Mechanical Broadhead fail

[Woods Walker]

J'per....I think you misunderstood me! .Did you miss where I said this....

"Now OBVIOUSLY I'm not talking about you here...."

Of COURSE I know that you would not advocate that! Your ethics are above reproach. But it's others that I'm refering to who do not share your (our) standards.

[JPH]

.....it's others that I'm refering to who do not share your (our) standards.

I understand, and I have to admit that I think twice about censoring myself before I reference the widened kill zone. Am I ashamed of the poor shots I've made, even if they resulted in recovery? Yes. Am I afraid some hunters might intentionally take those shots without shame? Yes. But in the end, I've decided that bare bones honesty is the best approach. People can make up their own minds.

You have time for a short story that relates to the topic? I have an acquaintance whom I consider to be of shoddy ethics. Some years ago he was showing off his fancy new Matthew's bow. At the time I was shooting a mid-range clunker. He explained that he'd purchased the Matthew's because he "didn't get enough time to hunt and if (he) had a 50 yard shot, (he) wanted equipment that could take it." I was sickened by his logic, and took it as BS. I thought I could out-hunt the guy with a sharpened stick in my hands. But I did agree to try his bow. I'll be darned if he wasn't right! That thing was amazing and it truly could make 50 yard shots with consistently, even in the hands of an average shooter. Well, I eventually saved up and bought the same bow. Now I regularly practice at 50 yards. I've never taken a shot at a live deer at that range (my ave. with this bow is 20 yds.), but if I have a wounded deer out there I know I can hit it. My acquaintance has now extended his hunting range to 60 yards and he has killed several huge bucks. I still don't respect him but I cannot argue with the actual results. I'll never hunt like he does, but superior equipment is superior equipment.

[croz2173]

JPH, I would like to gain some second hand experience from if I could.

The first buck I ever shot with a bow was a poor shot that I got lucky on. It was my second sit ever in a treestand and I got too excited when I saw ten point. I wont go into the details of the shot but by some miracle a terrible decision resulted in a quick kill with no tracking. I was using a two blade slip cam of the same brand I believe you use. The damage this head did was amazing to me and I continued to use them, although I have never taken another shot at a deer with my bow. I was ashamed of my first attempt and have become very selective when it comes to shot opportunities. I switched to a fixed blade this year because of some of the horror stories I have read here. I got a buck on camera like I have never seen in my woods and didnt want to chance it, as i know what a well placed fixed head will do. My question to you is have you ever seen deflection, deformation of the head, or poor penetration where you should have had deep penetration? Any info is appreciated.

[JPH]

Excellent questions croz2173!

First of all, don't feel too bad about a good shot going wrong. As long as you have done due diligence with equipment selection and practice, you only attempt the shots you honestly think you can make and you follow up until the bitter end, you've done your job. Hunting is a human endeavor in an uncontrolled environment. Mistakes happen, to all of us.

Secondly, I won't lie. No matter what the ads say, the mechanical we shoot does not penetrate as well as the old Satellite TNT, cut on contact head I started with. The only problem is that it was only accurate to about 20 yards with a slow bow, and totally inaccurate with a fast bow. I've had a number of my hits with the mechanical fail to pass through. This was almost unheard of with the cut on contact. Again, I accept the loss in penetration in order to gain accuracy and a larger wound. My personal choice.

Okay, to answer your question. Yes, I have seen some deformation to my mechanical head, but no more than I saw with my old heads and never in any way that resulted in a failure to deploy. The deformation was always the result of striking bone once fully deployed. I'll share several cases from my mechanical blade use that may help:

I have spine shot three does with them. All three deer dropped in their tracks and died quickly. One required a second shot, but she did not move. The strangest of these spine shots came last year. I made a fairly level broadside shot at 20 yards. The arrow must have deflected off a rib because it angled up after impact and broke the deer's spine. Both lungs were cut and she died in moments. I was unable to dislodge the head from the vertebrae. No matter what happened, the head performed.

I have made two scapula shots. One was on a mature buck at 30 yards. He trotted a short distance, paused and turned back into range. I double lunged him at 20 yds on my second chance. Better lucky than good. Anyway, that scapula shot resulted in less than one inch of penetration beyond the bone and only a dime sized hole in the chest cavity. I doubt that it would have been fatal. At least not quickly. The second scapula shot was on an adult doe. She ran off with other does and I saw her walking with them 20 minutes later. I tracked her for 8 hours but lost blood in a standing corn field.

Lastly, I shot one doe almost straight down with a first generation 2-balde slip cam (not the one that is sold today). The shot exited at the bottom of her chest and stuck in the dirt. It appears as if the head deployed properly and there was no deformation but that deer covered over 500 yards. I lost the trail a day later. I assume that it was a single lung shot and that she was dead before I was forced to quit the trail, but I'll never know.

Now, mechanical head haters will likely use these stories against me. They seem to point to a reckless hunter using bad equipment. In my defense, there are a handful of stories out of 28 career bow kills. I realize that 28 kills is a trifling amount compared to some, but a rookie I am not. You did not ask for the specifics of the times my mechanical flew exactly were I wanted it to and I saw blood spouting from the deer as it ran, like the scene in Private Ryan. Nor did you ask about the times my shot went slightly off track but I was still able to end the day with a smile because my deer bled out and died nearby. I can share those stories on request.

No matter what you chose to use, good luck.

[croz2173]

Thank you for sharing you experiences. Much appreciated. Nice buck by the way.

[JPH]

Thanks. As an example of the effectiveness of the equipment I've chosen to use. He was roughly 230 lbs on the hoof and standing broadside at exactly 30 yards. The shot hit him so cleanly that the only sound was the shaft of the arrow tumbling into the cornstalks on the far side of the deer. I saw the arrow hit him but I'm used to hearing a "thump". He pranced away with his tail up and stopped in some brush so my mind began to play tricks on me. I thought I'd missed! A moment later her tried to run and his legs gave out under him. He got back up and stumbled and crashed another 30 yards through the field with a gaping hole showing from both sides before he finally nosed in along the edge for good. He'd gone a total of 60 yards and left a blood trail you could follow on horseback, from the moment of impact to where he stopped.

[Sailfish]

Being a traditional bowhunter..I'll stay out of this conversation

Stoneheads?


I haven't hunted with a bow as long as most of you, I don't spend hours tuning my bow, paper testing, etc. But I do know that when I put on my mechanical it goes where I aimed (not saying a fixed would or wouldn't do that with my bow, but I like what I have) and when I release it, it never crosses my mind it would fail. IE I have extreme confidence. O-rings are like $5 a bottle and you change/check regularly (like you do with all the rest of your equipment......strings, sights, bolts screws etc). But when a fixed blade hits a deer in the zone.............its a devastating kill.
I guess time may tell if I too end up one of those statistics,,,,but as it stands I couldn't see switching

[Deebz]

That's why I like the mechanicals I'm using.. They are a 3 blade expandable with 0-rings... I always make sure they are in good shape before I go out hunting. The blades have small projections that stick out so that the blades are pulled open as the head penetrates. The other plus is that the tip is a triangular shaped razor about 3/4" wide. Even if all 3 blades stay closed (nearly impossible with the design of the head) I get at least some razor blade action for the vitals. I've now shot 4 deer (and my wife shot 1 with her crossbow)with these heads and had complete pass-throughs on all of them. However, should the arrow not pass through, I'd still have the razor in there bouncing around to cause more damage as the deer ran away. The best part for me is that I've had such good performance in these broadheads, and they cost something like $16 for a pack of 3...

I've had terrible luck in the past with getting fixed blade broadheads to fly true. However, I haven't used fixed blades in something like 10 years.

[Oakarver]

Being a traditional bowhunter..I'll stay out of this conversation

Stoneheads?

Nah..that would be primitive archery. Nice magazine out there on that..but I've only read it, not practiced it. I use a fixed two-blader.

[luvhuntin]

I wish i would have had a mechanical late season last year. it would have been lights out for a very solid ten pointer. instead with a fixed blade it just did`nt quite fit through my shooting lane. and after seeing the utter devastation the mechanical did to the rib cage and opposite shoulder of last nights deer i`m sold. of course shot placement is key but the hole through the far side of this deer was scary and it`s just an 1" &1/8 th cut head with a chisel point that locks the blades open on contact a small o-ring keeps the blades in place until the moment of contact.