How did it live?

[Jmiller]

So, I have killed some deer over the years, but am not a very experienced bow hunter.
Last November I shot one at first light, looked like a solid hit, dead deer, from a ground blind. 22 yards.
Got a complete pass through.


Blood started off very sparse, then got good, then got real good (if a bit dark) then slowly petered out. Tracked about 800 yards before I lost it.
Went back the next day with a dog also. No Bueno.

Then yesterday, this shows up on trail cam. I guess it lived? I'm not saying it's perfect placement, but that should've done the trick, right?
As it stands, that would be my exit hole. NAP Slingblade broad heads.

How?

 

[Bowmanmike]

That's crazy,i dont know how that was not double lung. Is slingblade a mechanical? And was the deer broadside?

 

[boyne bowhunter]

WOW, If that's the same deer that thing has some cat in it (nine lives).

 

[Tr33_n1nj@]

At that angle I can see an arrow bouncing off that shoulder and above the lung/ below the spine. I think with that leg back the heart is protected.

 

[Stolencopy]

At that angle I can see an arrow bouncing off that shoulder and above the lung/ below the spine. I think with that leg back the heart is protected.

Maybe if that scar was the entrance but according to OP what we see is the exit.

If it was me and that deer showed its self again I would let it walk, i think she's earned that.

 

[Jmiller]

That's crazy,i dont know how that was not double lung. Is slingblade a mechanical? And was the deer broadside?

Mechanical, yes.
Deer was broadside, maybe just a touch quartering toward but ever so slightly.

 

[weekender21]

There is no way to confirm that's the deer you shot. Deer get scars and have missing hair from all kinds of things. If by chance it is the deer you shot, where do you think the entrance was? If the deer was broadside and had a similar entrance location then I seriously doubt that's your deer. 2-3 inches further forward on the entrance could have resulted in a single lung hit and yes, on occasion a deer will survive a hit like that.

 

[cliffordBRT]

Most likely a glitch in the simulation programming.

 

[Allegheny Tom]

If the deer was slightly quartering-to, and that is the exit, then you very well may have missed the lung on the entrance side.
And I never cease to be amazed at how much a deer can move during that split second between when we release the arrow and when the arrow actually arrives. The SHOT may be perfect, but the HIT may not be as good because of how much The vitals are no longer in the same place or the angle has changed.

 

[ricky racer]

In my opinion, and keep in mind, this is only my opinion based on 45 years of bowhunting. The biggest issue with mechanical broadheads, and there are MANY issues, is the blades deploy at steep angles without much sweep. The steep angles of the blades don't allow them to slice but instead chop. The long sweep of most fixed blade heads allows them to slice by means of a mechanical advantage. The longer the sweep, the more mechanical advantage and the less energy required to slice it's way through an animal. A 3:1 ratio of length to width is about the perfect ratio. Slicing through tissue allows for very clean cuts of the blood vessels which increases bleeding.

Chopping through tissue tends to rip the blood vessels which promotes the clotting of blood at the ends of the damaged blood vessels shutting off blood loss before stopping it completely. Kind of like a farmer that gets his arm ripped of by a piece of equipment out in the back 40. He gets himself back to the farm house, calls 911 and waits for an ambulance to take him to a hospital to get his injuries attended to. If the same farmer had that arm sliced cleanly off by something razor sharp piece of equipment, he probably wouldn't make it 100 yards before dying due to blood loss.

You can test how the different blade angles work yourself. Next time you eat a steak, try cutting it by holding the knife at different angles when cutting through your steak. Try cutting your steak with the knife held at an angle similar to the angle of your mechanical broadhead blades. You'll see that steep (somewhere between 45 and 90 degrees) angles don't slice through your steak very well at all. You can force it through the steak with enough force but you'll end up tearing the steak, not slicing it. Now lower the angle to about a 30 degree angle and you'll find the knife slices easily through the steak.

 

[Jtaylor]

Crazy! They're tough as nails and I think their will to survive is unfathomable to us.

 

[Allegheny Tom]

In my opinion, and keep in mind, this is only my opinion based on 45 years of bowhunting. The biggest issue with mechanical broadheads, and there are MANY issues, is the blades deploy at steep angles without much sweep. The steep angles of the blades don't allow them to slice but instead chop. The long sweep of most fixed blade heads allows them to slice by means of a mechanical advantage. The longer the sweep, the more mechanical advantage and the less energy required to slice it's way through an animal. A 3:1 ratio of length to width is about the perfect ratio. Slicing through tissue allows for very clean cuts of the blood vessels which increases bleeding.

Chopping through tissue tends to rip the blood vessels which promotes the clotting of blood at the ends of the damaged blood vessels shutting off blood loss before stopping it completely. Kind of like a farmer that gets his arm ripped of by a piece of equipment out in the back 40. He gets himself back to the farm house, calls 911 and waits for an ambulance to take him to a hospital to get his injuries attended to. If the same farmer had that arm sliced cleanly off by something razor sharp piece of equipment, he probably wouldn't make it 100 yards before dying due to blood loss.

You can test how the different blade angles work yourself. Next time you eat a steak, try cutting it by holding the knife at different angles when cutting through your steak. Try cutting your steak with the knife held at an angle similar to the angle of your mechanical broadhead blades. You'll see that steep (somewhere between 45 and 90 degrees) angles don't slice through your steak very well at all. You can force it through the steak with enough force but you'll end up tearing the steak, not slicing it. Now lower the angle to about a 30 degree angle and you'll find the knife slices easily through the steak.

Spot on.

Sent from my SM-G970U using Tapatalk

 

[huck72412]

In my opinion, and keep in mind, this is only my opinion based on 45 years of bowhunting. The biggest issue with mechanical broadheads, and there are MANY issues, is the blades deploy at steep angles without much sweep. The steep angles of the blades don't allow them to slice but instead chop. The long sweep of most fixed blade heads allows them to slice by means of a mechanical advantage. The longer the sweep, the more mechanical advantage and the less energy required to slice it's way through an animal. A 3:1 ratio of length to width is about the perfect ratio. Slicing through tissue allows for very clean cuts of the blood vessels which increases bleeding.

Chopping through tissue tends to rip the blood vessels which promotes the clotting of blood at the ends of the damaged blood vessels shutting off blood loss before stopping it completely. Kind of like a farmer that gets his arm ripped of by a piece of equipment out in the back 40. He gets himself back to the farm house, calls 911 and waits for an ambulance to take him to a hospital to get his injuries attended to. If the same farmer had that arm sliced cleanly off by something razor sharp piece of equipment, he probably wouldn't make it 100 yards before dying due to blood loss.

You can test how the different blade angles work yourself. Next time you eat a steak, try cutting it by holding the knife at different angles when cutting through your steak. Try cutting your steak with the knife held at an angle similar to the angle of your mechanical broadhead blades. You'll see that steep (somewhere between 45 and 90 degrees) angles don't slice through your steak very well at all. You can force it through the steak with enough force but you'll end up tearing the steak, not slicing it. Now lower the angle to about a 30 degree angle and you'll find the knife slices easily through the steak.

“ Post of the year”

 

[cliffordBRT]

In my opinion, and keep in mind, this is only my opinion based on 45 years of bowhunting. The biggest issue with mechanical broadheads, and there are MANY issues, is the blades deploy at steep angles without much sweep. The steep angles of the blades don't allow them to slice but instead chop. The long sweep of most fixed blade heads allows them to slice by means of a mechanical advantage. The longer the sweep, the more mechanical advantage and the less energy required to slice it's way through an animal. A 3:1 ratio of length to width is about the perfect ratio. Slicing through tissue allows for very clean cuts of the blood vessels which increases bleeding.

Chopping through tissue tends to rip the blood vessels which promotes the clotting of blood at the ends of the damaged blood vessels shutting off blood loss before stopping it completely. Kind of like a farmer that gets his arm ripped of by a piece of equipment out in the back 40. He gets himself back to the farm house, calls 911 and waits for an ambulance to take him to a hospital to get his injuries attended to. If the same farmer had that arm sliced cleanly off by something razor sharp piece of equipment, he probably wouldn't make it 100 yards before dying due to blood loss.

You can test how the different blade angles work yourself. Next time you eat a steak, try cutting it by holding the knife at different angles when cutting through your steak. Try cutting your steak with the knife held at an angle similar to the angle of your mechanical broadhead blades. You'll see that steep (somewhere between 45 and 90 degrees) angles don't slice through your steak very well at all. You can force it through the steak with enough force but you'll end up tearing the steak, not slicing it. Now lower the angle to about a 30 degree angle and you'll find the knife slices easily through the steak.

So I hunted all last season with a fixed broadhead and had complete pass throughs and 100% death rate. I was sold on grim reaper broadheads by an older hunter who had never had a deer get away from him, and even told me about shooting a bear with one and it went through the front shoulder, out the back and got stuck in the bear's back leg. So, I figured I would give it a shot this season. I typically stick with the saying "if it ain't broke, don't fix it", but I also like to try new things. Do you stay away from mechanicals completely? Or are you more careful about shot placement i.e. avoiding shoulder plates

 

[Ontariofarmer]

“ Post of the year”

Except the part about the farmer
I have always preferred fixed blades. Interesting post


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[Kurt]

I hit my doe this year broadside from 20 yds. with a Rage trypan dead behind the shoulder. The shaft split and I had catastrophic arrow failure. The broadhead hit a rib on entry, bent the blade and deflected back and missed the far side lung. I shot that deer at 7:30am and had to go back in the afternoon to finish her off. When I field dressed her the nearside lung was a shriveled black clot but the far side lung was as pink as could be. I don't know if the deer would have survived but it survived until I finished the job. They are tough son of a guns.

 

[Tjraley2]

I put a similar shot on a deer about 3 years ago. A big 10, would have been my biggest by far. Shot him from 12 ft up, 15 yd, slightly quartering to me, with NAP Killzone. Hit him just behind the shoulder, complete pass through, same story as yours on the blood trail. The deer was on camera two weeks later with a wound that *should* have killed him. Neighbor shot him a month and a half later and the deer looked close to dying from the wound. Neighbor did not do an autopsy.

 

[ricky racer]

So I hunted all last season with a fixed broadhead and had complete pass throughs and 100% death rate. I was sold on grim reaper broadheads by an older hunter who had never had a deer get away from him, and even told me about shooting a bear with one and it went through the front shoulder, out the back and got stuck in the bear's back leg. So, I figured I would give it a shot this season. I typically stick with the saying "if it ain't broke, don't fix it", but I also like to try new things. Do you stay away from mechanicals completely? Or are you more careful about shot placement i.e. avoiding shoulder plates

I never have used mechanical's and never will. Regarding shot placement, shot placement is always random. I don't care how good you are, shooting at a live animal that will move before the arrow gets there always makes for a random shot placement. It's an unfortunate fact. It doesn't matter how good of a shot you are, how fast your bow is, shot placement is always random. When I was training to become an E.B.E.P. Instructor, they taught us that. I didn't like to admit they were right, but they were.

If the animal always stood stone still and you could take your time making the shot without being amped up like we are when the shot presents itself and you knew you could hit the 10 ring every time, you wouldn't even need a broadhead, you could kill it with a field tip. The need for a good razor sharp broadhead is for those times the shop placement isn't perfect.

 

[Jmiller]

Great posts gentlemen.
To the points made earlier, indeed, I cannot be sure it's the same deer. To the argument that is: Proximity. Trail cam is probably less 100 yards from where I shot it. Same sex, same general shot location as scar, and the deer I shot was never recovered and appeared to have lived at least in the short term... and something wounded that deer's shoulder.

Could also be just another rando deer that ran into a stob somewhere I guess, but Im thinking it's the same.

On the mechanicals, I think I've read enough on this site to convince me to go with fixed blades next year. I probably won't do the full heavy arrow, single bevel deal everyone's raving about just because my bow is tuned so perfectly at the moment, I don't want to start from scratch, plus blow money right now, etc.

Anyway, I've really enjoyed the replies. Thanks for sharing the similar stories. Tough bastards they are.

 

[Buckhole75]

With a good fixed blade head you won’t have to use the ultra heavy arrow.Not saying that it dont work just saying it is excessive.Use a decent hunting shaft and a fixed COC head and you will get your arrow out of the dirt on nearly every deer you shoot.Avoid the temptation of sticking it so tight to the shoulder.About two ribs back on a broadside deer and it is over.