I'm needing a new bullet.
 

I am getting away from the XTP's I have been shooting as I am just not getting a blood trail. It had not been an issue in the past as I have been able to find the deer. Yesterday I lost a doe that I hit right in the shoulder and it could barely walk, dragging it's front leg. The thought that this could have been monster buck has me ready to switch. I shoot a 50 cal. Encore using 100 grains of pellets. On another forum everybody told me to switch from XTP's to shock waves but on here I see similar complaints from shock waves. I am shooting the 44 cal bullets with the green sabot.

expensive for paper shooting but cheap for hunting. Go with a Barnes!

flyinlowe

If you want to shoot a premium bullets - look at:

www.lehighbullets.com

If you want a really good regular bullet check out the Speer Gold Dot now called Deep Curl. It a bonded controlled expansion bullet. These bullets penetrate very well and most often always exit. These bullets and the Lehigh's or even the Barnes will hold together even if you shoot them through the shoulder.



The Hornady's can separate copper from lead and MAY have been a couse of the lack of blood trail

It sounds like you never got a pass through. And in some cases, when you only poke one hole in them, no blood comes out until that body cavity fills with blood. Although a shoulder shot like that is usually a good shot.

I have NEVER killed a deer with a sabot. So I do not know what to tell you. But if I had to go hunting with a sabot, it would be a Barnes MZ Expander 250 grain or the new Speer Deep Curl 300 grain. Or the Lehigh. I have a few of them left around the house, and my Genesis loves those things..

As silly as this is for a man that owns numerous inline rifles, I usually end up hunting with a roundball of a conical bullet. I guess old habits are hard to break, and I trust them to do the job.

I had a pass through on a doe in about 6 inches of snow. It was only about 30 yards and I was in a tree so it was a little high, not much at all. It looked to me like the deer was pooling up with blood because there was not a drop of blood in snow until the deer jumped over a creek and then it looked like somebody threw a bucket of paint onto the ground, blood was everywhere.

flyinlowe

Not that an XTP would not do this, but this was shoot with a 250 Gold Dot. Range was 112 yards, bullet entered the chest and exited out near the last rib on the off side. It was a down angle shot. Deer went about 10 feet and this is how I found him. Actually when I shot I thought it was a her...

He was leaking a lot of blood.

If you are looking for a blood trail, I would switch to a heavier bullet. On my short list would be:

1. .452 300 grain Gold Dot
2. 45 cal 250 grain Lehigh
3. 300 grain Barnes Expander
4. 45 cal 260 or 300 grain Nosler Partition if you can find them
5. .452 300 grain XTP (non mag)

You should get pass-thrus and good blood trails with all of these

Another vote for the Speer Gold Dot/Deep Curl. They are made in the same sizes as the most common XTPs (240 & 270 for .44 cal and 250 & 300 for .45 cal) so the switch should be pretty painless for you. Likely the same sabot and powder charge or pretty darn close. My last doe was with the 240gr. Pass through, lots of blood.

I think the hit has as much to do with blood trail as bullet, just got back from hunt in which one deer shot with 300 xtp mag double lung right behind shoulder bullet exited and had a blood trail a blind man could follow. 100 yard recovery. another deer shot with barnes expander, double lung right behind shoulder bullet exited no blood trail at all saw deer go down 100 yard recovery. No two hits are ever the same, strange things sometimes happen when a bullet hits. Why didn't deer hit with barnes bleed more? who knows, you could stick all your fingers in exit hole? did bullet fail? I think not. Deer still dead

I don't have time for a report yet, but I got my first muzzleloader kill ever on Friday with a 260 grain Harvester Scorpion with Harvester crushed rib sabot. A 140-yard shot yielded massive entry and exit wounds and a massive blood trail. Ray Charles could have followed it. Oh, and they are dead nuts accurate too.