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The Deer That Should Not Be Dead - The Ultimate Shot Placement vs. Broadhead Story

DB4x4

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 25, 2018
Messages
1,870
"I just shot a nice buck."

That's what the text from my Dad read one hour before dark on the last day of bow season. I told him to sit tight and I would there ASAP. He said the deer barely reacted to the shot, and walked away slowly until he went out of sight. This description gave me the bad feeling of either a clean miss or a gut shot.

He uses a Hickory Creek Mini set to 125# and 100 grain Swhacker heads with 2" cut. He was checking the shot site when I got there. A nice splatter of bright red blood, but no arrow. The blood trail was relatively easy to follow and within the first 30 yds I found the arrow...

Oh, no... He didn't. He couldn't have. Did he really? He did...

He accidentally shot the deer with the practice head. It's not a real broadhead, it doesn't open...

Screenshot_20221119-115930-285.png

Ten inches of arrow covered in blood, no pass through. There's no way this deer is dead. One inch of dull practice "blade" cutting surface. My gut feeling says to back out and check in the morning. It's below freezing and won't make a difference. The coyotes though...

The blood trail tells a different story. It's everywhere. It looks like a Michael Myers movie scene.
Screenshot_20221119-115952-498.png

Screenshot_20221119-120036-853.png

Screenshot_20221119-120015-738.png

Why? How? None of this makes sense...

Long story short, the deer walked 75 yds and fell over dead. Somehow. Unbelievably. Inexplicably.

Screenshot_20221119-121518-160.png

This is not a recommendation for using the practice heads in the woods, haha. However, remember this story the next time you try to blame your unrecovered deer on your broadhead. :tearsofjoy: :tearsofjoy: :tearsofjoy:
 
"I just shot a nice buck."

That's what the text from my Dad read one hour before dark on the last day of bow season. I told him to sit tight and I would there ASAP. He said the deer barely reacted to the shot, and walked away slowly until he went out of sight. This description gave me the bad feeling of either a clean miss or a gut shot.

He uses a Hickory Creek Mini set to 125# and 100 grain Swhacker heads with 2" cut. He was checking the shot site when I got there. A nice splatter of bright red blood, but no arrow. The blood trail was relatively easy to follow and within the first 30 yds I found the arrow...

Oh, no... He didn't. He couldn't have. Did he really? He did...

He accidentally shot the deer with the practice head. It's not a real broadhead, it doesn't open...

View attachment 76282

Ten inches of arrow covered in blood, no pass through. There's no way this deer is dead. One inch of dull practice "blade" cutting surface. My gut feeling says to back out and check in the morning. It's below freezing and won't make a difference. The coyotes though...

The blood trail tells a different story. It's everywhere. It looks like a Michael Myers movie scene.
View attachment 76283

View attachment 76284

View attachment 76285

Why? How? None of this makes sense...

Long story short, the deer walked 75 yds and fell over dead. Somehow. Unbelievably. Inexplicably.

View attachment 76287

This is not a recommendation for using the practice heads in the woods, haha. However, remember this story the next time you try to blame your unrecovered deer on your broadhead. :tearsofjoy: :tearsofjoy: :tearsofjoy:
What a story! What was the shot placement after all? I may have missed if you mentioned that.
 
"I just shot a nice buck."

That's what the text from my Dad read one hour before dark on the last day of bow season. I told him to sit tight and I would there ASAP. He said the deer barely reacted to the shot, and walked away slowly until he went out of sight. This description gave me the bad feeling of either a clean miss or a gut shot.

He uses a Hickory Creek Mini set to 125# and 100 grain Swhacker heads with 2" cut. He was checking the shot site when I got there. A nice splatter of bright red blood, but no arrow. The blood trail was relatively easy to follow and within the first 30 yds I found the arrow...

Oh, no... He didn't. He couldn't have. Did he really? He did...

He accidentally shot the deer with the practice head. It's not a real broadhead, it doesn't open...

View attachment 76282

Ten inches of arrow covered in blood, no pass through. There's no way this deer is dead. One inch of dull practice "blade" cutting surface. My gut feeling says to back out and check in the morning. It's below freezing and won't make a difference. The coyotes though...

The blood trail tells a different story. It's everywhere. It looks like a Michael Myers movie scene.
View attachment 76283

View attachment 76284

View attachment 76285

Why? How? None of this makes sense...

Long story short, the deer walked 75 yds and fell over dead. Somehow. Unbelievably. Inexplicably.

View attachment 76287

This is not a recommendation for using the practice heads in the woods, haha. However, remember this story the next time you try to blame your unrecovered deer on your broadhead. :tearsofjoy: :tearsofjoy: :tearsofjoy:
Where did he hit? Looks like it just sprayed out. High presser, tiny opening?
 
Where did he hit? Looks like it just sprayed out. High presser, tiny opening?

Another aspect that doesn't really make any sense...

He said the buck was walking directly toward his tree, saw him, got nervous, and started to turn broadside to leave when he shot.

However, this is the only hole in the deer I could find:
Screenshot_20221119-120137-894.png

Looks to me like he was more quartering to than broadside and he sent the arrow down into the armpit. :tearsofjoy:

I wasn't there during the gut job because I went back to retrieve the game cart, but I saw the pile afterwards and at least one of the lungs was complete jelly. My guess is that he may have also either hit the heart dead on, or severed the carotid or aorta, hence the high pressure spray.

Wild stuff ..
 
John Wick can kill a deer with a pencil but I'm not going to try it, lol. Looks like one of those times where all the stars lined up and things worked out. Looks like it went in the armpit, centered the heart, and I'm guessing stopped on the offside shoulder. Congrats to your dad.
 
@DB4x4 was the blood on the trees like chest height from the heart pumping it out? Was he elevated or strait on?
 
Asking because I just bought some schwackers as backup to my qad exodus heads, Assuming these fly like field points is there any point to the practice head (other than the one on the front of it... Ba dum tssss)
 
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