No Blood Trail

[Titan_Bow]

When i am hunting whitetails with my compound, I do like shooting mechanicals. This year I switched to 150gr Sevrs for deer. This is out of a 70lbs Prime Black 5 and 535grain arrow. This same arrow with a G5 Stryker has blown through 2 elk with complete pass throughs. I have shot 2 deer with this setup with Rage broadheads, and got simply medieval blood trails. I am not a big fan of how flimsy the blades are on the Rage though. Hoping the Sevrs are going to be a big step up.
I have shot a handful of deer now with my compound, as well as 2 elk with G5 Strykers, and I have never really been happy with the blood trails on the deer. In every case, deer I have shot have been complete pass throughs, double lung or heart/lung, and there's been very little blood outside of the body cavity. In contrast, most of the deer I remember shooting with my longbow, with a big 2 blade CoC head (usually a STOS or big Magnus) always left a good blood trail.
I think some of it has to do with how quickly the animal busts out of there after the shot. I am convinced that with a slow, super quiet longbow, and razor sharp cut on contact 2 blade, that the deer doesn't even know what happened. I have had instances where I shot a buck, he hopped, took a few steps, then stopped looking around to see what that noise was, then amble off 20 yards and fall over. Howver, EVERY deer I have shot so far with a compound has bolted like a bat out of hell when the arrow hit them. I think its the added noise of a compound, plus they feel that multi blade broadhead hitting them a lot more than a razor sharp 2 blade.

 

[Kevin Dill]

FWIW, I ‘ve seen a few animals shot in the same location as the doe in Txagg’s photo.

It seems that the web area right behind the front leg closes up when the animal walks sealing up the hole. A memorable one was a buck my buddy shot in an area with thick green grass. We could follow the track easily but only a couple pin pricks of blood, mech head. The buck went about 70 yds on a full run. (Shoot, I cant find the picture)

The muscles behind the leg sealed the holes….and then add that when they run like crazy they leave the same amount of blood but over a much longer trail.

.

All of this is absolutely correct in my experience. Depending on the position of the front leg at impact, you have the potential for skin and multiple muscle layers to be moving over the wound thus impeding the escape of blood. It doesn't usually happen that way, but it does happen occasionally. Typically the broadhead gets blamed but it's really just an anomaly r/t the variables of deer anatomy and luck of the hit.

Anyone here ever experience a rib hit-&-skip when using a 3-blade head? It happened to me twice.

 

[Beendare]

Deleted

 

[MattB]

FWIW, I ‘ve seen a few animals shot in the same location as the doe in Txagg’s photo.

It seems that the web area right behind the front leg closes up when the animal walks sealing up the hole. A memorable one was a buck my buddy shot in an area with thick green grass. We could follow the track easily but only a couple pin pricks of blood, mech head. The buck went about 70 yds on a full run. (Shoot, I cant find the picture)

The muscles behind the leg sealed the holes….and then add that when they run like crazy they leave the same amount of blood but over a much longer trail.

.

Had this very thing happen to me last week on a mature whitetail buck - and with a very similar exit location. 9 yard broadside shot and the BH (2" Vortex) bent a blade on the offside elbow exiting. The blood on the arrow was as good as I have ever seen, but I was only able to find pinhead sized drops of blood every 5-8 feet. That, and a very dead buck at the end of a ~125 yard blood trail.

 

[TxxAgg]

For a data point...There was no blood trail here, but there also wasn't an exit. Luckily he only went 50 yds.

I cheated and used a crossbow. The 125 gr Grizz Trick was in the off side shoulder.

 

[Blockcaver]

I've shot LOTS of deer over the years. Started with fixed blade, moved to expandables, now i'm back into fixed blades this season. I've shot lots of deer over the years and not gotten blood trails because I didn't get full penetration. I've mostly seen that on the expandables, but I also never needed the blood trail because i've always seen the fall.

This season I jumped into the Magnus Buzzcut. Flys and groups just great. This is not a "Magnus failed me" thread, but of a 2 blade broadhead issue?? Took a sub 10 yard shot on a doe that I was intending as my "earn a buck" (its a virginia DNR rule) and put the arrow straight down through its back. I saw the arrow enter about 1" to the left of the spine and it was a full pass through. Even heard that amazing "pop" . Arrow was full red from tip to tail. Stuck in the dirt a few inches.

However the deer ran into some of the thickest stuff you can barely hunt. I figure it was no big deal. Get down and there is a squirt of blood from where the deer jump and landed and then NOTHING.. not a single drop that I could find. I already had another deer to take care of and I saw it fall. I knew where it was, but could not find this other deer and ran out of daylight.. It wasn't an overly fat or large doe. Only think i can think is that the wound somehow closed up, but it should have bled like faucet since the exit wound was at the base of its chest. My best guess is that between the fat and cartilage in the brisket area, the wound channel closed up behind the arrow? This is my first season ever using 2 blade heads so I'm slightly turned off at the idea of this happening in the future. Next season i plan to jump on the Iron Will train because per my conjecture, its harder for a wound to close up when you have 4 cutting surfaces. This is not a blame game on Magnus, because i feel the broadhead did its job by flying true and making it all the way through the deer. Its more of a 2 blade broadhead blame/issue perhaps?

Doc, did you buy the 2-blade Buzzcuts or the 4-blade version and not use the bleeder blades? Buzzcuts with the bleeders work well for a lot of my trad friends.

In my experience (50 bow seasons, lots and lots of big game animals and species) I don't get as good of a blood trail with 2-blade heads as with 3 or 4 blades. I haven't used them all that much due to negative experiences, much preferring a 3-blade head. Back when I shot Zwickeys I much preferred the stock 4 blade Eskimo or Delta to the 2-blade version. I even converted some 2-blade Deltas to 4-blade with a Dremel tool and installation of the MAGNUS bleeder blades. Shot a lot of critters with them with fine results....a head very similar to the Buzzcut 4-blade.

I will add that I never have used 2" two blade heads...the widest was the original 1-1/2" Ulmer Edge that really left me wanting more blood...despite bringing home a Roosevelt elk and grizzly and several other species.

 

[doc holiday13]

Doc, did you buy the 2-blade Buzzcuts or the 4-blade version and not use the bleeder blades? Buzzcuts with the bleeders work well for a lot of my trad friends...........

Straight up 2 blade no bleeders

 

[TxxAgg]

All of this is absolutely correct in my experience. Depending on the position of the front leg at impact, you have the potential for skin and multiple muscle layers to be moving over the wound thus impeding the escape of blood. It doesn't usually happen that way, but it does happen occasionally. Typically the broadhead gets blamed but it's really just an anomaly r/t the variables of deer anatomy and luck of the hit.

Anyone here ever experience a rib hit-&-skip when using a 3-blade head? It happened to me twice.

You guys are correct. This is the entrance and exit with a 200 gr 3 blade VPA. It was very sharp. She only went 60 yds but didn't bleed till she laid down.