OK.....time for an anatomy/physiology lesson. (I'm not a doctor but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express lat night!)

WHen you have a straight one shot at an animal such as a deer or elk for a clean kill you pretty much have to do one thing.....HIT THE HEART.(or a major vessel above)
That is a tough shot as you are shooting into a pocket of muscle as well as the angled curve of the sternum.
Most people who wrongly even try this shot shoot too high.....
What happens when you shoot at a deer on avery steep angle and only get one lung??.....The deer runs away, blood trail slows or stops.....and if hunter pushes deer he usually goes home crying.

Now translate that single lung hit into a full frontal shot.......
1. You now have many layers of muscle,fat and bone to penetrate

2. A single lung hit is pretty much assured because of the lack of angle to get thru both.....your either hitting one or the other, or a tiny bit of both.(unless you have a super secret 6" cut broadhead)

3. You only have one hole

Combine 1,2, & 3 and what do you have? Tell him Johnny what he's won!.......Well you've won a long track job and probably a lost animal because you didn't get a pass thru whcih means only one hole to bleed out of....(normally, at best you have an exit in a crappy spot as well....usually the butt or guts)), the arrow is buried clogging the only hole ,and finally The only hole itself is now in a thick area where blood will not flow freely out of because it's not the same make-up as the thin broadside of the chest. This hole will close up much more easily than the thin layer of muscle and hide located on the side of the chest.

Even a heart shot deer or elk or whatever probably won't bleed much simply due to the location of the entrance wound.

Is the animal going to die if you get an arrow in there?......probably.
Are you going to recover the animal.....MAYBE. MAybe aint good enough for me to take that shot.
I know every shot we take at an animal is a maybe......but I know that if I put a good shot on a broadside or quartering animal I'm recovering that animal.
The maybe I don't like is with the frontal shot.....even if I'm perfect, recovery is still a MAYBE.





Edited by - Matt / PA on 01/23/2002 22:38:24