Poor arrow performance

[bloodstick]

Last night i launched my first arrow this season at a nice sized hog roughly 140-150 lbs. My shot was in the meaty part of the shoulder at 18 yards. I missed the crease i was aiming for by about 2". I shoot a mathews Z2 67# at 29" draw length. My arrow was a carbon express piledriver 350 (11.3gpi)
Total arrow weight is roughly 458 grains and chronoed at 257 fps. That should be plenty of energy but my grim reaper only got 6" of penetration and snapped off about 4" up the shaft. I never did recover the hog and found zero blood.
Is this just a fluke or is there something else i missed? At the shot, i could see the exact impact site very well and I would have been pretty thrilled with that impact on just about any game here in texas but the results shocked me. The arrow seemed to just bounce back out after it broke. Sure hope this is not a sign of things to come this season. I'm down to only 3 functioning arrows. I dont think i can muster the courage to try another reaper because im not sure where the failure happened. Was it the indian or the bow?

[muddyfuzzy]

Carbon Express makes a quality product so that's not really an issue. Hindsight the Reaper being a Mechanical more than likely cost you some penetration which didn't help the situation. The mass weight on your arrow is good as well but you may want to look at a fixed blade head in the future.

Get off the ground, dust off, get back on horse and keep hunting.

[DRT]

That head on the shoulder was the issue. Especially if you hit the joint of it. That's a tough spot.

Sent from my SM-J710MN using Tapatalk

[bloodstick]

Carbon Express makes a quality product so that's not really an issue. Hindsight the Reaper being a Mechanical more than likely cost you some penetration which didn't help the situation. The mass weight on your arrow is good as well but you may want to look at a fixed blade head in the future.

Get off the ground, dust off, get back on horse and keep hunting.

Had i not slung my last slicktrick at a coyote last week and dulled the blades in the dirt, thats what would have been in my bow. Guess i need to get back to them. Dont really know why i wanted to try a reaper in the first place.

[bloodstick]

That head on the shoulder was the issue. Especially if you hit the joint of it. That's a tough spot.

Sent from my SM-J710MN using Tapatalk

I didnt hear any crack leading me to believe i did not hit bone. But i might be wrong.

Hindsight, i wish i pulled the old recurve out. Would have made for some lice target practice.

[mej4219]

Have you paper tuned your bow with the arrows? If your bow isn't tuned well, the arrow will fly with a slant and lose a lot of energy.

[bloodstick]

Yes,
i have papertuned and everything flie true

[Slow&Steady]

I opened a 100lb can of pork on Sunday with the following set-up:

29” Gold Tip XT Hunter 340
Luminock
125 Gr Magnus Buzzcut 4 Blade
Overall arrow weight 425gr traveling at 270FPS

Arrow passed all the way through and stuck 3-4 inches in the ground on the other side. Pig ran 50-60 yards. After the first 10 yards, Ray Charles could have followed the blood trail.

My first guess would be that you hit shoulder bone with a wide diameter expandable, and it couldn’t push through.

[mej4219]

If it is paper tuning well, I'd say its a combo of shooting a pig and using a mechanical broadhead. That cartilage plate on the shoulder has eaten more than one of my broadheads in the past. I only use small, cut on contact heads for pigs now. Slick tricks and muzzy trocars have both done well for me.

[DRT]

I didnt hear any crack leading me to believe i did not hit bone. But i might be wrong.

Hindsight, i wish i pulled the old recurve out. Would have made for some lice target practice.

Hitting that cartilage plate can net the same results.

Sent from my SM-J710MN using Tapatalk

[docmay]

If you didn't hit bone I would think that setup would get through on a hog that size. One thing about mechanical heads, they are always more forgiving if you avoid the heavy stuff with them. Like shoulder and leg bones. They tend to do so much damage they are great if you hit back some. Just a thought. Also, sometimes a perctly tuned bow at home or in the shop gets "untined" in the field. If you have to position yourself for a shot you can torque the bow some and get crooked arrow flight. That really kills mechanical broadhead penetration in my opinion.

[bloodstick]

Thanks fellas.

I wont rule out that i may or may not have torqued the bow a little. I still get excited when im about to release an arrow on any critter. But im almost certain it did not hit bone. I was aiming for the soft spot just behind the shoulder but hit forward. It was more of a thump than a thwack sound. no snorts or squeals, just dead sprint for 100 yards before running into the wood line. All 4 legs seemed to be working fine on his hasty exit.

[docmay]

Don't apologize about getting excited! Still happens to me and I blow shots to this day! If you ever get a chance watch some of the African bowhunting videos. A lot of shots are filmed from directly behind the shooter. You see some terrible arrow flight. Some of it is poor tuning but I think more of it is torque as you try to line up or lean to shoot out a window. Once you twist that bow the arrow doesn't come out square. Performance is actually worse up close as there is less chance of recovery by the fletching.

[Rat]

Archery happens.
We can all speculate about what happened and turn this thread into a debate over mech vs. fixed or FOC vs. high FOC; the fact is, it will all be speculation unless you find the pig dead or the front half of the arrow.

Shoot what you have confidence in, hit the range with your set up and pound Xs until you get the confidence back. Make sure the broadheads are doing their job, etc.

Pigs are tough...

[critter69]

That's for sure, pigs are tougher then I emagined. And with two holes in them they can go pretty far sometimes, with less then good trails. I have better luck shooting straight up the leg, and aim a little low, it seems to work best for me, quartering away is a huge benifit also.( although I have not killed very many compared to a lot here.) But it took me quit a few of shooting them behind the shoulder to find out that does not work out in my favor, most of the times. There are a lot more out there waiting to get shanked, get after them.