Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles .243 Winchester

MN is beautiful state but I don't think I'll retire here. Maine is probably warmer.

MarkinGA,

I know exactly what you are talking about and have tried to explain it to others before. A guy who hunts out west simply cannot fathom the heat and the wet nasty swamps and briars that exist in south Georia (I used to be stationed at Fort Steward and that is one swampy, nasty place).

I used to a use a 25-06 on S.C. whitetails but had 2-3 very hard tracking jobs due to very poor bloodtrails - much more skimpy than the .270, 30-06 and 7mm had left in years past. I don't know why the blood trails were smaller, but they were - sometimes non-existent. I killed 13 deer the year I used the 25-06 but the 2-3 skimpy bloodtrails were enough to cause me to switch at the end of the year. The S.S. deer season starts in August and humidity is very high. Deer have to be found quickly and it's no fun searching in a hot, steamy swamp with mosquitios all over you. I ended up bumping up my caliber to .264 winchester with 140 grain bullets and the probably was definitly solved.

Why use a .243 in your type of conditions when you can get much better performance on game with a 7mm-08 with basically the same recoil?

A hundred yards in south Georia may as well be a mile without any blood to follow.

I know people compare and place blame on headstamps when they don't get DRTs, but remember, it's what HITS the deer and WHERE.

What bullet were you using on the deer in that 25-06?

The BEST blood trails I have seen in hunting videos did not come from bullets. But Broadheads

No matter WHAT You shoot, use a good bullet, thru vitals.

I grew up in the Carolinas and hunted from the mountains to the coast. I know of the thickets/jungles/swamps that are common to the area. 300 feet is child's play. If I have to cover every square foot without the advantage of a blood trail I'll find the deer in under an hour. Not occasionally, but every single time. I'm not saying that every shot deer is recoverable, but if it doesn't travel more than a 100 yards there is only one reason to not recover the deer--you didn't look.

Maybe our deer are different or I'm used to archery but even when our TN deer don't bleed well they still drag feet kick leaves etc.....I don't get not finding them when they only go a couple hundred yards?