Crazy how many hunters blame the broadhead...

[glen]

I see lots of wounded deer threads with bows. Just don’t bring up neck shooting a deer with a rifle because it isn’t ethical.

[CEO]

I think a lot of times it’s like what was stated earlier on this thread or the other one. Sometimes what we think we see and actual reality are two different things. May have nothing to do with admitting to anything. It all happens so fast.

This is what happened on the first deer I shot with a bow. I had gotten my bow about a year earlier, shot every day. I was a killer on the target and usually won when we shot the dart system at the bow shop. Fast forward to the hunt and an old doe walks out, I put the pin right where I want and watch the arrow disappear right behind the shoulder. I'm pumped, not just because I put a deer down but I feel like all that practice paid off. I get down and find my arrow...GUTS. Not a bit of blood anywhere. Tried for hours to find that deer and never did. That was nearly 20 years ago and to this day I can still see that arrow hit the mark.

[rtp]

I made a post the other night on the latest crazy one, trying to calm it down...I gave up and edited it and told them to have at it it's sometimes amusing, but usually ends up headed down the wrong trail very quickly

What did I miss?

[PondPopper]

I really did see a broadhead fail.
It was a slick trick that a fellow shot through both lungs of a fallow deer on my place a few years ago.
I watched the deer go 100 yards and lay down.
30 minutes later it was still picking its head up and the hunter tried to slip in and get another arrow in it.
It jumped up and ran like it had never been shot. 4 hours later I was able to kill it with a rifle.
When we cleaned it the arrow had passed through both lungs.

It was a mind boggling thing.

I posted this not to bash slick tricks but as an example that sometimes things just happen.

I made a perfect shot on a big bodied, old, mature buck that was standing square, broadside, at 15 yards from a ground blind. I was shooting NAP Spitfire 125's. A Complete pass through. I knew exactly where I hit him, in the top of the arm pit crease, 5-6 inches up from his sternum.. Perfect. It exited 2" further back at the same elevation... He took off like a bolt of lightening and ran about 100 yards and stopped. At this point he left 2 8-10" puddles of bubble filled blood about 10 inches apart and I could tell from the sign he was also bleeding from his mouth. From that point on, for the next 50 or so yards, the blood trail varied from very spotty to nothing.. After that there was nothing at all. I continued searching and found where he had laid up. mashed down grass with some blood then again nothing. I continued in the general direction I though he was heading and luckily, accidently, found 2 more spots where he had laid down.. I have now covered 400+ yards. After kneeling at the last spot where he had bedded I stood up and saw him laying 45 yards away..
This buck was lethally hit with a huge hole through both lungs and I ALMOST lost him.. It was incredible to see the damage to his vitals and I couldn't imagine how he just carried it with him for that distance before dying.. His entire body cavity was filled with blood..
It definitely had me thinking.. Loosing one after making a really good shot can happen..

[Pedernal]

There are so many variables in bow hunting as mentioned above therefore it's kind of silly to blame a broad head. At the end of the day it is on the archer; the broad head didn't choose us, we choose it. More importantly, we choose to release the arrow.

There are plenty of "blind peeps" bow hunting including myself that scew reality via seeing what we hoped to see versus what actually transpired or reality. This was mentioned above as well.

Additionally, covered above is the fact that taking responsibility and just admitting that we made a far less than perfect shot is not common place. it's human nature to not freely admit our short comings but it is a liberating feeling to do so.

You fellas are good, you have it all covered not sure why I even posted now

[berettadave]

Wonder if Sitting Bull ever leaned over to his wife Squattin' Heifer and said "flintrock point no workum, me needum Rage"?

[BTLowry]

I botched a shot on a pig th other day

I started to post that I had been abandoned by my broadheads, arrows and bow. Quiver was not involved so he was sticking with me for now. Rest of the involved equipment was debating whether to give me a pass or use this instance of poor performance on my part to seek better shooter

Figured I would end up in the cooler so I just let it go

Strange things do happen like Buff said, majority are bad shots, some the shooter thinks they saw a good shot but reality is not always the way it appears

[brokeno]

So true.... And taking shots at poor shot angles.

[toledo]

It happens. Biggest deer ive killed by far was shot with a grim reaper whitetail special that failed terribly. "Crossbow rated" but the long thin blades were obviously not up to the job. Perfect double lung shot, nothing but ribs. On hitting the first set of ribs, two blades broke completely off and one blade broke in half leaving a field point and half of one blade entering the lungs. Very lucky for me the deer ran 40 yards and stopped and looked back to see what happened followed by him walking off. This gave him a good bit of time to bleed out before crashing in sight. It took WAY longer than it should have. Had he just ran like most deer, with zero blood trail, he had plenty of time to clear 400-500 hundred yards and not been found in the thicket he was headed to.

[AndyTX]

I see lots of wounded deer threads with bows. Just don’t bring up neck shooting a deer with a rifle because it isn’t ethical.

No? That use to be my fav shot. Drop them in their tracks.