slick tricks

[grouse]

Early Saturday morning (six minutes after shooting hours began) I shot a 150 gr. slick trick crossbow trick through a large doe. It was pretty dark but I had a lumenock on my arrow and the hit looked good to me. I retrieved the glowing arrow which had some (but not much) blood on it, then I waited for it to get lighter. When I began to look for blood I couldn't find much - a few flecks and one big bright red patch. I looked and looked for both blood and the deer but found nothing. A couple of buddies were staying at my farm with me so I went back and got them to help.

We returned to the scene and began to search but found no more blood. One of my buddies smelled the arrow and said it smelled like a gut shot and I began to doubt the quality of my shot. While we searched near a creek, two of us spotted the dead deer floating near a steep bank. We managed to get her up on the bank ( I got pretty wet but I didn't mind) and looked at the entry and exit wounds. She was broadside when I shot and both wounds were about 3" behind her front legs. When I gutted her, her cavity was full of blood and both lungs had been punched through. She had run about 200 yds. There may have been a blood trail that we just didn't find, but we looked pretty hard.

It ended up fine but we were very lucky to find the deer. She actually ran through a thicket where we would have had to trip over her to find her. This is my second season of crossbow hunting and I killed a deer last year with a boltcutter and it dropped within 10 yards. I'll keep using the slick tricks because I realize there are a lot of variables on what happens when a deer is hit. but I am disappointed in the lack of a blood trail and how far the deer ran after a good hit.

Thanks,

Grouse

[cdn.redneck]

glad you found it,
sometime it can be the fat that plugged the hole preventing blood from leaving a trail for you, doesn't matter what type of broadhead you're using in that case.

it happened to me in Alberta, the hole the arrow went out was almost big enough for my hand to go in but no blood was coming out, no blood trail. disapointed, we shot a doe, emptied it and brought it to the truck, that's when we saw the buck, 2hrs later, and he was still walking before going down.

[needmorebacon]

I use 175gr slick tricks never had an issue in which uve described. Like you said to many variables to form an opinion on a "one off" like your experience. Anyways congrats on the doe and keep slinging the slick tricks I don't think they'll let you down.

[nchunterkw]

I shot 2 deer this year with Slick Trick 150gr Xbow tricks (1 1/8" cut) and had very good blood trails. A lot of blood at the place of the shot and then a nice trail every 2 to 3 ft to the deer. My experience with double lung hit deer is that they do not make it 100 yards. The blood trail usually has blood on both sides of the trail for a ways, and then you start to see spray on trees etc., once it starts coming out of the nose. Fat/lung, anything plugging up the hole will keep the trail sparse, but doesn't stop the internal bleeding. The fact that she made it 200 yards is surprising with a double lung hit, but deer are tough animals. I have shot deer with a lot of different heads and I put Slick Tricks at the top of the list. As you said there are a lot of variables that go into every shot, so it's really hard to say exactly what happened.

[grouse]

Although this only my second crossbow deer, I have shot many deer with both a recurve bow and a rifle. I have never had one with a double lung shot run this far before, but 200 yards isn't astounding. She was running full speed immediately after I hit her and she could have traveled that distance in well under a minute. The slick tricks will stay in my quiver until further notice.

Grouse

[strum]

glad you got your deer. and congrats too
i agree that you should stary with the slicks. dang deer do some crazy things and 200 yards is a long way for a double lung but like you said its not unheard of . I shot a spike a couple of years ago with a wasp..it looked like someone had poured out the blood trail with a bucket..and he still went 400 yards ..go figger..
so far every deer i have shot with a slick has made i to my freezer .
they are solidly made ..fly true and cut awsome.
maybe your deer just wanted to go for one last swim befor passing on

[VixChix]

This year I'm shooting the Carbon Express XT Dual Blade (non -serrated) - like their F-15's. They fly just like field points for me. Lots of extra cutting surface due to the extra mini-blades.

What I like best is that they have reverse cut as well (the blades cut if you pull back on them) - that way if for some reason there isn't a pass-through the blades will continue to do significant damage in all directions inside the animal.

[bowmaker]

So far I have only killed one deer with my Axiom with a 125 grain Schwaker. Very big hole but not much of a blood trail but I heard him crash about 75 yards away. When I dressed him he was clear full of blood with huge slices through both lungs. He was 18 yards away and I was in a 15 ft ladder stand. The hit was well up on the impact side and down about midway on the exit side with a rib cut through on both sides of a complete pass through. The blood trail was such that I could have followed it with some care but thankfully I didn't have to.
I did find a package of Slick Tricks magnums, but only the 100 grain ones. When I tried shooting one it shot about 6 inches lower at 20 yards than the 125 grain Schwakers or the 150 gran Bolt cutters and right in the middle of the season I don't want to mess with changing anything. I have 2 Boltcutters and 2 Schwakers in the quiver now and since the Schwakers have already scored the next one goes to the Boltcutters, assuming there is a next one. Having read about sharpening the Schwakers I have done so and was pleased with the results.

[vixenmaster]

Congrats on yer deer & the recovery.

[mr meat]

Congrats on finding and getting your deer!

[Riflemanz]

Good job on the recovery!
I shoot the Rocket hammerhead
2" 3 blade cut head because i like
huge holes and easy to follow blood trails.
I use 2 bands to keep it closed.

[nchunterkw]

I retrieved the glowing arrow which had some (but not much) blood on it, then I waited for it to get lighter.

This is one thing I noticed with my arrows as well. I was lucky enough to find both (hunt from the ground and no lumenoks) and neither one had a lot of blood on it. BUT my feather fletchings were not destroyed either - which usually happens when they pass through a deer - so I think that is great. Seems to me that the head is making a nice cut/hole and there is minimal contact between arrow/deer tissue. I also shot one with an old Thunderhead this year and that arrow was covered. Got the same type of blood trail though. Two of the deer were quartering to and I put the arrow in front of the shoulder so it hit more of the front part of the lungs vs further back. Maybe that has something to do with it. Hit them in the back part of the lungs and when it squeezes to try to breathe it just pumps blood into the cavity?? vs pumping blood into the nose out the holes if you hit further forward?? Just thinkin' out loud.

[bob1961]

I had a 10 yard shot on a doe with my 125gr mag trick that ran 400 yards without much blood and found her in a beaver pond....

[strum]

[/quote] Two of the deer were quartering to and I put the arrow in front of the shoulder so it hit more of the front part of the lungs vs further back. Maybe that has something to do with it. Hit them in the back part of the lungs and when it squeezes to try to breathe it just pumps blood into the cavity?? vs pumping blood into the nose out the holes if you hit further forward?? Just thinkin' out loud.[/quote]

I believe your onto something. a bigloe hole is a bigole hole whether it was done by a slick trick, rage, swacker or whatever.
the doe I shot a few weeks back left a decent blood trail but most of the blood was in her cavity. im thinkin a higher/straight on hit verses a hit that say goes in high and comes out low fills the cavity

[nchunterkw]

All 3 deer I shot this year were from the ground, so the holes were pretty "level" with respect to the body. The first 2 were quartering to shots and really good blood trails. The third was more broadside (actually about 1" quartering away when comparing the holes) and the blood trail was good, but maybe a bit more sparse than the other 2, but still 10-12 drops every 3' or so. Probably with each jump. It's really hard to tell due to terrain differences etc. Sometimes the blood is there but just a bit harder to see than others. But the first deer sprayed blood on about every tree she ran past. About 2' up the tree. Obvious nose/mouth. When you see that you know they are not far.