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

[Chris in TN]

I guess I'm somewhere north of 150 big game animals, mostly deer and three elk, plus truckloads of coyotes and bobcats and various other pests and varmints and maybe another 50 whitetail I watched someone else shoot, and maybe another 100 deer where I knew exactly what it was shot with and helped gut it and saw the damage, with a few more elk falling into those latter categories, and after all of that, with calibers from .22 to .50 and everything in between at speeds from less than 1000' on impact to above 3800', the only thing I'll really rest on is that everything always varies from shot to shot for reasons that aren't explained well AT ALL by projectile caliber and if you really want to guarantee a great blood trail nothing on earth comes close to a sharp broadhead through both lungs and the heart, that exits at a downward angle out the ribs but behind the front leg. Give me that and I'll show you a trail. Anything else and, well, it's gonna depend on impact speed and bullet construction and where it hit and if it exited and whether a leg was involved and how thick the animal's hair was and so on, ad nauseum, and you'd better believe that there are circumstances where a lightly constructed bullet leaves a superior exit wound and trail, versus a tougher bullet.

 

[streamerfish]

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

I think that bullet construction is by far the biggest differentiator assuming same shot placement.

If your talking same bullet and same shot placement, and just changing caliber/cartridge. I think your just getting into the white noise at that point. Real world just not a big enough difference in most hunting calibers to really see it...maybe at the extremes...maybe...