TWC

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?

billy8point

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.

davidmil

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.

TWC

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.

nub

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

TWC

Yep, fresh ones were placed yesterday mornin

Doemasters

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?