Filled the last of four tags Yestereve. Since this was intended from the get-go as a science project to see what I could learn I wanted to shoot this last one with the same Rage 2" broad head that I used on two of the others. I waited and waited passing a lot of shots for one to give me a perfect broadside so I could tuck it just behind the shoulder and mid-body on a nice yearling doe because a large part of the experiment was intended to resolve over population first and foremost.
Last night was the same distance of 20-22 yards as the previous three deer. This one was the smallest, about 140-150 dressed. Arrow went in just a little back of the heart and just a little above. Nicely centered double lung shot. Years and years of shooting a rifle have made me compulsively follow through. I saw the hit well thanks to the lighted nock and saw the deer bolt to my right through the scope. Having a really good Zeiss rifle scope on a crossbow seems a little extreme, but it sure works nice.
Because she spun and bolted out of my sight to my right I began looking in that direction and spent a good hour and a half in search of blood that wasn't there. I couldn't believe there was absolutely nothing after putting the Rage through exactly where I wanted it. I knew she was laying dead somewhere nearby and have seen enough rifle shot deer not bleed that I had to stick with what I saw for a long time.
I started looking in a pattern and found good blood about 100 feet from where I shot her in the opposite direction from which she bolted. From there it was easy to follow the blood 150 yards or so the where she lay.
Necropsy revealed cut up pulmonary arteries and veins just past the aorta along with the lung damage expected. That confirmed the decreasing blood trail I followed, she pumped herself empty and tipped over. A retrace backwards of the blood trail in this morning's light showed she didn't bleed much at all until she'd gone 30-50 feet. In 3-5 inches of red oak leaves after dark even a super flashlight couldn't help me find the millimeter sized specks every 6-10 feet or so when I was unsure which direction she'd gone with nothing in the first 30 feet.
Lessons learned from the experiment:
1. Testing revealed that this bow will drive a >450 grain arrow with field point hard enough to penetrate 3/4 inch of plywood and 3-1/2 inch of 2x4 with some arrow sticking out the back side. Probably enough to ventilate Bambi at fifty yards.
2. Even very sharp broad heads with a huge cut won't necessarily produce much of a blood trail in the first 50 feet regardless of the placement of the shot. None of the four deer I shot this year had anything even approaching a marginal shot and the only one that didn't need some "sorting out" at the beginning of the trail was dead six feet from where it stood at the shot.
3. This crossbow is easily accurate enough to place an arrow precisely enough that dead on frontal shots through the heart are easy from a rest.
4. At 20 yards none of four deer so much as flinched before the arrow was through them, speed is good, and a lighter faster arrow may be worth investigating since the only shot that was not a pass through cut a lot of bone. Two deer, the blades, never touched bone, and this last one, the Rage blades, but not the tip apparently from cursory examination cut rib entering and exiting. Three pass-throughs and one with the blades of the rage into the top of the heart where they stopped.
5. Hunting where better light is available is better than under heavy canopy with a poor background.
6. The scope supplied with the Matrix with a 32mm objective is not adequate. The available 44mm scope may be better, but from the comparisons I did it's not even close the Zeiss. To be expected of course, but if you're looking for performance
and expecting it you should not go into it not thinking your typical crossbow scope will provide it. The last five minutes before the end of legal shooting time are by far the most important and being able to see your target well enough to be certain of the angle and the relative position of the internal organs is critical.
7. The crossbow is loud by comparison to a vertical compound, even after doing about as much as can be done to quiet it. At twenty yards, none of these deer had time to jump the string. All four arrows hit exactly where they were aimed.
8. One of the objectives I had was to kill surely and quickly enough that Bambi didn't run off and disturb the neighbor's dinner by making a scene in front of their dining room window. Even as efficient as this crossbow is, it is not up to that job. One deer with a 2 inch Rage right through the heart made it about 100 yards, one made it probably closer to 200 with the same Rage doing equivalent damage. A down loaded muzzle loader can meet that objective though. Next year's project may be to see if a rifled barrel shotgun can provide the accuracy and noise reduction I need If I down load it.
9. As a substitute for a compound or long bow for someone like me with ruined shoulders or age related infirmity and use in a place where instant incapacitation isn't so necessary, this is a great solution. It's not at all difficult to place a shot such that death is very certain to occur inside 200 yards. It's certainly equal to a shotgun with typical Foster slug loads once the shotgun has to shoot past the range when tumbling can begin. I have seen more than a couple shotguns that wouldn't shoot slugs this accurately at fifty yards.
