Posted: 12/9/2007 9:57:10 PM EDT
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Well, it has been a strange season in South Texas. Warm darn near every weekend, exept for the ones when I am here with the wife and two rug rats. I think the needle hit 84 as I climbed into my bow stand on Friday. After about 45min, I had a nice young nine point walk out to the oat patch. He stayed about 30yrds away and there were high gusts of wind. I needed a kill as I only have one more weekend to hunt for whitetail this year, but I did not feel comfortable about letting one fly at him under those conditions. Fifteem minutes later a doe come running by at about 18yrds on a trail followed by a large spike. I know that many spikes will end up a normal buck later on, but this fella was too big and should have a better rack for his size. The vegetation available to the deer was good this year, so I felt that this one was dinner for me. He stopped and I shot him right in the shoulder at about 20yrds. He ran about 15yrds and the arrow did not pass through so it fell out on the side facing me as he hit the brush line. I waited the usual 30min and started to track him. I was upset and mad at the same time. The arrow was snapped off and only missing about 3 inches plus the broadhead. I started cursing NAP and the damn Crossfires (low penetration....grumble...expletive.....damn NAP). Well, I found him ten yards later in the brush very much dead. Elation flowed through me. I had some meat to make into sausage and did not have to kill a buck that needed to breed. Turns out the arrow punched through his shoulder, through the lungs and into the bone of his opposite shoulder low enough to break out of the skin just a bit and then re-enter the leg. His running snapped off the arrow on the opposite side of him since the ribs were holding it and I guess blood pressure, breathing and running all worked to push the shaft out the side facing me. Now I am sorry I cursed NAP. I am happy to have some meat. Sorry about the long post, but I just wanted to share my hunting weekend with the other hunters here. |
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Congrats on your first tag of the year. I'm not trying to hi-jack your post, but I'm curious to know what type of rig you are shooting. I have shot NAP spitfires for years and I SWEAR by them, I positively love them, however.... Last year I switched bows and set ups quite radically, and I've started to call into question my broadhead choice. For many many years, I shot 100 gr. 3 blades NAP spitfires on XX75 2213 aluminum arrows with a Martin bow, 70lbs, with the ZCams and NEVER EVER had a penetration or pass thru problem...easily 25+ deer. Last year I switched to a Matthews Switchback XT, 70lb set up shooting 5575 GoldTips with the same broadhead. I've shot 5 deer and a turkey with the new set up and only had 1 pass through. It really interested me to hear your story as I've been frustrated and started to mumble the same, though they all ended in a kill, recovery was tougher than it used to be & I lost the biggest buck I've ever shot. Again, I don't want to hi-jack, so I can start a new thread, but you really really caught my interest. |
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No hi-jack here, I love to talk about it. I use Easton ST Axis 340's with 100gr. Crossfires. My bow is a Onieda Black Eagle ESC set at 65lbs with a 29in draw. (yes, that Oneida...the one everyone laughs at, but I love them!). This is the second time I have fired the Crossfire at a live animal. The first was a boar that hovered around 150lbs. I hit him right at the shoulder and I swear that arrow only penetrated 3 inches. He ran off with it, stopped for a pause at the brush line and then was gone. There was not a single drop of blood and I had two sets of eyes and two hours of looking. Four days later and no buzzards, and never saw that arrow again. After that I switched to regular Magnus 2 blade for the pigs. I have had one full pass through out of one shot but this was through his ribbs and perhaps I was lucky and hit only meat and organs. I feel that if this shot on the deer had been a clean rib to rib shot instead of shoulder to shoulder including the upper bone on the other side, it would have passed all the way through. I have read in the past on some other bowhunting sites that there was some concern over the penetration of the Cross fire due to its aggresive angle on the blade. I just don't know. I guess you could try a Magnus like I did and see how it works. I am no expert on any of this. All my fellow bowhunters have moved to Magnus due to its cost, good flight and penetration. We have a lot of hogs here and like to shoot them with our bows. When I was shooting aluminum XX78 Super Slam eastons, I used Thunderheads 100's. Never had a pass-through. All were on hogs and my bow was and older Onieda. Hope that might shed some light. |
I think I might change BH's.