Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Bowhunting Sharp broad heads are painless and dangerous

An observation on broadhead sharpness and the feeling of being sliced open with them.

Yesterday I was on the phone waiting on an appointment and had a Rage broad head in my truck laying on the console. I was inspecting it to see the function and just admiring the design. I've never used one on big game, but they are 100% my first choice on turkeys. Nothing I have ever used or seen has been more perfect and lethal.

So here I am iPhone between my shoulder and ear listening in the conference call I was participating in, and with my two hands opening and closing the blades of the rage. I had to speak on the call, so I went to grab the phone and dropped the broad head between the seat and the console. So while I was talking I reached down there with the free hand to get it.

As I slid my hand between the seat and the console I felt something hard and figured it was part of the seat slide mechanism. I got to the floor and there was no broad head. I spoke on the call for about 30-45 seconds and then peeked between the seats to see where it was. However as I pulled my hand out there was blood gushing everyplace!

I had sliced through the tops of the three knuckles on my right hand. Only my thumb and little finger survived the cuts. There was still no feeling of pain, or any feeling of being cut. It was so painless that I was almost in disbelief that I could be bleeding this much from my fingers and not feel anything!

Fortunately with a 12 year old son, the dash box was filled with fast food napkins. I quick grabbed them and covered the fingers. Still no pain, not even a slight indication of anything wrong, other then the seats and my clothing covered in blood.

I got off the conference call and changed my afternoon plans to head back to home. It was about 45 min away. About half way home I felt very light headed and I was sweating like a horse! My shirt was dripping sweat, and my focus was bad. I pulled off the road and reclined my seat a bit with the Aircon full blast. I opened a bottle of water and assessed the blood flow and the distance yet to go. I was here about 15-20 min I would guess.

It seemed that I was able to settle or calm just a bit. However the first set of napkins was soaked and dripping. I replaced them but saw the depth of the slices and the disturbing looking mess. I got back on the road. I called ahead to Calleen and told her when I get home she would need to be ready to get me to the emergency room. She was calm ( a surgical nurse ) and asked me how I was doing to drive myself. I told her I stopped along the way when things were beginning to get fuzzy. She stayed on the phone with me, both joking and angry which was brilliant to keep my focus and attention. I got home and replaced the napkins again. 25 min later we were in the Emergency room at the desk.

So at this point I have been bleeding at a good rate for about an hour and a half. Still not even a slight bit of pain or any feeling that I was hurt or sliced. However that was about to change. The doctor looked it over and washed this mess out. He glued two of the fingers shut with the third getting glue and stitches because the seam was dead center across the knuckle. Then he splinted that finger so that it would not bend and pull the stitches out.

The cleaning out part was bad, and the visual of the skin flapping open that deep was gruesome especially when it's yours!!! They numbed it which made it pain from washing it out go away, and then sewed it up.

So the whole gist of this is just to be careful with broad heads DUH!

But the other interesting thought I have is that it may be possible that a clean lightening fast pass through of an arrow may not generate any pain to the game we shoot. With perfectly sharp broadheads that slice so clean, it was actually an astonishing pain free experience.

Gut wrenching, sickening volume of blood, and scary to be sure. But never even a sliver of pain.

The footage Ive seen on Bubbavision using Rage broad heads is impressive�.

One of the first deer I killed with a bow jumped sideways when the arrow passed through her. She then walked over and was actually smelling the bloodied arrow sticking in the ground when she fell over.

I've shot more than a few deer and elk that jump when hit, but immediately calm down and walk away or even go back to feeding. Then they start to get wobbly, and get that WTF? look on their face, then it's over. Distance to recovery on archery kills has always been shorter than with rifle kills; both types to the same place - broadside double lung shots. Did spine an antelope archery hunting once; only DRT I've had...

Yep, you gotta respect them broadheads. After 29 year of bowhunting and sharpening boadheads. I got myself good this past March while sharpening broadheads for a hog hunt.

Stabbed a freshly sharpened broadhead in the palm of left hand. Felt it hit bone, then it slice my last two fingers while instinctively pulling my hand away.

Left a great blood trail to the bathroom. Went through the sweats, naseau, and blurred vision. Hurt like heck when they washed it out at the ED.

Came away with a Tdap vaccination, glued cuts, and a course of antibiotics. Fortunately no tendons, ligaments, or major nerves were damaged.

Pics or it didn't happen, LOL

I stupidly sat on one in my stand wasn't a bad cut but it's surprising how much blood flows through your butt cheeks..

Although I generally agree with what DaddyRat wrote, in this particular case I thank FlyboyFlem for NOT posting pictures of his sliced & bleeding butt cheeks!

John

And that's a Good Thing....

Hey you two my wife says I have a great butt,that's all that counts in my book!

On the subject of being cut by sharp instruments, I assure you that painless is not a constant...

I concur with it all. I've been cut deep by broad heads and knives that were razor sharp. It doesn't hurt that day but just wait. It will throb later. Always good to have a tourniquet handy to slow the bleeding. You never know just how bad you are cut until it's time to irrigate it.
I've also had game animals jump at the hit and not realize they've been hit until they fall over. I recall hitting a nice buck that hardly moved. Looked at the arrow and was bleeding profusely to the point where I could see him pumping out blood from where I was standing. Had I not seen him bleeding out I would have thought I cleanly missed him.

While pulling open a package of broad heads a few turkey seasons ago I cut one of my fingers to the bone. I hate those sonic welded plastic packages even more now. I had cut open the top and then in the process of pulling the seams open I slipped on the mud under my feet and smacked the package on the tailgate. My hand went down into the pkg and just like JJHACK I had no idea I was cut till I saw blood all over things. I had some superglue and like an idiot tried to superglue it shut. Didn't wash it out. The constant blood flow coming out didn't let the superglue set properly and it just turned into a mess that made it look like I had a case of bleeding warts all over my finger. The doctor in the minor emergency clinic got a good laugh and I ended up with several stitches and a pretty good scar.

It's strange how you can be cut so badly and not really notice..at first.

A hunter I guided showed me a scar on his calf where a fixed 3blade head had penetrated completely into the muscle. An arrow in his hip quiver worked loose and had fallen out. As he took a step backwards to go around some brush he managed to impale himself . He told me he didn't feel anything but some pressure and almost the sensation of a "pop" as the head went into his leg! He said they decided to unscrew the head and leave it in the muscle and wrap a bandage he made from his shirt around it instead of removing it in the field as it was hardly bleeding.

It seemed to work out well for him, but that is a tough call on what to do while out in the field.

Scarey. Sorry to hear that JJ. Glad you didn't get it into ligaments.

I got lightheaded reading the details.

An unfortunate but cool learning event. Thanks for sharing.