Posted this on the other site as well so forgive me if you read it twice. LOL! I'd never drawn on an animal with a mechanical until opener this season 9/23/17 and shot a doe at 43 yds. Got a pass thru and she only ran 25-30 yds. One thing I noticed was the Rage was mangled and my arrow was broken right behind the insert and barely hanging by a few carbon fibers. With tax season I didn't get to hunt again until today and took a buck at 36 yds. My quiver holds 5 arrows so I had 3 Thunderheads and two Rage. He was 31 yds barely quartering away and that front leg went forward and I let it go. Looked like a perfect shot and the arrow just hits the deer and falls on the ground. He just stands there and turns a few times looking around. He went back to grazing and wound up giving me the same broadside shot at 36 yds. The Thunderhead zipped right thru him and he fell dead right there. I walked up and picked up my arrow and once again the Rage tipped arrow was broken behind the insert and barely hanging by a thread. It had opened and put a little over a 2" slit in the skin and there was blood but barely penetrated broadhead deep. Absolutely no shoulder bone in the picture, it was actually a good shot. If his ribs were in line standing up the same as he lay dead, didn't appear to hit rib bone either. When I nocked the Thunderhead and drew, I could see the first wound and aimed for it. Barely hit it 1/2" lower. Now the Thunderhead didn't open up a huge hole but it did zip thru and he was dead right there. All this happened in a matter of a few minutes. If I hadn't got a second shot and he took off I would have chalked it up to I made a bad shot. Getting to inspect the deer basically immediately I saw that it was a good shot but dumbfounded why it didn't go deeper. Could be user error, I don't know. Also don't know what I could've done wrong. I've always killed all my deer with Thunderheads and will go back to them. Had one of three blades a little bent but put a new blade on it and it will kill again.
Careful if you keep making up such outlandish stories about the infallible rage broadhead around here, you might get a dislike! Surely you did something wrong! Half of my dislikes are from making rage jokes.
Have pics of the deer and rage? I'm a killzone guy myself but still like to keep my options open Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk
I know it didn't technically happen but it almost looked like the Rage hit it and bounced off. It barely went in BH deep at 31 yds. After the deer moved around a bit grazing he wound up at 36 yds and the Thunderhead just went in one side and come out the other side bragging. He dropped dead right there and the Thunderhead and arrow are fine. I've shot Thunderheads since 2004 and they just work. Some on AT say my arrows were too brittle and they might be, but the arrow the Thunderhead was on just needs to be washed off and it'll go back in the quiver.
I didn't get a pic on that side. I took a pic but it was the exit side of the Thunderhead. It was getting dark and our processor closes at 5PM and after that you have to call for someone to come back and meet you. I called and he was about to leave and said he had someplace to be could I be there in 20 minutes. I actually got there about 40 min later at 6:45PM.
You were blessed to have gotten that follow up shot. Just imagine how much time you would have spent thinking about your buck, and looking for a deer that got little more then a scrape. They get worse wounds then the one you described hopping barbed wire fences. I am just glad in the end you still had some backup!
You're right there. If he'd ran off I would have chalked it up to a bad shot and maybe I didn't hit where I thought. It was actually a good shot and I aimed #2 in the same spot. To be fair it was a bit worse than a barb wire scrape. It would've either been non fatal or he woulda died slow. It did get to meat. Thank God I did get the 2nd shot very quickly after the first and he wasn't in pain long at all.
What is the arrow weight? Have a hard time believing the broadhead bounced off without something being wrong. Do the math
64# draw and 28" DL. Arrow was a 350 spine 29" c2c and came in at a finished weight of 433.3g. Bow chrono'd at 256fps with this setup so roughly 62 KE.
From left to right: First arrow 43yds, passthru and broke about at the insert. Second arrow 31 yds and looks to be broken 2.5" into carbon. Not a spec of blood on what's left. Can't find what I did with the BH and for that matter I was in such a hurry tonight I can't find my release either. Third arrow 36 yds passthru and upon further inspection my Thunderhead is quite bent but it was stuck in the ground and it's pretty rocky out there may have hit rock.
To each their own. Have been shooting the original rage 2 blade since they came out. No issues and no problems at all. Deadly broadhead, however like most posts blaming a broad head, shot placement is typically the cause. Good luck and use why makes you comfortable and have confidence in. Sent from my iPhone using Bowhunting.com Forums
The rage killed the buck on the first shot, they're just so good that the buck didn't realize he was dead until the second arrow hit him.
To be fair I really didn't want to come off like I was blaming the broadhead or the arrow, although I can see how it would read that way. The shot placement was right where I wanted it. More like I was wondering out loud - there was some external factor somewhere that caused it to react wonky and for the life of me I can't figure out what made it go weird. The doe I shot at 43 yds with the Rage was a passthru and it looked like someone threw a hatchet thru her. The ground I'm on is extremely rocky. Nothing but cedar trees and hackberrys and where I'm from that usually means you have about 2" of topsoil and then limestone.
I shot 2 deer with a Rage. The first looking like all the pics you see with lots of blood and big hole. The second hit a rib going in, no exit. The Rage looked like a wrinkled pop can with a bent ferrule, broken blades and missing tip. I never shot a Rage again.
No I bought them at Gander Mtn two seasons ago and got burnt on a bad piece of property that had NO wildlife on it so I never got to draw with them. However I really liked how the practice head that came with them shot so I was excited to shoot them.
