Broadhead effect on blood trail - exodus vs grim reaper experience

[Erussell01]

Do you all believe the type of broadhead used has a major impact on blood trail, or do you believe it's all about placement?

For example
My wife shot her first deer with a bow recently and used a grim reaper 1 3/16 3 blade and it left the nastiest blood trail I've ever seen from a fixed blade. Shot was pretty solid, ever so slight quartering to and tight to the shoulder exiting a few inches back on the opposite side. Low stand height and deer close on a slight hill, so the entry and exit were almost level.

Comparing that blood trail to the blood trail on a doe shot with an exodus head, there was literally no blood anywhere. Now the shot placement was slightly different, deer close, 7 yards out of a 5 foot elevated blind and the deer tipped over in sight at about 100 yards. However, there was literally no blood. In this case the angle was slightly more quartering to, with the shot on the onside shoulder and exiting about 8 inches behind the shoulder on the offside, about 3 inches up into the brown hair. When I say there was no blood, I mean there was literally no blood.

Has anybody experienced that with exodus heads?

Having shot many many deer with both fixed blades and mechanicals,I've never seen one not bleed at all.

It could just be where the arrow exited, but it leaves me wondering if broadhead design also plays a factor in the ability for blood to pour out.

 

[Billy Goat]

I think it's mostly where hit, and just because it's hit the same as another, doesn't mean blood trail will be the same.


Generally a bigger broadhead produces a little bigger blood trail, but blood trails are always different.



Get 10 with one, 10 with another, then you might start to be able to draw conclusions.


Also, what the trail is on makes a big difference. Grass seems to soak up blood, dried leaves make it easy.

 

[Beendare]

In my experience....40 years of trying every design from big mech heads to 2 blades....its shot placement.

Hit them real high with a big cut BH..or any head...and most of the blood stays inside of them.

Hit them lower 1/3rd....especially if you get an exit hole...and even a 2 blade will leave a good trail.

The other part to consider....an animal that knows they have been hit takes off like their tail is on fire leaving a worse trail- faster = the same blood over a longer area.
If the animal makes you on the shot- they blow out faster.

The critters feel it more when hit by a mech heads...or the short wide chisel heads getting them going a little bit harder.

 

[N2TRKYS]

Example of one, but enough for me, I shot a buck last year with a GR Micro Hades 3 blade. The blood trail was terrible compared to what I’m use to with my Thunderhead 100s. The Thunderheads are a larger cutting diameter, so it stands to reason. I’ll be staying with the Thunderheads from now on.

 

[Tod osier]

Do you all believe the type of broadhead used has a major impact on blood trail, or do you believe it's all about placement?

For example
My wife shot her first deer with a bow recently and used a grim reaper 1 3/16 3 blade and it left the nastiest blood trail I've ever seen from a fixed blade. Shot was pretty solid, ever so slight quartering to and tight to the shoulder exiting a few inches back on the opposite side. Low stand height and deer close on a slight hill, so the entry and exit were almost level.

Comparing that blood trail to the blood trail on a doe shot with an exodus head, there was literally no blood anywhere. Now the shot placement was slightly different, deer close, 7 yards out of a 5 foot elevated blind and the deer tipped over in sight at about 100 yards. However, there was literally no blood. In this case the angle was slightly more quartering to, with the shot on the onside shoulder and exiting about 8 inches behind the shoulder on the offside, about 3 inches up into the brown hair. When I say there was no blood, I mean there was literally no blood.

Has anybody experienced that with exodus heads?

Having shot many many deer with both fixed blades and mechanicals,I've never seen one not bleed at all.

It could just be where the arrow exited, but it leaves me wondering if broadhead design also plays a factor in the ability for blood to pour out.

I haven't killed but 2 animals with exodus heads, but they both were at the top of what I've ever seen for ridiculously strong blood trails. The next one could suck.

 

[Erussell01]

Maybe I'll have to give them another go just in case. I want to love them, they're built so tough, sharp and fly great but that trail has me just doubting them. If it was some of my normal thick brushy stuff, I'd never have found this deer. There was literally 0 blood until the body. Had I not paid attention, I'd have been in bad shape

 

[Beendare]

Maybe I'll have to give them another go just in case. I want to love them, they're built so tough, sharp and fly great but that trail has me just doubting them. If it was some of my normal thick brushy stuff, I'd never have found this deer. There was literally 0 blood until the body. Had I not paid attention, I'd have been in bad shape

You made a good shot for it to go down….but it was obviously above the centerline Or further back.
The only low shot I’ve seen that left no trail was a shot in the web behind the front leg…a non pass thru with a big mech head When the leg was forward. The muscles and hide in that stretchy area sealed the entry

 

[MattB]

You made a good shot for it to go down….but it was obviously above the centerline Or further back.
The only low shot I’ve seen that left no trail was a shot in the web behind the front leg…a non pass thru with a big mech head When the leg was forward. The muscles and hide in that stretchy area sealed the entry

I had something similar happen on a pass-through with a 2” 2 blade MBH. Low exit too. Hit him just right so that when he started running the tissue didn’t line up to let the blood out of of chest cavity and onto the ground.

The arrow stuck in the ground and was covered with good blood, but I was only finding specs of blood every 5-10 yards for ~175 yards. I lost light and lost blood, but luckily heard him gurgle.

But to your point, blood trails are mostly based on shot placement. I have never understood why some people want to make it about the BH, but it seems a common theme.

 

[Coveyleader]

I saw an elk die this weekend from a spitfire that i'm still scratching my head how fast it died with a "so so" hit. Sawed the ribs, and looked inside, broadhead hit the liver 1 inch from the bottom and straight into the guts. Bull was down in 60 yds (we backed out for 6 hours as I knew it was liver) and stiff when we found him with a crazy dark red bloodtrail like I've never seen. A little one inch head, I doubt very much the outcome would have been the same.

 

[Erussell01]

You made a good shot for it to go down….but it was obviously above the centerline Or further back.
The only low shot I’ve seen that left no trail was a shot in the web behind the front leg…a non pass thru with a big mech head When the leg was forward. The muscles and hide in that stretchy area sealed the entry

It exited a couple inches into the brown about 6 inches behind the shoulder and entered right behind the shoulder on the on side. My only thought is maybe she ran so hard she didn't "have time to bleed" on the 7 second run to her final resting place

It honestly doesn't make sense to me as it's a shot I've taken before. The only other observation I have is it seems as if the exit hole in the hide didn't match up with the wound channel. Maybe she spun as the arrow hit her. Both lungs were deflated with a long wound channel through them

 

[Erussell01]

I had something similar happen on a pass-through with a 2” 2 blade MBH. Low exit too. Hit him just right so that when he started running the tissue didn’t line up to let the blood out of of chest cavity and onto the ground.

The arrow stuck in the ground and was covered with good blood, but I was only finding specs of blood every 5-10 yards for ~175 yards. I lost light and lost blood, but luckily heard him gurgle.

But to your point, blood trails are mostly based on shot placement. I have never understood why some people want to make it about the BH, but it seems a common theme.

I've shot this same shot before and not had issues with blood which makes me think it's also at least in part situational. I've honestly never had a bad blood trail before In the 17 years of bowhunting success I've had so I was shocked. Had I not seen the deer run into the brush and thought I saw her tip over I would have been so screwed to find her.

When i say 0 blood, I mean literally 0 blood. Even the arrow had went through and zipped into the dirt cleaning itself off. I sniffed it to check for guts but it smelled like good blood.

 

[Erussell01]

I saw an elk die this weekend from a spitfire that i'm still scratching my head how fast it died with a "so so" hit. Sawed the ribs, and looked inside, broadhead hit the liver 1 inch from the bottom and straight into the guts. Bull was down in 60 yds (we backed out for 6 hours as I knew it was liver) and stiff when we found him with a crazy dark red bloodtrail like I've never seen. A little one inch head, I doubt very much the outcome would have been the same.

Man sometimes the hit just doesn't make sense. I shot a doe one time, low and back. Literally an inch in front of the hind leg and an inch up from the belly. Terrible shot. I was young and freaked out. We found her dead as heck at the end of a huge blood trail of only about 40 yards. Stone dead and stiff already. Unreal. My brother still talks about that one.

 

[Beendare]

I've shot this same shot before and not had issues with blood which makes me think it's also at least in part situational. I've honestly never had a bad blood trail before In the 17 years of bowhunting success I've had so I was shocked. Had I not seen the deer run into the brush and thought I saw her tip over I would have been so screwed to find her.

When i say 0 blood, I mean literally 0 blood. Even the arrow had went through and zipped into the dirt cleaning itself off. I sniffed it to check for guts but it smelled like good blood.

Yeah, crazy stuff happens. Matts right, sometimes the hole gets blocked and there is nothing a guy can do. The whitetail my buddy shot had his leg forward, shot in the web behind the leg….and it closed the wound even with a big mech head and the arrow hanging out.

I’ve seen too many crazy ones to mention. I saw a bull elk shot by 2 buddies, 55y, I stopped the bull on the other side of an avalanche draw, both shot at the same time but the bull moved- both arrows 4” apart in the hind quarter- ooops.

this was right before dark, and I thought to myself we may never see that bull again. Nope, he was teetering in 30y and went down- femoral artery.

I’ve seen gut shots where that main artery below the spine was hit and down in 80y.

Its archery, crazy stuff happens.

 

[ASH556]

I switched to Swhacker 261's as my primary head last year. Before that I killed several with the Exodus and lost 2 with a Slick Trick. I never had blood problems with the Exodus, but did have a perfectly hit buck run 125yds. I get it, stuff happens, not knocking the head, but I've come to believe that the bigger cut Swhacker lends more forgiveness if something goes not as planned and should hopefully cause more damage resulting in quicker expiration. So far (2 kills) the Swhacker is performing as hoped.

 

[Jbehredt]

Doesn’t answer the question but is an interesting point. I’ve never actually followed a grip reaper blood trail. Knock on wood, true to their slogan, I’ve seen all of half a dozen animals I’ve killed with one drop.

 

[Marble]

There are so many variables to a blood trail. Place of impact, angle of impact, size of head, blade total, position of animal. Does it have really think hair or short hair?

I've seen a deer get hit that was looking back over its shoulder. It got hit on the side that was all stretched out. When it ran off the hole in the hide where the arrow entered the animal and the hole at the body were not lined up. So all the blood collected in between the skin. It was a weird one.

Sent from my SM-S918U using Tapatalk

 

[Macintosh]

…The only other observation I have is it seems as if the exit hole in the hide didn't match up with the wound channel. Maybe she spun as the arrow hit her….

Theres your answer. I hate hunting videos, but watching video in slomo shows you how much deer move before the arrow hits and during pass-thru. Hide, muscles and organs all move independently and absolutely often dont line up perfectly. If that movement before and during the hit blocks blood to the wound or if that deflated lung tissue plugs the hole, you get no/poor blood regardless of the broadhead.

 

[wildwilderness]

Exodus is a great head. From your description you hit too far back.

I see way too many videos showing hunters aiming too low and too far back thinking it’s a great shot.

Think Africa and aim straight up the leg! Will get more blood especially on little whitetail. The younger the deer the farther forward you need to aim, straight up the leg

 

[Erussell01]

I

Exodus is a great head. From your description you hit too far back.

I see way too many videos showing hunters aiming too low and too far back thinking it’s a great shot.

Think Africa and aim straight up the leg! Will get more blood especially on little whitetail. The younger the deer the farther forward you need to aim, straight up the leg

I don't disagree that it's a well built head, I just have never seen 0 blood all the way to the animal.

The shot was not back at all, and both lungs were deflated and the shot was forward of the guts on exit. The broadhead creased the scap on the on side and the hole in the hide was 8 inches back off the crease on the far side with the hole through the ribs being farther in front of the hole in the hide.

I'm a firm hug the shoulder kind of guy.

 

[Erussell01]

Doesn’t answer the question but is an interesting point. I’ve never actually followed a grip reaper blood trail. Knock on wood, true to their slogan, I’ve seen all of half a dozen animals I’ve killed with one drop.

I've shot their mechanicals at deer and never had one go more than 40. Watched most of them drop other than one that rounded a corner.

This was my first experience with their fixed 1 3/16 head. My wife shoots a lower energy setup so I wanted her to shoot a fixed head over a mechanical but wanted one that was a little bigger in case the hit wasn't great since it's thick as heck where we hunt.

Very impressive performance with her setup.