Flashlight Tests, under real use.

I have been having a problem with animals getting my ducks.

At 430AM this morning my motion detector sounded the alarm.

A coyote was at the duck pen.

We pen them up at night, but something had reached though the cage and got one a few days ago, and another had been taken at the rear of the pond.

So I fired rifle shot at the coyote.
Then the wife and I went out to be sure he was dead.

I carried my follow up gun a 20ga double barrel shotgun.
It has a Sure Fire G2 P60 bulb taped under the barrels.
By pulling backslightly on the light, the fore end activates the on button, or you can just turn the tail cap for constant on.

I also had my SF E1e with its new LF HO E1A bulb, and a G2LED with "dead" batteries being used as a vampire.

The wife had a Petzl headlight.

A quick area recon was done, no coyote. A brief search turned up blood.

So we started following the blood trail, using the G2 on the Shotgun.

After a short distance it was lost. I then used the E1e looking close to the ground as the "weeds and grass" were about waist high.

I was able to find the trail, a few times, but then it "dissappeared".

So I went back to the house and got my SF Blue LED L1 Digital LumaMax, and my SF M6 with the MN20 bulb.

First let me say that the Blue LED proved worthless for finding blood.
WORTHLESS.
I will be trying to find a white Led lamp to replace the blue one.

But then there was the M6.

Cool little story! :thumbsup:

Sorry to hear about your ducks

EDIT - Oh, it's still going

I went back to the last place blood was spotted, and "Lit UP" the M6.

It was easy to see that the blood trail had taken a sharp turn as the bright light of the M6 showed up the blood real good.

It was still hard to follow, as the blood trail was not continous.

I started using the G2 Vampire placed on the ground turned on so I always new where the last place blood was detected.

The E1e with the LF lamp did a good job when searching in the thick stuff very close up.

But if the trail was lost, the M6 would enable us to find the trail again.

The vegation was pretty thick as I have stated, even with the M6 turned on I did not see the dead coyote until I was about 3 or 4 feet from it.

The G2 on the shotgun worked great when looking for the coyote, and pretty good for checking for blood, keeping aware of muzzle direction for sure.

The E1e suprised me as it had enough light for spotting blood if it was close, yet when I had the light and my head [ie my eyes] below the level of the vegetation it did not blind me when light reflected back off the plants.

All the plants were damp as there was a thick fog/light mist.

The clear winner here was the M6 IMHO.

It allowed me to see blood from a distance. This was especially important as the coyote only ran about 45 yards, but changed direction a few times. He had recieved a high lung hit.

After we found the coyote it the fog/mist got even heavier.

I shined the lights I had with me out over the pond, and the prefious post about lights in the fog came to my mind.

The light of the LED did wash out and had more flare back/blooming or what ever you want tom call it.

The E1e projected better, and of course the M6 still "punched" accross the pond.


Next time I will just put the M6, and a spares carrier in my back pocket BEFORE I leave the house.

I will also try to take my M3 and M4 [both weapon lights, but I will pull them off] and compare them to the M6, to see just how much light is needed, and if more light is truely better.

DimeRazorback said:

Cool little story! :thumbsup:

Sorry to hear about your ducks

EDIT - Oh, it's still going

Click to expand...

No problem, I do long posts in sections as I am on a SAT system and hate to type in a Novel and have the system go down.

great story, would have been better with pictures, but i guess takin pics while looking for a potentially wounded coyote was not the highest of priorities

Neat story! Always nice to hear stories of people actually using there lights! I have a 918FA (Basically M3 dedicated fore-end) on my Marine Magnum just for this sort of scenario, as coyotes are notorious on my land back home. And of course an M6 with spare MB20.

Nice. That M6 is your best friend for colour and cutting through haze.

Your incandescents were your best bet for blood spotting. Monochromatic light sources don't work very at all since you really need contrast, so the poor performance of a blue-only LED isn't surprising. Cool white LEDs aren't too great either due to a lack of red output.

Though I have seen specialized LED lights for blood tracking that use a combination of red and blue LEDs to cause blood to stand out while washing out greenery.

The Blue LED of the LumaMax, was not worth a "hoot" at spotting blood.

Since I am using a "light" outside most every night, I am looking at rechargeables, and it MUST be an Incandescent.

After this morning it looks like the Sure Fire 10X Dominator would be the IDEAL rechargeable light for me.

Having incandescent dual output looks like a winner for my around the place work light.

Get one of the battery adaptors for your M6 sold in the custom lights section of the forum.

I use a 2x18650 adaptor with the MN20 and it is AWESOME!

I also have a 3x17670 to use with a Lumens Factory HO-M6R

:thumbsup:

Check out this thread by DM51!!

thanks for sharing your story NE450No2. there's probably another coyote where that one came from. sounds like you got your basis covered too...
i would definately consider dimerazerback's suggestion and go rechargable with your m6 and use it with no regrets against those pesky varmits.

Not sure if you have a need for a special light for tracking blood but after a quick search I found this https://shop.primos.com/p-1219-mini-bloodhunter-plus-blood-trailing-flashlight.aspx
It may be possible to homebrew a special filter.:thinking:

DimeRazorback, I have read that whole thread, Part 1 and Part 2.
It is an awsome piece of Tech work.

I just do not want to have to deal with all the "Muss and Fuss" dealing with individual recharageable batteries.

I am thinking about going with the Sure Fire 10X Dominator.

While not as powerful and high tech as some of the lights you guys "Mod", I think it will give me enough light for my uses, and be a lot less "fussy".

As I will use it every night at least a little I can just pop it in the charger when I go to bed.

Larbo

I wonder if that really works or it is just a gimic.

Everybody says that blue LED's are good for blood, but this is the third time I have tried it,and even after finding the blood with the SF M6, and THEN shining the Blue LED on it, I could not say that I recognized it as blood.

NE450No2 said:

DimeRazorback, I have read that whole thread, Part 1 and Part 2.
It is an awsome piece of Tech work.

I just do not want to have to deal with all the "Muss and Fuss" dealing with individual recharageable batteries.

I am thinking about going with the Sure Fire 10X Dominator.

While not as powerful and high tech as some of the lights you guys "Mod", I think it will give me enough light for my uses, and be a lot less "fussy".

As I will use it every night at least a little I can just pop it in the charger when I go to bed.

Click to expand...

Fair point!
I understand completely!

:thumbsup:

I myself wouldn't mind a 10X... it's just I have a long list with more wanted lights on it :naughty:

NE450No2 said:

Larbo

I wonder if that really works or it is just a gimic.

Everybody says that blue LED's are good for blood, but this is the third time I have tried it,and even after finding the blood with the SF M6, and THEN shining the Blue LED on it, I could not say that I recognized it as blood.

Click to expand...

Have you ever tried UV light? Plenty available from as cheap as 99c

You could get a cheapie and test it out, then get a good quality one later if it works well, or forget the idea if it doesn't.

NE450No2 said:

The clear winner here was the M6 IMHO.

Click to expand...

That statement seems true for a lot of situations for years now. I'm still trying to snag one for around $200 Great story.

What about the Gerber Carnivore???

On the blood tracking thing, the way I understood it was that you needed red and blue both. The combination is supposed to provide a lot of contrast between the blood and its background. I could be wrong of course, but since I read it on the internet, its got to be true! Well, it makes sense to me anyway, but I havent tried it.