Round ball and blood trails

kyron4 said:

As stated so many variable to say a round ball doesn't leave blood trails. By saying conicals are better at leaving blood trail is like not getting a blood with a .308 and saying you need a .338 Win Mag for a good trail.

The art of tracking is a lost art. A good tracker can find a downed deer without a drop of blood. I was lucky enough to be trained in the art of tracking at a young age by an experienced tracker, who's tracking skill bordered on the supernatural .

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Most are not (artists) at tracking ,me I need a blood trail (RAY CHARLES COULD FIND) he is and was dead and blind hence conicals ! No one can argue with that simple fact ,every shot is not perfect so go big or stay home and practice more ! big lead kills more /further and shows why with big blood trails . Not every one has gobs of deer behind every tree and I eat meat so I go with what works , you want to be short range/sporty have at it but leaky holes coming and going keeps my 3 freezers full and I like to shoot not sight see /Ed

Manifest Destiny didn't happen without roundballs.

They might be effective.

Never had a deer shot with a round ball (.54,.50) go more than 100 yards.

How, please tell me, does a conical make a wound that leaves a better blood trail? I need an explanation.

Blood trails depend on where the deer is hit, whether it’s a pass-through, and extent of internal damage to heart and lungs.

Hit a deer too high in the chest and the chest fills up before blood starts squirting out. The type of ball or bullet doesn’t matter.

I’m a purist. I have zero interest in doing things in ways that were not done before 1820.


Conicals do two things. Offer higher mass at same caliber and better trajectory at the same velocity.

It’s possible or likely that a conical tumbling through a chest would cause more damage. I’ve also heard accounts of conicals going in unexpected and unfortunate directions as they “tumble”. I have no real data that they tumble at all.

I have about a dozen deer to my credit with round balls. I was and still am shocked by the lack of a blood trail on double lunged deer. They usually go about 75 yards, and little to no blood for the first 50 yards. My experiences only.

I have zero experience with anything but round ball, by the way, and have no desire to try anything else. I am amazed at the internal damage from a .50 round ball.

Let’s not forget that all double lung shots are not the same. The lungs are large and you can have a rear, forward, high or low double lung shot. All have different results but ANY animal with a hole through both lungs is going to die, and soon. The only time me I get consistent heavy blood trails is with heart shots as the pumping heart will force the blood out. Make a good shot, watch the deer as far as possible, burn the spot where it was last seen in your brain, reload and take 15-20 minutes to calm down and relive the moment then slowly track your deer. Use all your senses and all of your tracking skills from disturbed leaves, overturned rocks, broken grass etc and be patient and persistent and you’ll find your deer.

I owned a hunting ranch for a long time. It is all about where you hit them. We averaged 60 deer a year and the one thing I learned for sure is nothing can live without lungs. A poor hit with a 300 mag is not as deadly as a .22 in the lungs. I have MLer from 45 to 69 with most of my deer and hogs shot with a .54. Calm down and pop them in the lungs, wait 30 minutes and 99% of them will be dead within a 100 yards

Phil Coffins said:

This doe was shot with round ball threw both lungs and went about 10 yards. I turned her to pose the picture but it’s right where it dropped. To the top you can see the blood trail from where she came from and I had not touched her with a knife. This is pretty typical for my experience with round ball blood trails.
IMG_0250 by Oliver Sudden, on Flickr

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Some times an excellent shot doesn't leave any blood on the ground at all. I once had a nice doe looking at me from about fifty yards away. I wanted her closer but I had been seen by her and was pretty sure she wasn't coming any futher towards me? I let a .530 ball pushed with 80 grains of powder lose. It hit her center chest, she never took a step and never bled at all. This was a mature doe as well. Strange things can happen that have no logical explanation.

rich pierce said:

How, please tell me, does a conical make a wound that leaves a better blood trail? I need an explanation.

Blood trails depend on where the deer is hit, whether it’s a pass-through, and extent of internal damage to heart and lungs.

Hit a deer too high in the chest and the chest fills up before blood starts squirting out. The type of ball or bullet doesn’t matter.

I’m a purist. I have zero interest in doing things in ways that were not done before 1820.


Conicals do two things. Offer higher mass at same caliber and better trajectory at the same velocity.

It’s possible or likely that a conical tumbling through a chest would cause more damage. I’ve also heard accounts of conicals going in unexpected and unfortunate directions as they “tumble”. I have no real data that they tumble at all.

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Broad side /quartering coming or goin a conical (pure) tends to get a exit more often hence better blood trails at more yardage ,I prove it every year ! I can keep my 54/50 cal in 1/2 a 9 inch plate @190 yds (our short range ) with conicals Thanks to my (sights ) on all the Renegades (1-48 twist) @ least weekly in warmer weather March to November . Remember as previously stated where I live deer aren't behind every tree @ 75 yds ! O and I mentioned multiple full freezers cause I eat deer regular !/Ed

Personally if I can legally use a conical and my gun shoots it well. I do. Pennsylvania used to be roundball only and I hated it. Compared to a heavy conical round balls suck for killing deer. My opinion only.
Round balls cause very little shock or damage. They pretty much just poke a hole. I’ve killed a bunch of deer with a roundball and a bunch with a conical. Comparing the two. I’ll shoot a conical for big game.

I don't think you have a lot of control once the ball leaves the muzzle. So far I have been lucky. I've shot 3 elk, 1 pronghorn, a javelina and a few dozen deer with .54 and .58 caliber with balls. One deer did not have a blood trail and I found it several days later, ruined, and just 50-yards from where it was shot. All the other had blood trails even when the ball didn't go through. I have shot several hogs and some of them did not have visible blood on the outside, but thankfully all dropped in their tracks. I don't have a lot of experience with balls smaller than .530. I shot a deer with a .50 conical and it fell in sight, but did not leave blood. Where you hit them matters.

Robert Losekamp said:

How do they hunt? Ground hunting doesn't give good trails in my experience, because the holes are even and higher on the body so the chest cavity must fill with blood before it comes out.

Conversely shooting from elevation give a high hole and a low hole, the lower hole bleeds much sooner if not immediately.

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This is essentially the same thought I had just reading the thread title.

Two recent experiences:
1. 2023 early January, .50 flintlock, PRB, 25 yards on a big button buck. Slight quarter-away angle. Tree stand, about 15 feet to my barrel. Ball entered perfectly behind the near shoulder, knocking the deer to the ground, it thrashed around, got up and ran the way it had come. I waited 15 minutes before getting down, walked to the house, waited another 30 minutes before returning to track.

Hardly any blood at the point of impact, very little more than specks on the tracks going into thick brush. After about every 15 or so feet there would be a light spray of blood on the left side of the tracks. No exit hole. Eventually after about 60 yards a pool of blood where the deer stopped... he then trailed off to the right about 15 more yards where I found him.

The ball took hit both lungs and lodged in the off-side shoulder under the skin. The ball expanded to .586 inches from the .490 and had two grains weight loss. Blood trail... an issue of high angle entry, no exit. It took a good 50-60 yards for the chest cavity to fill enough that he was putting out decent blood. The light spray was his exhaling and looked as if someone with a bottle of Windex was squeezing off a burst every 15 feet.

2. 2024 early January. .50 flintlock, Powerbelt, 35 yards on a mature doe. My friend was in a tree stand behind my house, about 16 or so feet high at the barrel. The doe was in front of a trail cam when he shot so we had an excellent view of the bullet path after the fact. At the shot, he thought he missed as she turned and bounded away. No blood at the point of impact. A few hairs and nothing more. We made it about to 20 yards to find blood and it wasn't much, trickles mostly on brush she passed by, very little on the ground. I would estimate that she made it nearly 100 yards before piling up. The blood was never heavy at any time, again, mostly where she rubbed on saplings. Obviously that, in my opinion, god-awful powerbelt never expanded. On skinning her, a .50 pencil hole in and out and even at the lower third body exit hole, very little blood had come out with all her running and leaping.

I will personally stick with PRB and continue to harass him to use anything but those hard nosed powerbelts on whitetails.

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I shot a life-time buck in 2023, crossbow at about 35 yards. Heart shot. No blood on the ground just on the bolt. I knew I hit him, you know the sound. I watched him run/leap about 50 yards weaving through brush and then heard him fall and thrash. I knew he was dead. Essentially no blood trail. The last few yards, blood every where, pools of it. Perfect hole through the middle of the heart, which is lower than I aimed as I always prefer double-lung to anything if possible. Since we're talking implements and such, just another data point.

I have had never had good blood trails with my .50 Flinter or my .54 caplock . None of the deer went more than 50 yards before expiring. I chalk it up to hunting from the ground and body cavity having to fill up but deer expired before that happened. I have also used modern and had great blood trails and none. With excellent double lung and heart shots. All I can say is watch where they run and be patient before following give them time to lay down and die.
Mwal

Round balls absolutely kill well. Lung shots bring into play the term pneumothorax which is the stopping of lung function due to the ceasing of the pressurized lung to push oxygen into the pulmonary system. If you have two holes instead of one to the outside, it works just that much quicker and it does indeed help the tracking as there is much more area to excrete body fluids. If you hunt in woods that are "crowded" (which is the case in many areas) you want them down quick before an unscrupulous competitor claims it before you get there. It has happened. I use both RB and conicals depending on which gun I have chosen that day but I much prefer a pass through to a single hole every time and the heavier the projectile, the better the chance of that happening.

I've had good blood trails and no blood trails. The buck I shot this year had no blood trail from a .54. He didn't go far maybe forty yards. The ball went through his heart and the blood filled up in his body. In 2022 I shot a doe through the lungs on a quartering away shot. Now the blood trail from her looked like someone had a big sponge filled with blood and drug it through the woods. She ran a hundred yards and blood everywhere. She was hit a .570 ball. I lived in Michigan most of my life and seen deer hit with 12 gauge one once slugs and never leave a blood trail. Also I shot a buck with a .44 mag rifle a few years back and it never left a blood trail either. To be honest the only projectile I've seen that always leaves a blood trail is a broadhead. Even when they don't hit any vitals they still leave a blood trail for a short distance in my experience.

Tankerchief said:

I haven't taken my Hawken out deer hunting yet, but after speaking for a few people I have a question about blood trails. A friend who is a fanatical deer hunter in PA will only use conicals while deer hunting with his muzzleloader because of a lack of blood trails. I didn't give his opinion much thought; but after speaking with two guys who run deer retrieval dogs, one in NJ and another in NY, they both stated that they've had several retrievals where a round ball left zero to no blood trail even though it was a well placed fatal shot. Just curious about other peoples experiences.

Thanks.

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Knowing what and how a shot deer reacts is just as important. Did that deer run away flagging and jumping means missed or poorly hit. Tail and head down ,run straight not jumping means a good hit. Then if needed look for blood.

I think every caliber of ml projectile and cartridge has been pronounced at fault by hunters who have lost an animal. A lost animal provokes a narrative of self justification in most so therefore most lost animals were hit perfectly.

Duk said:

Never had a deer shot with a round ball (.54,.50) go more than 100 yards.

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Shoot many ? It matters !!! /Ed

i've killed about 25 deer using .50, .54 and .58 patched round balls. most of my deer were killed at ranges of < 60 yards from blinds and tree stands. i don't care if the ball don't exit. Deer seldom travel more than 15 yards after the hit. about half bang flop. i prefer high shoulder shots and high shots just behind the shoulder.

A .58 round ball is a nother thing. It puts 275 pound hogs to bed.