ORIGINAL: Doe Dumper

...and he didnt bleed any?

ORIGINAL: TUK101

Its all about the shot placement. Hitting a deer in the ribs doesnt always mean that he is going to die on the spot. Sometimes you will blow up the heart and lungs, sometimes just the lungs which allows the deer to go a ways before croaking. And when you are 300 yards away it is pretty tuff to find the exact spot at which you hit the deer which makes for very hard tracking. I dont much like having to track a deer so therefore I am not a big fan of long distance shooting. So I keep my shots limited to 150 yards which makes it much easier for me to track my deer if I make a bad shot and gives me a much better chance to get off a second shot. I am not knocking all of those people out there who do take long range shots, by all means if the terrain permits and you have the skills then great, but some people dont have the skills and take the long pop shots anyways. At least you found the deer man. One thing I am curious about though, if you know you killed the deer but wherent able to harvest it, do you have to punch your tag anyways?

its typical of a high lung shot for there to only be blood, for the last half of the death sprint, and I bet there was a lil trail in the field its just way, way harder to see than it is on leaves. most deer will run a lil distance after shot unless you can hit them hard enough to shut all systems down with hydrostatic shock, or break down the CNS (spine, neck, brain) I've killed 4 deer this fall the distances were 375, 450, 475, and 584. one ran 150 yds, one ran 40, the other 2 DRT. I was shooting a nosler accubond, but at 308 velocities I wouldn't hesitate using a BT.
RR

ORIGINAL: Ridge Runner

I shoot an XOTIC 4x16 w/mildot, they're no longer in production, but about any good repeatabe scope will work for what I do.
I like a standard duplex, and for 350 yds just use holdover, I never touch the dials to I shoot beyond 400 yds.
RR

ORIGINAL: North Texan

You may be hitting slightly high. Exit wounds are typically larger and bleed more than entrance wounds. The blood from the wounds initially doesn't come from the internal organs, but from vessels near the skin, just like you bleed when you get a cut.Individually, thesevesselspump a lot lessvolume than the onesrunning to the heart and lungs. So it takes a lot more surface damage to get enoughblood flowing toleave a reliable blood trail. Entrance wounds punch a hole usually only slightly larger than the diameter of the bullet, so bleeding from the vessels near the skin is minimal. Blood won't really start coming out of the entrance wound from the internal damage until the chest cavity fills up to approximately the level of the entrance wound. The higher up the shot, the longer it takes and the more blood it takes to fill the chest cavity before blood starts flowing out of the hole.

ORIGINAL: Ridge Runner

exo, here's my advise, if your gonna hunt fields you need to change your equip.
any bullet through a whitetails ribs will kill them, but they sometimes don't leave much sign for a good piece, and its alot harder to find in an open grassy area.
What you need to do is get a rifle that fires a midweight to light for caliber bullet at high velocity. for average whitetails, unless you hunt the big northern brutes about 5" of penetration will get the job done.
Practice shooting from actual hunting positions at your actual hunting ranges. for years I used a 270 win shooting 110 gr hornady hp's with great success.
Aim to hit the scapula (shoulder blade) its the point of most resistance on a whitetail, its a large flat bone that absorbs all the energy your bullet has
When the bullet hits this hard, this fast it sends a massive shockwave through the body which disrupts the central nervous system, at the same time it sends blood both directions from POI (backwards to the major organs) this shuts down all systems immediately. I can't prove it but read once that alot of shoulder shot DRT deer were found to have ruptured blood vessels in the brainstem.
You may look into the 243,6mm, 25/06, and the small bore magnums. You'll lose some meat but you'll have more DRT deer with this combination, on larger deer you can go up in caliber, but on deer around 150 pounds you should use 7mm and less at high velocity, and not a controlled expansion bullet, regular spt's or a hp (not match)
I've taken hundreds of deer with cartridges from the 223 to the 350 rem mag, and the heavier bullet you use the faster you have to drive it to get this effect on average whitetails. the deadest deer I ever saw were shot with 243's and 6mm's with 87 gr bullets, hit on the point of the shoulder.
RR