Thoughts on no blood trail?

[Sask hunter]

Frontals are tricky for blood hit right they spray hit wrong and you don’t usually have an exit hole

 

[Deleted member 20812]

Yep, hammers seem brittle and lose their pedals, then pencil , or don’t expand correctly , just my 2ct
nosler AB , partitions, have never let me down

They are designed to lose the petals.

Hammers have never let me down.

 

[Deleted member 20812]

Frontals are tricky for blood hit right they spray hit wrong and you don’t usually have an exit hole

This. Nice job on the recovery.

 

[Nameless Range]

I don’t know if there’s any rhyme or reason to it. I mean I’m sure there is, but it’s tough to nail down. Lack of an exit hole definitely seems to be one.

I shot this bull with archery gear two years ago. Not the best shot but the arrow was buried to the fletchings and the broadhead stirred up his lungs.

He ran about 200 yards, and I basically only found two flecks of blood where he crossed a creek. Had I not shot him from only a couple yards and seen exactly where the shot hit, I would’ve questioned myself a lot more.

It’s just another unsettling thing: how many animals are shot and not recovered because they don’t give good blood or any at all?

 

[Caseknife]

Pretty simple as to why no blood. As stated, the thick neck muscles blocked the entrance hole, which was high in the thoracic cavity and with no exit to let the blood drain out. If you had opened the chest cavity, you would have found all the bull's blood. If you want a very reliable blood trail, shoot the animal low in the chest broadside with entrance and exit holes, the trail will look like a blood sprinkler. Shoot them high in the chest cavity, broadside with entrance and exit holes and because there is very little blood flow in the ribcage itself, the internal blood has to fill to the level of the wound to flow out.

Good for you to keep on the track and believe in your shot, nice bull. BTW, I hunt in timber and the majority of my shots are offhand also. Most of the time there is no time to make a nest and get comfy to take a 40-100 yd shot

 

[Ben Long]

Good work on follow up. A lesson there for all of us, especially with elk. Sometimes they just don't bleed externally, even though their chest cavity is full of soup. When you think about it, it makes sense. Entrance hole is .30 inches. About like a pencil. It doesn't take a lot of hair and fat to plug that up. When they get up and go, you gotta go follow them. Don't take no for an answer.

 

[JDH]

Did the same thing with a white tail and a .308 Winchester. Dropped it like a ton of bricks. Bullet followed the skin around the front leg and up the rib cage to lodge in the back strap. Core separated from the jacket even. Found the wound track when we skinned it later that weekend.

No blood anywhere.

I had something similar once. Bullet hit low, went around the ribcage on the bottom and exited without going in the cavity.

 

[nastynate]

Great bull! I agree with much of what's been said. Weird things happen, even with good exit wounds. One of the first deer I shot was a late season doe w/ 12 gauge slug high in the lungs, broadside, shot exited. I was on foot so there was no vertical angle to the shot. The deer only went ~100 yards, but I don't think I would have found her if it weren't for the snow. With both entry and exit high in the ribs, the blood that was coming out had to run down the ribcage and was soaked up by the hide. The hide was covered in blood but hardly a drop made it to the snow.

 

[MTTW]

Nice bull. I would not hesitate to take that shot with a 300. I am more surprised that the bull lived as long as it did than the lack of blood but agree a total lack of blood is surprising. Maybe got 1 lung.
I think that there is some percentage of a chance that a hollow point bullet can close rather than open, and this is the reason that most bullets have exposed lead tips or plastic tips, as stated above. If it had not opened, I would have expected it to exit somewhere.

I would not rule out a bullet because of this one instance, but I would keep it in the back of my mind. I killed a bull with a 166 HH this year and it seemed to perform as advertised, but I will not fall in love with a bullet because of one kill either. Time will tell.

I think @Ben Long nailed it above with "don't take no for an answer." A big bull like that in the timber is an accomplishment, good on you for not giving up.

I found it interesting that you mentioned having a picture in your mind of the crosshairs when the trigger breaks. I have always been the same way, but I am not sure that I have seen it mentioned before.

 

[Addicting]

My comment here spiraled off into a private conversation. One of the things that conversation made me think about is what happened that no blood was coughed up?

We all see the fantastic energy transfer into the ballistics gel from the shockwave of the energy transfer as the bullet mushrooms.

In a frontal shot if the bullet worked as advertised in the ballistics gel the lungs at a minimum would have the air knocked out of them thru the nose.

Even if it went above the lungs in the void the shockwave should cause that rapid expanse of air causing some bruising to the lungs.

I am surprised that the bull didn’t cough out any blood or have a nasal spray.

Hell, I look at a something wrong and get a nose bleed.

 

[brockel]

Sounds like the bullet turned into a solid on you.

 

[thusby]

Because…….. hunting.

 

[Addicting]

Sounds like the bullet turned into a solid on you.

I would wager it opened late at the diaphragm taking out the liver and buried into the stomach. That could explain why he laid down so fast. If it penciled I think it may of just kept going with the other bull.

If that was the case it was a dead bull walking and good on the OP getting a second shot in it.

 

[Westelker - W. Colorado]

Shot this bull with about 2” of fresh snow. Stopped snowing 10 min before I shot him. Two bulls bedded together this one stuck around long enough for an offhand 100 yard frontal shot. After the shot walked up to his bed and followed fresh tracks for 100 yards through an open park, not one drop of blood??? Was convinced I missed, long story short I beat myself up for the next hour or so but could replay the shot in my mind and knew my crosshairs were centered up on him when the trigger broke. Followed the tracks another 30 yards and found one spot of blood the size of a nickel. 50 yards later I heard him bust from his bed and caught up to him within another 50 and was able to put him down. Not a single drop of blood in his bed or in the short steep downhill distance before I caught up to him. You can see the initial shot center of his chest in the picture probably a little high, he was at the same elevation as me. I have blood trailed a lot of elk and am surprised by the lack of blood on this one. Any thoughts?? Definitely a good reminder to follow up a trail farther than you think it should take, had I not had that visual in my mind of where my crosshairs were it would have been easy to walk away thinking it was a miss. I put a couple more in him to put him down and broke him down gutless so didn’t get to see what happened internally.

My wife shot a nice cow a couple years ago, .270 partition entered and exited just behind the shoulder. The cow ran for 40 yds and died in the big sage. After the shot we saw the cow run to our right. When we got down to where she was hit there was no blood trail, so we walked the 40 yds and saw her dead. No blood at all. I was able to locate where the bullet had entered and the hole was filled with fat. Same with the exit hole. She was an older dry cow that gave us delicious meat.

 

[Deleted member 20812]

Lack of a blood trail doesn’t necessarily translate to a bullet failure.

 

[brockel]

Lack of a blood trail doesn’t necessarily translate to a bullet failure.

An animal living for an hour longer with a straight on chest shot before being shot again might thought. Who knows how long it would have lived if he hadn’t followed up.

 

[Deleted member 20812]

An animal living for an hour longer with a straight on chest shot before being shot again might thought. Who knows how long it would have lived if he hadn’t followed up.

Could be. Also could be a marginal shot.

 

[brockel]

Could be. Also could be a marginal shot.

I know this place is generally anti Berger but you take that shot with a Berger and that bull is dead under 20 yards.

 

[mtmuley]

Since the OP didn't open that bull up, all of this conjecture is worthless. mtmuley

 

[Farmerj]

Lack of a blood trail doesn’t necessarily translate to a bullet failure.

Nope…

But finding a jacket separate from the core does.