? about bullets that don’t leave blood trail

I haven’t shot a deer with a rifle since about 1990. I was in my early 20’s and I shot a .270 with silvertips. I never had any trouble with them so I didn’t try any others.

Now I see posts about certain bullets leaving a good blood trail or not. What is the difference in the styles? It seems to me that a hole punched thru the vitals will leave a blood trail no matter what style. I get that some mushroom more than others but is there really that much difference in same caliber?

I’m not knocking anyone’s choice or experience just looking for insight on the matter. My 14 yr old son hunts with his .243 when he’s not bow hunting and I don’t want to handicap him with bullet choice.

I may step him up to my .270 this year or next so what’s the best off the shelf ammo? For a good blood trail of course. Will always be short range shots.

Thanks for any help.

Others may disagree, but a 243 with the RIGHT bullet is a very adequate deer cartridge. I broke my neck in 2013 and had to switch to a mild recoiling rifle while I recovered. I started loading 85gr Barnes Triple Shock bullets and haven't looked back. I get a pretty big entrance hole and and exit hole the size of a silver dollar. I have other rifles that I could use now, but the 243 works well. I've never lost a deer that I've shot with it. Good Luck!

Hornady American Whitetail in the .243. 100 grain Interlock bullet. They leave a good trail. My 3 kids ranging from 10 to 14 shoot these with good results.

I've always shot 130 grain Remington Core Lokt in the .270. Never had a problem.

Meh exit with a bow is important to me, exit with a firearm not so much 😁

Core Lokt

It’s gonna be hard to beat a core Lokt

I agree with that. Very happy with Barnes TTSX performance with what Ive shot. All pass thru and good blood trails. Only had one slug recovered out of all of them and it went the length of a hog and lodged just under the skin. Havent had a deer go more than 50 yards with them and always been a good blood trail.

I've had mixed results with hornady ballistic tips. However I have shot 7 deer with this bullet. 4 have left a descent blood trail, and 3 did not leave a single drop of blood. Their not so bad that I will throw the box away but not good enough for me to buy another once I use this current box up. For instance I shot a doe just yesterday evening, 60 yards perfect broadside, no blood trail. not even a single drop In the bed of my truck. But her vitals were obliterated. Her 2 front legs were useless. Should've neck shot at that distance but oh well.

Plenty of mixed results on the American Whitetail. I'm pretty sold on Core Lokts right now.

its just voodoo a hole is a hole if its in the right place a lung shot is going to leave a better trail than a gut shot some people just blame their shooting on the bullet or caliber or gun or scope or whatever they can rather than saying i made a f'ed up shot. ive dropped deer in there tracks with FMJs and had to trail 100 yards with softpoints and vice versa but currently im really liking the Sierra Game Kings.

I hunt some very thick places. 3+ year old cutovers that adjoin very thick pine thickets that are laced with tons of undergrowth. If I shoot one that isn't leaking out both sides, if they make it into that mess, they're hard to find. I want a tough bullet that works in the worse case scenario. I want a bullet that punches through both sides, including bones, and leaves a good exit hole. Everyone has their own opinion. The Barnes bullets just work very well for where I hunt and what I do. I load all my own ammo and can load pretty much any bullet I want. For me, the Barnes is my choice. They've proven themselves time and again.

My son shoots a hornady reduced recoil out of his .243. Killed a deer Friday with my brother in law that didn’t bleed a drop but it only went 30 yards. Killed a buck last year that didn’t take a step after being shot. Shot placement is the biggest issue with this smaller caliber. He hit the one Friday a little back but not quite a gut shot. My brother in law was dead set on moving him up a caliber but he isn’t ready for that I don’t believe, that is why he is shooting reduced recoils.

Shoot Core Lokt and you won't have to worry about a blood trail......they will be dead right there.

I shoot 243 100 grain rem core lokt and its puts them down with a great blood trail

Kind of what I figured, just something else to blame. Wasn’t sure though, bows and shotguns are my thing.

the last 2 deer i shot with corelock will be the last 2 i ever shoot one was at 25 yards with a 30-06 an never bleed one drop the other was a doe at 75 yards an never bleed we found the first one after hours of searching an never found the other the one we found was a heart shot he went about 50 yards in to a thicket if i wouldnt have steped on him i wouldnt have found him he buried his self

I've never had a problem with corelokts until last year. Most of the time would be leaving a nice blood trail after 25 yards or so. Last year missed a doe dead to rights at 100yd. Went to check my scope and they were hitting all over the place. Some wouldn't even stay on a paper plate. Swapped to fusions and started hitting clover leafs again. I don't know if it was a bad batch or what but I won't be going back.

My experience is that shots which hit bone going in or coming out leave a decent blood trail. If you poke between ribs, exit hole is usually small.

High on the body will almost never leave a heavy blood trail, as it pools inside. My nephew killed a nice 9 point last week in Texas. I saw the shot, and watched the deer fall 30 yards away. Heart was totalled, didn't hit any bone, and there was zero blood trail. When we got to the deer, there was just a bit running down the off shoulder, but none had reached the ground

Me and my kids shoot the exact same combination. Never a problem with either load.

I actually found that the Hornady leave better blood trails in .243. Just my opinion. I have shot the Core Lokt as well and never had a problem finding the deer, but the Hornady were better as far as blood on the ground. At times, they are actually better than my .270 with 130 grain core lokts.

All bullets leave some sort of blood trail. However I will say that most of the tracks I go on people that use ballistic tips could probably find their own deer and not need a dog if the bullet exited. Most the time deer that shot with ballistic tip are dead within a few hundred yards or closer but leave a faint blood trail because of the no exit. It really depends on shot placement like many say and know. All deer bleed when shot with whatever you use. Other factors like guts clogging up holes, etc but a good expanding bullet that gives you the most chance for a good blood trail when there is an entrance and exit wound are best IMO

This is exactly how i feel. Dead is dead whether my bullet left 1 hole or 2. But to be fair my 45/70 leaves a blood trail of only about 2 feet to follow.

I'm going to play the devil's advocate here and say it is HIGHLY unlikely that NO BLOOD TRAIL was left... You put a hole in a animal. There will be blood (favorite movie). Whether or not you find said blood, that's a different story.

Y'all shoot what you want to,I'll keep shooting the cheapest thing I can find(within reason).I've shot them damn pine goats for over 45 years with what was cheap,and I've lost a total of one.And I know,with certainty,that it wasn't the bullet's fault...

No 243 experience, but a big CoreLokt fan, regardless of caliber. One thing Remington just gets right! Only other I would look at, with zero 243 experience, would be a Nosler partition (again, GREAT experience with it in other calibers).

CoreLokts are great.........CoreLokts suck. Hornady's hit like Thor's hammer..........I lost 3 deer shooting Hornady's. Ballistic tips leave em all DRT............Ballistic tips blow up like grenades.

Shot placement is far more important than what you're placing.

That says a lot more about your poor woodmanship and/or laziness.
A heart shot will rarely leave a bloodtrail, but a dead deer inside 50 yards is a win.
There's no bullet to help you, only time, experience and perhaps a seasoned mentor.

everyone is pretty much gonna say whatever they are using is the best thing ever until they screw up a shot cant find a deer then it will be the worst round ever made shouldnt even be advertised as hunting ammo

Hard to leave a blood trail when the pump stops pumping

I am becoming a huge fan of the Hornady Precision Hunter ELD-X. Since last year, I have shot 7 deer with them and 6 have dropped in their tracks, even from double lung shots. I did have one run about 50 yards. I am using a 6.5 Creedmoor. They are extremely accurate. At Bullet and Barrel, I shot under a measured 1/2 MOA. I don't always get a pass through, but when they drop in their tracks, it makes them very easy to trail. I used to shoot the SST's, and overall, had great success, but a couple times, I wasn't completely thrilled with their performance.

Me too if they do in a .270 wsm like they do in 6.5 Creedmoor. They will kill.

Truth

I killed a small buck on Nov 17. I shot 180 gr corelokt in 30-06. There was not a drop of blood anywhere. I almost walked out of the woods thinking I must have missed him somehow. I almost tripped over him when I finally found him. It wasn't a great shot in that I did not hit him where I thought I was aiming. I hit him in front of his right shoulder in some thick tendon or something that closed up after the bullet passed. He was very slightly quartering to me. Once it entered it apparently bounced off the inside of his left shoulder because there was no exit wound. The entry wound, once I actually found it, had no blood, no red, anywhere. The hide at entry had a perfectly round hole and I could slide the hide back and forth and see the hole slide around relative to what was underneath but it was like someone used a hole punch through the hide and then put the hide back on the animal. There was no outwardly visible evidence that the bullet penetrated anything other than the hide. I don't know why an 180 gr didn't shatter his left shoulder but he ran about 50 yds from the place I shot him. I've been suspect of corelokt's consistency for a while now and may try something else. Most of the time I expect that round to leave a hole the size of my fist on the exit side, but I have also killed deer with it and the bullet never expanded, 30-06 going in and 30-06 going out with just a tiny trickle of blood on each side, and now this. I'm glad I found him but I was very close to leaving without him.

I think there are some general characteristics that we as hunters should seek to understand that will help us select the most appropriate gun/ammo combination for each situation. This is of course separate from shot placement although it can be seen as related when considering shot selection.

In my mind these go something like -

Bullet construction and weight

Velocity or related, but slightly different, shot distance.

And game targeted

All bullets, from the cheapest cup and core, through the bonded bullets to the premium monometals have something of a sweet spot when considering these characteristics.

The harder you push a bullet, and the shorter your shots, the more likely you are to have inconsistent results with the more general cup and cores and their polymer tipped counterparts.

On the other hand if you are shooting long range with no expectation of close shots (actual distance is debatable as seen in this thread), and with a slower MV then a monometal is likely not the best choice for you.

Where this gets most difficult is perhaps something like large bean fields or power lines where shots can range from point blank to extreme long range - this situation really presses a bullet on both ends of the range.



Blood trails are just not an exact science. I shot my buck this season with a bonded bullet from close range but the blood just wasn't there. Turned out that even with a large exit hole it was plugged with various critter parts.

I have always taken high heart/double lung shots before this year. Some DRT, some run a little, usually have a decent blood trail if it runs out of sight.

Due to some unusual circumstances, our year to date went like this -

South Carolina, 10 point chasing a doe, dripping wet from the swamp he just left. I took a shoulder shot that also got the heart, DRT. No blood on the ground until we moved the deer.

Texas, big 11 point, about to cross a property line fence, tried the same shot, ended up high shoulder because he ducked to go under the fence about the time I pulled the trigger. DRT. No blood on the ground until we moved the deer.

Texas, big 9 point that my nephew shot. Low shoulder, but back, so no bone. Slight quartering away shot that trashed the heart and got bottom of both lungs. Deer ran 30 yards, but I watched it the whole way. Not a drop of blood until we moved him. Body cavity was full of blood when we cleaned him.

Texas, my wife's hunt, big 11 point. Guide told her to shoot the shoulder because of difficulty tracking in the heavy brush. High shoulder, DRT, no blood on the ground until we moved the deer.

I may rethink my tendency to do high heart/double lung, as none of the true shoulder shot deer even took a step. They hit the ground immediately. My wife's buck, his head was flopping around as he fell.

The best tracking scenario is when you don't have to track.

I like the shot in the crease which takes out the top of the heart and front of the lungs. I've shot two deer like that this year, one at 25 yards and the other at 330 yards. Both were DRT. Sometimes they will run a short distance with this shot, but with a good, fast expanding bullet they will not go far, usually less than 50 yards.

Yes, ballistic tip bullets work VERY well for this shot.

This pretty well sums up almost every thread on aldeer .

I will also add that exit holes and tracking aren't much of an issue when you shoot neck shots. Granted, I understand that you can't get a neck shot in every circumstance, but in most cases at moderate yardage, if you can line a up a shoulder shot, you have time to line up a neck shot.

I used to shoot shoulders because I thought that they wouldn't go very far if they didn't go down right away. None ever went far but after shooting a couple that way and ruining perfectly good meat I started to shoot behind the shoulder. Worked pretty good but it wasn't uncommon for deer to go jump right in the thickest briars around. Not hard to find but a pain to drag out. I switched to neck shots and haven't had a deer take a step after getting shot since, and I don't lose much meat.

ive been doing the same thing past few years a good shot to the center of the neck knocks em down instantly only time ill shoot shoulder is if its a trophy i aim for larger target or if its on the move