Deer down but no blood?

[Rem700addict]

Our opening day of rifle season was last Sat. and I found myself in a treestand with my buddy before day break watching a corn field in my home state of NC. I had heard of guys seeing bucks chasing does the thurs. before and had high hopes that the rut was in full swing and to my surprise it was just as planned. At 8 a.m. a doe came out of the corn field and crossed into the woods and I was thinking this was the only thing we would see that day, but I gave my doe can call a try and 5 min. later my buddy saw something coming out of the woods. I pulled my rifle up to see a nice 8 pt coming out of the woods and I waited till he came out in an opening and put the cross hairs just right above his front shoulder blade and squeezed off a round. After peering over my scope after the muzzle flip of my rifle I saw he was dead in his tracks. After the excitement and high fives and man hugs, lol, we climbed out of the stand and headed over to my trophy. For me it was my biggest buck to date with 17.5" spread on the inside and 7" G2 tines, I was more then happy. When we got over to the buck it looked like the buck had just dropped straight down after the shot, no kicking, twitching, etc. dead as a door nail. I started examining the buck and could find no blood at all, of course the humor of my buddy said I scared it to death, hahaha, whatever, I finally found a perfect entrance hole exactly where I aimed right above his front shoulder, but no exit hole at all. We moved the buck to a location to gut it and I started feeling the hide on the opposite shoulder and felt a lump, when I cut it open it was part of the copper jacket of the bullet. I have just started hunting with my .300wm that i've been reloading for, the load I was using was 77.5 grns of H1000 with a Hornady 180grn BTSP Interlock bullet. This is actually the first deer i've shot with this gun, and hey i'm not complaining that we didn't have to track this deer if this happens everytime that's just fine with me, but I was thinking of finding a rather large exit hole since the buck was only a mear 80-100yrds away. I know this bullet hit bone, but no exit? Does this sound normal? I will continue to hunt with this bullet and hopefully extend my range some more to test this bullet out, but just wanted to see what you guys thought. Also I would like to try some other bullets as this is my first experience with reloading so what would be a good hunting/target bullet to try out in my .300wm Rem 700sps? Thanks, and I do hope to get some pics up of the buck i've just been waiting on my buddy to upload them from his camera.

 

[wnc-coyote]

Nice to see someone else from nc on here. The hornady btsp is a very deadly and very accurate bullet in my experience. Another that I love is the sierra game king. I shoot both of these in my 30-06, 308, and 270wsm. All three guns shoot either of them very well. Only reason I load other bullets is for long range shots where a high bc is needed. I have had a few not exit. You probably hit the shoulder just right to fragment the bullet.

 

[Rem700addict]

Nice to see someone else from nc on here. The hornady btsp is a very deadly and very accurate bullet in my experience. Another that I love is the sierra game king. I shoot both of these in my 30-06, 308, and 270wsm. All three guns shoot either of them very well. Only reason I load other bullets is for long range shots where a high bc is needed. I have had a few not exit. You probably hit the shoulder just right to fragment the bullet.

What part of NC are you from? Here is a pic of my .300wm Rem 700. It is a Rem700 SPS that i've added a Boyd's prarrie stock that has been glass bedded, i've adjusted the trigger down to 2.5lbs, added a Buckmaster 6-18x40mm scope with the adjustable turrets and a weaver 20moa rail. I'm happy with how it has turned out so far, i've been on a strict budget with a growing family and this has been my baby. I thought this would be a good start to my long range pursuits.

 

[wnc-coyote]

Very nice looking rifle. I am about 30 min west of Asheville. Where are you from. How do you like the buckmaster I have been considering that same scope for a .243.

 

[westcliffe01]

Most of the deer I have shot have bled out internally. Just one was a double lung and that one went a long way with almost no blood then a horror movie style bloodbath where she must have stopped a few yards from where she went down.

The last one I shot was a brain shot and it bled a little through the nose (it went down in its tracks) but most of the blood stayed in the carcass.

We are not shooting rifles, since this is a shotgun or ML only zone.

 

[Derek M.]

I was thinking of finding a rather large exit hole since the buck was only a mear 80-100yrds away. I know this bullet hit bone, but no exit? Does this sound normal?

No, not really. From a 300mag at that distance and that type of bullet I'd think it would pass through more than not. That said, a buddy of mine shot a 220 factory rem corelokt bullet from his 30.06 at a 200 pound black bear at 8 yards and it didn't pass through either. When found you couldn't find a more picture perfect mushroomed bullet though. Bear died on the spot of course.

Lot of people want pass throughs, others don't care. If the animal falls where shot and doesn't move again, I don't care. That Hornady bullet you are using is a proven bullet. What is so curious to me is that all of my ballistic tips, from Nosler, have always passed through every animal for the past 23 years.

I've killed 3 deer this year with my new 280, all under 200 yards, and all passed through. Bullet is 150 grain Nosler ballistic tip going 2760fps. Some hunters argue that energy kills. Others will say energy doesn't but holes do. At the distances you are shooting there, the bullet you are using or most any bullet will serve you well. For grins, I highly recommend you try the Swift Scirocco in 180. I bet you won't recover one. It's my favorite bear bullet. I load it for my 30.06.

If you wan't pass through bullets, load some partitions or Barnes or most any bonded bullet. Most of the bondeds should pass through. Final experience: I shot a big black bear in Alberta with a 338 win mag and factory winchester 225 accubonds. The bear was killed at 12 yards and the bullet was recovered. That's bonded bullet experience from Nosler/Winchester. I have killed 5 black bears around the same distance, from 65 yards and under with my 30.06 and 180 Sciroccos and never recovered any. They all went through. And in many cases I shot through bone. Sciroccos are not cheap but they are great bullets.

 

[Rem700addict]

Finally got a pic of my buck from my buddies camera.

 

[WildRose]

Our opening day of rifle season was last Sat. and I found myself in a treestand with my buddy before day break watching a corn field in my home state of NC. I had heard of guys seeing bucks chasing does the thurs. before and had high hopes that the rut was in full swing and to my surprise it was just as planned. At 8 a.m. a doe came out of the corn field and crossed into the woods and I was thinking this was the only thing we would see that day, but I gave my doe can call a try and 5 min. later my buddy saw something coming out of the woods. I pulled my rifle up to see a nice 8 pt coming out of the woods and I waited till he came out in an opening and put the cross hairs just right above his front shoulder blade and squeezed off a round. After peering over my scope after the muzzle flip of my rifle I saw he was dead in his tracks. After the excitement and high fives and man hugs, lol, we climbed out of the stand and headed over to my trophy. For me it was my biggest buck to date with 17.5" spread on the inside and 7" G2 tines, I was more then happy. When we got over to the buck it looked like the buck had just dropped straight down after the shot, no kicking, twitching, etc. dead as a door nail. I started examining the buck and could find no blood at all, of course the humor of my buddy said I scared it to death, hahaha, whatever, I finally found a perfect entrance hole exactly where I aimed right above his front shoulder, but no exit hole at all. We moved the buck to a location to gut it and I started feeling the hide on the opposite shoulder and felt a lump, when I cut it open it was part of the copper jacket of the bullet. I have just started hunting with my .300wm that i've been reloading for, the load I was using was 77.5 grns of H1000 with a Hornady 180grn BTSP Interlock bullet. This is actually the first deer i've shot with this gun, and hey i'm not complaining that we didn't have to track this deer if this happens everytime that's just fine with me, but I was thinking of finding a rather large exit hole since the buck was only a mear 80-100yrds away. I know this bullet hit bone, but no exit? Does this sound normal? I will continue to hunt with this bullet and hopefully extend my range some more to test this bullet out, but just wanted to see what you guys thought. Also I would like to try some other bullets as this is my first experience with reloading so what would be a good hunting/target bullet to try out in my .300wm Rem 700sps? Thanks, and I do hope to get some pics up of the buck i've just been waiting on my buddy to upload them from his camera.

No blood because the heart stopped instantly. That happens with a shot like that where you completely sever the CNS and have massive shock from th energy on impact to boot. When the heart stops beating so does the blood flow.

As for the bullet breakup no that's not normal with that bullet, they are known to penetrate bone quite well and still exit, but at such a close range you were above the ideal velocity/energy on impact so it did shell out on you.

Of course with such a shot no need for blood because no need for blood tracking.

 

[supercrossbmx69]

Maybe the deer simply had a heart attack after hearing the gunshot