QAD Exodus -- What Happened?

[birdman22]

I've been shooting the QAD exodus for several years, been a great head. Think every whitetail I've hit in the right spot has zipped right through, until this year.
Shot a nice whitetail on Oct 1, was sitting on the ground and he came in broadside, slightly uphill from me, shot him at 10 yards. As the deer was running away I noticed my arrow was hanging almost completely out of him with very little penetration, thought maybe i hit front shoulder. Deer went out of sight and then walked back in front of me around 60 yards and the arrow was definitely hanging all the way out, bouncing up and down as he walked. I saw this buck bed down 4 times in the first 100 yards, then got up and walked over the hill. Tracked him 4 hours after the initial shot and bumped him out of another bed. Went back the next morning and recovered him 100 yards from where we bumped him.
Thing i can't figure out is upon recovery the arrow was perfectly placed, right behind the front shoulder and the right height, really couldn't place it any better. but it was not stuck in anything on the back side that would have stopped penetration. Figured with that shot placement and distance it should have zipped straight through. Thoughts on the lack of penetration?
The reason for the quicker than ideal track job was it was 90 degrees that day, and with not recovering until the following day i was not able to examine what was hit on the inside of the deer.
Switching to cut on contact broadheads for next season.

 

[ResearchinStuff]

how much penetration did you actually get? and how steep was the angle? kind of sounds like you ran the arrow into the bottom of the spine.

 

[birdman22]

From the look of the arrow when the deer was walking away it appeared to be 2-4 inches, as almost the entire arrow was hanging out. think when the buck crashed he landed on the arrow and pushed it further into the cavity. Deer was probably 2 to 4 feet uphill of me.
Thought about the bottom of the spine but figured maybe it would stick into the bone.
My other thought was i possibly shot square though a rib which stopped penetration although i haven't experienced anything like that in the past.

 

[TxLite]

What’s your arrow weight? If you’re shooting a lightweight weight arrow that can cause penetration issues, especially if you center punched a rib

 

[Outside]

Not sure that 2-4 inches of penetration would be fatal. At best that’s one lung and they can go a long way, especially if pushed, on a single lung. Could it have hit offside shoulder and kicked back?

 

[Billy Goat]

I suspect you might have hit brush/twig something you didn't notice and the arrow didn't impact straight.

Or you hit opposite shoulder pocket and the arrow didn't stick, just backed out and hung up on the head.

I don't believe it's a broadhead problem, just a situation problem.

 

[Scoot]

I think Billy Goat nailed it!

 

[Jethro]

@birdman22, got any arrow or entrance wound pics for us?

Hitting offside shoulder and backing out sounds right to me.

 

[birdman22]

@birdman22, got any arrow or entrance wound pics for us?

Hitting offside shoulder and backing out sounds right to me.

I did not take pictures of the shot, unfortunately the deer was so bloated upon recovery that all i could do was remove the rack. I sure thought he was hurting after bedding down 4 times in the first 100 yards but he managed to live at least 4 hours after the shot.

Glad we recovered, after bumping him from his final bed I didn't think we had much of a chance. But definitely going to exam my set up and keep shooting from now until next season.

 

[TheBootBowhunting]

Something happened before the exodus got there - either it hit something, or the bow isnt anywhere close to being tuned. Ive shot countless animals with the exodus and have never had an issue. Either you clipped something on the way that threw the arrow off axis, or you need to put it through paper and see if you have a bad tear that is sucking the energy out the arrow due to the arrow hitting somewhat sideways. Couple either of those with a shoulder shot and it wouldnt matter which broadhead you used.

 

[eyeguy]

My best guess is arrow deflected on the way or poor arrow flight so energy was not all in a line pushing broadhead through

 

[eyeguy]

Yup what he said