I know, mauser... It's just that I've played the game before. I shot, heard a loud whackand gotminimal penetrationon a solid rib cagehit - and yes, it was with a fixed blade.

Luckily a friend rifle shot the deer a few weeks later and I got to do an autopsy. Found outthat the broadhead had hit just right (or just wrong, depending on your point of view), wedged intoan overlythick part of a rib and stuck there.It looked likethat rib had broken there before and laid in a lot of extra bone when it knitted back together. A half inch either way and I would have gotten the deer myself. It was just plain bad luck that I centerpunched that exact spot.

Like I said, stuff happens from time to time. Just this time stuff happened to poor Thorneswift onhis very first try with mechanicals. NOT a good way to develop confidence in a broadhead. I'd consider it an omen. [:-]

It's sad, at least to me it is, that people are sooo quick to poke fingers and blame the shooter and shot placement rather thanentertain the slightest possibility that maybe a certain product didn't perform, or eventhat maybe ol' Murphy really did win this round.

Part and parcel of the mechanist mindset that's taken over the greater part of archery and bowhunting, I guess. "It can't be the equipment so ithas tobe the shooter."