I have had the same problem with SST 12 gauge sabots. I shot a deer this weekend and it left no blood trail. It took me a half hour to find it, the deer ran over a hill and out of view on the field I was hunting and, unbeknownst to me at the time, doubled back towards me. I didn’t realized it at the time as about 10 deer scattered, but trusted my instincts and followed the direction of that “what if?” buck. I found it sitting in the woods, about 100 yards in, in thick dead fall. I could hear blood in the lungs but it got up, went 150 yards and stopped. This continued for over a mile, through a half frozen swamp and onto a neighbors property. It was pitch black with no good shot until it finally collapsed and I was able to finish it with a shot to the head. As I field dressed it, I was amazed at how little damage there was to the lungs and there was no exit wound. The sabot went through a rib and left a pencil wound, as described above. I hit it at about 100 yards and have never seen a sabot perform so poorly on a cleanly shot deer. A Remington Accutip would have dropped that deer in its tracks and and shredded the lungs. Now I know why the guys who recommended SST’s to me keep “missing” or loosing deer. I was hunting solo and getting that deer out of a half frozen swap and through that maze of mature dead fall damn near killed me. I’m done with SST’s. I am going stock up on Accutips tomorrow.
