Hoosier_Hunter1963

Saturday night my son was hunting with his CVA Accura v1. with a 350gr. FPB and 100 gr. Pyrodex Pellets. Right at dark he calls and says he just smacked a doe and she was down at 60 yards! I go to the field to help load her only for him to say, she laid there for a minute or more and then got up and walked off.

We searched the entire area, found not 1 trace of blood, no hair, NOTHING. We then searched the thicket she ran into and found again a big fat "0". Went back the next morning again and searched it over in the daylight and found NOT 1 sign of blood. After an exhaustive search, we gave up...but it digs at ya as to what happened.

It did rain, but still not to find ANY SIGN of being hit makes NO SINCE!

Ideas? How can a deer get knocked off it's feet and then walk off without any sign of blood?

nchawkeye

Until you find her, you'll never know...The buzzards will be on her soon...Deer do strange things and can travel a ways if not hit properly...Well hit, they die quickly, but can still sprint a hundred yards or so...

Grouse45

A perfect example of poor bullet performance.

Hoosier_Hunter1963

Grouse,

What leads you to believe it was poor bullet performance besides the obvious, the deer walked off?

pluckit

I did that once.The doe was 15 yards behind me and it was a bang flop.As I sat and relaxed after the shot the deer got up and ran away.No hair or blood.I think I scared the crap out of her.Rabbits will act like that some times and I think deer do too.

hometheaterman

Yep, I had a similar experience last year. I shot a small buck and it went down and started flapping immediately after I shot. A while later it got back up and took off. I searched for hours and we finally found 2 small drops of blood on a small tree. That was it. No blood or anything anywhere else. I was using a Powerbelt bullet. That was enough to make me change bullets this year as the Powerbelts just don't seem to leave a good blood trail. I also had the same thing happen with a doe when I shot it with a shotgun with buckshot. No blood no nothing could be found. A few days later the buzzards found her though.

Grouse45

To be honest, i'm counting on this Deer was actually hit. No blood is the bottom line. Hornady has never offered a good ML bullet in my opinion. Pistol bullets yes.(XTP"S)

This is one of the reasons why i like Lehigh bullets so well. The bullets are designed to be effective on a good or bad shot. That sounds strange, but it's true.

MountainDevil54

no its not poor bullet performance, the FPB has a good reputation behind it.

What most likely happened " and has happened to us a couple times" is that your son shocked the spine, put the deer down where she laid for a bit and then once she got things under control she just stood up and hopped away. We've had 2 deer do this to us, we of course got them deader than dirt with a second shot.

The bullet most likely was high over the spine and went through only skin.

thom2

I'm primarily a bowhunter and learned early how to search for blood & track a wounded deer. Last year I arrowed a 140+ buck. He dropped within 60 yards. The arrow passed through both lungs. Later a arrowed a big doe. She ran like the wind. After a day of circling the area looking for blood, I finally found two small drops on a branch. I got down on my hands and knees crawled in the opposite direction of the tiny blood spatter.

Found her 80 yards from where I shot her in a deep ditch covered with honeysuckle. She was also shot through both lungs.

Hunting a wounded animal means you gotta put on your CSI Hat.

BTW: Never lost a deer while muzzleloader hunting. T/C Hawken: Round Ball and T/C Omega: Hornady SST 250 Sabots.

pluckit

In my case I can't blame the bullet since I was using a 12 guage rifled slug.