# Blood Tracking Light



## Bere223 (Jun 18, 2010)

What's the best blood tracking light? Must be portable as I already have enough crap I'm lugging in the woods... I have a TI L35 but it's too big.

Thanks!


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## DM51 (Jun 18, 2010)

Welcome to CPF, Bere223.

I'll move your thread to the General section, as it is not specific to spotlights. Incidentally, there have been quite a few threads on this topic.


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## mrartillery (Jun 18, 2010)

One of my friends bought this one and only used it one time before it started intermittent on/off, I put a smaller O-ring on the tailcap for him and it worked fine. I said that to say this, he hates the light overall, during hunting season he pratically lives in the woods and has tried several different blood lights none of which he said "work" like they're suppose to. So now what he said he uses is and LED light with a cool white color, he said the blood reflects better with this than any other thing he's used.


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## hotlight (Jun 18, 2010)

green light will show blood being BLACK("extremely black")

a forum member has recommended High CRI led, claims the blood is bright red.

Ive BBQed(no hunting with it yet) with a green led, and the blood is black.

If what is claimed about the high CRI led is true, I'd go that route.


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## red02 (Jun 18, 2010)

I've heard (mostly on this forum) that blue light is the best. Near UV would be good, UV might work the best following this logic.


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## ^Gurthang (Jun 18, 2010)

How 'bout a SolarForce L2 host w/ a Luxeon UV drop-in?? Specs say it works up to 4.2V so you could use; Cr123 or 18650 Li Ion, or NIMHs in a L2R. Anyway you look at it, its small, but can deliver good light for a decent amount of time...

http://www.internationaltradingcompany.net/servlet/the-330/Solarforce-UV-Led-Luxeon/Detail


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## kito109654 (Jun 18, 2010)

I've found that many people have strong personal preference when it comes to following a blood trail. I tried using blue for a while because it worked well for the guy who took me hunting my first time. I hate blue for tracking. Lots of things look black under blue light. I have not tried green. Good old incandescent has worked best for me, that way I'm looking for red, not black. There are few red things to sort through. I haven't tried a "warm" led yet, I assume they would work about the same as a cooler one for most.


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## MichaelW (Jun 18, 2010)

What about the 4sevens Quark RGB?
Still has white light, so it should perform double duty.


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## kito109654 (Jun 18, 2010)

MichaelW said:


> What about the 4sevens Quark RGB?
> Still has white light, so it should perform double duty.


 The all-flood RGB beam polarizes users. I know I wouldn't use it in the woods unless it was one of two lights.


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## red02 (Jun 18, 2010)

I agree, normally you need some throw.

However, its perfectly reasonable to get an all flood light for this task. Given that a specialty light is need to find the blood, there can't be that much of it to see at a distance beyond 5m at which flood beats traditionally spot lights. Flood will get full use of the field of vision at that range.


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## fishx65 (Jun 19, 2010)

Being in a bowhunting club I track lots of deer each season. About 2 years ago I switched from Seoul modded Propoly's to Surefire 6P's and Solarforce L2's with Cree R2 dropins. I gave up some runtime for brightness but always carry a few extra 18650's for those all night tracking jobs. I seem to see blood better with very bright led torches compared to incans and colored blood tracking torches. A good mix of spot and flood will allow for blood trailing and spotting a wounded or expired deers eyes. Also, I don't enter the woods without a solid headlamp.


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## Solscud007 (Jun 20, 2010)

hmm not sure how hard blood is to track outdoors. But I just had a bloody nose. dry air from AC in hotel and picking my nose didnt help haha.

It was 4:30 am when I woke up. I grabbed my Kroma so as to not ruin my night vision plus didnt want to hurt my eyes. I used the RED leds for nav. Then when I was wiping my nose I smelt blood. So I checked with the blue LEDs. yep as dark as black. just like it is supposed to.


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## [email protected] (Jun 20, 2010)

To be quite honest I don't hunt nor do I know any hunters personly... however I have noticed whilst messing around with alternative lighting sources that red objects under combined red & white light are intensely bright red, I guess what light source works best for you would depend on your personal preferences & the age of the blood trail


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## chef4850 (Jun 20, 2010)

I use a SF C2 with blue filter. Best of both worlds. The blue light I like for spotting blood just look for the black. If in doubt flip up the filter and you have your white light for conformation.

Chef


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## defloyd77 (Jun 22, 2010)

Personally, I'd suggest using a red and blue LED combination like the light mrartillery mentioned. The result of using red and blue seriously makes anything red seem to pop out against any background. Another light that uses this is the Gerber Carnivore series.


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## Incan (Jun 23, 2010)

i got a streamlight stylus pro buckmasters edition with the green led. it makes blood look as black as ink on the ground. also, im red-green colorblind, so that may make a difference.

the old standby among the old-timers is the Coleman Lantern. more deer have probably been found with that than anything else.


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## Dude Dudeson (Jun 23, 2010)

mrartillery said:


> So now what he said he uses is and LED light with a cool white color, he said the blood reflects better with this than any other thing he's used.


 
So I'm not the only one who feels that incandescent isn't necessarily better for color rendition! (and I know you have gone quite far into the incandescent world of flashlights)

I personally know of only one thing where an LED or fluorescent light falls short there - matching paint colors.

And for that only one thing works - sunlight. There's simply no artificial light source that I'm aware of that can match the sun.

But, people's eyes are different - I personally witnessed an LED vs incandescent comparison with some pretty heavy hitters at CPF - they saw a difference, I did not. TINTwise, yes. But "seeing better"?

Not here. They did.

Go figure...


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## DM51 (Jun 23, 2010)

Just a suggestion... a locator beacon works well. Just attach it to the collar of a good tracker dog, and you're ready to go.


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## bayboy (Dec 5, 2011)

I finally got a change to try a blood tracking light (SureFire blue filter on a SureFire 6P). I was a little skeptical but it did work better than the unfiltered light. I wonder how it would be with a led light instead of a incandescent bulb.


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## FPSRelic (Dec 5, 2011)

I have a First Light Tomahawk le red green version. It has an option to turn on both red and green led's at the same time. According to First Light's sales brochure, it can be used by combat medics to see blood. I've never tried it with blood, but everything shows up under this light as green, except for red, which is a very vivid red.


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## Gorram (Dec 6, 2011)

A blue filter on my work Surfire E2D.

Beats the heck out of the old AA maglight!

Cheers, G.


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