Bloodline Bullet Review

Quick background:
Two years ago I shot a cow with a 250 gr Powerbelt Aerotip and 100 grains of powder. She was standing broadside and hit her on the back side of the front shoulder. She ran off before I could get a 2nd bullet in her. After searching for a couple hrs we realized we were going to find her.

After this experience I felt pretty bad and started looking for a better option. After reading a number threads I ran into some info on Bloodline bullets. Bloodlines are not designed to mushroom, like your traditional bullet, but to open up like a flower upon contact with fluid. At lower velocities the pedals create large damage channels and at higher velocities they break off to inflicting large amounts of damage to internal organs. I was concerned about meat damage but a couple of the ballistic gel demonstrations show how the pedals don't carry enough power to penetrate much in to the meat and will normally bounce of ribs and other hard objects.

My Experience:
Long story short, this year I was able to take a bull and my buddy was able to take buck while using these bullets. In both cases the internal damage was substantial and both animals expired quickly. My buddy’s deer dropped immediately and slide down the hill about 20 yards, never even trying to get up. My bull ran 20 to 30 yards and fell over. I was really surprised by the amount of blood that came out of his mount and nose that point to a large amount of internal damage. After seeing these bullets perform in the field I think I found something that I will be using for a long time.

Below I have posted some of the reference material I looked at while researching these bullets.

Science project - bullet comparison and discussion of design theory
http://www.huntingnet.com/forum/black-powder/361092-science-project-report-long.html

Review by someone that has been using them for years
http://hunting-washington.com/smf/index.php?topic=75690.0

Couple of YouTube videos (first is pretty good)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmpFcIhPY34
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bLonprIWm4

Below are a handful of pictures of my buddy’s deer and my elk.

1) Blood pool from the entry wound of my buddies deer
2) Skinned out entry wound of buddy’s deer
3) Exit wound of my elk
4) Blood from my elk’s mouth

I really really wanted to use these bullets this year. Bought em...fired two through my my muzzy...now my muzzy won't shoot any bullets straight True story.
Also I broke a ramrod trying to jam these things into my gun...did I mention that my gun never shot the same after shooting em?
Anyway I'm now hunting with a borrowed gun.
Glad they worked for you.
**I'm told there's things I can do to treat the barrel so they'll load easier...maybe next year.

You bring up a good point I should have mentioned. Mine load pretty easy when the barrel is clean, but loading a follow up shot is very hard and take a while. I kwpt my quick loaders full of power belts, so I load faster. I also put a bit of bore butter to help the load easier. I shoot a T&C Omega and they have shot very accurately.

I have been using the Knight Red Hot bullets for years with great success. I might have to try these.

I started using the Lehigh .452cal/250gr bullet (they make the Bloodlines for Knight) last year and have taken three deer with them so far using 110gr of BH209. None of the deer were very big but the damage through the rib cages (all bullets exited) was substantial such that I would not hesitate to use them on Elk should I ever get lucky enough to get out on a hunt for them.

Mine load snug but not too much so in both my T/C Omega and Knight Disc Extreme with Harvester Black Crush Rib sabots. Like any ML bullet, you may need to experiment with different thickness sabots to find a good combination which is why I rarely purchase bullet sabot combo packs unless I already know they are a good fit for my rifle.