Wayne, I hope you didn't think that I was saying you are a poor shot. Certainly wasn't my intent at all.

You're definitely right about the many differences there are in shooting targets and live animals. For one thing in shooting targets you are not worried about the angle, only where the arrow impacts. On live animals you have to be just as aware of the flight path of the arrow as you are where it hits. Angle is everything. Further we won't even get into the movement of the animal or awkward shooting positions.

Certainly a bigger broadhead gives one a larger margin for error. I too have had excellent results with the Hammerhead 3L. I don't think you are missing anything in reference to passthroughs and bones. If on a mature animal, a person hits the ridge on the scapula bone square, the arrow is NOT going through, I don't care what your shooting.

I wish you well...

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You sound like you are doing alright. Just some bad luck is all. Usually when you don't get a pass through, it is because you hit the arm on the opposite side. With pigs, the heart lies literally at the bottom of the chest just behind the armpit. It's a good idea to aim for the elbow. That's probably the best place to aim. You hit low, you hit the heart. Lungs if you are right on and high is also lungs but if you hit higher, your gonna get a bad blood trail. You really have some trophy sized pigs over there. They probably have really heavy pads. The pads won't extend to much below the elbow so on huge boars like the one you shot, for best penetration (even though you should be able to get a pass through even through the pad) you should aim low and you will always get clean pass throughs great blood trails, and the animal will go down quickly. I don't know how the sow went that far. She must had been tough.

My NAP thunderhead 85 grains drop pigs in the same distance and that is just out of my 45 pound compound. The bow is also capable of getting pass throughs on pigs. Or at least it would if I didn't always hit the arm on the other side.



Nic

Nic.

You are not the first person to mention the elbow as an aiming point but it sure seems like an unforgiving place to aim. Shoot a little low and you missed completely. I think I will take your advice and aim there if the hog is not moving around. I was hoping that someone else had used a large expandable on hogs before and would confirm what I am suspecting. If I can consistently drop them within 100 yards I would be happy with that. We use a dog to blood trail and it will go right to one that is on the ground; even if there is no blood. I can’t tell you how many times the dog has saved us. That was the smartest thing we ever did. So I guess I will use the Hammerhead and let yall know if misfortune visits me again. If I could figure out how to post photos I would post some of my kills. Nic, the hogs seem to be good size but the tusks are not that large. Not like I’ve seen some photos of. The last ones were about 1 ½ to 2 in, the one I shot last year was heavier but had even smaller tusk. I know very little about hogs and have no idea why this would be; I would guess genetics like deer.


Wayne B.

Wayne, would love to see your pics, I sent your an email. Get back to me if you have any problems or need help.

The best of luck in all your hunting endeavors!!!

God Bless,
Dave