Re: blood trails.
Whether you shoot them with an arrow or a rifle, there are no guarantees whatsoever that you will get a blood trail, whether it will last as long as the deer does or not. Out of the last 8 deer, one left zero blood trail until it tipped over. Not so much as a single drop. It made it maybe 50 yards and then at tip over it looked like a slaughter house. Everything within 10 feet was red. One did an excellent job of putting blood on the ground for 300 yards, at which time he ran out of blood and managed another 100 yards. One bled good for 250 yards and then quit for 200. She then bled enough to follow to where she tipped over 300 yards further. One bled very heavily for 300 yards to the point it was stopping every six feet and putting 1/2 cup of blood on each side. But he made it another 100 without further bleeding. All of those were hit with large 4 blade mech heads and double lunged but for one.
I shot one fawn through the bottom inch of both scapulae which turned both lungs into red soup but for a fist size chunk and shredded the top 2/3 of the heart. That damn deer bled for 3 jumps and then not another drop. That deer should by all rights have been DRT, but it departed like i never touched it.
I have had 3 DRT deer with an arrow. I will be damned if I could say why they didn't run, but the they went nowhere. Kind of like the deer just figured I been shot and now I am going to be dinner, and then laid down dead
I guess having seen so many die with such widely varied results after the shot is why I don't have even the slightest bias toward any caliber, mech or fixed heads, bow or rifle.
I will say though that I am just about certain that all of the deer I have killed with an arrow I would have clipped the brain stem had I been using a rifle. Roughly 1/3 of the deer I have killed with a rifle were either head shots or brain stem shots. All but one of them were very close, archery range or closer.
I'd switch broadheads.
I am listening. Like i said above, I do not have the slightest allegiance to caliber, mech or fixed heads,bow or rifle.
I used to have issues with blood trails from a wide array of broadheads, they left blood trails some better than others and some downright miserable.
That is until my friends started using rage broadheads.
They were using the standard ones and me being me wanted to be slightly different went with the Rage Hypodermics.
All I can say is wow! The commercials are right..it’s a red carpet of blood.
I’m sold on em.
3 out of four the Rages worked good. All of them though, the blood ne er started much before 30-40 yards. The 4 blade heads, the blood started at 5-10 yards and they bled as well. I did get 1 DRT with a Rage. None with the Hypo. 3 blade fixed were no better and no worse. The 4 blade mechs have thus far been the best. The first 4 i shot with Rages were all through the heart. 1 Drt, 1about 60 yards 1 about a ,ittle over 100 yards and one made it just a litte over 200 yards.. once they started to bleed, they all bled admirably. But...out of two dozen only one deer did not bleed quite well, that one wzs the one that spun toward me..
I personally find it hard to fault a head for a deer that bleeds well until it runs out of blood, nor one which gives me enough blood to follow at a dead run for a mile.
One deer i cannot begin to explain. Facing me dead on. I pot the arrow in just below her throat. I saw it reemerge from under her rump. I found two distinct isolate patches of hair a couple feet apart right where I expected them. When I recovered her I could find no blood in the chest or abdomen. No exit hole. No evidence the arrow ever entered her chest.
