Gut shot..no pass thru
 

Last night I filled my buck tag on a nice 2x3 muley. Bad thing about it, I didn' t put the arrow where it needed to be. I hit him as he was taking a step, hence a gut shot. When the arrow hit, he immediately bolted to the opposite side of the hit. I could see the arrow sticking out as he ran off. During the blood tail search I found my arrow, bent, and covered in pink blood. For sure I thought a pass thru the lungs. Well when I found him, I discovered that it wasn' t a lung shot. This brings me to this question, is my bow too weak?

PSE Nova (bought new in 1999)
60# pull
28" draw
Easton Game Getter II 2018 arrows w/ 125 grain Rocky Mountain BH' s

Granted this is my first Bow kill, and I' m still a rookie at bow hunting. But this was a gut shot. It should have passed through right? Is getting the bow cranked up another 5 lbs in my future?

RE: Gut shot..no pass thru
 

I don' t think it' s too weak...If you think about it, a deer has a very thick midsection and it' s probably as dense as a hay bale. Then another variable would be if there was food in it or not...Hence, making it alot harder to get a pass through. Again, I don' t think your bow is too weak I just think it has alot to do with all of the tissue and other things that are in the stomach region.

RE: Gut shot..no pass thru
 

It depends on more than your bow weigh. You say you' re using Rocky Mountain Broadheads. Which one, fixed or mechanical? If it' s mechanical you might definitely have a penetration problem with you short draw and average poundage. Secondly, if your arrows aren' t flying true and they' re hitting at an angle or fishtailing or something like that, it' ll steal a lot of you power....again penetration problems. So, we can' t really say. You should beable to get a pass through under the right conditions, but not necessarily so. Another 5 pounds on your bow would give you more ump, but it would probably throw you into a different spined arrow or smaller broadhead to maintain spine. I didn' t bother to look all your data up on the arrow charts, I' m just assuming you have what' s right now. I guess that might be a mistake too.

RE: Gut shot..no pass thru
 

The BH' s are fixed, not mechanicals. The arrows not be being spined correctly makes sense too me. I don' t get any noticeable fish tailing, but I know maintain a fair amount of consistancy with my BH shots. I have been contemplating the idea of going to carbon arrows. I am going to try the whisker buscuit next year. I guess I' m trying to convince myself that I don' t need a new bow.

RE: Gut shot..no pass thru
 

Did you replace the blades with brand new ones after practicing?

RE: Gut shot..no pass thru
 

Yep, fresh ones were placed yesterday mornin

RE: Gut shot..no pass thru
 

I killed a truck load of dear with my Nova. (#65) Have you paper tuned it to see if it is tight? could be out of balance?