I have been shooting heavy arrows the last 15 years or so (around 500gr with a 29-60 bow), and really heavy arrows (around 600gr) the last 3 seasons. I almost always got a pass thru, even through heavy bones, and felt a big reason was the heavy arrows I was shooting.
Then I jacked my shoulder up two weeks before my first hunt of the season this year and decided I was gonna pick up a crossbow to save my season. I basically had no time to tinker, bought off the shelf bolts and used the same fixed blade broadheads I've been using the last few years with my compound. Total bolt weight was about 425gr. Speed was around 400fps at the bow. I never measured FOC, but am guessing it was actually pretty high considering the short length of the bolt, even with a normal broadhead weight of 125gr.
Got it sighted in, made sure my broadheads were flying with my field points, guesstimated my effective range based on the amount of penetration I was getting into my target and geoup sizes at various ranges and decided I should be good out to 80yds. I found myself in WY on a pronghorn hunt a week later and ended up getting a passthru on a buck at 73yds, bolt was stuck 3 or 4 " in hard plains dirt behind where the buck was standing.
I won't get that kind of penetration on a whitetail, I thought. But, fast forward to early November and I shot a 4.5 year old buck at 30yds, quartering to. The bolt blew threw the Humerus, the chest cavity and the stomach before exiting just in front of the opposite hindquarter. The bolt was laying on top of the ground behind where the deer was standing.
My sample size is small, but it's forcing me to go back and rethink my perspective on heavy arrows and penetration. I'd really like to see the Ashby studies redone with modern equipment to reevaluate what's recommended.