtered lights for tracking so I'm starting from scratch.
I should add that you can almost always count on having to track an animal shot with a bow. 100 yard runs are common. Add in heavy vegetation and your problems multiply. Add in darkness to the distance and vegetation and it might be the next day before you find the animal.

Leukos. Does the SF M3 have a soft spot beam similar to what I've read about the SF M6 and when you put the blue filter on it does the beam become more of a blue flood? What does blood look like with the filter? And are you using another white beam flashlight/searchlight in conjuction with the blue filtered SF M3?

Timber,

There are probably many answers to your problem, but please consider the following:

In very short order, Surefire is releasing the K2 Kroma, which should be ideal for your situation. This is a civilian offshoot of the military contract light produced in conjunction with SAIC Optics, DARPA defense agency, and Surefire, and tested in the field by our troops for improvement recommendations. The light will have Low/High RED LED (3 & 15 lumens I believe) for night vision and to avoid bothering some animals like deer, Low/High BLUE LED (3 & 15 lumens) for blood-trail tracking, and Low/High WHITE LED (15 & 60 lumens). Mode and color is selected by a rotating bezel at the front ala U2, and it has a dual function tailcap like the L1, L2, and A2 at the rear. It appears that this light will be the holy grail for a hunter. I have both this version and the K2 MILSPEC version with IR and Yellow/Green LEDs coming for testing, and will be reporting fully on the results in this forum. The WHITE LED will be focused through a second-generation TIR Optic lens by SAIC for a little better spill as well as the maximum throw of the first generation optic. There are 16 LEDs around this optic for the RED/BLUE illumination. Override High/WHITE is available at all times with a push of the tailcap. From what I have seen so far, 60 lumens of focused throw will be extremely impressive. We have seen what 30 lumens of focused throw do in the KL-1 (gen 4) and the KL-3 (gen 2, v3). The bezel is 1.47" in diameter so it will accept the F-70 "slimline" beamshaper or the FM-64 beamshaper for a more diffuse beam. We have been told by "Big Al" (Size 15s) that it appears to be just a hair smaller in mass than the U2. This light should be available in a few months, and at $300, is expensive, BUT, should replace ALL of the others needed for the job.

If you are not in a hurry (and of course all of us are), I strongly advise you to wait for a couple of months.

Edited: Visit tacticalsupply.com, Steven Ferguson, to place an order or view a picture, or see the specs.

Hope this helps.

In my experience the blue light did nothing for tracking deer. I couldn't see any blood with the blue light on and I couldn't see where I was going either. Do yourself a favor and get a Northstar Instastart Propane Lantern it's very bright and great for tracking game. Also get a lantern reflector to put on it. Then have you a TL-3 xenon as a back up.



As far as going to and from your stand I use a green LED light. I've walked up on several deer while using it and they just stood there and looked at me. Streamlight has several good green led lights. I just recently got a new Princeton Tec EOS with a Lux III green LED with a 17mm IMS reflector. It is extremely bright and has 4 settings on it. I had it custom built though. You can't see blood with the green light.




•Brightest Coleman® propane lantern•Matchless lighting•Metal guard helps prevent globe breakage•Uses Coleman® Insta-Clip® #95 tube mantle•One 16.4 oz. Coleman® propane cylinder (not included) lasts 11 hours on low or 5.5 hours on high


Good Luck,
Darrell

Timber said:

Leukos. Does the SF M3 have a soft spot beam similar to what I've read about the SF M6 and when you put the blue filter on it does the beam become more of a blue flood? What does blood look like with the filter? And are you using another white beam flashlight/searchlight in conjuction with the blue filtered SF M3?

Click to expand...

Timber,
I prefer the M3's beam over the turbohead beams (M3T, M4, M6) for tracking because the beam is a little more diffused. I prefer SF's blue filters because they seem to be the best on the market, that is the FMxx with the coated pyrex. IMO, I prefer a good incandescent with a good blue filter over any LED setup. Reason is that blue LEDs make blood look black--what's the point? they just don't have enough of the red colour spectrum in them to illumine blood. However, with an incandescent and a quality blue filter, most vegetation appears dark shades of blue while fresh blood contrasts sharply as a crisp red. I prefer the M3 because the 120 lumens seems just about right for my eyes with the filter, but I suppose a 9P or C3 with the P90 would work just as well.

You could try one of the Xenopus blood tracker lights.

http://www.xenopuselectronix.com/xeled/index.html

Flashdark: Excellent. I looked at the specs. They say the red and blue LED's will be at 3 lumens. I have used my SF G2 (65 lumens) with a red filter to get to my stands. The filter must cut down on the lumens because it's barely bright enough for me to see in the woods. Any idea what % of lumens are lost through a filter? It just doesn't seem like 3 lumens would be bright enough for tracking or walking through the woods.

01foreman400: Your suggesting to basically use a white flood light (lantern) to track animals and no colored or filtered light? Also, and this is still a point of confusion for me, you are saying to use a green light for getting to your stands without disturbing game. I've read that before but consider what Surefire says on their website: "The Red Filter produces a smooth beam of red light that will not degrade night vision as white light would. Hunters use the red filter to avoid spooking game during predawn hours - deer see poorly in the red color spectrum." Perhaps red or green is not seen well by deer?

leukos: Thanks for the clarification. You're saying the SF blue filter over a good incandescent light source (ie. SF) produces the best illumination of blood because of the red light spectrum of incandescents. The blood will actually look bright red with this setup. The blue LED's will not have enough of the red light spectrum and blood will look black. Would that apply to that AE Powerlight (HID - 6000k color temp, very cool white I think) with their blue filter and would it be too bright? Also you prefer the standard head SF M3 over the turbohead beamed M3T, M4 or M6 for tracking because the beam is a little more diffused and the 120 lumens with the blue filter seem about right for your eyes. Just so I'm clear does that mean you are tracking solely with the SF M3 with the FM Blue Filter and no additional flashlight like a white spot beam? And the blue FM filtered M3T, M4 or M6 would be too bright and/or too focused (more of a spot beam)? I have noticed that walking through the woods with a White spot light seems easier than with a White flood light as the flood light seems to cause more foliage reflection back to the eyes. As to the Gerber Carnivore with the red and blue flashing LED's my thinking is that it may be to dim to work well.

Nitroz: I looked at that 'Bloodtracker' flashlight yesterday and they are using red flashing lights. Again on Surefire's website it states: "The blue filter produces a smooth beam of blue light. Hunters use the blue filter to track wounded game at night because blood stands out more distinctly against foliage when viewed under blue light." I have very little technical knowledge about flashlights and/or filters. It does seem alot of people hold Surefire in high esteem. I do wish I could find a definitive answer to this blue/red filter question and blood tracking.

Thank you all,
Timber

Timber,

At least 95% of them, I'm sure. In days of old I tried to use an L4 (100 lumens) with a red filter on the front of it and it would just barely do the job. It was so unacceptable that I looked for a better solution. Thanks to kind CPFers, I discovered the Surefire L1-RD (old version/flood) and that solved the problem. This UNFILTERED LED was supposed to be putting out 3 lumens in "low", and even with an F04 attached to the front to further soften the SLIGHT central hotspot, it did the job admirably for night-adapted eyes. In "high", at 15 lumens, it will flat stand you up straight and back you up a step or two!! Since the specs for the new K2 Kroma are identical, I presume that this also will do the job. I plan to "skin" mine with the "slimline" F-70 beamshaper.

Hope this helps.

pammydi,

For locating blood in a small area after someone tried to clean it up, you will need luminol. It will light up like a christmas tree. Only use as a last resort as the chemical reaction that makes luminol work can possibly destroy other evidence.

Check out Xenopus Electronix at uvflashlights.com

Jeff

Not sure of lights to recommend, but . . .
Red light is best for preserving your night vision.
Green light is invisible to deer. It is behind red for preserving your night vision.
Blue light is used for blood tracking because the blood appears black.

Here is a thread that talks about different models of red LED lights or red filters.
https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/111936

Doug