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bubbly blood

not to hijack another thread running, but we all know what bubbles in blood normally mean. with that said is it possible to have bubbles in a non-lung hit? is it possible to not have bubbles in a lung hit.

Bubbles in blood gets misstated a lot. Lung blood is undeniable. Lots of “slobber” bubbles in blood. However, only lung blood is lung blood. We all know that. When a guy posts that on one of these blood trail threads, he’s reaching. I know because I’ve been there. No matter how much you try to make it bubbly, that don’t change the place of the hit.

I've always thought 'frothy' is best way to describe 'lung' blood. Bubbles in general mean very little in regards to shot location.

Bubbles in blood mean nothing? You can get bubbles in any kind of blood. High velocity splatter will create bubbles in any water based fluid. Pick a water based fluid similar to blood and replicate what would happen with a fast running deer by throwing it. Do not believe me go get some milk out of the fridge and splatter it in the sink. Bubbles! Frothy pink blood yep - that is for sure lung blood. But then if you have that you will have a short track job.

Joe's Correct lung blood will be bright pink and frothy.

I've seen blood pool where it poured out of a non-moving animal and had a bunch of bubbles in it and this was a confirmed non-lung hit. Just from blood pouring onto/into a pool of blood that's already on the ground.

Grant, the answer is absolutely yes to both of your questions. We track wounded game for a living and you can never say for certainty where an animal was hit based on bubbles in the blood. The brightest red, frothy blood trails come from animals hit in a vascular location near a leg. Most folks are aiming behind the front shoulder, but many times we have tracked animals hit in the ham or near the back leg with the same results. Muscle blood is very profuse and gets "whipped up" by the hair as the animal runs and the legs rub against it- especially the bristly hair of the hogs we hunt. I can't tell you how many ham-shot hits we've recovered with our tracking dog that I would have swore were lung shots based in bubbly blood. We see it almost every week. -Cheryl

Helpful thank you Cheryl.

Shot an elk after sunset at low light. It stepped forward just as I shot at yds. I was in a stand called as soo n as it jumped this time at 40 and looked like it was going to keep walking so I aimed in front of the shoulder and shot. Problem was it never stepped forward. I got out of my stand and found where it had stopped before taking off. There was a frothy pink pool of blood about 8” round. First shot was a gut shot. Second shot was in the neck and nicked an artery. That tuned into a morning recovery. I would have sworn that one of those were a lung hit from that initial blood pool. It didn’t take long in tracking to know they weren’t. Plus I knew from the arrow the first was a gut shot. Wearing glasses, low light and age makes it impossible for me to see arrow flight. Lighted nocks solved that. LED lights also SUCK for tracking.

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