Any other colorblind hunters?

[Loxahatchee]

Any hunters on here colorblind like me? My CB-ness makes it darn near impossible for me to follow a blood trail. Since Im only 18 and still live with my parents, my hunting outings are alongside my dad, so when a deer is shot, its usually him that takes up the blood trail, while I just follow behind and stand at the last sight of blood (which I usually cant even see myself) :cursing: :shake:

So how do you fellow colorblind hunters (if there are any) deal with such an issue? We have used our jagdterrier on to recover at least half a dozen deer, so using dogs to follow the trail is one option, but its not always practical. And since recovering any shot game is essential in any hunting, being efficient at it is a must.

 

[Joel/Calgary]

I wish Paul V. was still with us to reply. He was an expert tracker and tracking instructor, and was constantly exhorting us to learn read the tracks and other sign, as this was much more useful while the blood was just the icing on the cake. I would recommend that you learn as much as you can about the other aspects of tracking, where color is much less useful. You might start by searching for posts in this section by paulvallandigham with a keyword of track. Consider that, at least during WW II, the U.S. specifically recruited color-blind personnel for some of their air-photo interpretation because there were sometimes things that stood out to them that were masked by color.

Regards,
Joel

 

[FishDFly]

So how do you fellow colorblind hunters (if there are any) deal with such an issue? We have used our jagdterrier on to recover at least half a dozen deer, so using dogs to follow the trail is one option, but its not always practical. And since recovering any shot game is essential in any hunting, being efficient at it is a must.[/quote]

I am extremely color blind, red/green and blue/green. I am color blind enough I have to look closely at flashing lights at intersections to see if the light is yellow or red, a warning from my optometrist.

Know "exactly" where the animal is standing before you shoot, you need to go that place, not somewhere in that area. I tend to shoot further forward on an deer than most folks, my goal is break both shoulders.

If an animal runs, I wait a timed 30 minutes, by the watch before looking for it. Hopefully the animal will be dead and will not get up and start moving again. The only down side to waiting 30 minutes is that the blood goes from bright red to brown.

In bright sunlight I can track better because I look for the reflection on the sheen of the blood. When it's really cloudy I have trouble, I can not see the sheen since there is not any and I cannot see red color.

I can track better at night using a Mag Lite since it shows the sheen really well. But tracking at night is as tough as it gets and it's harder to find the blood since your eye sight is limited to just in front of you.

I leave a roll of toilet paper in the blind and when I have to track, I put toilet paper at each place I find blood. If I lose the trail, I can go back to the last place I found blood and start over again there. Also the trail of toilet paper behind you gives you an idea of the direction the deer went.

When all else fails, I go get my wife for help. She is more patient than I am.

She has invoked one rule, she will not track wounded hogs when it's dark. We had one go between us. We did not know he had passed between us until he grunted just past us.

 

[Robby]

A friend of mine has a son in law that is an avid hunter with bow and gun. He is also color blind. He follows the usual practices like the rest of us, with the exception that he carries a bottle of peroxide with a spritzer. when confounded, he spritzes the area and the blood shows up white to him. Where there is a will, there is a way!!! I hope this is a help to you.
Robby

 

[Little Wattsy]

A friend of mine has a son in law that is an avid hunter with bow and gun. He is also color blind. He follows the usual practices like the rest of us, with the exception that he carries a bottle of peroxide with a spritzer. when confounded, he spritzes the area and the blood shows up white to him. Where there is a will, there is a way!!! I hope this is a help to you.
Robby

That is a great idea.

Here is another thought.. It still works on color (and it DOES work) I use one on occasions; But it MIGHT make the blood seem a stand out black to you..?? MAY be worth a try..??? http://www.midwayusa.com/product/7...ashlight-white-red-and-green-leds-steel-black

 

[FishDFly]

A friend of mine has a son in law that is an avid hunter with bow and gun. He is also color blind. He follows the usual practices like the rest of us, with the exception that he carries a bottle of peroxide with a spritzer. when confounded, he spritzes the area and the blood shows up white to him. Where there is a will, there is a way!!! I hope this is a help to you.
Robby

Okay, seems like CSI and TV, but well worth the effort and minimal cost. Nothing to loose at all. Thanks for the information and education.

I have lot of hydrogen peroxide and spray bottles, one is going in the truck behind the seat. Actually I carry a spray bottle of hydrogen peroxide and alcohol to spray cows with that have cuts. Just need to label the bottles.

Again thanks.

 

[Stumpkiller]

They labeled me "color deficient" but blood does not seem to be a problem. I just lose certain colors as light fades. I have a Fenix PD30 that gives plenty of light to trail with and is small enough to carry easily.

 

[Spikebuck]

I am red-brown color "blind"...actually just extremely deficient. I'm with you on the tremendous challenge this can create in following blood trails.

Since I do not know which kind of color-deficiency you have and that you are truly not color BLIND, I'll suggest the following: you can place a red lens over your non-dominant eye. This filters blue-green light and enhances reds. At the optometrist, this allowed me to read 14 or 15 of the numbers buried in the "color-dots test" versus my normal 3 or 4. That was done with a red contact lens. You might ask your optometrist about this.


I have tried the color-enhancing flashlights as mentioned by Wattsy...they don't do squat for me. One has to remember that these are designed for people with normal color vision! I still like a good-old coleman lantern (gas or propane...not electric) with a reflector installed to direct all light ahead of me, if trailing at night. I do better in the dark than in the pre-dark of last 1/2 hr of the day.

I am very choosey on my shots and want full pass through be it archery or gun so I have blood pouring out two holes. In addition, this usually puts animals down in under 50 yards. If I know I have a good hit, I like to get on blood ASAP while it is still wet. If you double lunged something, it's dead in seconds. Don't do this if there is any reason to believe a less-than-perfect hit was made.

Also, as suggested, learn other tracking skills. One of the best books I've ever read is "Trailing Whitetails" by John Trout, Jr. http://www.amazon.com/Trailing-Whitetails-John-Jr-Trout/dp/0945980140 While this focuses on whitetails, the techniques are probably valid for most big game.

As a last resort, my wife is a superior tracker! I try not to drag her out, but do on occasion. You can do tracking on your own with patience and practice! Instead of standing at last blood, go up front and work the trail to learn, even if it takes a little time and you have to be on your hands and knees. I've been on some tough trails over my decades of tracking, and when a trail was lost, it was often me that found that little speck of blood...I think because I was so focused and would not give up.

Good trailing!

 

[hoochiepapa]

drop 'em in their tracks!!

 

[Swede50]

My father is color blind I have problems with different colors.
I look for the blood trail it has not been a problem for us.

I try to drop the deer DRT but it don't always work. Sometimes they will run eventhough they were hit hard it just depends on the deer.
A double shoulder should do the job but at 311yrds he jumped straight up about 3 feet and ran about 10yards.
My first deer I shot was throught the eye about 10yards away she dropped flat.
I hit a nice buck between the eyes he went down fast.
I also have shot several under the spine they dropped like they were hit with a sledghammer.

I just ordered the book listed on this thread.

I got a little off track but if the shot is just right tracking is not necessary but that dosent always happen.

Good luck with your deer hunting and tracking.

 

[Many Klatch]

I am red - green "deficient". Makes stop lights kinda fun. I found out that I could not see blood on the ground. I pretty much stick to bird hunting, I can see them when they hit the ground.

Anyway. I was having troubles at shooting matches seeing the gongs. They were painting them red or blaze orange and I often had to see the gongs get hit and then shoot at the lead splats while the gongs were still moving.

I talked with my ophthalmologist about this problem and he came up with a special color of red lens that would allow me to see the reds of the gongs. I had a pair of glasses that were red in my right eye and clear in the left eye. Boy did that make the targets pop out! The red looked orange to me. Don't know how that would work on a blood trail. One bad thing about the redlensed glasses was it made it difficult to see once the light dimmed.

BTW, I pissed and moaned enough about the color of the targets that most shoots in this area the gongs are now painted light blue. I told them that if they wanted to make it fair for the 20% of males that are color deficient that they should either paint the targets blue, or black, or white. They couldn't see the targets when they were black or white, but I could. One advantage to being color blind is that camouflage doesn't really work on me.

Many Klatch

 

[Loxahatchee]

Thanks for the replies everyone.