.45 Cal Blood Trail

[rja72]

I have been reading this forum for several years now and there are several threads discussing the killing power of .45 on deer. They always result in tons of people confirming a .45 will get the job done.

I have taken only one deer with a muzzleloader which was a .50. Hit high and paralyzed his back end so no trailing. I have taken several deer with a 12 gauge slug (Illinois) which usually leaves a great trail.

The past two years I have hit 3 deer with my .45 flintlock at 30 and (2)45 yards. I was not able to trail any of the deer more than 10 yards with just a few drops of blood.

I do shoot BP regularly at my club, so I am a fairly competent shooter.

My question is what kind of blood trail will a .45 leave on deer?

Thanks

 

[Hierophant]

I was not able to trail any of the deer more than 10 yards with just a few drops of blood.
Thanks

If I'm reading your post correctly, it sounds like you answered your own question here. i.e. not a great blood trail apparently.

 

[smo]

I would say it depends on where the deer is hit . High hits tend to leave less of a blood trail than lower hits in the heart & lung area. A high hit will bleed just as much but it takes longer for the cavity to fill and start pumping blood out than on a lower hit. :wink:

If the rifle will safely shoot a larger charge you will be better off, this will be more likely to give a pass through ... two holes leaking are better than one

 

[don hepler]

In all my years of hunting, I have learned not to depend on blood trails. With muzzle loaders and bows, I watch and listen after the shot. I do not go after a deer, unless I know exactly where I hit it, until I give it at least 30 min. to an hour. A lot of hits in the shoulder, just don't leave much of a blood trail. Chasing after a deer, accomplishes nothing, except spooking it. Most deer will lay down within 60 to 80 yards, if not persued. The main thing to know, is which direction, and in most cases it will be to thick cover and down hill. If thick cover is 200 yards away, and they can make it, that's where they are headed. If you make a good hit,(lung,vital) then a 60 to 80 yard area, should be about as far as they can go. A blood trail is handy, but I've learned not to count on it.

 

[theoldredneck]

I agree with you. I like lung shots because you also get blood from nose and mouth as they breath out. Nothing beats what you said about watching where they are headed, and give time to bleed out regardless of what you are shooting.

 

[Walks with fire]

It has been my experience that if a deer is shot within a group of deer it will run off with the others and keep going if it can. If it's hit hard it will lay down within less than 150 yards or so.
My .50 will leave very little blood to trail most times but they don't go far usually. If there is just a little trickle for the first hundred yards or so I will wait and give it a chance to lay down without pushing it. Pushing it just makes the chase longer. I recently got a .54 to attempt to open a bit larger hole and more weight to get a more consistant exit hole. I think it will help but don't know yet.

 

[rja72]

I agree with all of the above and have practiced them since I started hunting. I go for broadside double lung shots. Never at a moving target.

The majority of my shotgun kills either dropped in their tracks or went less than 50 yards.

None of the three deer I hit with the .45 dropped within sight or earshot. That just seems unusual.

 

[Idaho Ron]

My 409 gr 45 cal bullets smoke deer. I didn't have to trail my deer this year. I found laying right where it was hit. Ron

 

[hanshi]

Except for one deer shot using 65 grns of powder in a .45, all the other deer I've killed with a .45 either dropped DRT, left a copious blood trail or fell within sight or hearing. The load in these cases was 80 grains of 3F. I've since settled on 70 grains as a deer load in my Lancaster.

 

[George T.]

Shot placement is the key! I limit my shots to ones that I know very well I can know the exact point of impact. I have never killed a deer with a 45 but I have killed several with a 40. I used 90 grains of powder and a very tight patch. It shot well and between My ex-wife and I killed 8 deer with these 40's and none ever got away and none went over 50 yards. The average shot was 45 to 65 yards.

I should add that the ball was always flattened under the hide on the off side. With only the entrance hole there was very little blood on the ground.

Geo. T.

 

[agill]

The first deer I shot with with a 45 cal. was hit low in the chest broadside. Missed the heart. The first drops were atleast fifty feet from where he was first shot at.

I tracked him for two hours and over a mile down the side of a ridge, around the end of the ridge, and then back around the other side. The drops were no bigger than a pencil eraser and no closer than twenty feet apart.

Then it went down into the hollow and I lost the bloodtrail. I noticed a ravine on the other side of the hollow and thought, "if I were a deer that's where I would try to go up the hill."

I found the buton buck about ten yards up. He was still alive and trying to escape, but could not get on his legs. I had to finish him with a second shot. Deer are tough and don't always bleed a good trail.

 

[nchawkeye]

A well hit deer doesn't travel a mile......

 

[theoldredneck]

Years back an old friend taught me to keep toilet paper in my hunting coat. When blood tracking I tear small thumb size pieces and put one at each drop. When they are several feet or yards apart you can look behind you and get a d better direction of where to look for the next drop sometimes. When it gets dark down here using a flash light loog for daddy long legs spiders tiny red eyes.they will gather on and feed on the blood. These new lights will make the blood drops stand out. Too many are lost because people give up. Often they are not that far from it. The blood can tell you about how the deer is hit. Lungs usually produce a lighter more frothy drop than stomach gut shots. They are usually darker and sometimes have stuff from the guts. Gut shots I will usually sit down and wait another 30 minutes or follow slowly. A gut shot deer can do some traveling when pushed. Finding it bedded down and being able to finish it is better than pushing and losing. Murphy's law says it will be in the worst place it can find.

 

[Rat Trapper]

Shot a deer last year with my 45 and was not impressed with the blood trail at all. I did find the deer, but it went 200 yards and no blood was found until I found the deer. Found some hair at the site where it was shot. Damage inside the deer was good and the hit proved to be back a little. Over all a larger caliber may be better.

 

[Patocazador]

I don't have a .45 rifle but have found that a Maxi-ball or REAL do a much better job of killing deer quickly than a round ball.
They also leave a better blood trail due to exiting the deer. Penetration is improved and blood comes out of 2 holes instead of one.

 

[Rat Trapper]

I have had good luck with the Hornady great plains bullets.

 

[galamb]

I hunt with a 40 cal which is legal in my province (actually no restriction on caliber for muzzleloader).

Over the years I have shot quite a few deer and have never lost any of them. But I treat the 40 like I do my bow.

Keep the shots to a standing still broadside or quartering away shot centered on the heart/lung area. I sight at 75 yards but have pretty much set 50 yards as my "long comfort zone".

To be fair there is often snow on the ground during the rifle season (November) and almost always during the muzzle loader season (December) so tracking wouldn't be an issue if I had to - never had a deer go more than 100 yards or so (within sight of my elevated stand on a field edge).

If I think I will need a longer shot in the area where I will hunt, or the surroundings are unfamiliar etc, I bring my 50 cal along instead.

I guess what I am really trying to say is - use your rifle within it's limitations. If you need to rely on a strong blood trail you should probably increase the caliber you hunt with..

 

[54ball]

A well hit deer doesn't travel a mile......

I beg to differ. That's a absolute statement that in my opinion, simply is not true.

here is two examples...

A bullet goes between ribs at the sternum,rib cartridge interface. Due to the position of the heart at that moment, the bullet grazes the Pulmonary Vein and actually marks it but does not cut it. The bullet then misses any significant structure and exits between the ribs next to the the spine. Had the bullet hit bone at any time the wound would have been grievous if not fatal.

This was on a 3year old child who had shot himself with Momma's pistol, a .32. The entrance wound was square between the nipples.

Dressing a deer I noticed a strange area of flesh and pleura material next to where the heart was. I cut into this pocket of material and low and behold was a intact 4 blade broadhead and part of a arrow shaft. The arrow had entered from the other side. You know there had to have been some lung damage from the initial hit and the arrow breaking off. Yet he lived for another couple of years until an overdose of lead poisoning.


So a textbook shot hit in the textbook spot is no guarantee of a clean kill or even a kill at all.

 

[Roguedog]

Very interesting!

Jeff

 

[rja72]

Thanks for all the responses.

Where I hunt bigger maybe much better. A deer can get out of sight very quickly over a ridge or in brush.

I think next year I will hunt with my .54 CVA Hawken I built or .50 Cabela's hawken. I will leave the .45 for the BP shoots at the club which is what I built it for.