Ask and ye shall receiveeugenesan wrote: ↑Tue Aug 27, 2019 11:59 pm Thank you guys for such valuable information, I really appreciate it.
As someone who just trying to get into the hunting, I will need help understanding what "bloodshot shoulder" means.
Does that refer to the bleeding out of entry and exit wounds, due to heavy damage of the surrounding tissue?
Is "bloodshot shoulder" is an undesirable thing that should be avoided?
When some area of the animal is "bloodshot" that means the tissue/meat/area is kind of like a goopy jelly consistency and massively bruised.
Here is an image of a deer with bloodshot ribs where the bullet existed. You can easily see a massive difference in tissue texture and color from the other parts of the deer that were not affected verses the bloodshot exit area of the ribs:
Bloodshot meat is not desirable. Technically you could eat it but its really no good and if hunting with lead it is probably wise to avoid that tissue anyway.
Bloodshot is going to happen. It is the bi-product of a bullet slamming into an animal at hi speed. If you hit a deer with your car and skinned it you would find a lot of the same tissue where the car hit it (so I've been told).
Many people who meat hunt will avoid shooting a deer in the shoulders so that the front leg shoulder meat does not get ruined/bloodshot.
I've noticed that the 300BLK doesn't produce a whole lot of bloodshot tissue for the most part. With non-lead 300BLK specific bullets I have noticed even less blood shot than with lead bullets. So much so that I can shoulder shoot deer and really not lose much of any of the shoulder meat to being bloodshot.
Now when I shoot deer in the shoulder with my 30-06 the whole of the shoulders (entry and exit) look like that bloodshot mess in the image. Those legs are and that meat is basically useless and becomes dog food.
The 30-06 shoots a 150gr bullet way faster and harder than what the 300BLK with 110gr -130gr hunting bullets I have used. I've killed many deer using 7 different bullets in the 300BLK and none of them produce any kind of bloodshot damage like the image above.
Bleeding out is really more of a passive side effect of shooting the deer. Bloodshot tissue is the result of massive force and trauma being inflicted upon the animal with the bullet.
Now it does seem to me that if you have a faster traveling bullet you get better blood and bleed out. When discussing this with a game meat hunter friend he agrees and thinks it is a result of the bullet causing more of an outward vacuum/suction effect of the bullet whizzing through the animal and causing everything in the animal to want to follow and come out of the woulds.
Where a slower projectile that doesn't leave a massive exit wound may not cause the outward effect at all or may result in air/suction going from outside the animal and into the animal through the wounds.
It all seems to make logical sense to me but don't quote me on saying that this is the factual behavior that is happening lol.
If you are meat hunting (eating the animal) then you want to reduce the amount of bloodshot to good edible meat IF you can but you might have other reasons to ignore that idea. Like if the animal doesn't present a betters angle and its let the animal go or deal with a little bloodshot tissue.
In my case I don't seem to ever get much of a blood trail from the 300BLK to follow in my hunting terrain. Additionally tracking with little blood in the dark (from evening hunts) makes things way more complicated. So I elect to go double-lung shoulder shots with the 300BLK when I can. The deer don't run very far with two bad legs and two blasted lungs
Another reason may be that you are using a rifle that doesn't have the best grouping or taking a longer shot that gives less accurracy so you just square up in the middle of the shoulder or vital area knowing you will make a good vital shot but you will likely wind up with some bloodshot tissue.
I will suffer some bloodshot to know I will be able to find/recover the animal. No matter what only take good shots and treat the animal with respect.
Since you are getting into hunting please keep the questions coming and you will find it is a good community here that is willing to help whether the question is beginner level, advanced, or just wild curiosity