Quartering away bow shot, 4.5 inch penetration

Sometimes I bounce off

 

this doesn't add up.
did you shoot it in the spine and the arrow stopped there? Im not sure how an arrow only gets 4 inches on a perfect broadside
or how 4 inches kills it in 20 yards

i had a near "perfectly placed" broadside shot on a buck, double lung hit off side shoulder and broke arrow, that deer ran 150-200 yards with no lungs and 1 broken shoulder

 

6 years ago I shot a buck and hit him low, right behind his elbow. The arrow went in about 4-5 inches and stuck in his sternum. You know, that annoying cartilage in the bottom of the chest cavity it's always a PITA to get your knife through. Anyways, it cut some major veins & arteries but never clipped the actual lungs or heart. He bled like a stuck pig and was dead in 60 yards. I wouldn't call the shot perfect, but it looked good and got the job done in a hurry.

I was shooting a 500 grain arrow with a Spitfire XXX and to date this is the largest entry hole I've had on an animal. My theory is that the broadhead or at least one of the blades glanced off the back of his leg, opened up, then got into the cavity.

 

Take a look at the buck I posted in the forum , similar shot but little smaller hole, still massive thought. Hit heart and a bunch of arteries went 20-30 yards heard him go down in under 10 seconds

 

yes and you admit it wasn't a perfectly placed shot, well maybe it really was based on results but not according to what would be described as perfect placed on a broadside deer. That is what doesnt add up

speaking of not perfectly placed, i need some pictures and more video of Todds elk. Talking about wound channel, spine damage etc.
Im so jealous, I'd love to go on that type of hunt but ya'll would subtitle me with (Nebmo heavy breathing)

 

I've seen double lunged animals go anywhere from 30 yards to 150 yards. If they run full out from the time of the shot they can go a fair distance. Some run just a ways and then stop to wonder what the heck happened and then go down. They simply all react a bit differently. I think we've probably all seen a rifle shot deer with it's heart destroyed run a 100 yards. My deer last year with a rifle I hit the heart and both lungs and it still went 80 yards or so.
Elk hunting it is almost always the cows that run the farthest for me. Once shot they seem to run full out until collapsing. Bulls are all wound up when they come in, you shoot them, they start to run off but then you can get them to stop again by calling. I'd say I've averaged 40 yards recovery on bulls but probably a 100 to 110 yard average on cows.
My favorite "you just never know" story.
Over 20 years ago I helped another elk hunter look for a cow he'd shot. My hunting partner and I had ran into him as we walked out from our evening hunt. He said he'd shot a cow "in the shoulder" from about 30 yards and wanted to give her all night, but would appreciate some extra help in the morning looking for her. He'd followed her a short distance after the shot and found his arrow. His arrow showed some very mangled broad head blades and it looked like the whole broad head itself hadn't even fully penetrated. Not good at all, but he said she was also bleeding pretty good in the short distance he followed her.
The next morning we met up and he showed us where he'd shot her. Shot was more like 40 yards than the 30 pin he'd used. He showed us the first blood he'd found about 25 yards from the shot sight. By 75 yards we were easily following a great blood trail. The cow was laying dead 300 yards from the shot, great blood trail the whole way.
Most amazingly lucky poor shot result I've ever seen (and probably ever will). He'd shot her for 30 yards and pulled the shot left a bit too, she was more like 40 and he'd hit her right above the knee in her front leg. But he had hit a good artery apparently, she lost enough blood in 300 yards that she couldn't go any further.
That is winning the Powerball odds right there. You just never know.

 

I'd take that all day every day and even on Sunday... that is damage

 

I wish I would have gotten some when they brought it back to camp. It was the last night of the hunt and it was raining like crazy - even though you can't really tell in the video. All the guides were anxious to get home for a day or two or R&R before the next group of hunters came in, so they had that sucker skinned, quartered and hung in the cooler within 20 minutes of them getting back to camp.

I can't tell you what exactly happened, but the arrow appeared to deflect on entry and go up into the bottom of the spine, then stuck in the off-side very top of the ribcage. It took out both lungs and he bled all over the place. He did shoot him again, but Josh didn't get it on film since it was a bit of a goat rodeo trying to reload the bow and get up there to finish him off as he was thrashing around. The 2nd shot wasn't needed, but better safe than sorry on an animal as big as an elk.

 

The ribbing Josh got on that episode man...LOL I was dying!

 

I watched the episode last night. Crazy that the bolt ended up somehow clipping it's spine, on video the shot looked like a great center lungs shot. I was surprised when I saw where the shot hit and then the bull dropped like a spine shot. Pretty rare thing to hit an elk with an arrow and have it go down from the impact.
Todd's hunt was a perfect example of getting the "full meal deal" with calling elk. Found a bull willing to be vocal, got around on it to get the wind right, moved in on it, and then worked it up enough to come in. Classic scenario we all hope for.
I've been busted drawing so many times, a crossbow is a nice advantage not having to worry about that part. Very cool Todd was still able to go and be successful after messing his shoulder up. Sounds like from now on he needs to lock up his mountain bike around end of July and give the key to you until all hunting seasons are over.

 

I never got another trail camera pic of a buck I wounded (there were two)

 

I almost exclusively shoot quartering away shots. This is darker red blood, possibly liver or from near the heart area or lung arteries. Lungs would be bubbly on some of the leaves, unless the exit wound is in the shoulder, which you mentioned gelatin. (Sometimes the bubbles develop on the deer's shoulder and not on the ground because it is running down the opposing shoulder and not directly on the ground from a spray. That slick stuff is what lubricates the shoulder. You see this when the shot is in the shoulder or exits the arm pit. In my opinion this was a dead deer, unless you just shot through the leg, and separated the shoulder or something weird, but by your diagram, I would think he died somewhere. Here is a pic of a doe from Saturday that had no bubbles in the blood and was bubbled on the shoulder from a q.a. shot.

 

A mechanical will deflect more and penetrate less. Arrow set up will help. 60lb is fine.


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