Lethal hit with no blood trail?

[Paul in Idaho]

I have been looking at Google Earth in preparation for the upcoming hunting season. I panned across an area I hunted in the past, which is marked up with GPS tracks and points. One of those points causes a sick sensation in my stomach every time I see it. Tonight I decided to post here and see if anyone can offer any advice to prevent a recurrence of the events leading to that GPS point.

The year this began, I had a cow elk rifle tag. The hunt was going well. I had found a herd of elk, made a plan, followed the plan, and near sunset one evening was in prone position under a tree with a cow elk in my crosshairs at less than 200 yards. At the shot, I thought I saw one of her front legs twitch. She immediately ran full speed, and before I could cycle another cartridge into the chamber she was in the middle of the herd. A second later they disappeared over the top of the hill, leaving no chance for any followup shot.

I marked the tree I had shot from and headed up to look for blood. The hill was bare and featureless, so I had no landmarks to help find where she had stood. There was no snow, and the ground was too hard to show tracks. I went uphill until I could no longer see my marked tree and used that as my maximum distance. I began a grid search between there and the tree, looking for any sign of hair or blood. Nothing. It was getting dark, so I turned on my headlamp. After about 3 hours of walking the hill in a tight grid, no hair or blood was found.

The next morning I returned to the site and started searching again, hoping daylight would show something I had missed with my headlamp. I walked much of the same area as the night before, then extended into possible routes the herd would have taken after I lost sight of them. Nothing. I walked the brushy area beyond the ridge top, though it is so dense it's difficult to see anything. By noon, I decided I had missed, and the leg twitch was a flinch from the bullet hitting the dirt behind her.

At some point since then I watched Fresh Tracks season 4 episode 10. Randy made a heart shot on a whitetail buck, and it left no blood trail for 75 yards. That reminded me of my missed elk and I began to wonder if it was a miss after all. I had never before heard of a fatal rifle shot not bleeding. Occasionally I thought about that elk, and uneasily wondered what had happened.

Last year I hunted that same spot. I had seen no elk or even fresh sign, so I moved into the brush to look for sign where they would be most likely to feed and bed. A white spot caught my attention. It turned out to be an elk skeleton, scattered through the brush by scavengers. The bones had weathered too much to be a recent winter kill. That sick feeling in my stomach hit hard, with the realization there was a strong chance this was the elk I thought I missed.

My GPS tracks show that skeleton about 180 yards from where the elk stood when I shot. It also shows that on the morning after the shot, I searched within 20 yards of where I found the skeleton. There's no way to know for certain that skeleton is the same elk, but it seems likely. I have done a lot of second-guessing and criticism of my choices following that shot, but don't really know what more I could have done. No hair, no tracks, no blood. No certainty the bullet had even hit. It was pure chance I stumbled into the skeleton in that thick brush.

Have any of you seen a bullet wound not bleed? If you have any advice on how to maximize the chances of finding an animal with such a wound, please share.

Here is a view of the hill while searching the next morning, looking toward the timber I shot from the evening before.


This is the brush on the other side of the hill

 

[elkhnter]

I would think if the cow died were you found the skeleton, you’d have found the elk.

 

[cowboy]

I have seen it a number of times and it is more common than someone would think, particularly with the bullets that are designed to enter a short distance then completely fragment with no exit hole.

 

[Steelhead]

Unfortunately...it happens. I was talking the other day with a buddy and I have basically NEVER HAD A BLOOD TRAIL!! Many animals with a rifle have dropped instantly or dropped within sight with little to no blood spilt. Many archery critters are basically the same way.
As a matter of fact many of the stories, that I’ve heard, with giant blood trails end with the critter getting away.

 

[LCH]

I've killed several critters that I tracked by they're prints with no blood until the spot where they lay. I've shot deer with a bow from a steep angle and the broadhead didn't punch all the way through, the chest cavity fills with blood but the drain hole is up on top. I've also shot a deer with a rifle and had lung partially blow out the exit hole, plugging it up, and had very little blood loss from the entry hole.

 

[teej89]

Never really had much luck with blood on a rifle shot, however I haven't had many animals run out of sight after being shot with a rifle.

Very well could have been the cow you hit.

 

[LCH]

My lab has tracked several deer that would have been very difficult otherwise. She has no real training, but seems to follow a trail out of curiosity anyway. I think even a dog would have a tough time though in your situation, with the hit elk's tracks mixed in with the rest of the herd.

 

[BRoth82]

I shot a whitetail buck one year at 136 yards with my .270, it was slightly quartering towards me and as it spun around to take off I could have sworn I saw blood on its side. When I got to where it was standing I found a little bit of hair and 2 pin drops of blood, the only thing for direction of travel I had to go on was a deer trail leading into a very large swamp grass area. I searched that trail for 40-50 yards into the waist high grass and never found a drop of blood. I decided to go up on the top of the ridge (maybe 20' of elevation gain) and looking down into the grass, As luck would have it I spotted the leg of a deer caught up in one of the only little saplings around. When I got down there i found that my bullet had taken out both lungs and the heart but never touched a bone, so the exit hole was the same size as the entry hole. I back tracked where I thought the buck went and only found 2 more pin drops of blood over the 100 yards he traveled.

 

[elkduds]

On elk, frontal shots and shots above the midline on the rib cage can be closed by fat or tissue, and not bleed. Obviously, the barrel chest of an elk can hold a lot of blood until it rises to the level of the hole as well, even if the hole remains open. A cow I rifle-shot head-on (frontal) went 100 yards into the timber, then I heard her crash. Waited 20 min, then pursued. Found her piled up in blowdown, top of heart and one lung destroyed, no blood from entry wound, no exit wound.

 

[mplane72]

High lung hit with poor bullet performance can often results in poor blood trails. Have seen it plenty of times with broad heads too. Basically a through and through. Don't get much blood until lungs fill enough to get blood draining out hole. Usually get blood after a while but if animal drops in cover before that happens can be tough to find.

 

[Elkmagnet]

I have seen a lot of animals shot that didn't bleed until they tiped over.
One memorable one was a young Hunter who's father was a casual Hunter but trying really hard to get his son a doe. I invited them to our farm and offered to help him get his first deer. We got him a shot and the deer kicked and ran into the brush. I knew he had just killed his deer but they both looked deflated!? I asked why and the father said " this just keeps happening". A little puzzled I say "he just shot that deer" , "let's go look"
We get to the spot she was standing and a little hair and no blood. Now they look really deflated. "Just skinned her Just like the last one" I tell him we will track her tracks/path through the brush. He follows under protest. 1/4mi and an hour later I'm taking pictures of one happy young man and his father behind a dry old doe.
Later I found out he had "skinned" at least 4 does with his .223 before he got that one.

 

[Elkmagnet]

On another memorable hunt I was cow elk hunting with a muzzleloader and shot a cow that was bedded below me on a steep incline. The 370gr bullet entered high at a downward angle.(think tree stand angle) hitting the offside shoulder no exit. She quickly joined a herd going through the trees. There was some hair on the snow next to her bed but no blood.
Despite the 18" of snow I didn't find a drop of blood until I found her 100yds from where I lost sight of her.
I always try to shoot bullets that will give a pass through because I usually get good blood trails.

 

[brymoore]

My daughter shot an elk last fall high lung. No blood or hair to be found, we couldn’t find her after six of us spending four hours searching a thick north slope she hobbled towards. If I hadn’t seen the hit or the exit wound when she turned, I’d would have thought she missed it. We also have it on video. The cow died, it’s a matter of how far she could walk downhill before her lungs filled up with blood. We could only see a few feet in the brush searching for her.

 

[LWC55]

I used to have trouble getting good blood trails. Started using Nosler Partitions and seemed to solve that problem. Haven't had a tracking job since using them as everything I've shot has dropped within sight. But there have been two holes and lots of blood.....if needed for tracking. Not a huge sample but several deer, antelope, hogs, and a cow elk.

 

[Ben Long]

One of the most frustrating things ever. But it happens.

 

[338 win mag]

Shot a nice whitetail buck 2 years ago, hammered him with a 250g sst. 50 cal bullet with 150gr. of powder right in the shoulder at 20 yards! Went 75 yards and died. Never bled a drop. Not even a drop where he laid! Almost didnt find him. Seen it several other times also. One reason I love exit holes

 

[JLS]

It happens, even with proper bullets and textbook bullet performance. A high hit in the lungs or a high hit in the liver will both yield the same results: a long track that may very well end with no animal recovered.

I shot a mule deer buck with my bow many years ago. I hit him high and back, right through the liver. He took off at a dead sprint and covered about 3-400 yards before he collapsed. He was in an alfalfa field, so it was an easy recovery. However, it always really stuck with me how difficult he could have been to find in different conditions. There wasn't an iota of blood to trail.

Moral of the story, hit them low. A third of the way up and right in line with the front leg in the ">" the shoulder forms. Hit them there and they will fall within steps.

Tough deal. Been there, done that. It sucks and I don't like it.

 

[mtmuley]

Use a RUM and that kind of stuff won't happen. mtmuley

 

[Nick87]

I've seen it a few times with a bow and a rifle.both times with the bow was qaurteting away and the arrow lodged in the offside shoulder leaving no exit hole. The time with the rifle was a frontal/hard qaurteting to shot and the deer took off uphill leaving zero blood only to find him 125 yards away by making circles and stumbling into him in a washout.

 

[Paul in Idaho]

Thanks, everyone. I see several mentions of high hits causing this problem. That makes sense.