Hedgie

Anyone have a good flaslight or headlight? I use a Minimag flashlight. It is fine for walking in the dark. However, its beam is inadequate for searches. Do LED lights project a longer and brighter beam? I'd like something stronger to use, if necessary, for a night retrieval of an animal.

deer_predator

Hedgie,

There is not a flashlight out there that can compare to a good ole coleman lantern for trailing blood at night. The blood almost illuminates off of the light.

I have found the LED lights to be awful (my own opinion). I almost lose the color aspect. So I went and bought one of those expensive "blood trailing flashlights". I just don't get it; a red lense and a blue lens is suppose to work? Oh well, I am going to stick with the good ole coleman lantern!

98Redline

I bought a sure fire G2 Nirolon that I use for blood trailing. I agree that the LED lights with their blueish tint makes it difficult to trail. I much prefer the white beam of a krypton bulb. That being said, a MiniMaglite just does not have the brightness I like for bloodtrailing.

I have heard great things about the Coleman lanterns with respect to blood trailing, however I have not raided my camping stuff yet to try it out.

ihunt1975

Energizer has a new 4 led headlamp out now. Don't let the $14 price tag fool you. Its the brightest LED headlamp I've used. I've quit using my 6 led Cyclops because of it.

everythingout

Hedgie,

I recently purchase one of these for Salmon fishing at night. The combination of bright white light and the red made it very easy to see. The red worked well for working on my tackle after the big ones took all my line from me. I am going to use it for bow hunting as well so that I can keep my hands free. Check it out at: http://www.everythingoutdoors.us/osCommerce/catalog/product_info.php/cPath/264/products_id/2516. There are several others to choose from.

The deer predator made a good point in his response about tracking blood at night and he is right, the lantern works very well for that.

ACPOSSETIM

I also have a Surefire G2 nitrolon with the high output bulb ( I can light up a stop sign at about a mile!) it worksgreat it's got the traditional yellow light like a maglite but much, much brighter. Yes it does eat batteries but I also have a surefire E1L it only takes one battery and is very compact, however it is extremely bright white light. I was trailing a doe a couple years ago with a buddy who swore by the coleman, once he started using my surefires he asked me "what are these, and where can I get one!". The E1L is a little spendy, its in the $90-$100 range but theG2's are much cheaper in the $35 range (they do offer a rechargeable model that's a little more expensive) The most important thing to remember is DO NOT buyany other brand of lithium batteriesbut surefire,typically at a store they run$6-$9 each for Energizer/Duracell and such. If you buy the surefire brand from them or Cabela's they are in the $2 a piece range and they work just as well.