Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Meat Damage….

The meat damage “formula” and guesswork on how much meat damage will occur when shooting an animal is a mystery to me.

One of these shoulders was taken with archery equipment using a 200 grain 2 blade single bevel broadhead and one shoulder was shot at 200 yards with a 175 gr Barnes LRX from a .300 Win Mag with a muzzle velocity of 3035 FPS.





Which do you think is which?

Spoiler….. the bloodshot shoulder was from my bull elk that was taken with the archery equipment and the “clean” shoulder is from a cow moose taken with the .300 mag.. I lost quite a bit of meat from my bull but we’re able to eat up to the bullet hole on the moose…

Thoughts?

Todd

Was the bloodshot area where the broadhead came to rest and got moved around as the bull ran?

No… just where it popped through the scapula on exit.

Todd

My thoughts on bloodshot meat is "sometimes" if the animal doesn't die quickly,trauma of the wound sends signals to try to stop the bleeding resulting in a lot of blood clots.Then there are bullets that tend to shed a lot of weight or even explode.That can cause massive bloodshot meat.Judging by your pictures,the cow most likely dropped on the spot.The mono bullet doesn't really loose any weight,bloodshot tissue was probably mostly caused by exploded bone fragments.The bull probably lived a little longer.Much of that bloodshot meat could be salvaged by scraping a lot of the clots from the meat.

The whole point of a bullet or a broadhead is to cause damage. Ideally a nice wide path through parts of the animal immediately essential to its life (and, perhaps, its locomotion). If you don't want meat damage, don't put the bullet or broadhead through meat. Either that or reconcile yourself to the idea that you'll likely lose some.

Personally, I've shot deer with a range of calibres of rifle, and with broadheads, and I'm not surprised at the damage caused by that arrow. I'm a little surprised at how little damage was done by the bullet.

Ideally I would have put the arrow through the ribs, not the shoulder, not because I'd worry about meat damage, but penetration. I often do shoot bullets into the scapula though, and have reconciled myself that in return for usually putting the animal down very effectively, due to the arteries, veins and nerve junction behind it, I will lose some meat as a result of that placement.

when i hunted archery i always waited for the deer to get a double lung shot (behind the shoulder). yes you would loose some meat, you would have a hole that was made by 3 bladed mechanical broadhead. there was next no bloodshot meat.

i use cast bullets for about 11 or 12 years and there is next no bloodshot meat, entrance and exit wound (mostly behind the shoulder). i use them in 7x57, 30 Remington, 30-40 Krag, 8x57, 35/30-30, 9.3x57, 44 SPL, 44 Rem Mag, 444 Marlin, 45-70 and 500 Linebaugh.

now jacketed bullets are another story. bloodshot is the name of game. i got tired of throwing the shoulder away or the ribs. i have a 270 Win that uses 130gr Nosler BT and IMR4320 going about 3000+ fps. i shot deer up close and with that velocity, the bullet is a hand grenade. i used that for several years, when i had thought come thru my hard head. "why don't you slow the bullet down?" said my brain. so i did. 2800fps for the 130gr NBT and the next year i had a bullet that expanded leaving no fragments and it went thru the deer leaving blood to follow. there was some bloodshot meat, but nowhere near the 3000fps i used to use.

i learned that 2800fps is about it, unless you like using a hand grenade. 2800fps on the NBT or Hornady SST on every caliber is the way to go. i used them in 25-06, 6.5CM, 7-08, 7x57, 270 Win and the '06. there's a couple of more, but i forget alot.

Ever had your Johnson slammed in the fridge door?

On purpose or accident? Just asking

From what I can tell, at least on elk. Not much experience with deer. It seems like where the animal his hit has more effect than what it's hit with.

Lotta truth on where you hit it and the striking velocity factor. Less than skillful knife work butchering it sure gives back some of the meaning of "butchering" also.. you asked for opinions
.mb

Shot the bull on a hard quartering too shot at 10 yards and closing. I figured this was likely the shot I was going to be presented with and set my bow up to handle it. The broadhead torqued through a lot of bone both entry and exit. I’m still surprised about the amount of damage though..



The moose was bedded and didn’t twitch after the shot. I’m still surprised by how little damage though.

Thanks for the input!

Todd

Not everyone places the bullet or broadhead exactly where they want to every time there Quigley.

Not surprised. The broadhead kills by causing extremely fast exsanguination and should be sharp enough that the nervous system doesn't necessarily register the damage or react to it because the blade cuts nerve ending cleanly. The resulting blood loss can work its way into the intermuscular tissues very quickly. With the .300 Win Mag I am surprised at the lack of damage, but by the time it hits 200 yards that heavy bullet is at 2800 fps or below, which has been, in my experience, the threshold below which the hematoma damage decreases because of velocity loss.
I grew up killing deer with proper rifles in South Dakota. Then I got married and moved to Iowa and have been using single shot pistols in .454 Casull or .357 Max ever since. Both of those cartridges deliver heavy bullets at moderate velocities and I can normally eat right up to the hole and they send bullets lengthwise through the deer, if necessary.

Mono bullets typically expand to lesser frontal area than C&C so you typically have less meat damage. I have had similar experience with "eating right up to the hole". That said I once lost an entire shoulder on a deer shot with a 180gr X bullet out of a 300RUM so if you hit bone all bets are off.

Maybe you should practice more

I can usually peel clots off edible meat, especially when it dissects along fascial planes. Intramuscular blood is tougher to clean up, ends up lost, like meat damaged areas.

The worst examples of bloodshot meat I've encountered were with animals that stayed on their feet longer after the shot. Just my experience.

For years I always tried to stay off the shoulders and avoid wrecking a lot of meat. I did that with the first deer I killed after moving here to the Low Country. Now I drop them DRT to avoid going after them in the woods/swamp when it’s getting dark. That usually means a shoulder hit or, like the one tonight, down through the back of the neck into the chest cavity when the deer is facing me, head down browsing.

You'd understand the point if you ever get off your asss and get out of the deer stand.

So what is your point? Or were you just being snarky? I cannot see how what you said relates to anything I said. Are you arguing with someone else, and got your wires crossed?

Yes, I have the same approach. Mostly I'm walking them up in the bush, some of it pretty thick, and I want them down right there rather than having them barrel off into the scrub. A bit of lost meat around the wound is neither here nor there - I can always shoot another one.