Muzzy Blood Trails?

[Buelrdr29]

I shot at a bull today. 49 yards and it was frontal with a slight quartering position. 340gr ELDX and 84gr (weight) BH209. I gave it 30 minutes and went to look for the bull. I did not find any blood at all. Was in a swampy wetland with chest high grass. With all the smoke from the shot I can not confirm a hit and with no blood I am assuming a miss.

Friends have said they have had very poor or no blood trails with muzzy hunts. What is the gerenal consensus? Or is it just like a rifle and depends on where you hit?

I did spend 5 hours grid searching to try and find a dead bull. No luck.

 

[LCguy]

That load, at that distance, if you did hit him, probably exploded immediately and did not get very good penetration.

My experience with a boredriver on an elk was similar. Hit a cow with a much "cooler" load than 84 grains weight of Blackhorn and it fragmented pretty good. Was luckily able to retrieve her.

Pretty soft bullet to be shooting that hot, that close. I'm sure it is very deadly at 150+ but probably fragmented, if you did hit the elk at 49 yards. More powder/velocity does not always equal better performance.

 

[LCguy]

Also add that I am not an expert by any means but that has been my experience with softer bonded bullets out of a muzzleloader.

 

[HighUintas]

I would get some help and go spend a day with them searching. At 50 yards, I can't imagine not putting a lethal hit on him.

I think it's likely just like a rifle as far as blood or no blood. It just depends on location, bullet construction, and impact velocity.

I shot a bull broadside at 110 with a 30cal 180gr soft point going 2850fps at the muzzle. That bullet didn't exit and left absolutely zero blood . Zero. Luckily, he was piled up 35 yards from there.

I've only shot one bull with a muzzy. 58cal round ball, neck shot. He bled like hell, but also dropped on the spot.

 

[Buelrdr29]

I would get some help and go spend a day with them searching. At 50 yards, I can't imagine not putting a lethal hit on him.

I think it's likely just like a rifle as far as blood or no blood. It just depends on location, bullet construction, and impact velocity.

I shot a bull broadside at 110 with a 30cal 180gr soft point going 2850fps at the muzzle. That bullet didn't exit and left absolutely zero blood . Zero. Luckily, he was piled up 35 yards from there.

I've only shot one bull with a muzzy. 58cal round ball, neck shot. He bled like hell, but also dropped on the spot.

My hunting partner was there to watch it all happen. We searched for 5 hours or so together. Damn WA jungle.... you can't walk 5 feet in a straight line without brush in the way. Glassing g is almost pointless as well.

 

[HighUintas]

My hunting partner was there to watch it all happen. We searched for 5 hours or so together. Damn WA jungle.... you can't walk 5 feet in a straight line without brush in the way. Glassing g is almost pointless as well.

Ahhh WA jungle. Yea that would be problematic

 

[KnightExtreme]

Being the Bullet used is Newer there is not a lot of good details on how well they will work. I get some think new has been thoroughly tested but being "new" there aren't many Reviews on them and big game like elk. I bought into the Polymer Tip ML Bullets but as I read some ML's as they don't well perform. Some suggest I go with a hollow point Bullet that is know for good expansion. I know this too late to help, sad you have not found your elk. Hope you get back out and search again. (Maybe get a tracking dog)
KnightExtreme

 

[ElDiablito]

It’s very common to not have muzzy bullets exit, especially on bigger game like elk. That ELDX is a pretty soft bullet, so assuming you hit him, it entered, exploded and may or may not have reached the vitals. Very unlikely that the bullet would exit on the shot you described.

Sometimes you’ve got to take the shot you have with the bullet you chose to use. In this case you’d have likely been better served with something like a very heavy lead (420+ gr) or controlled expansion like a 300 gr Barnes mono/Nosler Partition/Swift A-Frame.

One of the differences in centerfire and muzzy loads, is the relatively slow velocity combined with large bullet diameter (and in many cases very soft bullet construction.) This often results in no bullet exit and longer/tougher tracking if the animal doesn’t fall within sight.

I could tell you all kinds of stories from my muzzy hunts over the past 40 years about tracking animals including a kudu that we tracked for more than 24 hours with essentially no blood trail.