I'm even more baffled now as to how in the world that thing didn't make it clean through and sticking in the ground...wow.
I'm in the same boat as others that deer is dead somewhere based off everything. She may have swirled or kicked hard left or right and threw you off blood.
it had to be quartering in some way and/or deflected by a rib or limb or something.. I shot 70+ pounds for a lot of years and used regular 2 blade and 2 blade extreme rage heads and never not got a pass through when I did my part. shoulder or spine, no way that will not pass thru...but in the boilermaker and lungs, never an issue. With 62 lbs, quartering away, not always a complete pass thru but two big holes always a short trail..
I was very shocked it didn’t pass through as well. Idk if it hit shoulder bc I would have thought it would have broken off and fallen out!
no you don't need a heavier arrow, I shot a 375 gr arrow at 72 lbs with a 26.5 draw for years and blew right through...accept for the scapula and spine...all with wide cutting rage heads.. there had to be some kind of bone hit
the bottom line is, none of truly know what happened. me, you or anybody else. we can only draw from personal experience. what all do know is this... it was not a great shot, and we have ALL been there. for one reason or another, the shot wasn't right. do what you can and try to find the deer, but in the end, the odds are low. but this is bowhunting, and anybody that claims to have never had this happen has not been bowhunting very long
Interesting thread and advice. I have seen deer hit with an arrow and drop within 20 yards. Others will run to the next area code. Knew a gun hunter that shot his deer in the head. "I don't eat the head and they don't run far!" BTW, shots were under 50 yards so margin of error was minimal.
Depending on where you are in the tree and the distance she is from you makes a difference in shot placement, depending on the slope of land she is standing on. I hunt hill country. I can be 22ft up and shoot a deer above me at 30 yrds.below me at 20 from the same stand. You want to look at the angle your fletching was sticking out of her to get to best idea of the hit.
I would agree 100% I would be taking my bow in to get a tune up, with that set up and where you hit it should have blown through, I’m thinking there must be a tuning issue Sent from my iPhone using Bowhunting.com Forums
But there is no way that he can be 100% sure of where he hit...Things happen so fast. I am betting he hit the lower scapula and that is a beast no matter what broadhead /arrow combination or bow set up you have.. that's a hard, thick bone.
I'll be honest, I bet my set up at 30 or under will bust through it. Over 600 total arrow wait, high FOC and a single bevel head. It won't out perform a large mechanical on soft tissue at all...but the set up will shine through nearly any on hits like that.
Yup, which wholly admit is overkill for 90% or more of the impacts we as whitetail hunters will face. It did pay off this year though in a deer I shot this year that entrance was liver/gut but upon exiting impacting the knee knuckle of the exit back leg and literally all but blew/cut that thing in half. Only skin and a couple tendons were still connected. A scapula is a bigger obstacle but seeing this made me smile 100%
Hello and very late to this thread I am. I just read this. High hits are tough to read and make tracking even tougher, especially when there may be an arrow there to clog a hole in both sides. I am certainly not rage hating here because I have used them with great success but just wondering if a blade may have broken and making the internal wound smaller. A few weeks ago I made a higher than wanted shot with a 60lb bow, 475 total weight arrow with a Grim Reaper Razor cut 1-3/8”. Complete pass thru and as soon as I saw the lighted nock go through so high I knew it was trouble. I was 20’ up and the deer was 15 yards away. It took quite while to find and went about 125 yards. When a deer is hit high and running like the wind, blood trailing can be very difficult! I didn’t see anything about you finding your deer but I hope you did. Kudos to a lot of the advice given in the previous posts.
