Hey guy, so the last couple years, I find I’m getting A Lot of blood shot meat on my whitetail deer hunts… this year I shot a little 4x4 buck and went through the ribs, both lungs, out the other side, but entry side a 1 foot blood shot area, and the exit size side had a 2 foot blood shot area…
Had to scrap 1/2 of the one front shoulder…
For context, I’m shooting a 7mm-08 using Barnes ttsx 120 grain going 2900 fps
What can I do to help reduce/ prevent this???
Different bullet? (Tho I thought a cooper would be better then an exploding cup and core)
Lower velocity? (I chose this caliber over a magnum to be more conservative with white tails)
My first suggestion as i was reading your comment was to try a copper bullet. But I guess you already are
I use an ELDX or Berger most of the time and get minimal blood shot meat but I’m not sure why that would be since it’s fragmenting.
Really don’t understand what causes it sometimes. I once saw a 6.5 creed with a Nosler ballistic tip that ruined both front quarters entirely. Never seen so much bloodshot meat.
I’ve been shooting nothing but Barnes ammo out of my 7mm-08 since 2003. Memory is a little fuzzy but I believe back then it was just the TSX, they hadn’t invented the ttsx yet. The only time I’ve dealt with ruining meat on the shoulder was when I would hit the shoulder itself.
I wonder if you hit a bone and sent bone shrapnel into the shoulder, but I wouldn’t think it would affect both sides…Trying to figure out why the entrance shoulder would be messed up.
Like mwoolsey suggested did you see bone fragmentation when examining the blood shot area? If you hit a rib/shoulder bone it could fragment and that will damage a lot of soft tissue.
You might try a heavier bullet on your next hunt.
I use Winchester Ballistic Silvertip 30-06 Springfield Ammo 180 Grain Polymer Tip ammunition for controlled expansion and penetration up to 500 yards.
I hunted for deer one season with 150gr Core-Lokt bullets because I could not find any 180gr bullets. This smaller bullet-weight appeared to cause more significant meat damage than I had experienced before. It could be coincidence but every hunt since then I have used 180gr bullets except two years ago when I used Hornady Precision Hunter 30-06 178 Grain Hornady ELD-X Polymer Tip. With these bullet weights I don’t normally see too much blood shot meat on White Tail. It also depends on the bullet’s construction and bullet placement.
I have seen Whitetail shot with a 270 gr .375 H&H Magnum, and they didn’t exhibit much bloodshot meat either. I also shot a blacktail at 60yds with a .50 caliber muzzle loader shooting a 300gr conical bullet with 90gr FF black powder and there was no bloodshot meat at all. It put an impressive broomstick size hole through and through the lungs/chest cavity.
Granted, these deer were killed with a heart/double-lung shot, providing a clean, quick kill which may make a difference too.
In my experience the heavier bullet provides deeper penetration with a good exit wound, resulting in less meat damage.
The obvious solution is to use a bullet with less expansion but then you risk killing the deer without a blood trail to follow and the possibility of not finding the animal. I, personally, would not make that trade. I would much rather have a dead deer in hand with bloodshot damage than one in the bush without. As my dad is fond of saying, “At what point in the deers death did your bullet fail”?
