I was looking over the website stats and I saw a bunch of searches come through looking for the “best deer rifle for leaving blood trails.” I figured someone out there needs help. Here goes.

First off, why does anyone want a blood trail? I would think a fellow would rather have just a big puddle and a dead deer– saves a lot of walking, huh? Oh well. I guess that is just too darn easy, right?

Look up my post last year “Dreaming the DRT Dream.” That one was about bagging my #2 best buck last November. A few days later I woke up dreaming about improving the load on my Savage 99. I finally caught myself and repented. I have gone down the road before. The fact of the matter is a certain number of deer are going to either run, or walk away, or just stand there and look at you. I have had all three and if you dig around, you’ll find stories on my site about the more famous ones, like Hubert D. Buck who took three rounds of 35 Whelen at 80 yards and kept standing defiantly. Then there was the little doe I hit back in 2002– blew the whole side of her off with a 30-30 at 20 yards, and she kept on eating. No. Do not expect there to be any kind of consistency.

Most of my deer go down right where they are, or drop within sight of where they were hit. Of the ones that run, I have not had one run more than 80 yards in years. Blood trail? Usually not all that much, and not where it counts.

WHAT??? Shaman, you mean to tell me you shoot deer at close range with powerful medicine like 30-06 and 35 Whelen and don’t get a blood trail?

Yes. Okay, maybe I’m a bit picky. However, I’ve not had good luck with blood trails. When I shoot them, they tend to fall over dead and not leave much of a trail. When they do go, it usually takes 40 yards or more for the blood to start and by then I’m usually in sight of the carcass. Am I using the wrong bullet? If exit wounds are any indication, frequently I see exit wounds big enough to put a fist ( at least a few fingers) through with my Hornady Interlocks and Remmie Core-Lokts. The bullet is performing just fine. Is it the rifle? Come on! If the bullet makes that kind of hole as it’s leaving the deer, it isn’t the rifle or the deer. The fact of the matter is that the deer just does not have the kind of body that allows you to be all that fancy with bullet or rifle. A 30-30 will do it. A 30-06 will do it. A 35 Whelen or a 7mm Rem Mag or a .416 Rigby won’t do it any better.

Now, I’ve tackled two parts of the equation: the bullet and the rifle. Now comes the tricky part, the hunter. Look, I am not trying to say that a perfect shot with the right rifle and the right bullet will always cause a blood trail. There are a bunch of factors. What I am driving at is shot placement plays a huge part. Boiler Room shots will be the most likely to provide a blood trail. You need blood for a blood trail, and taking out both lungs will get you the blood flow you need. I usually also manage to take out the top of the heart. You need an exit wound on the lower part of the chest. The lower the better. Gravity does most of the work here. The blood has to pool in the chest to the height of the wound before you get some leaking out. If the wound (exit or entrance ) is too high, blood will never get to the wound. Instead it will keep sloshing about in the chest cavity. Hunting from a stand and shooting slightly down at the deer will give you the best chance of low exit wound and the best blood trail.

Even then, rifle, bullet, shot placement all just so, you will probably not see a lot of blood for several yards. As I said before, most deer that I have had run on me, had huge blood trails that started only about 20 yards before the deer fell over and died. It is therefore important to mark exactly where you shot and exactly where the deer was when you shot, the path the deer took and where it was when it disappeared from sight.

What’s left? Distance. A bullet fired from a rifle loses a lot of its motive power as it moves through the air. Don’t expect a 300 yard shot with a 30-06 to be as devastating as one taken at 50. A consistent rest– shooting offhand invariably throws my shots off. I always try to work from a steady rest. A stationary target — If the deer is moving you won’t be able to pick that right spot on the chest. Running deer? That is an invitation to a gutshot. In that case, you’ve got worse things to be thinking about besides the blood trail.

I hope this answer helps someone. The bottom line here is any rifle that can punch its way through the other side of a deer should give you what you want. The trick is delivering the shot to the right spot and not expecting everything to go right 100% of the time.

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What, no blood trail? Blood Trails, etc. The Case for Cheap Bullets So What Now? Blood Trail Philosophy — Push or Wait? The Search for IT(Bloodtrail) Which is More? (a Rem 742 or a 30-06) First Blood with the Muzzleloader