Hardening RB's

[Stumpkiller]

how do you blood trail through terrain covered in four inches of leaves that are all splotched in red from their autumn colors, and wet from dew, or melted frost?

On your hands and knees. This one was this year an hour after it had stopped raining. Wet and red-splotched maple leaves. The worst.

Try it in the dark, to boot. Deer shot at 4:15PM. Waited 20 minutes. Sunset at 4:45PM. Found at 5:15PM in the thick stuff after half an hour of crawling 75 yards.

I carry 20 ft of 1/4" line and pull it along. It gives a good trend line. When I lose the bloodtrail I drop it and when I find it again (first fanning and then spiralling out) I pull it to that spot and continue. Look at the hip level brush and leaves for smears, look at the disturbed leaves, look for spray, splatter or foam. Be tenaceous and don't give up.

 

[slowpokebr549]

Slow down and calm down. Reload,take a deep breath or six and go to where you hit the deer. Get down at eye level with the forest litter and look for signs of disturbance. I actually prefer tracking in deep floor litter. If you can keep your brother in law from kicking over the trail you can usually get a pretty good idea of which way the deer is headed. Look for leaves that are dry if it has been raining, they have been kicked over.I usually try to stay to one side of the trail and stop frequently to look around. I usually end up damn near tripping over the deer.Blood trail is great,but deer in a hurry almost always leave sign.Also keep in mind that most game, especially wiley old bucks, will circle back around to where you jumped em. When all else fails go back to ground zero and look for him.

 

[Dphar]

After a deer hunt acouple of us who only hunt with RB's got to talking and were wondering about casting balls with a little tin or other alloy added to control expansion. Just enough to get a pass through shot for better blood trails ect. Very often we are finding the RB's do not make it all the way through a deer. They usually expand very well but, get stopped just under the skin on the opposite side of the animal. A little harder projectile would punch through that last layer of skin and yeild far better blook trails for tracking.

My question is, would a RB that is say 5% tin be so hard that it would effect accuracy? I know that I have seen this question answered before but, I can not seem to find that information searching the forum. Any ideas or experiences here?

Other that a 45 driven by 45 gr of FFFG I have never had a RB from a rifle stay in a deer on broadside shots. Shots at other angles generally give 25-30" of penetration.
I shot a mule deer doe at the base of the neck just slightly off center of the windpipe passage at 45-50 yards with a 16 bore (.662 ball, 437 gr.) RB driven by 140 gr of FFG Swiss, 1740+- at the muzzle.
Ball cut off the top half of the heart and was lodged in the fat at the flank. About 29" of penetration. Blood trail was easy to follow starting at the impact point.

Entrance wound was low and the blood ran out freely draining from the torn arteries. Deer ran about 55 yards.
I mention this for those that are disappointed that deer don't fall down when hit. They seldom do. Had I aimed high enough to shock the spine she would have been incapacitated, probably..
So if I can't knock a deer down with this rifle, I have named it Masher, there is little chance with smaller bores.
Expansion was good. Not sure it was pure lead, junk yard stuff I sorted that seemed very soft.

I suspect had the range been 100 the ball might have exited due to reduced expansion.
If you are having blood trail problems you may be hitting the deer a little too high. Hits in the lower chest tend to leak more. But the hide can slide over the holes etc etc.
Harder balls will increase penetration. But as stated pure lead always did OK for me. 50 cal ball will shoot though a mule deer's chest cavity at a diagonal including the shoulder muscles on one side lodging under the hide. This from a 6" barreled pistol with 45 gr of powder. Very little deformation
54 pistol with 70 gr shattering the humerous into numerous pieces, getting the heart and lodgeing at the off side. Ball well expanded. But rifle's almost always go through on broadside shots.
What did I learn from the deer?? If I shoot a G bear with it I will harden the balls. Maybe wheel weights. Maybe 1:20 tin:lead.
Rifle has very narrow lands, .008" grooves and loads hardened balls easily though they do need a starter.
If you have a barrel with wide lands it may be hard to start and could damage the patch if the crown is a little abrupt.
Dan

 

[paulvallandigham]

Wick: When a deer walks throug leaves, the ground under them is soft, and the footprint drive the leave down into a hole, or hoof impression that is often as much as 1/2-1 inch deep! That causes the point on the leaves to curl up, and you get standing points like the points on a crown. In low angles light, these points cast long shadows. At night, have a buddy stand off the trail, and shine a low beam light on the ground between the two of you, or just ahead of you. Look for the long shadows coming off the points.

If you have both snow and leaves, get down low- either on your hands and knees, or at least by crouching down and leaning to one side, bracing your upper body on one hand, so that you can side head, and look at ground 10-15 ft. ahead of you to see the scuffs, and disturbed leaves or snow. In total snow cover, fresh tracks are very easy to see and follow, but that is the conditions under which I learned to track as a boy. Old tracks are either entirely covered by the fresh snow or are partly covered. Because the hooves of a deer cause depressions, you should find sunken areas when the snow fall is light, again, looking for the shadows that cast over the depression from the walls on the sides, when low angled light is shining across the depression. Always put your light source on the other side of the ground you wish to inspect for tracks. Its much easier to see these small shadows if they are pointing towards you, than if they point away from you. That doesn't mean that you can't learn to see them, if they point away from you, but it takes a lot of practice to do it quickly. You almost have to know in your mind what the shadow will look like from that angle before you see it. When I teach people to read tracks, I let them have the best light angle to see the shadows, while I stand in front of them telling them what they are, or should be seeing. I of course, have my back to the sun, or light, so I have the worst angle to me. I am speaking as much from years of memory, as I am from what I can actually see, when I tell them what the tracks look like. I have had students walk around the track looking at the change in how the impression appears, and how the shadow becomes more difficult to see, and when they get to where I am standing and see the " track " from my viewpoint, they always ask me how I can see anything at all! I tell them, truthfully, that I am working on years and years of looking at ground cover in all kinds of weather, and all kinds of conditions, so that I am able to see minutia that they still will require years of training to discipline their brains to see.

The great thing about reading tracks is the knowledge is cumulative, and the brain's ability to recall tracks it has not seen in many years is absolutely extraordinary. I have seen ice tracks and instantly knew how old they were, because I had seen similar tracks as a kid more than 40 years before, but nothing quite like them since.

 

[Many Klatch]

Wick, I am color blind to red and green. Following a blood trail is out of the question. I don't hunt by myself for that very reason. If I can't follow a blood trail, I shouldn't be shooting.

Many Klatch

 

[Black Hand]

If you have space, a small bottle of hydrogen peroxide can be helpful. Blood will foam on contact with the peroxide and will help distinguish it from the red color on leaves. Though I have not tried it, I have heard that blood "glows" after dark when illuminated with the light from a gas lantern (can't confirm this).

The best thing in your arsenal is your brain. Learn what your quarry will do when wounded, and act accordingly. I once did that exactly. I shot a nice buck with my 7mm and there was not a drop of blood to be seen. No snow, thick forest duff. It was at least 50-100 yards before I found anything more than a scuff in the dirt, and I found the buck not much after. Hardly any blood trail to be seen.....

 

[roundball]

"...Though I have not tried it, I have heard that blood "glows" after dark when illuminated with the light from a gas lantern (can't confirm this)..."

Absolutely correct...for all the years I bow hunted, I used a coleman lantern for trailing if I shot a deer right at dusk...put one of those 180* curved stainless reflectors on one half of the lantern to double the intensity and keep from blinding yourself...outstanding.

As far as a question about a particular leaf goes, I just pick it up and wipe it...if it's blood it'll smear, if not its a leaf.
Note: the coleman lantern intensity even minimizes those potential leaf look-alikes

 

[Mountainman56]

I am colour blind and it is nearly impossible for me to see a blood trail. As a result my main criteria has always been bullet placement irregardless of the calibre. I can honestly say in 40 years of deer hunting and many dozens of deer, I have only lost one animal and that was because he got across a river that I was unable to cross. By the time I hiked back to my vehicle and drove 30 miles around I could not pick up the sign.

Bullet placement is like real estate. It's all about location, location, location. Naturally a bullet that only travels part way into an animal is not sufficient enough to be hunting that animal with. I do however think if a ball is travelling nearly all the way through the chest cavity as compared to all the way through, the animal is just as dead and will in my experiance seldom make it more than 100 yards.

 

[bart_anastasi]

So rather than going to a harder ball with reduced mushroom.
Our friend has got the bullet thru the complete animal if he were to increase the load say 10 to 15 grains he could end up delevering more energy, increasing the amount his bullet flattens and have the extra zip to punch thru the other side.

 

[Runner]

Anyone ever seen a deer hit with a 44 hard cast wadcutter? A fifty ball does not need to expand to kill the animal. If my load starts to produce bullet recoveries, it is time to change the load in my opnion! My BIL has never used anything but home cast wheel weight roundballs in his TC. They are plenty accurate in his gun.