6.5mm No Blood Trail

hawk-i said:
If they are overpopulated to the point of starvation then yeah it makes sense as they would have a low survival rate during the winter anyways.

Other than that its IMHO just taking away from future opportunities that could be shared by existing or new hunters.

We as hunters need to maintain and hopefully increase our numbers if we want hunting to survive...just my opinion though :)
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...and if you look down on people for shooting a legal animal then they may not shoot very many animals and give up hunting altogether. Ive seen it with my own eyes.
 
blasted_saber said:
...and if you look down on people for shooting a legal animal then they may not shoot very many animals and give up hunting altogether. Ive seen it with my own eyes.
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I'm not looking down on anyone, just thought shooting does wasn't a good idea. However I can now see that indeed there may be a necessity to it in over populated areas..:)
 
time4t said:
Healthy populations require the cull of does as well as bucks. If they are open and legal in your area, and you don't want to take one- that is your business.
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I agree with what was said above. I remember a handful of years back, the muzzleloading WMU we hunt in SW Ontario, you could walk into the MNR office and purchase an additional 6 doe tags per hunter on top of your original buck/doe tag for a total of 7. It was an absolute slaughter for the larger groups.
 
Funny, I had the exact same experience this fall. First time using 6.5 Creedmoor, two deer, 170 and 250 yards, both dead within 20 yards but zero external bleeding. The WT at 250 stood for several minutes before laying down and croaking. Loads of internal damage on both.

I've used .308 almost extensively for 20+ years (with a rifle that has no sporting purpose in Canada, but now I don't even own guns, thinking of the children, you know) and shot a lot of deer, always lots of blood to follow.
Maybe it was shot placement on mine. Both were center of the rib cage, above the water line so to speak.
 
Funny, I had the exact same experience this fall. First time using 6.5 Creedmoor, two deer, 170 and 250 yards, both dead within 20 yards but zero external bleeding. The WT at 250 stood for several minutes before laying down and croaking. Loads of internal damage on both.

I've used .308 almost extensively for 20+ years (with a rifle that has no sporting purpose in Canada, but now I don't even own guns, thinking of the children, you know) and shot a lot of deer, always lots of blood to follow.
Maybe it was shot placement on mine. Both were center of the rib cage, above the water line so to speak.
 
hawk-i said:
Yeah, I get that but so are young bucks and they don't impact the population the way shooting does do.
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I used to think like that too, but I'm starting to change my point of view. It used to be just my brother and I hunting, and the last time he shot a doe was 7 years ago. The last time I shot one personally was '02. I've been leaving them alone hoping the population would increase. It hasn't. Instead, it's crashed. There are fewer deer around this year than there have been since the '70's.
 
Had this occur with a couple of deer and much bigger bullets. One that really amazed me was a double-lung pass through from my 280Rem and a 150 grain pill. I knew I hit the buck hard as I watched the hair splay behind the shoulder but there was only a hint of blood left on the snow where he stood at the shot. He disappeared into the think bush and ran for almost 100 metres. Thankfully I had fresh snow to follow the footprints as I might not have found him if the ground had been bare. Lungs were shredded and I could not believe there was no blood to trail. Bullet was a little high so it follows in with Cat's comment.
 
9.3mauser said:
I used to think like that too, but I'm starting to change my point of view. It used to be just my brother and I hunting, and the last time he shot a doe was 7 years ago. The last time I shot one personally was '02. I've been leaving them alone hoping the population would increase. It hasn't. Instead, it's crashed. There are fewer deer around this year than there have been since the '70's.
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Winter is the hammer when it comes to deer. Always will be. It controls everything about their lives.

If you have a legal tag, use it.
 
Shot placement has everything to do with the blood trail, as experienced. If too high all/most the blood remains within the animal and does not leak out to give a good blood trail. I arrowed a deer that produced similar results...no blood to speak of for over 60 yards, but piled up dead within 100. Also as mentioned animal position and animal condition will have its effects of covering the wounds and preventing a good blood trails.
As mentioned, a single experience is not a realistic sample of overall performance. Do not lose faith in your rifle/ammunition combination too quickly.
And if you are really concerned and want to ensure good blood trails every single time an animal runs after the shot (the norm, not the exception, regardless what people show on tv or claim on-line), then a larger caliber placed lower in the vitals (lower third of chest) will potentially provide such a result.
Don't get me wrong, I love the 6.5's! My favourite is the Swede (on my 4th rifle), and I still have my Creedmoor. Have also owned rifles in 260 Rem and 6.5x284. Next rifle added to the stable will be a 6.5 PRC. Have never had an issue or disappointment on game with a 6.5 in28 years of using them. Just plain fun to shoot!

As for does vs bucks...if you have followed the successful game management practices used in several other countries around the world (but unfortunately not in Canada to the same extent, if at all), a healthy buck:doe (or bull:cow) ratio is required for healthy herds and fawn/calf recruitment. Shooting all the bucks and no does means there aren't enough bucks required to ensure the does are properly covered to maximize fawn production. An equally important factor that is often overlooked in this equation, is managing the predator populations too.
 
BlackRam said:
Shot placement has everything to do with the blood trail, as experienced. If too high all/most the blood remains within the animal and does not leak out to give a good blood trail. I arrowed a deer that produced similar results...no blood to speak of for over 60 yards, but piled up dead within 100. Also as mentioned animal position and animal condition will have its effects of covering the wounds and preventing a good blood trails.
As mentioned, a single experience is not a realistic sample of overall performance. Do not lose faith in your rifle/ammunition combination too quickly.
And if you are really concerned and want to ensure good blood trails every single time an animal runs after the shot (the norm, not the exception, regardless what people show on tv or claim on-line), then a larger caliber placed lower in the vitals (lower third of chest) will potentially provide such a result.
Don't get me wrong, I love the 6.5's! My favourite is the Swede (on my 4th rifle), and I still have my Creedmoor. Have also owned rifles in 260 Rem and 6.5x284. Next rifle added to the stable will be a 6.5 PRC. Have never had an issue or disappointment on game with a 6.5 in28 years of using them. Just plain fun to shoot!

As for does vs bucks...if you have followed the successful game management practices used in several other countries around the world (but unfortunately not in Canada to the same extent, if at all), a healthy buck:doe (or bull:cow) ratio is required for healthy herds and fawn/calf recruitment. Shooting all the bucks and no does means there aren't enough bucks required to ensure the does are properly covered to maximize fawn production. An equally important factor that is often overlooked in this equation, is managing the predator populations too.
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Mainly because its incredibly hard to do and with the amount of people that predator hard basically ineffective.
 
I never got to see Bambi in it's entirety. Game management sort of ebbs and flows with the amount does it allows harvested.
Does are better eating and horns make thin soup.
On the upside, the Elk numbers are down from the stratosphere locally and the 'Speed Goats' have rebounded from a really bad winter about 8-9 years ago.
WM seems to be doing their job... other than letting people kill Bambi's mom...
 
tokguy said:
I never got to see Bambi in it's entirety. Game management sort of ebbs and flows with the amount does it allows harvested.
Does are better eating and horns make thin soup.
On the upside, the Elk numbers are down from the stratosphere locally and the 'Speed Goats' have rebounded from a really bad winter about 8-9 years ago.
WM seems to be doing their job... other than letting people kill Bambi's mom...
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Not here it doesnt. Winter controls everything. Doe harvest is heavily restricted to the point that it has effectively no bearing on the population. If you have a doe tag, you might as well use it.
 
blasted_saber said:
Not here it doesnt. Winter controls everything. Doe harvest is heavily restricted to the point that it has effectively no bearing on the population. If you have a doe tag, you might as well use it.
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Sad to heard that friend...more Snowflakes down your way?
And that's an honest question...not an insult.
 
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