I was out saturday morning and shot at a nice 8 point. I was a little rushed in shooting and had an odd angle. I found no blood or hair and no trail. I assumed I missed and went on. Last night the neighbor called and said they found an 8 point Sunday afternoon and thought it might be ours. He said it looked like a perfect double lung shot and could not figure out why there was no blood trail or blood on the deer's mouth. The entry and exit wound were both very small. I was using a 270. He said something about the deer's lungs not being inflated at the time of the shot.....????? Any help would be appreciated.

makes no sense

Anytime there was a deer shot thru the lungs there was at least SOME blood on the ground or in the area...they usually DONT go far & looked like they caughed up most of what was left of their lungs.

Three years ago I shot a real nice 8 in what appeared to be right through the lungs from about 150 yards. Saw good blood trail from the shot and about 15 yards down the trail, found a huge cough spot on the ground (lots of blood). The trail went on for about a half mile down to a creek bottom. I wondered up and down the other side, and picked up the trail, which gradually went away with less and less spots. Never could find the guy after searching for 2 days. It was late in the season, and didn't hunt any after that. Kills me to this day. I don't understand how he got away. Luckily, any shot before and after that, have only gone 20-30 yards if any.

My wife shot an 8 point 2 years ago with my .30-06 right through both shoulders at 200 yds. I saw it take the hit through my binos and it ran down through the creek. We gave it a minute to die and then walked over towards where we hit it. I found absolutely no blood but did find its tracks. We followed it down into the creek (8 feet deep) and up the other side. At least we though those were its tracks. We tracked it all the way across the other field and then up over the fence onto the neighbors property. Still no blood. She had missed a nice 10 pt the week before that so we assumed she missed. This was her first year hunting and she hadn't been shooting much before that either.
Well, those tracks weren't from her deer. We went back to the creek and I was trying to show her about how to look at tracks, how deep they are when the deer is running, how fresh they are and so on. Then a little white caught my eye. I looked over in a big ravine next to the set of tracks we had trailed and saw him laying there! There was still no blood anywhere. The muscles in the legs had kept it from bleeding and leaving a trail. It's a good thing I decided to show her about tracks or we would never have found that deer. You couldn't even see it from the creek.

Umm heres some help,SHOOT A MANS GUN and he will bleed!

I shot my buck (below) with my .308 & you see where it went in(shoulder) but due to his angle it came out ont he other side just a few inches in front of the ham(in the gut). We NEVER found ANY blood. Just searched the briars where I heard him crash & was lucky enough to find him. Like I said..we found NO blood even tho the bullet exited in a hole the side of a tennis ball.

Not all deer are alike...never know.

I think the real solution of your problem might deal more with the type of bullet you were using versus the caliber. The great Texas white-tail hunter John Wooters says Federal Nozzlers are the best at leaving exit wounds. I'm hoping to get some sometime this Christmas.

The bullet thing might be a point. Hollow point vs lead etc....what were you shooting? maybe you should go for a head shot next time??

head shots are BAD ideas IMO

Neck??

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Umm heres some help,SHOOT A MANS GUN and he will bleed!

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I wan't going to add my story till I saw this. One year, I shot a Mule Deer in Wyoming with a .338mag at about 50 yards. He showed no sign of being hit. I watched him cut across a clearing, jump over a log, and go into the black timber. Since I saw hin jump the log, I KNEW what path he had taken. I looked for blood for a long time and finally just went into the timber where he did. After about 50 yards, I knelt down and saw the white hair of his belly laying on the ground. Now I knew exactly what path he had taken from the shot till he died. I backtracked and never found a single drop of blood. He had a .338 sized hole between 2 ribs going in and a .338 sized hole between 2 ribs exiting (both a cople inches behind his shoulder). The Nosler Partition zipped right through him and meeting no resistance, did not expand at all. Had I not been able to see well enough to see him jump that log, I probably wouldn't have found him.

So yeah, most of the time a double lung shot deer will bleed pretty well. But not EVERY time.

In my opinion the neck shots are the best. I went from using a 270 that I had lost a couple with to a 22-250 and started only shooting neck shots. Never lost one and no tracking with it, one shot and straight down they go. It usually boils down to shot placement.

Have any of these deer that ran off with no blood been shot with ballistic tips? Just curious.

My wifes was. I use ballistic tips (or A-max) almost exclusively for deer and I've always had a great blood trail, although I haven't ever actually had to trail one, except the one with my wife and there was no blood on that one. Figures when you need the blood trail there isn't one.

Me and my wife each got a buck this weekend, and there was no blood trail. Mine didn't even bleed in the back of my truck. I shot it with a .30-06 using hornady light mag 150 gr SST's. It only went about 5 yards, but there was no blood. It had air bubling up through the entry hole though.

IMO neck has some GREAT meat too. To each his own though

I shoot 25-06 with Federal BTSP 117 grain rounds, and they have performed outstanding on big North Texas bucks. There is a drawback though, little to no blood at all, and it has concerned me, but not enough to change ammo. If it is a shot inside of 100 yards, then usually I get some blood, but not past that. The majority of the time I have a pencil sized entry hole, that is often hard to find, and almost always I can find the bullet lodged just inside of the deer's hide on the opposite side of his body. Every time I find that scenario, the buck literally dropped in his tracks, and there was massive tissue damage inside, makes for a fun field dressing session. Love my 25-06!

I had a double lung shot on a mulie with a .270 which didn't hit a rib on either side...same story you guys had. No blood. Luckily I was 225 yards away across a canyon so he had no idea where the shot came from and couldn't decide which way to run. Basically didn't move for 1 minute and then dropped dead as I was glassing him trying to figure out whether to take another shot.

But now I'm shooting a 7mm WSM which does a little more damage through the chest cavity...haven't had the same problem with this one.

I still shoot a .270 but my point of aim has changed. I shoot a 150gr bullet and aim for the front shoulder. If I break both his shoulders, he's not going anywhere. You lose some meat (probaly less than 2lbs) on the shoulders but the deer is usually laying right where he was standing.

My son has a 243. I shot a buck with it right through the lungs and found no blood. It was an 80 yard shot. I got lucky and found the deer about 70 yards down a trail. Last year my son took a doe with it ( right through the heart ) and same thing no blood. Deer found 30 yards from where he shot it. I changed from 95 grain powder point to 95 grain ballistic tips this year. My son shot a buck ( right through top of heart bottom of lungs ). He said it hit the ground kicked twice and died. IMO for vital shots on deer you just can't beat ballistic tips.

Use a mans gun? Why would you EVER need ANYTHING bigger than a .270 in Texas for deer?

Because you would like to wake up everyone back at camp when the trigger gets pulled on one of the larger caliber guns. I did earlier this year and before my ears quit ringing I was getting txt msgs telling me they were still in bed and weren't going to help skin it.

I have trailed more deer shot with 270s than any other caliber. On lung shots I have learned to look for blood not where the deer was actually standing but along the trajectory of the exiting bullet. I have found blood and lung parts doing this that started well behind where the deer was.