Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Accubond performance 270 Win 140gr

If you just HAVE to have a blood trail, use a 45-70 with a 400+ grain LBT style bullet. You don't have to load it hot, 1400-1600 fps or so. Pretty much leaves a 1+ inch hole, all the way through. From whatever angle, even the infamous THS.

Thing is, when you shoot a critter with it, they tend not to go far...in my experience, anyway.

I've had fine on-deer performance from accubonds in a variety of calibers ranging from 130 grainers out of my 6.5 Swede to 200 grainers out of my 338 WM. I can also say the same about bullets made by Sierra, Hornady, Speer, Remington, Barnes, Swift, Federal as well as other offerings from Nosler.

Shot placement is everything.

A running deer(or any animal for that matter)can cover some ground beofre the blood starts to low,depending on where he is hit..

I sorta screwed up on a Manitoba whitetail;he was in the open but moving and when the trigger broke he had just entered the willows and I was in mid squeeze,too late to call it back;the 160 Partition tumbled and struck him(sideways spinning out both cores) high in the body,through the liver,tearing it up....

I did not know this at the time,followed in the snow for a bit over 120 yards or so,and the deer was running fine.I returned to the stand,somewhat convinced I had missed, but I still had that image in my head of the reticle against him when the trigger broke.

My guide heard me shoot,came and asked what happened.I told him and he said..."Did he run off with the wind to his ass?...I thought and said yes, he did,he turned at a right angle,downwind almost as soon as he entered the bush....He said "You hit him....a wounded buck will try to run downwind so he can keep track of the threat that he thinks will be following behind him..."

Mmmmmm.....

We went another 50 yards beyond where I stopped trailing...and the first drops of blood showed in the snow;the buck was lying, dead,just ahead....he had traveled a pretty fair distance before his body cavity had filled enough to spill out...

Shot placement was not so hot that time,but some savvy knowledge by the guide saved the day....

JB - There are many that would argue with me, but I have shot enough animals with different calibers to form a distinct opinion. And that is that larger calibers make a difference. Animals just seem to make fewer tracks and leave better blood trails when I smack them with bullets of 338 diameter and above. That is not to say that I thinks bullets under 338 cal are not effecient killers, just that the 338 and over do it somewhat better. That said my favorite whitetail load is a 358 Win 200 Hornady spire point at a tick under 2500 FPS. So I for one definetely agree with your quoted statement above.

I took 9 deer with AB in a .270 or .300 jarrett last year with the same results. No blood trail if shot under 100yds and deer would run quite a ways. Deer shot at longer ranges in chest bled more and dropped faster. The .270 shoots 140gr. and the .300 shoots 299 gr.

This year I have shot 2 bucks with AB. Two were shot with 200 gr. AB at close range. The first one was shot a little high in the rib cage and it ran 50 yds into brush with no blood trail at dark. The second one was shot in the front shoulder and managed to limp away about 50 yds. Couldnt beleive it as I watchted him walking away the gun jammed> Pressure problem I think. Got another round in him at 150 yds through the chest and he was still kicking! Gun jammed again. Finally got a 3rd shot into neck and he was still trying to breath when I got there! Couldnt believe it.I recovered the shoulder bullet and it weighed 134 gr. and exhibited perfect expansion and good weight retention through bone.

Earlier this year I posted that i made 2 lung shots on does with an '06 and 165 gr Partitions and both of them ran 100 yds with no blood trail we could find. Shot at dark so that hurts.

Anyway, my experience is try to shoot lower for a heart shot at closer distances and you will get good blood or go for any shot that hits the shoulder and shatters bone.

Typo on the 299 gr. Should read 200 gr.

I shot a small buck @ about 100yds with my 257 wby and 110 grain Accubond this year. The deer took off tail up at the shot like nothing happened. I got over there and didn't find any blood. I walked about 30 yds in the direction he ran and found him dead, not a speck of blood in between. I shot him broadside center of the chest and the bullet did exit. Inside the chest cavity was soup. I was kind of disappointed because I wanted a bang flop, but the bullet did it's job as far as I'm concerned.
Had a friend of mine shoot a doe @ about 200yds with a .270 and 130 gr Accubond. He hit kind of low and damn near blew her front legs off. She dropped right there

FWIW..In the last 60 years I've killed well over 200 ungulates, with [if my count is complete] 15 different cartridges, bullets by Sierra, speer, hornady, nosler, remington, north fork and doubtless others I csn't remember. I've lost two animals, a whitetail buck that jumped out of a blind canyon that I shot too far back, trailed him for over a mile across a mesquite flat until he droped off into another really rough, rocky canyon...another that a shot about ten feet from a boundry fence, he jumped the fence, then droped into a canyou...the landowner would not let us retrive him.. My experience is that if you shoot em' in the chest they are dead and likely not too far away. Dosen't matter if they are whitetails, muledeer, elk, kudu, eland or what.

Exit holes don't gaurantee blood trails. Oddly though my favorite deer gun in the brush has become my 35 Whelen pushing the 200 grain round nose corelokt or the Hornady spire point of the same weight pushed to just under 2500 fps. I hate to make generalities but so far I have been getting short but usable blood trails every time so far. Even on feral hogs. It seems to me if I hit a deer in the chest say with a 130 Ballistic Tip from my 270 with it still going 3000 fps when it hits, what is left in the chest won't be pumping much blood. If the hole is low enough in the chest the "slurry" may leak out some but generally the deer doesn't go far enough for me to worry about said blood trail.

Im surprised. My brother and I have used the Pro Hunters for quite a few years and they've been phenomenal. I will say that a bulk of those were before I bought a chrony and found the load we'd been using was pushing them about 2750 fps.

It more often then not depends how high up in the chest you hit them.
Low in the chest will give plenty off blood easy to follow and I use 130 grain Hornady F.B. Higher up the chest there will be less blood since the blood drains down into the chest cavity, and it takes a while before the blood level comes to the level of the exit/entry holes. In the meantime the animal can run quite a distance.

2 years ago I shot 2 caribou in Canada with my 325WSM using 200 gr.Accubonds,they both were knock off their feet when the bullet hit them.Our guide and the guy I was hunting with and myself heard a very loud smack when the bullet hit them.Blood was everywhere on the ground behind them where the bullet had passed thru them,227yds. and 278yd shots.

I been using the Accubond exclusively for the last 2-3 seasons. I've shot a fair # of animals from deer to caribou. I use 140 grains in a 280, 165 grains in a 300WSM, & 180 grains in a 300 Win, 300Wthby, & 300 Rums. I have been very very impressed with the Accubonds overall performance. The 165s out of the 300WSM has been flat awesome on deer. I think I have about 6 deer taken with it. 4 were bang flops and 2 ran 40-50 yards pumpin blood. I've recovered 1 bullet. YMMV 163bc