Color blind blood tracking

[ohwoody]

I am red/green color blind and have trouble finding blood trails.I have tried the luminol,it diidnt work for me.Does the blue LED lights work? Any other suggestions?

[fisherman66]

As I understand the blue LED causes blood to appear black. A flashing red LED is often used in tandem since it causes blood to appear bright red. Neither are going to be of great benefit during the daylight. Many a hunter swear by the old coleman lanterns. We are allowed to use a scent dog to look for down deer, but many states do not allow ANY use of dogs. Good luck.

[MEDDAC19]

You could use hydrogen peroxide in a spray bottle, it foams up when it contacts blood. The peroxide must be fresh and should be stored out of the light.

[ohwoody]

Just standard pharmacy hydrogen peroxide? Aint that like 1% or do I use something different?

[Yellowfin]

Perhaps a lantern with a black light? That should make it glow.

[fisherman66]

A black light will not make blood glow (it will make it look inky black). It will illuminate urine, but unless you just scare the piss out of a deer - no dice. A red light is the key.

http://www.xenopuselectronix.com/xel...odTracker.html

I'm not endorsing the above flashlight. I have never used it.

[ohwoody]

http://www.toledo-bend.com/colorblind/Ishihara.html


Making blood brighter doesnt help.Need something to change the blood to another color.

Red blood against green leaves,my eyes just cant see it.The peroxide trick may work in daylight by seeing the reaction.but low light?

[Neophyte1]

ohwoody: Sir; I know what you mean.
It sucks;;

Craig

[Nevertoomanyguns]

I too am red/green color blind, kept my from going to airborne school so I got stuck as a ground pounder. Last year I helped my father track down his 141 inch 8 pt., 260 pound field dress maine buck that he shot with my .308 hand loads. He bled all over the place but i still had a hard time seeing the blood so I just tracked him by his tracks. Three day later I shot a 213 pound field dressed 10 point with my .270 win and lucky for me he dropped right in his tracks. I have a hard time seeing the blood. So look for their tracks broken limps and fur. Luckly there aren't a lot of deer in my area so you don't have to worry about mixing up deer tracks.

[Art Eatman]

Interesting. My father was red/green colorblind. He always said that tracking after dark with a flashlight was easy. To him, the blood had a bit of a glow. (Daytime wasn't an issue, because he almost exclusively used neck shots. He mostly helped other hunters in tracking.)

Art

[Smokey Joe]

Yep, here too. If there's no snow on the ground I'm just about SOL when it comes to trailing blood. And it seems I usually shoot a deer among a Grand Central Station of other deer tracks. Basically, at tracking wounded deer, I am about 2 1/2 sigmas down from average.

Fortunately one of my hunting buds is VERY good in the tracking department, and my #1 Son is a natural at it. So I just whine to one of them, and they get to feel superior, and after not too many snide remarks the expert help is forthcoming.

My expertise is in other areas. We trade around.

This summer I got one of those red/blue/white LED flashlights--Hope to have occasion to try it this fall.

[ohwoody]

http://www.opticsplanet.net/aimheat35.html

Doing a little searching on the net and found this.Has anyone tried the Aimshot thermal heatseeker? Pricey but better then losing a good buck cause I cant track it.

[Smokey Joe]

Ohwoody--Heat-seeker for deer! Fantastic! One more gadget that needs batteries for me to carry along into the woods. Sorry abt the rant, but frankly I go hunting to re-connect with Nature, not to conquer Nature with Technology. And yes, I use a gun, and a lot of other modern stuff, but there is a limit.

Besides, wouldn't you have to get close enough to the deer that you could hit it with the heat sensor, before the heat sensor would be of help? Another thought: how long would it take before the down deer lost enough body heat (plus being insulated by its fur) so that the sensor couldn't sense it?

The few deer I've lost, or participated in the losing of, went up hill, down dale, through the swamp and around Robin Hood's barn. Was in on a 4-hour tracking job once, with my expert tracker friend who kept pointing out microscopic drops of blood to me. We were never close enough to sense its body heat, had we posessed the means to do so. The blood trail petered out to nothing, finally, it was dark, and there was too much foliage to see tracks.

The deer I've found (the vast majority! for which I'm duly thankful) have been short tracking jobs, if any, and mostly been obvious from 50-100 feet or more away when one got that close.

The expense aside, I'd have to have it demonstrated to me that a heat seeker would be of enough help to justify the carrying of it.

[ohwoody]

Ohwoody--Heat-seeker for deer! Fantastic! One more gadget that needs batteries for me to carry along into the woods. Sorry abt the rant, but frankly I go hunting to re-connect with Nature, not to conquer Nature with Technology. And yes, I use a gun, and a lot of other modern stuff, but there is a limit.

I agree too many gizmos spoil the hunt.I use a muzzleloader for most of my deerhunting,going flintlock this year.Still 8% of men are color blind.I dont always have an expert tracker with me.I am NOT even thinking of using it before the shot.A 100 ft tracking job maybe easy through brush or high grass for the average hunter,but do it your eyes closed.You will see as much blood as I do.

Over the years I hunted I have learned to use tracks and anticipate the way a deer will travel when shot.Most of the time sucessfully.If a little technology will aid me in finding one lost deer I am for it.If the heatseeker works as claimed it just gives me the same advantage that a normal vision person would have.Its pricey,but does it work? I cant find any reviews on the net.

Ohwoody

[gordon29]

if you still have trouble try mixing a food coloring agent that you can see with the hydrogen peroxide...i heard yellow works well

[Wild Bill Bucks]

Best advice for color blindness is practice at the range until you can hit a 1 1/2" circle, and take neck shots exclusively. You won't have to track them because they will be in their own footprints when you go get them.

You have to pass on a few, but not many. I have a brother that has the same problem and he gets a deer almost every year. I'm not color blind, but I'm getting to old to bust brush looking for a downed deer, so I shoot neck shots almost exclusively. I use a .308 and I haven't had one go more than a body length from where I shot it.

When I powder hunt I do the same thing although I keep my shots to around 100 yards or less. I shoot an Encore that is zeroed in at 80 yards, and will shoot 1" groups at that range, but it took me a lot of practice and time to get it there.

My brother lost two deer about 4 years ago because he couldn't see the blood, and since then he has put a lot of time in at the range, and as said before, he doesn't come home empty handed anymore.

[FirstFreedom]

Even if the heatseeker works, it's a bad idea, because Mr. Game Warden is going to think that you used it to FIND the deer BEFORE you shot it, not just whipped it out after you shot it. Illegal in my state.

[Art Eatman]

The only IR dealie I've messed with wouldn't really spot a person beyond, say, twenty to thirty feet. IOW, you'd have to track a deer to where it had piled up in some brush before you'd find it. I guess that for more money you could get more distance...

Art

[Lavid2002]

usa a bigger caliber and drop em : P

[VirgilCaine]

Most dogs when trained will find your deer with little trouble. I trained my bird crazy german shorthair to track bloodtrails. She found my brother-in-laws buck last fall with no problem.

[FirstFreedom]

Virgil, how did you go about that training of your bird dog to blood track? Hard or easy? How long did it take? Thanks!

[VirgilCaine]

FF,

I filled a "country crock" margarine container with deer blood from a fresh kill and froze it.

Then in the spring, i made a drag out of old buck tail (might've beena doe) and some line. I then soaked the tail in a bit of blood and dragged it approx 100-125yds into the brush. At the end of the trail was a treat. She was not able to see me do this.

It took a while (2-3hrs with breaks), but she figured out the game. I made a BIG deal out it when she found the treat.

A few days later, I used a cheapy foam paint brush and spattered what little deer blood i had left into a trail that went approx 75yds, she pegged it quickly. I ran out of blood and training stopped. This is late spring.

My Brother -in-law arrows a deer the following October and calls me, "bring a lantern and that water-headed dog of yours". He hit it high and couldn't pick up the trail. It was very dark. He had only his "mini-mag".

It took my shorthair just a few minutes and she found that buck piled up in a dead fall roughly 80-90yds away. She was promptly rewarded with some heart meat, and that dog has been trackin' ever since.

[fisherman66]

Check state laws before you track a deer with a dog.