Have you hit an animal that left no blood trail

Ok Tripplebeards, I don't know you, but what you are claiming is pretty far fetched. First it was a sub 3/4 MOA slug gun, now its a muzzleloader that shoots 2 1/2" at 300 yards, with pellets no less. Not that it matters, considering it would drop about 3 feet, and wind drift would be worse. I realize you are probably in the best county for deer antlers, but that's a 120 if not 130 inch buck. Antlers bigger than that don't come around often enough to be getting them every single year for 20 years, at least not in the wild.

It does drop that much I use a Nikon BDC 2.5x10 monarch. The gun is sighted 3 3/4" high at a 100 yards and will hit 200,250,300, and 350 all using the center circles at 10x got the drop measurements from Nikon customer service way before the spot on program came out. Mega I pm'd you so you can see proof in the pudding. I'm a single guy with no life and spend every waking moment in the woods during hunting season. I'm actually heading out to Muzzel load hunt in a few minutes.

Here are a few that I european mounted myself. They all were the were nice looking racks and there are a few up to 20"plus on the inside collecting dust up there but not head mounters IMO. I have a half dozen heads mounts hanging in my dads house...the dandies! The other pic is my living room of a few predators I've taken. All on private land. The ship under the bobcat is full of basket rack antlers I shot over the years. I plan on making a horn Christmas tree some day when I get enough. Anyone want to trade a whitetail hunt for an elk hunt let me know. All the deer were taken off my little slice of heaven. The bear up north WI and one guided hunt in Canada. The bobcat, 2 from AZ private land I called in and the other from up north WI. I hired a Houndsman. The coyote came off my property.

http://i.imgur.com/PA63AMH.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/XsHYsp0.jpg

I had some old targets saved that I keep in my load books when I find a good powder/bullet combo. Here's a 100 yards group of my TC shockwaves and a group from my savage 220. Now you can study them and tell me that groups were bigger,smaller, or I shot them at 10 yards.lol I love how posters just get bent out of shape when they or their rifle can't perform so that means no one else can shoot better. I shoot with a lot of guys that can outshoot me and put me to shame...do I cry about it or call them liars...no

I remember over 20 years ago when a buddy and I both bought 300 RUMs. He could out shoot me gun for gun with every load we tried and use to tease me that I couldn't shoot as good as him. The smart Allic let me shoot his and I outshot him.lol...my SAME 300 RUM to this day will not shoot better than .6" groups even after skim bedded in an HS precision stock. Some guns are just made better than others. Unfortunately there are a lot more duds out there than shooters. That's were acraglass bedding, free floating, and trigger work comes into play along with trying every available ammo and or load combo in my grasp and if it still doesn't shoot I sell it and start over. Sorry to hijack the thread OP. I guess my post of teaching members not to give up and go the extra mile to look for the animal they shot at and giving it the respect it deserves got a little off track...and yes I pass up a lot of bucks most people would give their left arm for. I am very fortunate to own a piece of property that produces huge bugs and I will normally go without a filled tag before I just settled and shot something I wouldn't excited to have harvested for no reason or be proud of.



http://i.imgur.com/uPfz03i.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/ij22aMk.jpg

I didn’t hit an animal that didn’t leave a blood trail, but I missed one that did that. :sad:

Attachment 231769It just happened to me recently. I have a antique Stevens tip up rifle that I relined to 38 special.
The action is pretty strong so I worked up a accurate load that shoots a H&G cast 160 gr. FN at a little over 1200 fps. I have wanted to take a deer with this rifle for years and this year had a ideal situation where I would have a close 20 - 25 yard shot if a deer would show up at a feeder.
So a small buck with a broken leg shows up, gives me a ideal shot and I put a bullet just over the heart at a slight quartering away angle.
The deer did show a small reaction at the shot but hopped / trotted away on 3 legs like nothing was wrong. I seen him stop about 70 yards away and for about 30 seconds look back at where he just was shot but thru my 4 X scope I could not see any blood on the side of his body.
He then disappeared in to the woods still on his feet probably 45 seconds or more after I shot him.

I gave him a good half hour before I went looking for him and when I did I did not find any hair or blood anywhere ? I found the exact spot he was standing in the woods where I last seen him standing and searched good and still found no blood.

At that point I thought I would move slowly in the direction I thought he went and was ready for another shot if I found him wounded or still on his feet. I only went about 40 yards and right on a main trail he laid dead. So I looked for a wound or blood to tell me where he has hit and there was no blood on either side of him and no blood out his nose . I was stumped at where I hit him !
After field dressing him I looked inside the body cavity and could see nothing, so after I had him hanging I took a flashlight and looked inside and finally found a small spot on the off side where it looked like MAYBE a .357 bullet could have made but really it looked very small.
I started feeling around the front shoulder on the off side and finally I felt a lump under the hide
And with my knife slit the hide and dug out the bullet. WOW ! The bullet looks just like when I loaded it ! No expansion no sign of it contacting anything hard.
So where I found the bullet it showed my shot was where I aimed but I still could not find a entrance hole ? I looked like a surgeon on the inner rib cage for where the bullet came through but couldn't find the slightest Mark ????

I took the deer to a local women that processes a lot of deer as I was to lazy to do it myself so I wount get to see the deer skinned but this is a mystery.

The end result is it was a clean kill, the deer was recovered, but the bullet was to hard and velocity a little to low as with a exit hole I think there would have been a blood trail.

I am posting a pic of the bullet I recovered from the deer and it could be reloaded and used again, no expansion at all.

Jedman

For those that don't like the win. .243 .. I've harvest my fair share 90gr SP.. Never had on go further than 50-60 yard max.. As far as blood trail , I can't say I've needed many except for "bow" ; )
H/D

Shot a 2 1/2 yr old 6 pt with my BFR475 with a NOE 477-385. 35 yds in the shoulder thru the heart and lungs and out the ribs. Ran about 65-70 yds with no blood for the first 45 yds then blood on the exit side. Watch him run and stopped wobbled a little then fell over! With 2-3” of snow tracking was easy.

I am not sure how many deer I have killed with a .243 but it is around 50 or 60. Mostly with 100 grain softs points. Never lost one with it and never had to track one over 75 yards. Snow with a crust on it is great for tracking. Fresh fluffy snow can be a challenge. The warm blood melts and sinks in the fresh snow.

Hit high and under the spine you really need to look for the tiny specks of blood and hair is a give away, put a dog on the path and they will find it. As the chest fills up you will find splotches, then clumps then the animal

it happens a lot really. if the animal is rather fatty from all those juicy acorns and piles of carrots and beets and apples and such like... well that fat closes up fast and keeps the leakage inside. Bear hunters know about it..

Hit an animal to high, and you can take forever for the blood to come out, has to fill the cavity up to the hole to get leakage, normally always get some splatter on the ground at impact site, but not all bullets want to do that, so NORMALLY is the word.

.223 and .243 never leave a blood trail for me.

Actually, the buck my Grandson shot on Sunday during our muzzle loading season didn't leave a blood trail. It was from a high angle frontal quartering shot that broke the off side leg, at the bottom of the shoulder. At the shot he took off hopping without his left front leg, we saw where he went. We waited about 35 minutes before looking. He traveled about 70 yards, no blood trail on 4" of snow. It looked like he laid down and died there, one set of legs was under him. I don't always wait, but becoming more of a believer? hc18flyer

Had to check the canners. When we field dressed the buck, the ball had cut across the surface of the heart. The chest was full of blood, none on the outside. I always wonder how many deer are wasted because hunters assume they missed, and don't take the time to followup? hc18flyer

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by hc18flyer

Had to check the canners. When we field dressed the buck, the ball had cut across the surface of the heart. The chest was full of blood, none on the outside. I always wonder how many deer are wasted because hunters assume they missed, and don't take the time to followup? hc18flyer

---

Also the reason why 30-30 is useless for deer hunting, and you need at least a 300 win mag using a 150-180 grain JSP that leave a 3" exit hole in a shoulder through shoulder hit... at 100 yards.

Tripplebeards


My T/C Omega shoot's the same as yours with the same 3 pellets but I use pyrodex and a 250gr shock wave

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by LUCKYDAWG13

Tripplebeards


My T/C Omega shoot's the same as yours with the same 3 pellets but I use pyrodex and a 250gr shock wave

---

I'll have to try the pyrodex pellets. Those are the original offering I believe. I should try the white knight pellets as well. Guess they don't fowl as much. Only ran tripple seven through it. I'd like to shoot the lighter 250's through mine. I think they would expand quicker putting a deer down faster than the results I'm Getting.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by crankycalico

Also the reason why 30-30 is useless for deer hunting, and you need at least a 300 win mag using a 150-180 grain JSP that leave a 3" exit hole in a shoulder through shoulder hit... at 100 yards.

---

Sarcasm?

The .243 was my first center fire rifle, a Model 700BDL Remington. I loaded 70 grain JHP's over IMR 30-31, for groundhogs. When I started hunting deer, I loaded 100 grain Nosler Partitions over H1000. That load has harvested 36 deer and two hogs. most DRT. One hog went 50 yards with a quarter size hole through its heart. I have larger calibers, .270, .308, .44 magnum and .45 Colt, but the .243 is still my go to...…..robin

I shot an antelope angling toward me with the 243. The angle was not over 45 closer to 30. With the Hornaday 100 gr interlock the bullet entered behind the shoulder and exited behind the last rib on the same side. He naturally decided to run and I put bullets in his gut, neck [pass through no bones hit] and broke his brisket with the 4th shot. Previous to that I had harvested 12 mule deer, 8 whitetail and 13 antelope with that combo. Anything can happen though never did find why that bullet turned around inside that critter.

For the 243 a 95 gr nosler ballistic tip from what I've researched is a lot of shooters goto bullet for putting Deer down in its tracks. Never tried them yet myself but I've used the 90 gr NBTs on coyotes!Bobcats, and a few other critters. It anchors them.