This morning was the second day out for me. After seeing deer at 7:05 last night and not being able to get a good shot because of light I was excited that I would hopefully get a shot off this morning. Sure enough at 7:40 two small spike bucks walk in front of me at 15 yards and I let them go. Last night they did the exact same thing and followed the same path. At 7:50 I have a group of 4 does walk out and start feeding all within 12 yards of me. I focus in on the larger of the four as she is directly in my shooting lane and walking closer with her head down feeding still. Around 6 to 7 yards I decide I'm going to take a shot if I can draw back and spook her. She barely hears me draw back and looks up presenting me with a most broadside slightly quartering to shot. I place my 10 yard pin just behind her shoulder and squeeze. I hear the loud thud from the arrow making contact and the deer sprints off. I watch the deer turn a corner about 80 yards from me, where I can no longer see it. I wait 45 minutes before going to look for the deer since I never saw or heard it crash. When I start looking there are only several small spots of blood where the deer was standing when the arrow contacted it. The blood was red and I never found the arrow, so I assume it was still in the deer. I searched for over 3 hours and never found any more blood and tracking was very difficult with dry ground and grass trimmings. Any suggestions as to what I need to do now? I felt shot placement was correct but I am now doubting the shot. Is it possible the Rage never opened?
Quartering to shots are a no no with a bow. Wait for the deer to turn. Sounds like a mortal wound and I'm guessing in your excitement you couldn't find the arrow. At 7 yards that is a very steep angle and almost any arrow would blow right through at that distance. You combined a severe steep angle with a quartering to shot. Bad combo. Without being there I can't make any more of an assessment. If you could find the arrow, that would help.
Never heard of a 10 yard pin. 1/4 to shot is not a bow shot. You probably hit shoulder/brisket. How much penetration did you get? What's your KE? Deer will probably be fine. Think about a fixed blade bh.
The bow is a Parker Wildfire draw weight is 55lbs and I was shooting a carbon express mutiny arrow cut to 28 inches with 100 grain rage 2 blade. Carbon express has the weight of the arrow as 8.95 grains/in. I thought I saw most of the arrow sticking out of the left side of the deer and I shot the right side of the deer. Arrow weight should be right around 400 grains with a KE 60 ft/lbs from my calculations.
You need to use a fixed head with that weight. Try a slickstrick standard 100 grain. So far thats two rage hits within 2 days. Just sayin Better luck next time.
If a deer is at 10 yards, then I'm putting the 10 yd pin low on the heart. If the deer was at 6 yards and you put the 10 yard pin in the breadbasket, you may have shot high. A quartering-to shot w/ pin behind shoulders would send it towards the guts. Good luck w/ your search.
This^^^ Best case you hit the ridge on her shoulder and left her with a bad limp. Too close is bad enough without adding in quartering to.
Rage have issues with steep angles and bone. My guess is shoulder/brisket hit and the deer is fine. 60lb. ke=fixed blade bh
Well lesson learned I will be picking up some new BH's and doing some tuning before I go out again. Hopefully the deer survives and I will be better prepared for the next time.
Another victim of "Rage in the cage" in my opinion. You would do well to shoot a good fixed head with that setup.
Rage broadhead company should put a minimum ke warning on there advertising? Rather than having newer hunters think they will have the same results as the tv characters do. But i guess that would hurt sales. Just my opinion is all
I am going to head back out and look some more but with 80 degree temperatures the meat won't be any good unfortunately but at least maybe I will learn something if I am able to find it.
Haven't you heard that they have a LOW KE version??? It's criminal in my opinion. Their heads are fine in the right hands, but they are absolute junk in the wrong hands and their advertising does not differentiate. For that reason alone, I hate them. Rage marketing is unethical at best.
Go to the last spot you saw the arrow in her and walk the direction she was headed looking 10 feet either side for the arrow. The arrow will tell you volumes about the hit.
Definitely agree. Happened to me when I first started bowhunting. Lost a nice 8 pointer because of it.
Ive always been a fixed head guy. Tricks work for me. At 20 yards if i hit a shoulder i know its not going to slow me down...it will pop to the other side. My second favorite was the rocky mountain T-100 (titanium) those worked great for me also but we all know what happend to them): i pull 64 lbs at 27.5 draw. With correct low diameter arrows(nano) and a great head you will crush anything. All my shots are pass threws and lost arrows! No joke except the 150" i shot a few years ago at 15yards looking up at me. Im at 28' shot him in throat patch and threw heart. Arrow baried to the fletch. Now i wouldnt recommend this shot but the situation was calm, im a good shot and most importantly i know my equipment and what it can do. Just thought i would share is all
