Mechanical failure or ????

[Skerhunter]

Wondering if anyone here has experience with a mechanical not opening and can give in put on blood trail and tracking results. Or chime in if you have experience similar with fixed blades.

I shot a deer this week that really has me scratching my head on what went wrong. I’m not naming the head because I don’t know exactly what happened yet, but question it based on results.

Shot was “broad side” i suspect exit was slightly further back than entry due to angle of stand to trail. 30 yard shot from 18’ so off side should be slightly lower also. Yardage was perfect and hit mid body. Onside leg was way forward (deer stopped stretched out) and shot was behind shoulder (leg forward made it hard to tell exact entrance but appeared in front of diaphragm).

Arrow passed through and blades were deployed but it was buried in the dirt (not normal for my set up). Arrow is soaked in bright red blood and smells clean (no indication of bubbly lung blood, dark liver blood or gi tract). First thought was heart/artery and short blood trail.

Deer ran 50 yards and almost fell. He stopped and turned 90 degrees and slowly walked into timber.

Where he stumbled left minimal blood for 20 yards (bright red like on arrow).

Deer traveled ~150 yards and bedded immediately. There was 0 blood along this route. Deer laid in bed for ~15 hours until I bumped him. Bed had minimal blood and was bright red.

Hired a dog and he did not find anymore blood than I did.

Pics below of arrow, original first blood trail and bed.

 

[Trumpkin The Dwarf]

The only hit that makes sense of that to me would be a muscle hit... wether higher or lower than you realized. Or you happened to be the one that gets a super freaky deer that survives a hole in two lungs. Heard of that happening, but never seen it myself.

 

[Fowl Play]

I don’t think any deer survives a double lung, even if the blades didn’t open.

Single lung possible, but would expect pink foamy blood. How confident are you it was mid body?

 

[Skerhunter]

I don’t think any deer survives a double lung, even if the blades didn’t open.

Single lung possible, but would expect pink foamy blood. How confident are you it was mid body?

100% positive it was mid body. I saw zero indication of lung blood .

 

[Skerhunter]

The only hit that makes sense of that to me would be a muscle hit... whether higher or lower than you realized. Or you happened to be the one that gets a super freaky deer that survives a hole in two lungs. Heard of that happening, but never seen it myself.

I agree on the muscle hit characteristics of the blood trail and color of blood. But I’m confident it was not too high, low or forward. Also differed in that the muscle hits I have experience leave a good blood trail for 100-200 yards then abruptly stop. This one never even got started! Also animals typically just keep going and don’t bed up. The arrow was also soaked in blood, which usually doesn’t happen either (that’s the part im most confused about).

 

[AlphaK9]

Heartbreak. Friend of mine shot one 23 yards slightly quartering to... entered just behind the shoulder but he never found his arrow. He thinks it deflected internally and sat the full length in his ribcage or something. Decent blood within 30 yards of the shot, then about 6 drops before he hopped a fence. He had his tail tucked hard. They are incredibly tough and resilient animals- the mature bucks especially.

And yeah, he was shooting mechanicals...

 

[ddowning]

I would bet you got a deflection inside the animal that caused it to go around at least one lung. Last year, I bought an 80# RX8 Ultra after shooting a 70# Patriot since 2002. I tried to use the same arrows because I had close to 2 dozen. They would tune and group just fine. I shot 4 deer with that set-up. 2 of them had entrance holes in the correct place and deflected inside the cavity. On both of those I watched the arrow kick when it hit. The most egregious one was a doe fawn. When we finally found her, the exit hole was low in the guts. I flipped her over and the entrance was exactly mid height in the crease of the shoulder. The shot was spot and stalk on level ground, so it wasn't the angle from the stand.

I just shot the first deer this year a couple days ago with 250 spine Sonics and got the normal result. Arrow took the straight, expected path through and stuck in the dirt. The deer died in sight after traveling less than 40 yards. The blood trail was easy to find and follow at a fast walk in the dark even though we watched it fall.

There are all sorts of things that can cause deflections including animal movement while the arrow is in flight (which you really have no control over).

 

[nphunter]

If that arrow passed through both lungs you wouldn't be posting here. Could have been just under his chest in the leg meat, I've done this before with similar results and chased that back for another week and he just kept rutting. You can tell yourself whatever you want, but unless there is a dead deer or video footage you will never know exactly where the arrow hit, it could have been tail high and looked perfect but hit low or vice versa and passed through his back strap or just under his spine.

 

[CJ_BG]

I've had one of the old 3 blade rages that were notorious for not opening do exactly that years ago before I knew what I was doing.

Quartering away shot, neighbor shot the deer a month later in rifle season with the arrow through the very bottom of the liver and just inside one lung which was half shriveled up. Opened it up and sure enough the rage never opened. Crazy what they can survive

 

[AlphaK9]

I've had one of the old 3 blade rages that were notorious for not opening do exactly that years ago before I knew what I was doing.

Quartering away shot, neighbor shot the deer a month later in rifle season with the arrow through the very bottom of the liver and just inside one lung which was half shriveled up. Opened it up and sure enough the rage never opened. Crazy what they can survive

That's crazy!!

 

[blackveltbowhunter]

Its unlikely you will ever get complete closure, but for fun here is a couple ideas and things I have seen over the years...

It sounds like the bucks midsection was taught and the shot was angled down. If the blade caught a rib just right depending on the design it could have slipped between the ribs and skin exiting the bottom of the chest. It would explain the color and lack of blood. It also explains the stumbling and wanting to bed. BP dumps with this impact and they get "woozy" but recover gain their wits and head to known cover to recover. This is a design limitation in tons of mechanicals, but heads like Beast and Sevr with built in collapsible blades seem more prone to this type of "failure" IMO. I like mechanicals that is not meant to bash any of them.

 

[peterk123]

That seems like a lot of blood for a meat hit to me. Never seen anything like that. Any flesh on the arrow? My guess would have been you knicked one lung.

Interesting. Thanks for sharing. Looking forward to more opinions.

 

[bojangles808]

I had a g5 t3 not open once. hardly any blood, I think it was liver but I found her less than 100 yards away by following the flies that were attracted to the specs of liver bits along the trail and the arrow with the unopened broadhead was still inside her. Imo if you make a good shot and get lungs even with a field point they'll die. They may run more but they'll die.

 

[mtnbound]

I agree on the muscle hit characteristics of the blood trail and color of blood. But I’m confident it was not too high, low or forward. Also differed in that the muscle hits I have experience leave a good blood trail for 100-200 yards then abruptly stop. This one never even got started! Also animals typically just keep going and don’t bed up. The arrow was also soaked in blood, which usually doesn’t happen either (that’s the part im most confused about).

The arrow, fully covered in that dark blood, indicates a pass through in muscle. The lack of a dead animal after 15 hours means no significant damage to the air or pump systems. I suspect you had a blade deployment issue that created jagged entrance and exit holes, which clotted up. In this scenario, the muscle will be more ripped than cleanly cut, which could cause more blood to be on the arrow shaft.

You also mention the arrow had completely passed through the animal, and this does typically happen with your setup, so I also suspect whatever muscle you hit was not very thick or dense.

Was there any tissue on the Broadhead?
What is your bow's poundage?

 

[Skerhunter]

The arrow, fully covered in that dark blood, indicates a pass through in muscle. The lack of a dead animal after 15 hours means no significant damage to the air or pump systems. I suspect you had a blade deployment issue that created jagged entrance and exit holes, which clotted up. In this scenario, the muscle will be more ripped than cleanly cut, which could cause more blood to be on the arrow shaft.

You also mention the arrow had completely passed through the animal, and this does typically happen with your setup, so I also suspect whatever muscle you hit was not very thick or dense.

Was there any tissue on the Broadhead?
What is your bow's poundage?

Bow is 70lbs but only set to 27” (270fps). I don’t get a lot of clean pass throughs in general.

Do you think just passing through the ribs with a blade failure will leave that much blood on the arrow? The entrance was no where close any major muscles.

To give an update on the situation. In the first 24 hours the deer was bumped twice. After 48 hours he had been bumped 3 more times. He never left a bed unless you forced him, needed to be within 10 yards before he would run off. He never travelled more than 100 yards at a time. After being bumped 5 times he still hasn’t moved more than 200 yards from where he was shot. Every bed has blood in it (bright red still), but not much. Not sure if he just wants to be there or can’t get out of there (it’s a bowl).

 

[mtnbound]

Bow is 70lbs but only set to 27” (270fps). I don’t get a lot of clean pass throughs in general.

Do you think just passing through the ribs with a blade failure will leave that much blood on the arrow? The entrance was no where close any major muscles.

To give an update on the situation. In the first 24 hours the deer was bumped twice. After 48 hours he had been bumped 3 more times. He never left a bed unless you forced him, needed to be within 10 yards before he would run off. He never travelled more than 100 yards at a time. After being bumped 5 times he still hasn’t moved more than 200 yards from where he was shot. Every bed has blood in it (bright red still), but not much. Not sure if he just wants to be there or can’t get out of there (it’s a bowl).

Based on the information you provided, it's about the only thing that makes sense. Do you recall where the arrow was stuck into the ground in relation to the animal's position before reacting to the arrow's impact?

 

[Scoot]

100% positive it was mid body. I saw zero indication of lung blood .

I'm not trying to pick on the OP, but I've literally seen dozens of times when the shooter was "100% positive" of something and in the end was 100% wrong. I don't fully understand it, but arrows, hits, and eyes don't always sync up like our brains seem to think like they should. Also, IME the amount of confidence a person has in the shot seems to be totally unassociated with the actual shot.

 

[Skerhunter]

Based on the information you provided, it's about the only thing that makes sense. Do you recall where the arrow was stuck into the ground in relation to the animal's position before reacting to the arrow's impact?

Nothing weird about the arrow. It was angled straight towards my stand like you would expect on a pass through and a few yards behind where the deer was standing. That’s why a deflection doesn’t make a ton of sense to me (unless it went down).

 

[ResearchinStuff]

If you're getting within 10 yards of him repeatedly, go shoot him again and tell us what happened the first time. My guess is you were high, got part of the diaphragm but skipped through above liver and below the spine.

Blood trails are variable. I killed a deer yesterday with a double lung, there was zero blood. Fortunately he died in sight or I would have had a heck of a time finding him.

 

[Skerhunter]

I'm not trying to pick on the OP, but I've literally seen dozens of times when the shooter was "100% positive" of something and in the end was 100% wrong. I don't fully understand it, but arrows, hits, and eyes don't always sync up like our brains seem to think like they should. Also, IME the amount of confidence a person has in the shot seems to be totally unassociated with the actual shot.

I would agree with this comment, especially if it was about me 20 years ago. Nothing like shooting an animal and having no clue what just happened !

My comments might sound a little arrogant, but I’ve worked my tail off to have a solid shot process. That’s why I’m certain I saw exactly where my fletchings/nock entered the body cavity and the position of the deer.