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Unusual experience with hornady xtp

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Daniel n

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I haven't hunted in 5 or 6 years until this year. I picked up a muzzleloader off of a buddy's dad for pretty cheap. It shoots great with hordady xtp. Was set at about 1 inch high at 50 yards. I shot a doe this evening at about 80 yards and made a good shot. When the smoke settled she was gone. I thought I heard her crash but I still went to search for blood. I looked for about 20 or so mins and never found the first drop. I walked the edge of the woods (shot her in a field) and seen her white belly. She only went about 50 yards total. She never bleed the first drop except where I found her. I was shooting 100 grounds of triple 7 with a hornady xtp bullet. I've had great success with that bullet and powder combination in the past. Wonder why I never found the first drop of blood?
 

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I've shot many different bullets with ml, and I've seen all of them not leave hardly a blood trail. Not unusual. With that being said I've had the best luck with Hornady or tc Shockwaves but even both of them I've seen deer with little to no blood. Most of the time it is because of no exit wound but my father in law shot a 7 point about 5 years ago that didn't bleed a drop and it went through.
 
Daniel n said:
I haven't hunted in 5 or 6 years until this year. I picked up a muzzleloader off of a buddy's dad for pretty cheap. It shoots great with hordady xtp. Was set at about 1 inch high at 50 yards. I shot a doe this evening at about 80 yards and made a good shot. When the smoke settled she was gone. I thought I heard her crash but I still went to search for blood. I looked for about 20 or so mins and never found the first drop. I walked the edge of the woods (shot her in a field) and seen her white belly. She only went about 50 yards total. She never bleed the first drop except where I found her. I was shooting 100 grounds of triple 7 with a hornady xtp bullet. I've had great success with that bullet and powder combination in the past. Wonder why I never found the first drop of blood?
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Witnessed same thing this morning with Barnes. Clear pass through, found deer 60-70 yds away. Double lung, found only blood within 5 yds of deer. Not very uncommon with muzzleloader although I can't quite understand it
 
EastTNHunter said:
Exit wound? If I was guessing the bullet that was designed for a pistol went in and expanded rapidly, leaving no exit wound. Lots of internal bleeding and no blood pumping out
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I shoot the Hornady SST with 240/250 grain and 100 grains of triple 7 pellets. Seldom get a shoot thru and what you wrote about "designed for a pistol…expanded rapidly, leaving no exit wounds" makes a lot of sense to me. The load kills them for me and I do get blood trails but seldom get pass through.
 
I've shot XTP's from 180gr-300gr. My all time favorite muzzleloader and hunting pistol bullet. (For me) the 180grs and the 200grs didn't exit the majority of the time. The deer were dead within 30yards but, didn't exit most times had good blood, sometimes did not. The deer were dead nonetheless. I went to 240's and have always had pass throughs, the same thing 30yards and dead deer with a much better blood trail. I've shot 3-4 with the 300's and they are dead a bit sooner. I did lose a buck a couple years ago after I shot him through the lungs (actually found pieces of lung at the shot site. Joe Biden would have thought it had been shot with a 9mm). I lost sight of the deer when I had to grab the stand to keep from falling out during the recoil. Awesome blood for 30' then total stop. I know that's extremely unusual and will keep using them. I love a hole in and out.
 
My favorite bullets with my In-Line, 44 mag rifle, and .444 Marlin. Usually great blood trails with all of them.

I've had your experience with different makes of bullets, as well as the XTP. It's not the norm for sure.
 
I don't know what it is about muzzleloaders, but I have shot a lot of deer with them using a lot of different bullets. You need a complete pass thru to get a good blood trail. I shot a buck one morning at 25 yards with 100 grains of 777 and a TC shockwave. Double lung, complete pass thru! I watched him cover 125 yards before he went into the woods. I waited 30 minutes and went looking for blood. When I found him, I back tracked and found blood for about 50 yards going back. It still amazes me how tough deer are and how far they can run on a lethal shot, especially with a muzzleloader!
 
I've shot 240 grain XTP's out of my muzzleloader forever with great success. They don't typically bleed much for about 50 yards but once it starts it's normally easy to follow if they're not dead before going that far. I've killed 2 bucks the past 2 years and both ran 75-100 yards and no blood until around the 50 yard mark.
 
mike243 said:
The higher up you shoot the longer it takes to get blood, down lower = faster blood trail. then you can get organs blocking holes that don't help, I really like that bullet and have killed several with it
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I use that bullet sabot combo and have had many outstanding, consistent, quick kills and easy tracks.. Rare to not have pass through and if no pass through usually a hard quartering shot that ended up under skin after breaking far shoulder/bone.
Looks like a nice double lung shot, assuming a level shot and probably with complete pass through but just didn't line up a spraying vein/artery.

Just my opinion but too many folks preach the high chest 300 mag (fast bullet) drop in tracks shot which again, in my opinion, makes for harder tracking with muzzleloader or trad bow or smaller mechanicals on medium fast bow/crossbow...

I high 💘 shoot with muzzleloader or bow and usually have spray by step 3 to 5. (I think next heart beat.) Higher than heart lung connection shot takes longer as said above or if deer heads down hill sometimes the blood flow fill the cavity with little "blow out".
 
Daniel n said:
I haven't hunted in 5 or 6 years until this year. I picked up a muzzleloader off of a buddy's dad for pretty cheap. It shoots great with hordady xtp. Was set at about 1 inch high at 50 yards. I shot a doe this evening at about 80 yards and made a good shot. When the smoke settled she was gone. I thought I heard her crash but I still went to search for blood. I looked for about 20 or so mins and never found the first drop. I walked the edge of the woods (shot her in a field) and seen her white belly. She only went about 50 yards total. She never bleed the first drop except where I found her. I was shooting 100 grounds of triple 7 with a hornady xtp bullet. I've had great success with that bullet and powder combination in the past. Wonder why I never found the first drop of blood?
Click to expand...
this is the reason I chose to shoot a smokeless...tired of poor blood trails and finding deer dead.
 
Pilchard said:
I shot a buck yesterday that did the same thing. Zero blood except where he coughed some up about 5 feet from where he died.

My shot was a touch high. Zero blood trail but when I gutted the deer his cavity inside the diaphragm had a massive amount of blood in it.

250 grain Barnes.
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This post is useless without pics. Come on now! You know better. 😆
 
Bullet performance....shot placement....exit wound location....size of the exit wound...all play a part in blood trails. I know many folks use them but personally, I never cared much for the XTP as a muzzleloader bullet. Best blood trails I've ever had with a muzzleloader was several years back when I was shooting a 410 gr flat point conical with 80-85 gr of Triple 7 out of an older model CVA Optima. That load never failed to give an exit wound and it produced some pretty large holes considering it was a flat point and not a hollow point. Broke my heart when Hornady quit making that weight in their conical line. Never could get the 385 gr ones to shoot near as well.
 

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