At what point (caliber/power) do you see real differences in blood?

[Igloo]

Wondering what you guys think of this one.

At what point in caliber/bullet diameter and power, with similar placement, do you think you actually start seeing meaningful differences with blood on the ground? With like bullets, including mono of course.

Is there actually a difference between say 6.5mm and 308 cal?

We all like the DRT shots but they ain't always.

And yep, I know they don't go as far with different bullets, etc etc

 

[Q_Sertorius]

Wondering what you guys think of this one.

At what point in caliber/bullet diameter and power, with similar placement, do you think you actually start seeing meaningful differences with blood on the ground? With like bullets, including mono of course.

Is there actually a difference between say 6.5mm and 308 cal?

We all like the DRT shots but they ain't always.

And yep, I know they don't go as far with different bullets, etc etc

As far as blood trails, I haven’t seen a difference in caliber between .243 and .323. All my experience is using some variety of cup and core bullet. Most of my kills are with .257, followed by .277, .308, and .284. Of the kills I have been around, the majority are .308 caliber.

Shot placement dictates whether there’s good blood (as it usually does with DRT). A high lung shot takes longer to leave a trail than a lower one. Good shot placement (1/3 up the body, right behind the leg, on a whitetail), usually results in a short death sprint with a spectacular blood trail.

Even .45-70 pass through shot that was high lung didn’t leave a blood trail until the last ten yards of a 400-yard trail.

 

[Igloo]

As far as blood trails, I haven’t seen a difference in caliber between .243 and .323. All my experience is using some variety of cup and core bullet. Most of my kills are with .257, followed by .277, .308, and .284. Of the kills I have been around, the majority are .308 caliber.

Shot placement dictates whether there’s good blood (as it usually does with DRT). A high lung shot takes longer to leave a trail than a lower one. Good shot placement (1/3 up the body, right behind the leg, on a whitetail), usually results in a short death sprint with a spectacular blood trail.

Even .45-70 pass through shot didn’t leave a blood trail until the last ten yards of a 400-yard trail.

Thanks! Appreciate the info, thats a very wide range of experience. And I get what you mean about placement, the fact that a higher hit means more of the cavity would have to fill before blood comes out, etc.

So pretty much, no real difference in blood on the ground or length of dash as long as they are hit the same way, and well. Interesting.

That 45-70 shot must have been one heck of a tracking job

 

[Taudisio]

It really depends on so many things. I was tracking a buck that was shot with a 20 gauge slug. I was following specks of blood, but mostly tracks in the dirt. That is, until the last 20 yards of the 100 yard tracking. It was like someone opened a sprinkler. That buck had a perfect hole through the middle of his heart your thumb would slide into (I wish I still had the photo). The exit wound had a 3 finger wide section of lung sticking out and plugging the hole. I couldn’t tell you why it didn’t bleed for 80 yards and then poured for 20. I have my assumptions, but I truly almost lost that deer. I am sharing this because even with the “Perfect scenario”-huge holes, low, in the vitals, I still didn’t get a good blood trail. Things happen, no two animals or shots are the same. If I made that same wound channel on 20 deer, I feel like some would drop, most would throw a 4ft wide blood trail, but having to track one by pin drops and tracks in the dirt would not be a reaction I would have expected.

 

[Q_Sertorius]

The .45-70 shot was fortunately on a wet day. Not raining, but wet. I just tracked him along a deer trail following his trail in the wet leaves. I saw him dead on the ground before I saw the blood trail.

I didn’t mention other calibers, because my sample size is too small. I’ve only killed one deer with a .243. It was a DRT high shoulder shot, but he took a long time to die(shot him in the head because he wasn’t still enough to finish with a knife).

I am at three with .264. One facing frontal shot only got one lung. Even though there was a great exit wound, Lucy and I tracked him a long way. We ran out of blood at 200 yards and I eventually found him cutting squares in the woods with the puppy. One DRT high shoulder shot, but he took a long time to die (I had to cut his throat). And the other was perfect with an amazing blood trail for forty yards.

 

[Igloo]

The .45-70 shot was fortunately on a wet day. Not raining, but wet. I just tracked him along a deer trail following his trail in the wet leaves. I saw him dead on the ground before I saw the blood trail.

I didn’t mention other calibers, because my sample size is too small. I’ve only killed one deer with a .243. It was a DRT high shoulder shot, but he took a long time to die(shot him in the head because he wasn’t still enough to finish with a knife).

I am at three with .264. One facing frontal shot only got one lung. Even though there was a great exit wound, Lucy and I tracked him a long way. We ran out of blood at 200 yards and I eventually found him cutting squares in the woods with the puppy. One DRT high shoulder shot, but he took a long time to die (I had to cut his throat). And the other was perfect with an amazing blood trail for forty yards.

Awesome tracking job on that 45/70 shot, seriously. And happy you had the doggo on that day with the one lunger.

 

[Q_Sertorius]

Awesome tracking job on that 45/70 shot, seriously. And happy you had the doggo on that day with the one lunger.

If I had trusted her, I would have found him in about thirty minutes instead of five hours. But it was my first time using her and she was less than six months old. She actually took me 200 yards past blood along his trail and if I had trusted her another 100 yards, she would have lead me right to him.

 

[judders87]

As far as blood trails, I haven’t seen a difference in caliber between .243 and .323. All my experience is using some variety of cup and core bullet. Most of my kills are with .257, followed by .277, .308, and .284. Of the kills I have been around, the majority are .308 caliber.

Shot placement dictates whether there’s good blood (as it usually does with DRT). A high lung shot takes longer to leave a trail than a lower one. Good shot placement (1/3 up the body, right behind the leg, on a whitetail), usually results in a short death sprint with a spectacular blood trail.

Even .45-70 pass through shot that was high lung didn’t leave a blood trail until the last ten yards of a 400-yard trail.

I shot a deer with a 44 mag pretty much point blank (3 yards) and there wasn't a speck of blood up to him. I only knew I hit him because one of his legs went limp. Double high lung and found him maybe 100 yards. I hit double high lung on a doe with a 45-70 without much of a blood trail as well but she only went 20. Placement is key for sure!

 

[Wrench]

I have seen better blood with larger pass through projectiles than smaller....but I'm not sure how to quantify it. Last year I saw 3 big game animals fall to the 6mm and not so much a drop of blood on the ground. I am building a 308win for this year because I like the blood I seem to get with bigger bullets.....but I can't say that it's not just the luck of the shot.

 

[Macintosh]

Is it the bullet diameter, or something else about a bullet that makes for the exit and blood trail? Afaict its not the bullet diameter, its a combination of factors about the bullet (diamter, type of bullet, ratio between mass and diameter, velocity, etc) that all go into the result. I think as the question was asked, it sort of invites comparisons that may not capture the relevant info. Ie specifying the cartridge but not even mentioning the bullet construction and weight.
Maybe the question should be “at what point does it become more dependent on bullet weight/construction vs “most anything will do”?

 

[steelheadmike]

There's too many variables to quantify. I have experienced seen fantastic bullet performance with very little blood and poor performance with lots of blood. I'd rather trade less blood for an internal cavity that is has been liquefied.

 

[schmidty3]

Ive only killed like 120 or so big game animals...

But id say ive consistently had better blood trails with a bow over a gun. And I hardly ever rely on blood trail with a gun. Usually if you've got a good bloodtrail the deer died in sight.

My best blood trail was a 7.5x55 shooting a 175 berger vld hunting. Right through the heart with a fist sized exit. Watched fire hose effects and a foot wide blood trail the entire 75 yard distance she ran. It was ridiculous.

Had a decent splatter with a 77 gr tmk last fall. But only towards the end. He only made it 50 yards.

Guns tend to kill not by hemorrhage alone. If my goal was max hemorrhage id put a big berger or TMK low in the chest and hope i get a big exit. I dont think caliber/power matters as much as bullet construction.

 

[Taudisio]

Ive only killed like 120 or so big game animals...

But id say ive consistently had better blood trails with a bow over a gun. And I hardly ever rely on blood trail with a gun. Usually if you've got a good bloodtrail the deer died in sight.

My best blood trail was a 7.5x55 shooting a 175 berger vld hunting. Right through the heart with a fist sized exit. Watched fire hose effects and a foot wide blood trail the entire 75 yard distance she ran. It was ridiculous.

Had a decent splatter with a 77 gr tmk last fall. But only towards the end. He only made it 50 yards.

Guns tend to kill not by hemorrhage alone. If my goal was max hemorrhage id put a big berger or TMK low in the chest and hope i get a big exit. I dont think caliber/power matters as much as bullet construction.

I agree with above. Target of opportunity/equipment test in the turkey woods with my turkey setup. I’ve never seen such a blood trail from one like this before and I’ve killed a lot with rifles. Archery blood trails are much more consistent.

 

[vonb]

I had consistent exits with .308 and .30-06 as opposed to rounds .260 and smaller. .243 almost never exited with cup and core. YMMV

 

[Sundodger]

I don’t know exactly what the threshold is, but I have seen enough war footage to know there are plenty of armor piercing rounds (non expanding) will turn humans into mostly pink mist.

 

[Gravel Road]

Many years ago I read in a book on hunting in Africa (Capstick maybe?) that an experienced guide said you didn't notice a difference in caliber until you got above .375. Once you got into 416's it was noticeable, even on smaller game. I think that it still holds true and a few thousandths doesn't make a difference.
I personally think that caliber is really only one factor of many, many factors. Hell, one of the best tracking jobs I ever did was a doe I shot straight in the front of the chest at under 10 yards while still hunting an uncut corn field. The 54 cal muzzle loader with 500+ gr maxi ball exited the hindquarter. She ran over 100 yards with no blood trail and luckily I was able to follow her tracks in the soft dirt. There were a couple specks of blood on the corn stalks in the last 10 yards.

 

[KenLee]

Too damn sempty (.277) taking into consideration same bullet construction and shot placement. Size and definitely speed, imo do make a difference in blood trails.

 

[Whitefox82]

I live in SE WI and started hunting whitetail as soon as it was legal, I don’t remember if that was 10 or 12….but
at that time the southern half of Wi was shotgun only while the northern half allowed rifle. Rifle has been statewide since 2013 I believe. So I’ve seen about an equal amount of shotgun and rifle killed deer. I have no idea of how many, I don’t keep track but it’s a fair amount. I used both 12 and 20 gauges to kill deer and have killed them with 50 cal mz, 30 cal, 277, and 257 cal. I may have actually killed even more with broad heads than bullets. My take… diameter makes little difference. Shot placement and bullet construction weigh more heavily on getting more blood. If you make the shot count you probably won’t need the trail either!

 

[Cherokeeguide]

I was a licensed guide out in California from 1995 to 2012 and during that time, I saw plenty of feral swine get the kiss of death with everything from a little girl's .222 Remington to my own Ruger No.1 Tropical in .375 Holland and Holland Magnum.

On the kind of shots I'd guide my clients into taking (broadside presentations at 300 yards or less, my conclusion ended up being that they all pretty much do the same thing and nothing from the mightiest .30 caliber cartridge on down can be relied upon to leave much of a blood trail on California Central Coast swine, every tingle time.

 

[Bluefish]

From what little experience I have, it really depends on the shot placement. Same bullet over 6 different shots, all had different blood trails. From nothing to a trail a blind man could follow. All a bigger copper (35 cal). One of the better trails was a subsonic at around 500 ftlbs. Really a verification that energy is mostly irrelevant and placement along with construction matter.