I actually hit a nice buck in July with my truck that had a whole bunch of unusual groans. Dogs ran him into a 45 mph road and as he came out, I started to slam on brakes, and he turned away from me to try and outrun truck I guess...but my bumper punted him about 30 yards into a ditch. It broke both of his back legs and to put him out of his misery I pulled my knife and slit his throat. The moans still came from lower than where I had cut and I waited for him to expire before throwing him in the truck and getting him home for some backstraps and tenderloins...the hind quarters were so bruised up I couldnt see making any steaks from them. his moans continued as he was laying in the bed of the truck dead, but it was more of a bellow from his diaphragm. It was the first time I had heard this sound from many harvested animals, but I dont think he appreciated me giving him a 45 mph punch from behind. I guess I was the lucky one as he didnt put a scratch on my truck or grill/bumper.
As far as my sabot of choice...it remains the powerbelt! In 6 years I havent had any issues with pass throughs, except when I switched to the 270 grain platinum last year. The platinum is like shooting a hangrenade into them as they simply disintegrate and leave a terrible mess inside. As far as a blood trail, I guess it depends on where you hit them. I use a climber and stand that are pretty high up, so most of my shots are within 30-50 yrds with a few at 5 steps or directly underneath, and those never seem to even take a step before dropping where they stood. Trying to test all that is available is a very expensive hobby and after trying Hornady and a few others I wasnt getting anything like the accuracy of the powerbelts with my scope. I can hit a quarter at 100 yrds with my scope, and since its working, why bother fixing it. I shot a doe (double lung) with exit and it looked like a bucket of red paint spilled where she was hit, but with a cloud of smoke in my face I didnt notice that she had taken off after the hit. I went to POI and not 30 steps and she was piled up, and that was almost the farthest shot I had made on a deer with my CVA Optima.
