Last day deer, some questions

[Clovis]

Yesterday was the last day of the Muzzle loading season here in Maryland. Had a small button buck come in at about sundown and waited for a clear shot and after the shot he ran about 30 yards and fell. Using the Cabela's blue ridge in.45 with 60 grains goex and a .440 ball the shot was about 40 yards through both lungs and out the opposite side. It was a little high but seemed to do the job. As well, the season is two weeks here and I had the rifle loaded the whole time. No delay I could detect when I shot.

Question is I thought I would try to see how much of a blood trail it left, but even in the snow cover I didn't find any until about 10 yards from where he fell. I'm thinking too high a shot for good blood loss or possibly the shock was enough to cause too little blood loss (stopped the heart and it did little pumping).

The other question is if I am using enough powder as it looked as though the ball went through without much or any expansion?

I had other shots during the season, but they either were in too much cover, or running too fast or I just didn't like the angle so I waited to get the shot I wanted.

I think the rifle did very well but I'm not sure if what I saw/happened I am interperting correctly and would like some opinions.

 

[BrownBear]

Pretty common for it to take a few moments for a blood trail to start with high lung shots. I've always figured (guessed?) that it just took extra time for the lung cavity to fill enough for the blood to start oozing and dripping out the holes.

One other thing I notice with shots that penetrate completely- I almost always find a spray of hair where the deer was standing. Real obvious on snow, but it's there if you look for it on other backgrounds. Truth be known, I look first for hair at the point of impact before starting to track. You know it's a hit, even if the blood takes a while.

As for using enough powder? I don't expect much if any expansion in balls unless I hit bone. I bet we don't recover one ball in twenty from deer.

 

[Clovis]

Yeah, Brown Bear, I kinda thought it was from the higher lung shot not filling with blood for a while, but I wanted to make sure I wasn't misunderstanding what I saw and thought about it.

As to the powder, I think you're right but thought I would look for more thoughts on the matter before I stuck with what I am doing.

Thanks, sir.

 

[ravenousfishing]

I think you're fine with your charge for a 45cal. I had similer results yesterday with a 54cal using 110g of powder. She went 50 yds and we found ONE DROP of blood, 5 feet from where she dropped. No hair, blood, or any sign where she stood at the shot, other than the furrow in the snow and dirt that the ball left when it exited. When I gutted her, her chest cavity was full of blood. When we found her, there was a piece of fat sticking out of the entrance hole, blocking blood flow from there, and the exit hole was hard to distinguish. I assumed the shot was high, and as Brown Bear said, the blood level hadn't reached the height of the wound channel before she died. Today when I looked at her more closely in the daylight, I saw that the shot was plenty low, especially on the exit side, for blood to have reached the holes. But, looking inside the cavity, it looked as if the offside broken rib, may have assisted in sealing the wound.
Make no mistake about it though, a roughly 1/2" hole through both lungs is fatal, regardless of whether there is a bloodtrail or not, and usually within 75 yds or less. Occasionally you get lucky and the blood trail is easily followed and sometimes, you are able to follow the trail the deer ran away on by looking for kicked up leaves and dirt. Other times, we've had to rely on a grid type search. I've had blood trails start 30 yds or more from where they first stood and then it looked like it was poured on the ground in a solid line. And this isn't true only of traditional guns shooting roundballs. Don't let anyone tell you different. My brother and I are the only ones in our group who shoot traditional, and I've assisted in enough tracking to know differntly.
I think yours and my deer yesterday are perfect examples that you cant always rely on blood alone. The way I look at it, if you think your shot was good, it probably was. Never give up because you cant find any blood in the first 10-20 yds.

 

[TLanoy]

First off, congrats on your last day deer! We need pics though!! :shake:

I too tend to agree on the lack of blood trail right away due to the high lung shot. As for powder, it sounds like your current setup is just fine. If its a clean pass, the ball won't always flatten like one would expect.

 

[Clovis]

OC huh? Neat.

Yeah, I was more amazed my flinter worked well after being loaded for two weeks and even being in the rain one afternoon.

The exit wound did have a badly broken rib that could have moved and blocked the hole and he was full of blood. Happy he fell in sight and went very quickly, but with the snow had he gone farther he would not have been real difficult to find.

Thanks, sir.

 

[Clovis]

Yeah, I find the rifle likes the powder and it does not produce much recoil, just expected a larger exit and I probably shouldn't. Just wanted to tug on the collective wisdom here to see if any changes were warrented.

Oh and I'm not that good with a camera and don't want to subject the forum to that.

Thanks for your help.

 

[nchawkeye]

As the late Paul V used to say, you need to learn to track without blood...

Sometimes a deer just doesn't leave a lot of blood on the ground, no matter the weapon...

Fat seals the hole, guts, ribs, skin and hair move, etc...Get used to watching where the deer is last seen, go to that spot and start your search...

The good news...Well hit deer seldom travel more than 75 yards...

 

[ravenousfishing]

Paul definitely had a way with words :grin: , and while I cant say I agreed with everything he had to say, the jist of what he had to say about tracking was spot on. That is, there is more to trailing a deer than just looking for blood.

 

[Clovis]

Just to be clear, this is not my first rodeo. This is the first deer I have had leave the scene of the crime after it was shotwith a round ball, so trailing wasn't much of an issue. I just wanted confirmation of what I was finding was what I thought I was finding and to see if someone would make a suggestion that I was missing something in my evaluation.

Yeah, Paul was amazing and I try to bring his advice with me when I can.

 

[ravenousfishing]

Didn't mean to imply that you were new to this, only to make a point to others who may be. I think we all (myself included) need to be reminded that things dont always go by the book.
You hunting the extra firearms season this weekend? Going to try with the GPR again, but its hard to get exited about temps pushing 60 after cold and snow last weekend. We definitely get some temperature swings over here.

 

[Clovis]

ravenousfishing, no offense taken and I agree we need to be reminded things don't go as we always expect, kinda what I was trying to get at and hoping for more insight from different points of view and experiences. Thanks for all of your help.

As to the coming short season, I'll be out there, but I think I will use my 12 gauge for at least the first two days, then on Sunday will likely go with my T/C Seneca. Good luck to you.