No blood no deer?

[STX_Shooter]

Shot at a spike this morning, he was at about 120 yards. Made what I thought was a good shot he bolted into the brush. I gave him 20 minutes, when I walked up to where he was standing to check for blood there was only fur but no blood. We’ve been on trail for over a hour and nothing. Does no blood = no deer?

[RiverRat1]

Shot at a spike this morning, he was at about 120 yards. Made what I thought was a good shot he bolted into the brush. I gave him 20 minutes, when I walked up to where he was standing to check for blood there was only fur but no blood. We’ve been on trail for over a hour and nothing. Does no blood = no deer?

100% does not mean that. We've found blood 60 yards away and not in the direction the shooter thought the buck ran. We've found at least 5 dead deer that left zero blood trail.

Some people don't like archers because they're unsure of a hit or clean miss. But you can find the arrow and know. With a gun people like to think no blood it's a miss but they kill far more deer than they think.. I promise as we go through this every year 2-3 times per year.

[Mayhem]

What color hair???

Sounds like you grazed the deer.


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[bowhunterhelm]

What caliber and what bullet? What color fur? What was the deers reaction when hit?

[billfromtx]

Shot at a spike this morning, he was at about 120 yards. Made what I thought was a good shot he bolted into the brush. I gave him 20 minutes, when I walked up to where he was standing to check for blood there was only fur but no blood. We’ve been on trail for over a hour and nothing. Does no blood = no deer?

No!!!!!! I’ve shot many deer that ran and didn’t find blood at the site it was shot.

[Paycheck]

Guy at the lease just 2 days ago shot a spike. It went 300 yards no blood found but spike was laying in trail.

[Bayouboy]

Don't just look on the ground. Look for blood on trees and or vegetation.

[psebowhunter]

I shot a buck Christmas Eve and had zero blood from where I shot him to where I found him. 308 cal with a 165 grain bullet. The bullet blew the top half of his heart off. I used to shoot Barnes bullets but I had 2 bucks that didn’t drop any blood when hit so I switched to Federal Fusion bonded soft points and again this happened.... zero blood. Guess I’ll switch back to good old Remington core-lokt bullets. Just because there is no blood doesn’t mean you didn’t make a good shot. Just look in the direction he ran, that’s how I found the 3 that didn’t drop any blood.

[RiverRat1]

No!!!!!! I’ve shot many deer that ran and didn’t find blood at the site it was shot.

Guy at the lease just 2 days ago shot a spike. It went 300 yards no blood found but spike was laying in trail.

I shot a buck Christmas Eve and had zero blood from where I shot him to where I found him. 308 cal with a 165 grain bullet. The bullet blew the top half of his heart off. I used to shoot Barnes bullets but I had 2 bucks that didn’t drop any blood when hit so I switched to Federal Fusion bonded soft points and again this happened.... zero blood. Guess I’ll switch back to good old Remington core-lokt bullets. Just because there is no blood doesn’t mean you didn’t make a good shot. Just look in the direction he ran, that’s how I found the 3 that didn’t drop any blood.

It's not good but it's good to know this happens to other people. Just shows it's super important to diligently look everywhere even when no blood is found. We've found one as far as 250 yards away. It's crazy and we got super lucky finding it.

Watch the deers reaction to the shot and you can usually tell (but not always) that it was at least hit.

[Bayouboy]

I shot a buck Christmas Eve and had zero blood from where I shot him to where I found him. 308 cal with a 165 grain bullet. The bullet blew the top half of his heart off. I used to shoot Barnes bullets but I had 2 bucks that didn’t drop any blood when hit so I switched to Federal Fusion bonded soft points and again this happened.... zero blood. Guess I’ll switch back to good old Remington core-lokt bullets. Just because there is no blood doesn’t mean you didn’t make a good shot. Just look in the direction he ran, that’s how I found the 3 that didn’t drop any blood.

I shoot Fusions in most of my rifles. They do a lot of damage on the inside. But, blood trails is not one of their finer points. Corelokts is what I have killed three bucks with this year out of my 270 and they do put more blood on the ground.

[Jon B]

My second buck ever....not a drop for 50 yards. Last 30 yards were colorful. High chest shot.

[Native Texan]

I shot a spike Sunday evening that left ZERO blood and ran 70 yards into thick brush. It was a low heart shot with a .243 and there was no exit hole. Shattered the leg bone and blew out the aorta but no pass through. Luckily I heard where he crashed brush and was able to go straight to him...after looking for 20 minutes for blood and getting worried I wouldn't find him. Even backtracking I found no blood.

I shot 2 hogs in one shot Saturday with the same bullet. Blew through the neck of a big sow and exploded the spine of the one behind her. You just never know what a bullet will do.

[BiggieSmalls]

The wife shot a buck a little far back, no blood, no hair and we watched him walk off and stand in the brush for about 20 mins then walk off like nothing happened. We crawled out of the blind and went back to the house for a few hours and went back with the rest of the lease crew, this was the one time we didn't have our Lacy with us. We searched for over an hour in some thick *** stuff and didn't find a hair, drop or sign of him. We went back to the same blind to that evening because he was a regular, no sign, so we knew he was down somewhere. Fast forward 6 days and I showed up with the dog and within 45 mins he finds him, we were within 30 yards of him the whole time..

Moral of the story, don't forget your dog if you have one..

[BradBryant1000]

It's not good but it's good to know this happens to other people. Just shows it's super important to diligently look everywhere even when no blood is found. We've found one as far as 250 yards away. It's crazy and we got super lucky finding it.

Watch the deers reaction to the shot and you can usually tell (but not always) that it was at least hit.

A few years back I shot at a deer that ran off after the shot. Like you mentioned I thought the deer was hit based off of his reaction to the shot. Waited a bit and went and looked. No blood and no deer close by. I looked and looked through the thick brush. Could not find anything. Kept going back to the deers reaction in my mind and just knew I hit the deer. Set down and regrouped. Started over with the looking. Found the deer within a few feet of an area I had looked over (but obviously didn't look good enough). There was a bunch of blood in the immediate area but none anywhere else.

[cvanbrunt]

Nope. Dad shot a doe high and back two weeks ago and had some hair but no blood at all. He looked for a couple hours. I brought my dog over and within 15 minutes I was loading her up.


The long line on the right side was where I forgot to stop the track and was driving out.


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