Grimm Reaper Broadhead Failure

[Nicholai]

I recently returned from a Kodiak archery goat hunt and my Grimm Reaper Razortip broadheads failed to penetrate the goats hair on the two occasions I was given a shot.

The first occasion was a 35 yard quartering away shot on a billy. I watched in horror as my arrow hit right where I was aiming and it literally caught the hair and flipped off the goat better than a judo point could have. After tracking the animal through the snow for several hours and only finding a few handfuls of hair I convinced myself that I had just grazed the outside of his shoulder cutting hair and I saw my arrow flip off the ground behind him and continued hunting.

My next opportunity was a 50 yard broadside shot at a nice billy. Unfortunately since this shot was broadside rather than angled my arrow managed to break the skin but only barely. After hitting the billy my heart sank as I saw him run out of sight with about 28" of my 29" arrow still sticking out of his ribs. After waiting a few hours I began trailing him and recovered my arrow. The broadhead broke off at the insert and there was only blood on the first inch of the shaft. The blood trail eventually dried up and I found he goat the next day still alive and feeding in the cliffs where I was unable to get to him to try and finish him off. Not wanting to cause any additional non lethal harm to him or any other animals I went back to town to get some fixed blade heads and never was able to get any closer than about 70 yards from another big billy and never took another shot.

I have never hit an animal and not recovered it and I feel absolutely awful. As I said I watched the animal the next day and he appeared to be moving around without a problem, he just had a huge red patch on his left side, and I have to hope that the broadhead managed to work itself out and that no bad infections set in.

Tough I had incredible results with this head in August on a dall sheep (ram only went 10 yards) I would have to recommend against using this head for big game, especially game with thick durable hair. As an FYI my setup shoots a 420 grain arrow at about 310 fps, and I believe that when the blades were deploying in the hair they caused enough deflection that the arrow energy was no longer focused down the shaft resulting in no or poor penetration.

 

[boom]

heartbreaking!! sorry about that for sure.

on the bright side..very few humans can claim to have gotten within bow range of a mountain goat..you did it TWICE!!! that is outstanding!!

i use grim reapers on turkey. so far, i have limited it to that.

 

[chobbs]

Man that is too bad. So far I have seen two other gentlemen have failures with Grim Reapers this year and also know of another guy last year that had failures with the Grim Reapers as well. The failures that they had were the blades not opening though and therefore only leaving only small field tip like entry wounds, not good.

 

[kodiakfly]

Sad to hear. Sounds like Reapers are a broadhead to avoid.

And I get the feeling I may know you and know of your goat(s)...

Was this on Cope?
Are you from Palmer?
Were you hoisted by the CG?

If we've met, I'm the fat bald guy with the orange tent. If we've not met, then there's several goats running around Kodiak with bloody coats and/or arrows sticking out of them.

 

[realunlucky]

Man that sucks to have failure after all the effort to make everything come together within bow range of a mountain goat

 

[Nicholai]

Sad to hear. Sounds like Reapers are a broadhead to avoid.

And I get the feeling I may know you and know of your goat(s)...

Was this on Cope?
Are you from Palmer?
Were you hoisted by the CG?

If we've met, I'm the fat bald guy with the orange tent. If we've not met, then there's several goats running around Kodiak with bloody coats and/or arrows sticking out of them.

That's almost funny.

This was not on Cope.
I'm from Chugiak.
Fortunately wasn't hoisted by the CG but I found at least three places where it looked like people had been based on the trashed hunting gear and bits of CG orange rescue equipment.

I guess I wasn't the only one with this sort of bad luck.

 

[kodiakfly]

Yeah, it's been a tough year on the goats here. Kodiak has gotten a rep as the place where goats run around like dogs and the number of hunters is way up. Same goes for silvers and kings, but that's a different conversation. Are you headed back down here this season yet?

If you see a fat, sweaty guy with a Hoyt and a Kifaru, or see my silver Chevy Z71 parked somewhere, that'll be me. Stop by and say hello. My name is Jeff.

Here's two guys getting hoisted off Cope...one of them shot a goat in the butt shortly before this pic was taken....

 

[StrutNut]

I use GR heads and have not had any problems. If you screw them on wrong and not check them they can lock in without deploying. You gotta check them to make sure that they are working right before shooting. I dont think that was your issue though. Possibly the hair getting caught up on the deployment of the blades maybe? Either way I would probably want a good cut on contact head for goats I guess. I have only used GR on MN size deer and have had excellent results with them. I just bought another 3 pack of them. I like them as they fly well out of my rig and have nothing but pass throughs with excellent blood trails. I did have my first blade break on one this year on a pass through. I watched the buck drop within 50 yards. However, based on your experience I would probably shoot a cut on contact head if I got the opportunity on a goat hunt. Thats just a lot of fur!

 

[Nicholai]

Yeah, it's been a tough year on the goats here. Kodiak has gotten a rep as the place where goats run around like dogs and the number of hunters is way up. Same goes for silvers and kings, but that's a different conversation. Are you headed back down here this season yet?

If you see a fat, sweaty guy with a Hoyt and a Kifaru, or see my silver Chevy Z71 parked somewhere, that'll be me. Stop by and say hello. My name is Jeff.

Here's two guys getting hoisted off Cope...one of them shot a goat in the butt shortly before this pic was taken....

Thanks for the invite Jeff. I don't think I'll be back down for the road hunt before the season ends, but am seriously considering going back in February or March further south.

I like your comment about goats being like dogs there. I spoke to a few other hunters there who seemed shocked that there weren't 10" Billy's tethered up next to the road for people to hunt them. Just because there are lots of goats on Kodiak, it doesn't mean that it's easy, or even anything like sheep hunting.

 

[kodiakfly]

A lot of people expect that because a lot of people will talk about Kodiak because they don't live here and it's not their problem if the island gets slammed. Reports of Kodiak goats and deer are often exaggerated or at the least embellished a bit if someone has a good hunt. But you won't see that from the few of us that live here...Kodiak already gets enough pressure. People from the mainland are (usually) more tight lipped about their spots and kills because they know that most everyone reading can drive there.
And rokslide and the good folks here arent the problem. The AK hunting/fishing forum and Facebook is. It's insane the amount of kodiak specifics and tips that are shared but if a Kodiak guy asks about moose out of Fairbanks or tips for grayling, it's like he just asked who shot Kennedy.

 

[pronghorn]

I am surprised to hear that. I have killed several large mule deer and an elk with Grim Reapers with no problems and short blood trails.

 

[MattB]

I wouldn't limit the conversation to grim reapers and long-haired animals, IMO it is a bad idea in general to use mechanicals on long haired animals like late season goats, muskox, etc. IMO they are simply the wrong tool for that job. While your result is very unfortunate, it is not entirely unexpected.

 

[Jtelarkin08]

I wouldn't limit the conversation to grim reapers and long-haired animals, IMO it is a bad idea in general to use mechanicals on long haired animals like late season goats, muskox, etc. IMO they are simply the wrong tool for that job. While your result is very unfortunate, it is not entirely unexpected.

This. My solids fly to 100 yards no problem.

That being said sucks that happened to you. A lot of work to have a failure like that

 

[KHNC]

Same story almost exactly with my buddys bear in Saskatchewan this past May. Hit the bear behind the shoulder. Only penetrate 3 inches and did not appear to deploy at all. Single lung puncture the size of a field point. He tracked the bear hundreds of yards and finally was able to put another arrow in the bear. I think it was the GR whitetail special.