blood trail problems. .270
 

ive shot 2 deer with my rifle so far. it is a mossberg 100atr .270 cal. i shot a 6 point last year. perfect double lung but no exit. but we followed a river of blood all the way him. now this year i shot a doe with it. enter right behind the shoulder an exited opposite shoulder. she ran no more than 30 yds. but yet it took forever to find her(ended up goin back to camp to get my bloodhound which trailed her right up) because she did not bleed a drop. even after being dead layin for bout am hour there was still no blood. i would write this off but i took another little boy huntin with me the day b4 an he shot a doe in the same food plot that went about 50 yards. normally i would not have went back to the same spot but his doe DID NOT BLEED A DROP!!!! he used the same gun as me but he hit his in the chest ( she was heavily quartering) an exited bout 5 inches behind shoulder. he was shooting 150 gr. remington coe lokts while i was shootin 150 gr. federal fusions. am i doing something wrong?? is it the bullets or the gun or the caliber??? im just lucky to have inherited an excellent bloodhound!!

forgot to add these r close range shots. mine was bout 30 yds. an his was bout 60 yds.

time for 130gr Barnes TSX? if you want a pass through...

imagine shooting a 5gallon bucket high.... 2 holes... the bucket has to fill up quite a bit before it would spill out vs shooting low, ie 1 gallon vs. 4+ gallons, that could explain it somewhat, but doesn't mean I would start aiming super low...


personally blood is just 1 tool in finding a dead deer IMO.

if you see the deer run off, mark that last seen spot, if you hear a crash past that, mark that spot, I'd immediately go to those 2 spots, or where I shot, if I see blood great, if not, find those 2 spots and hopefully you have a dead deer laying there, game over.

if not then you may need to get very serious and find drops of blood or simply cover some serious ground back n forth.

lack of blood isn't something I even bother myself worrying about. do what you can.

his was bout midway through chest cavity. an im in southwest mississippi. biggest doe ive seen where we hunt is bout 130lbs. an biggest buck is right bout 200 lbs. an mine the shot was actually kinda low. i forgot to compensate for my scope. its sighted at 70 yds. an the doe was 30 yds. it just did clip the bottom of her heart. an i did mark where she stood wen i shot an also where went into the woods. i literally crawled around on hands an knees for bout 10 minutes lookin for blood after i made a few circles through the woods where she went. it aggravated me though cuz i knew she was hit good right behind the shoulder. she kicked her back legs straight in the air an her other legs was literally draggin from where the bullet exited the shoulder an broke the bone

with that being said could it have maybe just been shot placement. cause the 6 i shot bled like somebody had a water hose with blood an just made a big line with it. an it never exited. it was a pretty high double lung. almost hit the spinal cord

Round
 

Not very familiar with the .270 as a round but here's my $.02...

Try a lighter skinned round such as a fail safe or maybe a frangible.

Try a lighter round (weight). Small caliber + heavier round means smaller wound channel but deeper penetration. You need to create a larger wound channel.

Lighter skinned + .270 caliber should be enough power for proper penetration yet provide a wider WC to allow blood to exit. Maybe double penetration (entry & exit channel) + smaller caliber is insufficient to allow blood to exit to make trailing easier.

Or just keep your tracking dog healthy!

Your mileage may vary.

I had the same problem with Rem Core Lokt, shooting at close range. They need time to start expanding. Try changing to a poly tipped round which has much faster expansion. Since I changed to Hornady Superformance SST rounds, I have gotten large exit holes. Always have blood, no more having the holes close and short distance tracking.

Lost 7 deer using Rem Core Lokt. Lost zero with slugs or Hornady SST rifle rounds.

I had that problem with my 30-06 and 150 grain Winchester Silver Tips. The just blew up in the deer and didn't always exit. I switched to 165 grain Nosler Partitions and get pass throughs every time now.

NOSLER Partition, available in Federal and Nosler ammunition, was invented by John Nosler, to expand AND punch right through.

My son with his .270 Win. 40 yds and 52 gr. H414 130gr core-loc. was a bang flop. If ya don't want it to run shoot it half way up the body right in the shoulder.

Wrong! Assuming you are using the right bullet (which the Core Lokt is one of many!) A bullets flight time is only a few fractions of a second! In fact, more speed= better expansion.
Most people seem to think that a small exit wound is always the bullets fault! But, even with a good bullet and a well placed double lung shot you can still miss bone and end up with a small exit.
With a .277 bullet, even if it doubled it size, would only leave a little over a 1/2" exit!
Impressive exit wounds are a combination of a good bullet + speed + hitting enough bone/meat for the bullets energy to push that extra bone/meat out the other side.

Also, I won't argue that there are not better bullets than the Rem. Core Lokt, but the Core Lokt is a darn good bullet too!
In my younger days, I have blamed bullet failure! Most people do! But, the reality is that most of the time its not the bullets fault!

Too old to change and have a problem
 

Did a lot of close range hunting in swamps, when young. Instant knockdown of deer was a necessity.
Aways used bullets that weighed at least 165 gr. or more. Slow was ok. 35 Rem exited every time but once. Never went to ultra high velocities for close range hunting.
Lung shots are effective, but never took a lung shot. Went for the shoulders and the main artery running from the heart to brain. Use bullets manufactured twenty years ago and now.

In archery never blood tracked deer. Used a compass reading from the stand site. Blood tracking was far secondary. Directional bearing and big deer on the ground was primary.

Too old to change; too old to recommend to newbies.

BAH! You have a ton of info to share good-sir.

The younger among us are in need of such advice. Do not underrate yourself!

Switch caliber!

Bs...Nothing wrong with a .270...Only thing wrong is the OP doesn't have much experience so he doesn't know what to expect...

Read the part where he needed a tracking dog for a deer that went 30 yards!!!

Thats what I thought early, but didnt say anything. If you cant take down a whitetail with a 270 then a 300 win mag wont do you any good.