Double-lung pass-through - NO BLOOD TRAIL

[ArcherandShooter]

Hey, y'all, I have a question I've been meaning to ask...

That deer I shot Saturday was hit double-lung, larger exit wound than entry, didn't go far, yet he NEVER shed a drop of blood that we could find to trail. We essentially found him by quartering the area he'd staggered into and finally spotting him at the bottom of that ravine. Down there, there was blood, but only where he'd fallen over and died.

I am not kidding; not one drop of blood trail up above where he'd been when I shot him.

Any ideas how that can happen? It gives me pause about shooting an animal in areas of really thick brush where I might walk right past them without seeing if there is no trail to follow?

Did I maybe hit the lungs high enough up that they filled up on the inside and he died before any could spill through the bullet holes?

I'm puzzled.

 

[griz]

The same thing has happened to my brother. He used a 243 and shot all the way through a small deer. The bullet hit both lungs and the heart itself. The deer ran about 75 yards before piling up where it was easy to see. The only thing I can figure is the skin was stretched in such a way that the exit hole didn't line up with the hole in the muscle as the deer was running.

 

[MCgunner]

Probably improper bullet expansion would be a first guess. I don't have the problem if my bullets expand. I get less blood with a .257 Roberts than I do with a 7 mag. A big caliber with a rapidly expanding bullet will leave a lot of blood, chunks of meat and bone, hair.... It does do a lot of meat damage, but I've not had a problem with blood trails. I've never shot a deer I had to trail with that rifle, but did a hog once. You should have seen the exit hole in that thing. Small hog, but hit it too far back. I didn't have a hard time gutting it, put it that way. I shoot a 150 grain game king in that 7 and, man, it's like it has an explosive charge in it or something when it's traveling 3200 fps at the muzzle.

On broadside shots, even though it does damage to the shoulder (not the greatest part of the deer anyway) I like to shoulder shoot 'em, break the shoulder or both. That puts 'em down. They can't run if they can't stand up. Might loose a little chilli meat, but no biggy.

 

[Shawnee]

Hi A & S...

Often, but not always, a lung shot, even a clear-through, will not leave the kind of blood trail most people expect to find.
Very possible for the hide to block blood loss through the wound holes at least for several yards, especially if the shot is a tad high.
However - if the deer moves more than a few jumps it will often leave a blood trail in the form of a fine spray where blood is expelled when the deer exhales. Problem is: it is expelled in drops often so small it is almost a mist and it lands (usually) high and well-dispersed on the leaves of grass/brush etc. where Folks sometimes overlook because they are studying the ground.

HTH

 

[mete]

There probably was blood but so little that you didn't see it .Fur , especially the long belly hairs can hold quite a bit of blood .There should be some indication at the spot you hit him ,a bit of hairs cut off , fine spots of blood, tissue. In any case yours is another example where it's very important to track if you shoot.You could of course use a real cartridge like a 45-70 . I had one that had a huge hole throught the lungs .When it exhaled it blew a 6' wide spray of blood .That's a blood trail.

 

[springmom]

Mete, he shot the thing for food, not to make a doorway!

There was a good size exit hole, so it did expand. The "mist" of blood makes sense for a lung wound. There was also a HONKING big amount of blood in the chest cavity. He bled a lot, it just didn't spill out until we cut him open.

And he made very good venison sausage. All we've had of him so far, but yummy!!!!

Springmom

 

[NateG]

Mea culpa

Same thing happened to me last weekend. Shot a little buck at about 20 yards a few inches behind the shoulder and saw the arrow go in. Later, I found the arrow stuck in a branch behind the deer, but I never found a drop of blood that wasn't on the arrow. I never found the deer, either. (I shot the deer at about 9am, started looking at about 10 and didn't find anything by about 5--And I went back the next day for another few hours of looking. This really stinks, oh by the way.) Would have been my first buck, too.

 

[mete]

Springmom, I actually had two deer hit that way with a bullet I gave up on [a factory 300 JHP now using Win Partition]. The bullet hit a rib going in and one going out .The entrance hole was a clean cut 2" and the exit a clean cut 1" dia !!!.Meat loss ? just a couple of ounces . That's why I try for broadside lung hits -lowest meat loss. With a 45-70 you don't get the high velocity type meat destruction ,just a big hole . When others see the hole they ask 'what did you use a cannon ??' I always want an exit hole -lets blood out and air in .One 44 mag shot with no exit - first drop of blood was 50 yds away ,then one drop [ 1/8" ] every 6-8' .But a good hit he was down in 75 yds.

 

[rocklock]

Seen it, too

A number of years ago, a hunting buddy of mine double lunged a cow elk with a 350 gr. bullet out of a .54 cal muzzle loader at 15 yds. The shot was through and through, high on the lungs. The elk ran off leaving nothing but a little lung tissue and a couple drops of blood. We looked for two hours without finding another drop of blood before we found her, 300 yards away, still alive, and still able to get up and run 50 yards before she fell for good. Where she lay the first time, it looked like she lost a gallon of blood, but nothing before that, that we saw. I've killed a number of elk myself with a .54 muzzleloader & lung shots, but they all fell within 50 yards for the most part, very dead. Never seen one like my buddy's before or since.

 

[Nathanael_Greene]

I had this happen to me on a pig hunt, and the other weekend on a deer hunt.

For the deer, the bullet went through the lungs; I would've expected to see a blood spray at the impact site, but never saw one.

Luckily, the deer didn't get too far--about 100 yards, where he was dead as a doornail. Blood all over where he died, but barely a drop on a trail.

(And this thread gives me an excuse to post a photo of the buck, too!)

 

[Pumpkinheaver]

The first deer I shot was with a 30-30 using 170 remington corelocked bullets. Shot a little fork horn in the oiler room. There was no blood for the first 50 yds, after that a few pin dropps here and there. Found him piled up about 150 yds from the shot location. While cleaning him out I dicovered that I had cut the big artery coming out of his heart in two. This thing bled very very little for a wound like that. If there wouldn't have been snow on the ground I'm not sure I would have found him.

 

[springmom]

Nice buck, Nathaniel!!! What did he weigh?

Springmom