mattisbob

im scared of them there pointy and not im my hands

Bees

where did you hit these deer , and how far away were they??

Leverdude

If your talking to me, the buck was about 30 yards out & I believe I either hit his shoulder or he mighta took a step & I got his upper leg bone. When I tracked him he wasnt using his left front leg at all so I kinda lean toward him lifting that leg & putting it in the way.

The second one was a doe about 20 yards away facing directly at me. I was on the ground & she was slightly higher than me so the shot was angled up somewhat. I hit her right smack between her shoulders in the center of her chest. (Sternum?) She ran about 50 yards, pulled out the arrow & believe it or not I think she just started feeding again. I waited almost an hour till the landowner came home & we tracked her together. Found the arrow like 50 yards away & then the trail just kinda wandered around the area awhile before going over a rise & into a swamp. I honestly think she was still there when we went to look for her & she slipped over the ridge when we entered the woods.
The arrow was only 3 inches short when we found it.

Someone above said it may matter alot how the bone is hit, meaning hit squarely vs. a glancing blow that might deflect an arrow a bit but not stop it. This sounds reasonable to me.

These 2 experiences almost soured me to bowhunting as in the past with a rifle I have never wounded or lost a deer. So to lose 2 kinda hurt. I like hunting too much to quit though & have chalked these up to experience. I will never shoot one faceing me again with a bow, even though I'v been told I shot too low it just seems too iffy for me to call ethical. The buck all I can think I coulda done better was aim further back or wait for him to stop.

Sorry I started rambling.

c903

A through and through is not a given. Never has been. Too many variables, even in a good hit.

muzzyman88

I have to agree with most on here. Passthrough's are not a definite by any means. Too many variables come into play when shooting at an animal.

On the other hand, a well tuned hunting setup should yeild a passthrough in most cases if the shot placement is correct. I personally have never had any issues with passthroughs on my past dozen or so animals I killed. But these were all well placed shots. My setups don't yield particularly high KE compared to some. 65lb, 28" draw and a 400 grain arrow shooting in the mid 260's has blown through all of the deer I've killed in the past few years.

I have a cousin who blew completely through an elk at 30 yards with almost the exact same specs as myself. You do not need ultra high KE to kill even the largest game.

flashover

I am new to this forum, but i really hate to make those who say throw away you mechanicals and go with fixed blades mad. I have killed 6 muley bucks and 7 bulls in the past 8 yrs. with mechanicals. I shoot a BowTech Extreme Solo, 70#, 28 1/2" easton carbon evolutions at 275 fps, tipped with rocky mountion revolution mechanicals (total weight 480 grains, KE of 73.3). All but one was a pass through, with some shots out to 56 yrds. Like i said i'm not out to make anyone mad or upset anyone, just don't trash mechanicals, they do work and work well.

JeffB

Absolutely!

PABowhntr

I agree as well and shoot them almost exclusively now though I also understand that some setups definitely do not warrant their usage. In fact I would say that a fixed/replacement blade is more reliable in terms of penetration when all possible hunting scenarios are considered.

AK

I used mechanicals for a while (~270 fps), but the crummy penetration and mangled heads I realized steered me back towards fixed blades. I used many styles of heads and finally came to the conclusion that one-piece, cut-on-contact heads are superior for big game. I hunted the last 2 years of my compound days very content with 2-blade heads. Shooting wooden bows and arrows now at ~140-150 fps, I typically get passthroughs unless heavy bone or dense muscle is encountered...still using cutting point 2 and 3 blade heads with 600-700 grn arrows.