Broadhead effect on blood trail - exodus vs grim reaper experience

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There are so many variables to a blood trail. Place of impact, angle of impact, size of head, blade total, position of animal. Does it have really think hair or short hair?

I've seen a deer get hit that was looking back over its shoulder. It got hit on the side that was all stretched out. When it ran off the hole in the hide where the arrow entered the animal and the hole at the body were not lined up. So all the blood collected in between the skin. It was a weird one.

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That's gotta be it. I'll try them again and see if the results are the same. I really like the way the heads are built, and in this setup they fly incredibly well to very long distances but I was shocked to see no blood at all.

I can't argue that the head did its job, the deer died fast and didn't go far at all
 

Tod osier

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I


I don't disagree that it's a well built head, I just have never seen 0 blood all the way to the animal.

The shot was not back at all, and both lungs were deflated and the shot was forward of the guts on exit. The broadhead creased the scap on the on side and the hole in the hide was 8 inches back off the crease on the far side with the hole through the ribs being farther in front of the hole in the hide.

I'm a firm hug the shoulder kind of guy.

Trust is important, but a broadhead isn't magic. I trust the collective experience that they are great heads over my experience with a few animals. Ditch them if you don't trust them.
 
OP
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Trust is important, but a broadhead isn't magic. I trust the collective experience that they are great heads over my experience with a few animals. Ditch them if you don't trust them.
Unfortunately for me I need a larger sample size to trust them or not. I bought into them from recommendations of good flight and durability and on those regards I am more than happy. Thst head went through the deer and was in the dirt and still came back sharp, butI hadn't heard much about their ability to put blood on the ground. I'd assume they should be good based on size, but I've seen some heads regardless of cut sizd just do something special when it comes to blood letting potential. I think the shape of the hole might come into play, as well as the ability of the broadhead to stay sharp enough to cut rather than push through the exit side.

I shot rages, montecs and muzzys long ago and through repetition all of them proved to be lacking something I was looking for.

I wanted to hear that my experience was abnormal, and not that these heads for some reason don't produce a good blood trail. I do believe that some heads design and characteristics lend to better blood trails and therefore more likely recovery when things don't go perfect.

I'll keep one in the quiver and given a good chance at something I'll try them again and see if maybe this time it gives me the result I'm looking for. I have 5 more of them, might as well send em and use the 6 of them as my sample size.
 

htlt_surfboards

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Ive shot a handful of animals with the exodus head. All have been good blood trails and no problems except one. The only time that I got no blood was a cow elk that I hit a little high but she still went down about 60 yards from where I shot. You can see in the photo it made a good hole but was above center. When I opened her up all of the blood was pooled in the cavity.
 

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Do you all believe the type of broadhead used has a major impact on blood trail, or do you believe it's all about placement?

For example
My wife shot her first deer with a bow recently and used a grim reaper 1 3/16 3 blade and it left the nastiest blood trail I've ever seen from a fixed blade. Shot was pretty solid, ever so slight quartering to and tight to the shoulder exiting a few inches back on the opposite side. Low stand height and deer close on a slight hill, so the entry and exit were almost level.

Comparing that blood trail to the blood trail on a doe shot with an exodus head, there was literally no blood anywhere. Now the shot placement was slightly different, deer close, 7 yards out of a 5 foot elevated blind and the deer tipped over in sight at about 100 yards. However, there was literally no blood. In this case the angle was slightly more quartering to, with the shot on the onside shoulder and exiting about 8 inches behind the shoulder on the offside, about 3 inches up into the brown hair. When I say there was no blood, I mean there was literally no blood.

Has anybody experienced that with exodus heads?

Having shot many many deer with both fixed blades and mechanicals,I've never seen one not bleed at all.

It could just be where the arrow exited, but it leaves me wondering if broadhead design also plays a factor in the ability for blood to pour out.
My last deer with an exodus died in 3 steps WT doe at exactly 60 yards hit behind the shoulder dead center hight and 1.5" back from the crease she didn't live long enough to bleed outside the body cavity. I shot a bull elk a couple of years ago with the same exodus dead center double lung from 32 yards. He went about 30 yards and died on his feet. He didn't bleed for the first 15 yards but after that it looked like it was poured out of a pitcher right to where he laid. Hit a nice WT buck year before last a bit high from a tree stand think upper third slight quartering to. The arrow came out low and about 12" behind the offside. He ran about 180 yards and laid down in some CRP. Blood was ok quarter size drops every 5-6 ft from the point of impact to where he was down. The exodus is designed to penetrate and pass through so you have 2 holes and as long as the shot is vital they won't last long. If you hit shoulder or maybe body long ways with a low poundage or low FOC and it didn't exit there will be very little blood. Also if the hit is high the body cavity has to fill up before there will be any blood trail. I called in a bull for a friend that shot it from 15 yards with a grim reaper with a 2" cut and his shot was downhill and he draws 55 lbs with his bow. It hit in the lower third right behind the leg crease, but at the angle went in under the heart and lodged in the sternum and ribs at the base of the chest. It did get 1 lung really low and the arrow stayed in. That bull bled 3 drops and went for over 2 miles. It took us 5 days to recover it and we couldn't salvage the meat due to warm temps and time. Simply it's all about shot placement.
 

GreggB

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Many years ago, I shot a doe with a Rocket Steelhead. Steelheads had always left pretty good blood trails for me but this one was weird. We had a fresh 6" of snow on the ground and that doe never left a drop of blood in that snow for the 50 or 60 yards I tracked her. Not one drop on fresh snow with a double lung pass thru. A few days later, I shot a buck with another steelhead and he left a crazy blood trail as you can see in the photo.Blood trail snow.jpg
 
OP
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Quickly growing pet-peeve - 1 animal shot with a given broadhead/bullet followed by broadhead/bullet blamed on the internet for poor blood trails.
Thanks for your input. Worried I invested in 3 packs of broadheads that don't do what I need them to do, so I thought I'd ask other people what their experience was before I commit to using them fully.

I'm not blaming anything, just asking for experiences to see if I should keep loading them in my quiver or not.

Carry on
 
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A 3 blade wound is a 3 blade wound... There's no magical design that spews blood out like a cut hydraulic hose, and there's no dud design that plugs the entry and exit hole. If its shoots great, sharpens up nice, and penetrates fully, there's nothing else you can ask for. Your search is over. Look up Lusk archery on YouTube, he's shot something like 60+ animals with them and is a big fan.
 
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Thanks for your input. Worried I invested in 3 packs of broadheads that don't do what I need them to do, so I thought I'd ask other people what their experience was before I commit to using them fully.

I'm not blaming anything, just asking for experiences to see if I should keep loading them in my quiver or not.

Carry on

Sorry i didn't intend to direct that at your post in particular and I understand how it could come off that way. The topic of discussion just reminded me of peope who in your case might have jumped to proclaiming "exodus dont leave good blood trails" as a black and white fact.
 
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Shot a doe yesterday, she took a step and the G5 Striker V2 hit liver. Blood trail was virtually non existent but I found her. I shot another doe with same broadhead a couple weeks back in the lungs/heart and blood trail was glorious.

Shot placement is #1 when it comes to blood trails.
 
OP
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Shot a doe yesterday, she took a step and the G5 Striker V2 hit liver. Blood trail was virtually non existent but I found her. I shot another doe with same broadhead a couple weeks back in the lungs/heart and blood trail was glorious.

Shot placement is #1 when it comes to blood trails.
3 blade or 4 striker? I really liked the performance of the 3 on all the deer I shot with them but the 4s seems to not be as durable as the 3s for some reason
 
OP
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Sorry i didn't intend to direct that at your post in particular and I understand how it could come off that way. The topic of discussion just reminded me of peope who in your case might have jumped to proclaiming "exodus dont leave good blood trails" as a black and white fact.
Totally get it, I try not to ever base my opinions off a sample size of one just in case it's a fluke.

I've been wrong many many times lol
 
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3 blade or 4 striker? I really liked the performance of the 3 on all the deer I shot with them but the 4s seems to not be as durable as the 3s for some reason

3 blade Striker V2. As mentioned, it’s an awesome head that makes really good blood trails but if you hit them in the wrong spot, not so much.
 
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3 blade Striker V2. As mentioned, it’s an awesome head that makes really good blood trails but if you hit them in the wrong spot, not so much.
Sharpest blades out of the box by far, love those. I shot a doe way low because she didn't even flinch at the shot and then just trotted off without tail-flagging. I thought for sure it was a miss in the low light since it made zero impact noise and I could see the lighted nock still flying like a dart past the doe into the ground. Walked over to grab my arrow and it looked like a massacre. Easiest track job I've ever experienced.
 
OP
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Sharpest blades out of the box by far, love those. I shot a doe way low because she didn't even flinch at the shot and then just trotted off without tail-flagging. I thought for sure it was a miss in the low light since it made zero impact noise and I could see the lighted nock still flying like a dart past the doe into the ground. Walked over to grab my arrow and it looked like a massacre. Easiest track job I've ever experienced.
They are so sharp... I have a scar from taking one out of a pack!
 
OP
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A 3 blade wound is a 3 blade wound... There's no magical design that spews blood out like a cut hydraulic hose, and there's no dud design that plugs the entry and exit hole. If its shoots great, sharpens up nice, and penetrates fully, there's nothing else you can ask for. Your search is over. Look up Lusk archery on YouTube, he's shot something like 60+ animals with them and is a big fan.
I disagree. My experience has shown that some produce markedly different hole shapes and sizes even though they're still a 3 blade head. Tip design, blade thickness and angle as well ferrule design is what I would imagine creates the differences.

Push a vpa or similar through hide and push something like a 3 blade muzzy or something without a cut to tip design through hide. The tip doesn't cut right away so the hide essentially gets pushed in first before the blades hit creating a slightly larger hole. In this case the exodus should leave a hole that is plenty big to have a good blood trail, but through the magic of reality the hole didn't line up with the wound cavity so it didn't matter because the blood couldn't escape. Combine that with a death run that didn't last long enough for the blood to start escaping and it was a bad deal.

Comparing directly to my wife's grim reaper and my most recent striker, sevr and grim reaper 1.5 inch 3 blades and I was questioning weather others had seen anything similar. Sounds like not, so they'll stay in the quiver and I'll try them again to see how they perform.
 
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I disagree. My experience has shown that some produce markedly different hole shapes and sizes even though they're still a 3 blade head. Tip design, blade thickness and angle as well ferrule design is what I would imagine creates the differences.

Push a vpa or similar through hide and push something like a 3 blade muzzy or something without a cut to tip design through hide. The tip doesn't cut right away so the hide essentially gets pushed in first before the blades hit creating a slightly larger hole. In this case the exodus should leave a hole that is plenty big to have a good blood trail, but through the magic of reality the hole didn't line up with the wound cavity so it didn't matter because the blood couldn't escape. Combine that with a death run that didn't last long enough for the blood to start escaping and it was a bad deal.

Comparing directly to my wife's grim reaper and my most recent striker, sevr and grim reaper 1.5 inch 3 blades and I was questioning weather others had seen anything similar. Sounds like not, so they'll stay in the quiver and I'll try them again to see how they perform.
Good luck in your search, but I assure you that the bigger variable is what you're cutting on the inside and where the entry/exit hole is. Shoulders have multiple layers of overlapping muscles that can clog up external blood loss while they run. I've seen plenty of examples of it, but never on a hard quartering away shot that goes behind one shoulder and out the front of the other, those are always easy blood trails in my experience. Deer are an inconsistent medium for testing, so don't base your opinion of a company on one underwhelming variable of an experience where the Broadhead still dd its job effectively.
 
OP
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Good luck in your search, but I assure you that the bigger variable is what you're cutting on the inside and where the entry/exit hole is. Shoulders have multiple layers of overlapping muscles that can clog up external blood loss while they run. I've seen plenty of examples of it, but never on a hard quartering away shot that goes behind one shoulder and out the front of the other, those are always easy blood trails in my experience. Deer are an inconsistent medium for testing, so don't base your opinion of a company on one underwhelming variable of an experience where the Broadhead still dd its job effectively.
I do love me some quartering away shots, seems that deer dont ever give me them though. Its like they know....


I never form an opinion of something off one point of data. That's why I'm asking the homes who've used them before I did. Sounds like my experience was the exception not the rule
 
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