From a tracking stand point... or just in general... what do you prefer? I like the brightness of LED, but I like the "casting" ability of good 'ol Halogens. I've been looking at some some small rechargeable Spotlights for general purpose/tracking... And thinking a Halogen would be better in terms of "spotlight"? Which do you prefer, and why?
This may be the text book answer and do you no good, but here goes. If the track is an obvious kill, or very good ground for spotting blood, it does not matter to me. If I know I need quality light nothing beats a coleman lantern with tin foil around half of it to keep from blinding you. The blood just jumps off the gound. I would always lean towards a lantern/spotlight. Tractor supply has some pretty strong spotlights (2 million candle and compact as well) for $20 or so. However I cannot comment on their battery life etc because I did not buy one when I was there...
I usually have some big coon hunting lights in my truck when I plan on hunting afternoon. It lights up the forest floor pretty good and also you would have to search all night to run the batteries down. However I forgot them last year I had to borrow some LED lights from my uncle and was very pleased with the job they did.
LED without a doubt. A good LED 100+ lumen Streamlight or something similar will actuall make blood almost glow and glisten at night.
I use a 4 D-cell powered MagLight, and it does the job for me. I have used it for countless continuous hours bowfishing and whatnot, and it is still on the first set of batteries.
