No elk recovery, blame the broadhead?

[Damartin95]

So here's the story, I'm not gonna mention brands and I'm not looking for smart-ass comments. I AM NOT SAYING I BLAME THE BROADHEAD but i will say it was a very expensive head. The animal was never found so I can't say what happened. Just genuinely looking for opinions.

Shot a bull elk at 7:10pm, bull was standing broadside slightly uphill and raking a tree at 66 yards. My guide and I both agree shot looked/sounded perfect and watched the nocturnal disappear. Walked up and began looking for blood, we see the arrow about 50 yards away. Walk up to the arrow and find it passed all the way through and was covered in good blood. Both agree blood looks perfect and we have a dead elk. We walk back to our packs and wait to give the animal plenty of time.

After sufficient time we begin to follow the blood trail. I wouldn't say the blood trail was great but it wasnt terrible, consistent drops the where easy enough to follow. We assumed any second the would find the elk. After 200 yards the trail stopped. We picked it up again over a cattle fence and began to trail very smal drops through the thickest junk possible. After another 75 yards the trail stopped again. At 2 am we gave up for the night. Came back in the morning and found one more spec of blood. Started grid searching but area was so thick hours of searching turned up nothing. We truly think the elk is dead but just didn't have trail to find it. My guide helped another rancher track an elk a few days before hand shot with the same broadhead, they found it the next day laying on a open hill side but very little blood trail.

Obviously without a recovery we can't say what happened but I certainly have lost faith in the head. I will probably shoot a few whitetail with it and see what happens.
I would hate to continue to use the broadhead and have a similar experience.

So what would you guys do?

 

[Damartin95]

Here's a picture of the arrow the next day and second to last blood the next day.

 

[DeepTimber]

What does shot looked perfect mean? Where did you hit? My guess is arrow was too high to collapse lungs or too low to reach them at all. Either would produce good blood and look good from 65 yards distance, but would not be lethal

 

[Damartin95]

What does shot looked perfect mean? Where did you hit? My guess is arrow was too high to collapse lungs or too low to reach them at all. Either would produce good blood and look good from 65 yards distance, but would not be lethal

Shot looked to hit middle of body just behind the shoulder. No bubbles in blood but blood was a great color.

 

[wapitibob]

Center of the lungs is perfect placement for me. Hit there they’ll bleed like a stuck pig even with a 2 blade head. Hit top of lungs near the edges and it gets worse.

Mid body height is too high. This entrance is less than 2" below the spine on this Bull and he didn't bleed worth a darn. Pic is a little deceiving because I rolled him.

 

[ResearchinStuff]

looks like you hit high, that blood isn't bubbly at all. plus, you're shooting a super loud vane configuration (high profile, heavy helical), which would have helped the bull hear and react by dropping.

 

[jmez]

I would study topographical anatomy. Quit blaming the equipment and hit the next one better. They die quckly when you put the arrow in the right spot. Not so much when you get on the fringe.

 

[Damartin95]

looks like you hit high, that blood isn't bubbly at all. plus, you're shooting a super loud vane configuration (high profile, heavy helical), which would have helped the bull hear and react by dropping.

Bull didn't drop at all. Yes heavy helical but thus set up is extremely quite in flight. I've Done alot of testing and research to make it such. I agree no bubbles in blood and although the arrow didn't look high at all it may have been.

 

[Geewhiz]

The wound channel could have been a bit higher than you thought since you were shooting a bit uphill.

I shot a bull the other day and hit him just a little bit higher than I would have preferred but at the time I didnt even think to realize that he was a bit below me and luckily it ended up being just about perfect. Had I been shooting uphill it could have been a completely different outcome.

 

[Damartin95]

I would study topographical anatomy. Quit blaming the equipment and hit the next one better. They die quckly when you put the arrow in the right spot. Not so much when you get on the fringe.

Not blaming the equipment, I specifically said that in the post. Just looking for opinions, thanks.

 

[Damartin95]

The wound channel could have been a bit higher than you thought since you were shooting a bit uphill.

I shot a bull the other day and hit him just a little bit higher than I would have preferred but at the time I didnt even think to realize that he was a bit below me and luckily it ended up being just about perfect. Had I been shooting uphill it could have been a completely different outcome.

This seems to be the mostly likely option Thanks.

 

[Geewhiz]

This seems to be the mostly likely option Thanks.

Also, I will add that an elk can have an arrow through both lungs and still not die for a very long time. I don't have a physiological explanation to explain that but I've witnessed it first hand more than once. The ones who havent experienced it will say a double lunged elk will be down in 20 but thats simply not always true.

Example. I shot a bull a few years ago and I thought I hit him about perfect. My dad and I looked for 3 days. I finally found him 1.24 miles away as the crow flies. We did a (disgusting) autopsy and found that the arrow went through a lung, one blade sliced the top of the heart, through the other lung, and the broadhead was lodged in an offside rib. Try to explain that.

 

[svivian]

Not blaming the equipment, I specifically said that in the post. Just looking for opinions, thanks.

You say you arent but you are...

Sounds like you hit high... those iron will broadheads work fine like any broadhead in the right spot. At 66 yards I doubt you knew exactly where you hit in the moment. No bubbles in the blood on your arrow would also seem to confirm this

 

[Damartin95]

You say you arent but you are...

Sounds like you hit high... those iron will broadheads work fine like any broadhead in the right spot. At 66 yards I doubt you knew exactly where you hit in the moment. No bubbles in the blood on your arrow would also seem to confirm this

Questioning equipment and blaming equipment are different. Anytime you think everything was done perfectly and you don't get a perfect result you're going to have alot of questions. Hence the post, just looking for opinions. Thanks for your input.

 

[Bump79]

You might not want to hear it but there's only one conclusion that can be drawn from this IMHO - 66 yards is out of your effective range. The broadhead did exactly what it needed to do.

Shots on animals are vastly different than at the range, backyard etc. 66 yds. is a poke on an animal and gives them a lot of time to react, range error & your ability are very amplified at 66. Are some people qualified to do it? Yes, absolutely.

I practice a ton and limit myself to 55 and in on elk. At that range I need a perfect range. The MOA on accuracy and animal movement are just out of my comfort zone. Getting to 55 on elk isn't really any more difficult than 66.

Also, if I was planning a shot to 66 I'd likely only trust a mechanical for more forgiveness in both precision but more forgiveness with a bigger cut. That's just me though, fixed for elk outside of that.

 

[Turkeygetpwnd38]

High shots, even double lungs on anything do not bleed. I’ve seen several posts about it this year, all similar. Deer, elk, fixed or a two inch mechanical, they will just bleed into the body cavity, speaking from experience.

 

[Maverick1]

So here's the story, I'm not gonna mention brands and I'm not looking for smart-ass comments. I AM NOT SAYING I BLAME THE BROADHEAD but i will say it was a very expensive head. The animal was never found so I can't say what happened. Just genuinely looking for opinions.

Shot a bull elk at 7:10pm, bull was standing broadside slightly uphill and raking a tree at 66 yards. My guide and I both agree shot looked/sounded perfect and watched the nocturnal disappear. Walked up and began looking for blood, we see the arrow about 50 yards away. Walk up to the arrow and find it passed all the way through and was covered in good blood. Both agree blood looks perfect and we have a dead elk. We walk back to our packs and wait to give the animal plenty of time.

After sufficient time we begin to follow the blood trail. I wouldn't say the blood trail was great but it wasnt terrible, consistent drops the where easy enough to follow. We assumed any second the would find the elk. After 200 yards the trail stopped. We picked it up again over a cattle fence and began to trail very smal drops through the thickest junk possible. After another 75 yards the trail stopped again. At 2 am we gave up for the night. Came back in the morning and found one more spec of blood. Started grid searching but area was so thick hours of searching turned up nothing. We truly think the elk is dead but just didn't have trail to find it. My guide helped another rancher track an elk a few days before hand shot with the same broadhead, they found it the next day laying on a open hill side but very little blood trail.

Obviously without a recovery we can't say what happened but I certainly have lost faith in the head. I will probably shoot a few whitetail with it and see what happens.
I would hate to continue to use the broadhead and have a similar experience.

So what would you guys do?

Simplified, a broadhead's job is to:
1. Fly the same as your field points. (Hit where you are aiming.)
2. Stay together (be well constructed.)

Beyond that all the other chatter about broadheads is silliness with too many variables. If the broadhead put two, three, or four slices - equaling your cutting diameter - where you were aiming when you triggered the release, it did it's job.

Put the arrow in the wrong place and the type, make, model, or cost of the broadhead is irrelevant.

 

[Eleven]

Without recovering the animal and seeing what happened on the inside you can't really tell what happened with the shot. But what we do know is that an arrow launched from 66yds away got full penetration on a broadside elk. Personally, I say that your equipment did it's job very well.

 

[SouthPaw]

A full pass through on an elk at 66 yards, and over 300ish yards of a bloodtrail. Sounds like the broadhead performed well.

So what would you guys do?

Assuming your bow fits you perfectly: First, confirm that your bow is perfectly tuned to your arrow/broadhead setup out to distance. Confirm that your sight pins are perfectly aligned with impacts out to distance. Confirm that your 3rd axis is set properly for angled shooting. Try to eliminate all sources of error within your equipment.

Then, practice uphill and downhill shots with broadheads with a vital-sized target. Do so under pressure / elevated heart rate. Do it a lot, gather hit/miss data, and log everything. Use the logged data to calculate hit percentages at various distance, conditions, etc. From that you'll determine your true maximum effective range.

 

[doc holiday13]

sometimes, its just luck of the draw. I put an arrow straight through a doe 2 years ago and had a dribble of a blood trail for 20 yards and it disappeared Never found the doe. It was a basic 2 blade so my guess is that the wound closed up because it was a 2 blade and the the exit wound was the bottom of the chest due to angle of the shot. Sometimes stuff happens. It was enough for me to change broadheads to have bleeder blades.

Your shot was probably a bit high and back so the animal suffocated more than lost blood. Keep practicing and get better