That my friend, is a very true statement.

Great Thread Guys!Much truth spoken here.

I have 2 20ga slug guns. My wife shoots a Remington 11-87 Premier with a cantilever full rifled barrel with Winchester Platnuim Tips and my other is a Mossberg Trophy Slugster, cantilever, fully rifled, ported barrel and it shoots Federal Barnes Expanders. Both with Leupold scopes. Kills them DRT!!!!! I haven't shot a deer with either in 7 years after starting to shoot my Knight Disc Extreme. I used to shoot the Barnes Expander round in it, but changed over to the Hornandy SST, 250grn over 110 grn 777 loose.

I have learned over the years, that the higher you go in the tree the easier a blood trail becomes.

The closer the exit hole is to the sternum the faster you will see blood contact the ground (within the first stride of the deer running.)

Why?

The more level you are with the deer as well as the smaller the projectile, increases the chance that blood will not fill up inside the cavity quick enough to exit before the skin and fat gels (friction of the deer running.)

This year I shot a deer with bow directly below my stand from 30 feet. The arrow entered just laterally of the spine, stuck both lungs, cut the heart, and then opened the sternum directly below the deer.

The deer went 30 yards with no lungs and no heart. However, if you could mix red paint in a 5 gallon bucket and poor it out on to the leaves, well.....that's what it looked like.

I have also shot deer ground level doing about the same thing and have watched to my horror as the deer runs out of sight in the brush. Then when time to track it we find little specs of bloods to the dead deer laying 50 yards away.

So I learned to go high if I want to see blood, no matter what the projectile. 30 feet seems to be my average climb.

Last year, I shoot a deer at a 70 degree angle (from 35 feet) in the brisket. Both front legs split outwardly because of the deer loosing its entire sternum.

We watched the deer plow with its hind legs only for about 30 yards. It left a 3 foot wide swath of blood, that while approaching the deer, looked like a rolled out red carpet for the stars.

Just something about being high up.


D

There is absolutely no substitute for proper bullet placement. Do not believe the hype that someones spiffy bullet will turn a marginal shot into a sure kill. So far this week i have passed on four shots at big buck deer because things were not right. All of those deer were closer than 75 yards.

Blood trails are a neat thing. But first you need to pinpoint the location of the animal when it was shot. Many hunters cannot do that. Then there is the question of whether the animal was hit at all: Many hunters cannot do that either. i've seen this demonstrated at least four times. Watched a guy shoot an elk and dust came off the animal where the bullet hit. The guy claimed he missed the big bull elk and he abandoned it. I followed up and claimed that elk.

i track a lot of wounded deer and elk for other hunters. Over 50 percent of those hunters cannot get me me within 15 yards of the place where the animal was standing when shot.

In this area there are several grasses that have red stems in the fall: That grass looks like it has blood on it. If you hunt in an area that has grass like this, carry a small spray bottle filled with peroxide. Peroxide fizzes when it hits blood.

Good luck this deer season.