No doubt that going with a more efficient/better penetrating set-up will penetrate better, all else being equal--but was that the problem?

I know what you mean about the .22, but I can't help but thing there's more to it. For instance, on the last Double Bull DVD's, one of the owners (forget his name) killed an antelope. The arrow entered and exited on the same side of the animal--how in the world does that happen? I saw the shot in slow motion and it still didn't make much sense, but it happened. I haven't experienced a shot like that on a live animal, but I've heard of them. I've even heard about deer turning 180 degrees from the time the arrow was released until it got there--and that was with a compound. Hunter aimed at one side of the deer, hit it on the opposite side. Weird stuff can happen.

Another thing that makes me wonder--when a guy can get a pass-through, including one leg, on a 650+ pound bear, even hittingthe heaviest part of arib on a deer shouldn't be any harder than penetrating that much hair/hide/flesh. I don't recall the arrow being extra heavy either, but he did use a 2 blade broadhead.

Too many "what if's" for me to even pretend I know what went wrong--I don't have a clue. I do know you should have had more than enough bow to bust through deer ribs though, all else being right.

Just don't want you to hang it up due to a freak occurance, or discourage anyone else that is considering taking up trad archery. I do think it's a freak occurance, even twice in a row--I've never heard of anyone else having even similar luck.

Chad