livetohunt228
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- Nov 20, 2017
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Hey everyone! Happy Holidays!! Looking for some advice, suggestions or knowledge. Bought my 1st muzzleloader over the summer, it's a CVA Optima V2. I love it! Shot it throughout the summer and shot a few different loads but settled on 2 triple seven pellets(100 grain), a 250 grain Shockwave sabot bullet and a 209 primer as it was hitting the most consistent. I got the gun shooting pretty decent out to 100 yds. As someone who doesn't and hasn't shot guns much, I was very happy to be consistently hitting the target at 100 yds. Now fast forward to muzzleloader season. I shot a nice buck, shot him at 63 yds, broadside and ended up hitting him a little farther back from where I was aiming. Got on the 1st spot of blood which was very hard to find, found it maybe 60 yds from where I shot him, it was where he entered the timber so some blood was see able on some light brown colored grass. I followed a very sparadic blood trial, a drop here, a drop there for another 40 yds. Found my best spot where the deer must of stood for a moment and that was the last spot of blood I/we found. Decided to back out and get on it 1st thing in the am. Got back out at 1st light and picked up the track and could not find another drop of blood from the previous spot the night before. So I decided to walk in circles looking for blood and or the deer and eventually went up hill a bit to a really thick area. I got on a deer trail that ran E to W and stopped and looked up, then down several times before to my absolute surprise, looked forward and saw him laying there. I couldn't believe it. This was now roughly 200 yds from where I had originally shot him. Was truly beyond excited!! Too add to the story, my brother who I was hunting with also shot a great buck using the same load except he was using 150 grains of triple seven. He shot his at 70 yds and again we had no blood. It only went 50 yds as he double lunged it and there was barely any blood where we found him laying. Upon gutting him it remained all inside and it was with a pass through, both deer had pass throughs. We're mostly bow hunters and are used to getting good blood after our shots. My concern is the amount of blood that was put out from both these deer. I'm talking barely anything. I've heard that muzzleloaders don't necessarily put out good blood trails, don't know if this is true or not but I can't imagine this is normal. Or is it? Is it the bullet... the Shockwaves? Anyone experience this issue with this bullet or others? I'm new to this and this is the 1st deer either of us have taken with a muzzleloader. Any advice or knowledge would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!!
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