Totally unexpected

[elkaholic]

Third trip into the N.Woods, this crossbow season.

Mature does and anything with at least 6 points on the menu. With a couple bigger bucks on the hit list.

Till this morning we've seen nothing but 2 does with fawns and little couple young girls. With a few spikes thrown in.

The weather hasn't be real good but not unhuntable.

Solar hunt table says. "STAY HOME"

Get into the stand by 5:30 , early enough for eveything to settle down. Zero -Zip -Nadal happening after 3 hrs. Send a text to freind, what's up? This is crazy .. 2 minutes later i hear crashing , 3 bucks run into / thru shooting lane, 2 - 8 points one not sure. One stops at stump 20 yrds. But on left side , I'm right handed, figures. No chance for shot, they leave .

I get a text, just shot a buck. I reply , on my way.
I get to my buddy's stand. In last 10 minutes he had a forky at 20 yrds. Passed and a spike with a 6 pt. came in from a different director , he shot the 6 pt. Says it was a good quartering away shot at 30 (ranged ) yrds. He saw it run off but hadn't found any blood. He heard a solid wack , when it hit the deer. Knowing it looked , felt good.

He showed where the deer was standing. Easy to follow tracks, but no blood. We found the bolt.

Heres the uexpected. No broadhead on bolt. Blood only about an inch down the shaft , where the 2 bands for the wasp jackhammer end up. Upon inspection, we could see where the threaded part had snapped off down inside the insert.
I've never seen or heard of a broadhead snapping off inside an insert.

I told him we should look again for a blood trail but there probably wasn't going to be one.

So we see 6 bucks in 15 minutes nothing hits the dirt but a bolt with no broadhead. Is it to early for beer thirty.

[vixenmaster]

Shoulder n or heavy bone, broke the B-head threaded shaft. Have seen itseveral times prior. Cheap metal in B-head

[gerald strine]

Sounds like he hit a bit forward and cought that high thick ridge that divides the middle of the shoulder blade would be my guess .

[tcwild]

Sure sounds like shoulder to me. Had it happen to a buddy about 30 yrs ago with an old Bear broadhead, hit shoulder and snapped broadhead off but good news is another buddy killed that deer 3 weeks later in rifle season chasing a doe.

[Smong2000]

Curious about what the set up was, crossbow, arrow, and total weight including point. If he hit the knuckle of the scapula on the near side it could have deflected the head enough to snap it off so no more penetration. Also he could have hit high through the top of the scapula into the spine and the arrow snapped off when the deer ran. Was the arrow found far from the impact location on the ground?
My first crossbow buck was shot from a treestand downhill and I hit him forward on the shoulder. Arrow went through ridge on scapula on one side and hit just above knuckle on scapula on the other and broke the bone. My setup was a 485 grain arrow plus point total with a 125 grain 2.5 inch Swacker. It was about 3 inches deep in the soft ground on the far side of the deer. Broadhead was bent slightly but not broken. Speed was around 370-380 fps.
So many strange things can occur....

[nchunterkw]

Sounds like shoulder hit to me and the quartering away angle was what allowed that BH to hit and not open but snap off. Lots of BH test videos where they shoot BHs into plywood or something at a quartering away angle. Many do not do well in that test. Hope you find the deer but ......

I don't think spine or the deer would have dropped...at least for a minute. BIg leg bone...the arrow would have just bounced off I think and not broken the head.

[elkaholic]

We were convinced it most likely hit bone, shoulder!

He was shooting a missions crossbow with all items from package. Weights etc .?? 100 gr. Wasp Jackhammer. Thk 320 fps. bolt actually within a few feet on where buck took the impact. Like I said only about an inch showed signs of blood on the bolt.

Yes, I told him sa me thing. Probably drop him during rifle season.

American made broadhead.


I called wasp , left my thoughts as to American made .!?

For whatever reason , it failed miserably.

[janesy]

That's exactly why you never use your HAND to separate skin from flesh when skinning wild game. You never know what's burried in there

[W.Miguire]

that happened to me also. blade broke at the insert no blood only went in up to the insert. a group of guys were tracking a deer one had shot and found my 6pt. 3 days later. no spoilage at all must have died that morn .
W.M.

[ComfyBear]

Sure sounds like shoulder to me. Had it happen to a buddy about 30 yrs ago with an old Bear broadhead, hit shoulder and snapped broadhead off but good news is another buddy killed that deer 3 weeks later in rifle season chasing a doe.

Exact same happened to me about 16 years ago. Broadhead was an early version Slick Trick 100 gr. Back then the back of the Slick Trick blades did not have the two tails that extended into ferrule.