Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors O/T Dead Deer or Not

I shot this 10 point at about 18 yards with a crossbow using a Rage type Broadhead. I have a video camera with 5X lens mounted on the crossbow so I was able to retrieve this photo. As you can see in the photo the broadhead left about a 2 inch slice behind the front leg. The shot was lower than ideal but did I get the Buck? The shot was taken at ground level and the crossbow shoots about 330fps. Care to take a guess? Tom

Tom,
I will be the first to bite. I would say you found him piled up within 50 yards of the feeder.

Wait a minute! Did you shoot a deer as he was coming up to a feeder?

I will give the answer tonight about 5 PM Texas time. Stay tuned.

When you say "rage" type. I am assuming you used something else. I would have expected a bigger entry from a rage. Looks like a very possible heart shot but I think it could go either way. Hopefully there was a blood trail from a pass through. I'd say it's 50-50.

I refuse to pay $13.00 apiece for Rage Broadheads and wanted to try some Chinese knockoffs that I bought for $2.00 each. The only difference I have noticed is they need to be sharpened and they use a rivet VS a screw so blades cannot be replaced. Otherwise they are identical to Rage. These are 100 grain and have a 2 1/4 inch cut when deployed. Tom

I'd say no....but just ask my wife. She would confirm I have wrong many times......

Brisket. He lives.
Nice pic.

Low heart shot... he's dead... he just didn't know it at the time.

You possibly got the bottom of one or both lungs as well, but the "hit" seems a might low for that... but where there's HOPE, there's a possibility.

Regardless, the low heart shot did the "job"... possibly hitting the lower part of the heart and/or cutting one of the major arteries to the heart.

If you got an artery only, he "bled-out" on-the-run.

There's also a possibility that the arrow hit bone and glanced upwards taking out one or both lungs and possibility even hitting the spine. If he dropped like a sack-of-rocks, you got a spine-hit!!!

Anyway... good shot. Enjoy the venison. Jus' my 2�...


Strength & Honor...

Ron T.

Looks like a killing shot to me.

I'm trying not to say anything about the feeder and the Chinese broadheads.

Rod

Phil I get what your hinting at. This is Texas and on a military installation to boot. I get to go through a lottery to hunt, pay additional $250 if picked and a 600 yard circle to hunt within. Also get to compete with 140 other bow hunters with feeders.

It is what it is and believe it or not I have hunted every Fri, Sat and Sunday since the last weekend in Sept and this is the first legal (must be 13 inch inside spread) buck I have seen.

I was born in Maine and know what real whitetail hunting is supposed to be. But when in Rome etc. Tom

Are the Rage broad heads not reusable?

You smoked him! Good shot!

The ones made in the USA are replaceable via a set screw. The Chinese knock offs have a rivet to hold the blades in place. You can pay $39.99 for 3 that are USA made Rage or as I chose, pay $20.00 for 12 of the Chinese knock offs. In this shot on the buck I had a pass through and the blades were intact when I recovered the bolt. Tom

When in Texas, you hunt with feeders. When in Nebraska, a huge number of folks hunt out of blinds. In the east, lots of folks still do drives with large numbers of folks pushing deer.

Lots of folks that bash each type of these activities. "That ain't real hunting".

I got bigger things to worry about.

PS: I say the critter's dead.

Shot looks good to me, BUT Im not a fan of the rage heads used in a Xbow there too light, my buddies use them and have lost deer or we have to track a mile, or the yotes have gotten to them, before we find them I use 170 grain slick tricks never lost a deer and I can shoot thru about anything, proved it to one on shooting thru pine planks this summer! the short Xbow bolts dont have any weight behind them. I wouldnt hunt with a chinese 2.00 head, a deers life is worth more to me than 2 bucks! I have used the same head to shoot 7 deer, till i lost it but I sharpened the blades or replaced them. I used to used the 100 grain slick tricks out of a compound bow. Hope you found your buck.

I agree with what Rory said. Just watch some of the hunting shows on Outdoor Channel or Sportsman Channel. A majority of the deer hunts filmed in Texas show hunters hunting over feeders. Does it make it right, it's not for me to judge if it is right or wrong. I think TomA called it right, "When in Rome do as the Romans do."

Might be that long before you find him!

From you camera angle and you being at ground level and not in a stand, that entrance looks plenty high enough for the heart, especially at 330 FPS. I would say he piled up within 100 yards. From an elevated stand I would say marginal.

Saddlering, the price I paid for the broadhead has nothing to do with it's effectiveness. If it puts a 2 1/4 inch hole through a deer it did it's job. Everybody has their own opinion of what they prefer and why but the same can be said for rifles and calibers and so on.

I have been bow hunting for over 45 years and have a pretty good idea of what works and what doesn't. I normally shoot a regular compound bow (Bowtech Destroyer LE) but my for these small bodied Texas deer and popup blind I prefer a crossbow. My broadhead choice for over 30 years has been a Muzzy 4 blade, 130 grain. Have taken deer, pigs, black bear, elk and so on.

With the speed of todays crossbows, about any sharp balanced broadhead will get the job done. Point being that I sharpen, spin balance and zero with these broadheads and believe they are about as good as the $13.99 Rage, Tom

I am curious about a couple things here.
What is the actual point of this thread?
What does it have to do with the Savage subject?
And you put out a situation and then get very defensive when someone questions your line of reasoning. Not trying to antagonize, just trying to make sense of this whole line of thought.

The point of the thread I will clarify at 5 PM or try to.

Has nothing to do with Savage thread and I thought my Subject O/T suggested that.

Did not want to antagonize anyone and apologize if I did.

Broadhead size, shape, weight and so on is a bucket of worms and I only stated what I was using for clarity of the equipment I used. John hopefully took my statements as intended, not trying to stir the pot. Tom

You're not stirring the pot. Some folks just look for things to be grumpy about.

Cantankerous is the word, I think.


PS: My wife uses it to describe me..

Well I for one am mad as hell and I'm not gunna take it anymore.















Well, ok, maybe this one time.

Pop a pill Roy (thanks for the chuckle)

I'll be the first to admit it publicly. I take myself waaaaaaay too seriously.

Next?

Is okay... makes up for how the rest of us take you.

He's deader than a hammer. Good shot.

Looks to far back for the heart but hard to tell for sure with his leg up

I say he lives

We will know soon.....dead or alive.

Dead Deer.

It's 5:05... he's late. I stayed late at work for this.

Now I'm grumpy.

This deer was shot on 6 Dec about 8:30 AM. Same deer had come in about 15 minutes earlier and was spooked as I reached to turn on the camera. There was 2 smaller bucks under and around the feeder when this 10 pointer came back in. I let the deer get broadside and took the shot. Deer took off in all directions at the sound of the shot.

I waited as the deer disappeared over the ridge and after a short time found my bolt. Not a whole lot of blood on bolt but was covered through the fletchings. Picked up blood right away, small 1/4 inch drops then about 10" circles of blood every 25 yards or so. Tracked the buck some 80-100 yards to the edge of a field where blood trail ended. Searched for a couple of hours, no luck.

Came home and reviewed the video and frame by frame I saw where the broadhead hit and just knew even though it appeared a little low it should have hit the heart.

I went back out to the field about noon,zigzag searching for another 2 hours,nothing. no more blood or deer. I thought for sure it was a dead deer that I could not find.

Fast forward to the next Friday and I checked my game cam pictures and lo and behold this same buck appears after dark 3 nights in a row under the feeder. Clean hole through both sides as if nothing happened. Funny part is now this 10 pointer is a five pointer missing both brow tines and 3 tines on his left beam. Before you ask will I shoot him again if I see him? No

Tom

Grumpier.......or cantankerous. Which one???

I'm not so sure it was too low, I think it was to far back. Notice the wound is almost perfectly vertical. If if were 1/2 inch behind the heart it would have missed it.

If the broadhead had hit so that it opened horizontally, might have had a different outcome.

Luck of the draw. In this case, bad luck.

JMO

Bad luck for you that is.

Good luck for the deer.

Your broadhead malfunctioned. That is a killing shot IMO and the animal must have thrashed around snaping its antlers. Not a big fan of mechanical s even less now. Thanks for sharing. Unless you found ingesta on the arrow, fletching, or trail. Then it is a trick question.

I missed that call. Looked like a good shot to me. That's why I no longer bow hunt. A 99 Savage would have laid him by with that shot.

The broadhead malfunctioned? Really?

There is a perfect 2 inch hole sliced in the deer all the way through him. It opened perfectly.

And since it didn't hit anything vital, that was obviously not a killing shot...

Broadhead did not malfunction, same size hole on the opposite side as entry wound. I suspect the buck had no idea what had happened when he was hit. Thus the puddles of blood where he stopped every 20-25 yards. The broken tines I also suspect are from fighting since we have just had what we refer to as 2nd rut in Dec when does that have not been bred get bred. All 2nd guessing and speculation but I was impressed with my little video camera being able to pick out each 30fps frame by frame of the shot and reaction. Tom

Broadheads kill via hemmorahge....period. In front of the diaphram lies the thoracic cavity, in the thoracic cavity is the highly vascular lungs surrounding the heart vena cava and the esophagus. In cervidae the two lung compartments are divided by the medialstineal membrame so one lung can collapse and the other may function. It was stated it was a complete broadside pass thru....so the projectile went thru both lungs if it indeed went thru the thoracic cavity. If MY broadhead hit that low thru both lungs and the animal did not exanguate (bleed out) where I could follow it. I would get a different broadhead......end of story.

It didn't hit both lungs or the deer would have been dead and recovered.

The lungs sit higher in the thoracic cavity than the wound.

Duh...

Interesting. Low enough to miss the vitals, but wouldn't have thought so. It happens, glad to know he's doing fine tho.

Go back to the muzzys, what I used for years till I learned of the Slick Tricks here on the campfire! Glad the buck recovered, as I said im not a fan of the rage style heads, and in my mind cheap made stuff has a greater chance to fail! I think the bow hunter form would have been a better place for this post!

I found the O/T a nice breather. Curious as we all have our opinions, and are right until proven otherwise. More than one way to skin a cat. Fred Bear killed hundred"s" of deer with a stamped steel broadhead...when deer were not abundant. I have some and used them until replaceble blades came on the market in the '80s. Funny how my ancestors seemed to do okay, just using a nicely chipped rock on the end of a non-graphite, non-aluminum, wooden stick, without glue-on or heat shrink fletching.
Any way you can kill a deer that is legal & humane, is fine with me. "Losing" a wounded deer is tough. Not looking long enough is wrong. Knowing the guy is still out there outracing the coyotes will make you sleep better. Thanks.

It don't matter what you hit him with.

The best most expensive American made fixed blade broadhead in the world won't kill a big game animal if you don't hit something that is going to bleed him out.

That hit was behind the heart and below the lungs.

Or the deer would be dead.

He ain't dead though, so it didn't hit him in the heart or lungs or he'd be dead.

Wait, I already said that.

The broadhead clearly opened and sliced a clean hole through the deer, same result as any fixed blade would have produced if placed in the same spot.

Another case of paralysis by analysis...

Cracks me up.

There is a thing called clotting.....Duh. The less sharp something is the more trauma to capillaries veins and arteries, the more prothrombin is secreted by the capillaries. The more prothrombin the more she clots. The thoracic cavity is a negative pressure cavity......as in the organs completely fill the space. Obviously the sharp efficient properly built broadhead missed the lungs hence the thoracic cavity or the broadhead was not up to the task. DUH!

That's a killing shot right there OP, take note!

I agree, brisket. Oh wait, I answered my own comment.
Granted this is a drawing, but when that front leg is stretched forward the brisket is a fairly large void. The deer may not survive due to infection. Part of the game. Thanks for the OT Tom.

A brisket shot should show grease on the shaft and a constant stream of blood as there would be no cavity for the wound to bleed into. I apologize it may be an optical illusion as the animal is rotated and I did not see the arrow/bolt hit. If I would shoot one there at 18 yards and not harvest the animal I would analyze my whole deal.Just braying. Good call on the brisket shot! I missed it. I am humbled.

A brisket shot should show grease on the shaft and a constant stream of blood as there would be no cavity for the wound to bleed into. I apologize it may be an optical illusion as the animal is rotated and I did not see the arrow/bolt hit. If I would shoot one there at 18 yards and not harvest the animal I would analyze my whole deal.Just braying.