Really weird shot.

[Kachok]

OK so I just got back from a Florida hunting trip, I bagged a decent buck using my go to deer load a 6.5x55 120gr balllistic tip @2900fps. As usual the buck was dead on impact, as usual the heart and lungs were liquid, as usual the exit wound was massive and there was enough blood on the ground to make a few good horror movies, but this time something weird happend, there was no visiable enternce wound at all, not a scratch, not a single spec of blood to be found on the impact point even upon close inspection, my whole hunting camp was puzzled. When we skinned it I saw I hit it exactly where I called it, halfway up 3" behind the shoulder, near perfect broadside, bullet exited aprox 1.5" behind the far shoulder. Has anyone else had this happen to them before?

 

[lowerunit411]

look on the back side of the hide

 

[Kingcreek]

yes. I shot a nice whitetail straight on with a .300 win mag at 180 yards and couldnt find a wound anywhere, even tho he dropped dead instantly. I had hit him in the base of the throat patch and if you parted the hair just right it looked like he had been poked with a lead pencil. The bullet ended up at the base of his tail, exploded 2 vertebra between the shoulders on its way.

 

[courtgreene]

Happened to me this year. I, too, was puzzled.

 

[Strykervet]

Well, in quantum physics it IS possible to throw a tennis ball against a wall enough times that statistically it will pass through the wall without touching the wall. I think you'd wear out the ball or the wall first though.

Likely it just punched right through like a needle, and if the kill was quick enough you could have ceased blood pressure before any blood really seeped out of the entrance wound. I'd guess it would be exacerbated if the animal fell on the exit side too, but I'm just guessing. When you stop the blood pressure that fast, that usually means you made a fast clean kill.

 

[Rembrandt]

Warren Commission was the first to make this phenomenon popular....."magic bullet theory".

 

[avs11054]

I had the same thing happen when I was elk hunting. Never found the entrance wound. Then again, I never found the elk either, so its possible there was no entrance wound.

 

[snakeman]

I shot a prairie dog with a 22 mag one time. Dog died, no dust, no entrance, no exit, no blood, 200 yard shot, skull was basically crushed but no broken skin. Ain't that crazy?

 

[Kachok]

^^ OK I think yours tops mine, at leased I had an exit wound where the bullet passed through lol

 

[Guillermo]

as mentioned, look on the back of the hide. the skin will sometimes close behind a fast moving bullet.

 

[adelbridge]

I have seen the same thing twice this year. First was a buck shot in my camp with a massive exit wound and no visible entrance wound. I didnt check it out too closely because it wasnt my deer but we all tried to figure out how that happened. Second was a doe I shot in Dec. It was a quartering away neck shot with 7mm rem mag ballistic silvertips. The exit wound was grisly and there was no visible entrance wound. One other poster hit the nail no the head, this deer was dropped in its tracks and there was no blood, as in the blood pressure had been switched off. I had to get forensic on this wound channel because I was stumped. Since the deer was quartering away I think the skin was stretched tight and when the skin relaxed the bullet hole was much smaller than the caliber. I brushed the fur back and I found the entrance.

 

[Kachok]

You think it might just be because of those poly tipped bullets? I would imagine that non-deforming tip could cause a cleaner entery wound, I never had that happen when I used old soft point bullets.

 

[Double Naught Spy]

In December, I shot a mulefoot hog with a .45-70 325 gr. Leverevolution round. There was no exit and it took us several minutes to find the entry wound as the animal did not bleed out from the wound.

There will be a hole. You just haven't found it.

 

[desidog]

I shot a prairie dog with a 22 mag one time. Dog died, no dust, no entrance, no exit, no blood, 200 yard shot, skull was basically crushed but no broken skin. Ain't that crazy?

Nope. just close enough that the air pressure popped his ears and imploded his brain. You can do the same thing shooting nearby a fish - just put the bullet a few inches in front of it's nose. (and be very careful about ricochet etc, when shooting near/into water.) There's no meat wasted.

kachok, if you have an old arrow shaft or dowl, you can trace the wound track from the exit hole in, and locate your entry point...I've done this with no-exit bullets to recover the projectile; it can save some messy digging.

 

[splattergun]

I got a muley several years ago, shot in the head and he rolled down the knoll stiff-legged. 165 gr 30-06 in the left ear and out just under the right ear. I couldn't find the entrance wound either. It took my nephew seeing a speck of blood in the left ear to find the entrance wound. The exit wound was not real large, I think because at only 30 yds the bullet was still near peak velocity so it didn't have time to expand fully.

He was a real pain to drag out as the skull was shattered.

 

[snakeman]

desidog that makes sense.

 

[Kachok]

Has anyone ever had a no-entery with a round nose or flat nose bullet or is that mostly a pointed bullet issue? I know bullets with a more blunt nose then to hit harder going in where as Ballistic Tips and other sharp bullets create minimal disturbance untill they expand.