Shot a Doe Sunday evening at 20yds!

[Riflemanz]

I went hunting Sunday evening and at 6pm a nice adult doe walks up broadside to my stand at 20yds, I shoot her with a dead ringer
3 blade 2" cut head out of my 355, I hear a loud Crunch as the BH hits her just behind the shoulder a little high. I 'm sitting 17' in the air in my stand. I wait 30 min and get down and walk over to my bolt and find it covered in green slime! Now I'm pissed! Why did the mechanical head deviate from its flight path? It hit ribs and ended up coming out the rear stomach. The head should of blown right on thru. My buddy and I decide to go back and get lights to try to trail her as any deer left overnight is coyote dinner. We look and can't find blood or the deer. Its going down to 44* that night so I decide I'll be back in the am. I come back and find her eaten by yotes! Now I'm really mad! I'm done with this type of mechanical heads after seeing the deflect on ribs and come out the gut. I'm going to the slick trick which should blow thru on a broadside shot!
Correct me if I'm wrong on that thinking!
Anyone else getting this type of deflection?

[Carnivorous]

Sorry your hunt went bad...

I have had deflections from mechanicals too. I could have sworn the animals were broadside and when I found them the arrow came out at a weird location. I am using fixed heads now and there is no going back to mechanicals for me...

Jeff

[R.J.]

Sorry to hear that .... I had a mech fail on me years ago as well ... Now only fixed blade for me .

[racking up points]

I'm sorry to hear of your lost doe. It sucks, but it happens sometimes.

I would bet that a deer hit in the ribs would still leave a decent blood trail, so I'm guessing you didn't hit where you think you did. It must've been pretty far back because I see no way that an arrow, mech BH or fixed, could go from the vitals and take a hard 90 degree turn to exit behind the stomach on a broadside deer. Sure there could be some deflection, but that much? I'd hope not!

The coyotes probably didn't leave you enough evidence to do a proper post mortem, but maybe it's possible your shot wasn't as tight to the shoulder as you would've liked. Again, very sorry for your lost deer.

[acreek]

The coyotes are much too numerous down here. I have changed my outlook for the early season (for me that means prior to October 28) because of it. I head out 70/30 with the intentions of shooting a coyote. I shot one so far this year and saw two of them my last morning out, but couldn't get a shot at either. I'm leaning towards taking the .223 out rather than any of my archery equipment, but know when I do that a big buck will stroll in to twenty yards. Haha.

[nchunterkw]

Aw man that stinks! Sorry your hunt went bad, but to answer your question, IMO yes you are correct. A fixed blade with a trocar tip such as a Slick Trick will have much less chance of deflecting, even on a quartering shot.

[paulaboutform]

If memory serves me correctly, mechanicals came about to address accuracy issues with fixed broadheads. The Punchcutters were the first I recall. They were the latest and greatest but after many failure reports at the shop, they were just a big flop! Anyway, with the plentiful fixed broadhead choices available today and the tremendous accuracy they offer, I fail to see the need for mechanicals. I'm sorry for your unfortunate event and that poor doe. I hope she expired quickly.

Paul

[amythntr]

....I have yet to have issues with my Spitfire XXX so I will stay with them for deer...however, i did have some concern about using them with bear...decided on the G5-Strikers 125g...which did, in fact shoot as the field tips did...now I just need to get out this week.

Anthony

Sorry to hear of your misfortune on that doe....I would be equally as pissed as you!

[GRUNDY]

I sure would hate to be a Broadhead and get blamed for everything...LOL

One of the first guys to shoot a crossbow in our group has had many strange incidents of arrows exiting deer in strange locations such as hit behind the shoulder and exit the hams, and hit behind the shoulder and exit the brisket.

These were shots from the ground too.

Also had an uncle the had an exit hole considerably higher than the entrance hole shot from a treestand.

I think the shorter arrows used with crossbows are more susceptible to deflection

Here to better luck down the road.

[nchunterkw]

If memory serves me correctly, mechanicals came about to address accuracy issues with fixed broadheads. The Punchcutters were the first I recall. They were the latest and greatest but after many failure reports at the shop, they were just a big flop! Anyway, with the plentiful fixed broadhead choices available today and the tremendous accuracy they offer, I fail to see the need for mechanicals. I'm sorry for your unfortunate event and that poor doe. I hope she expired quickly.

Paul

If I could offer a guess...the reason there were accuracy issues with the fixed blade heads had more to do with the arrows than the BHs. The higher crossbow speeds exacerbated any arrow flaws, and IMO older arrows were under-spined for crossbows. I feel crossbows want a really stiff spine and that translates to accuracy. Now that we have arrows such as the Zombie Slayer etc it is fairly easy to have a tack driver with fixed blades out to 40 or 50 yds.....a task that was not easy to do not that many years ago. But as technology continues to evolve, and arrow speeds go up, everything about that arrow gets more and more important. What seems routine and easy to do with a 330fps arrow is now again not so easy with a 380 or 400fps arrow.

I'm very happy with my Gen 1 Micro and a 425gr arrow, but if I had a 380 or a 405 or something like that, I think that I would slow my arrow down by upping the weight so I could use fixed blades rather than keeping the weight low and using mechanicals. I would have over the top energy and momentum and not sacrifice accuracy or risk mechanical failure of a mech head (such as early opening due to the extremely high instantaneous acceleration of a 400fps recurve crossbow).

[vixenmaster]

I really hate you didn't find her n thats jus bites. I have had some strange hits n exits along the way myself. My latest peeve is some of these Companys claim made in the USA. Then you read the very fine print hidden inside says assembled in USA.

[W.Miguire]

The exact same thing happened to me so I went to the slicktrick 125 griz 2 and 11 deer later not sorry at all. had to do a little adjusting but they fly like darts out of my 355 and 380. also good blood trail.
W.M.