What percentage of your arrows have passed through?

[Mohawk]

  I recently killed my first crossbow deer and hit the spine, the bolt not passing through, but did the job well. What are ya'lls experiences?

[95Road King]

5 Kills. 5 pass thru's. All with my High Country compound. Alumimum arrows with Rocket mechanical heads.

[kynardsj]

Of the eight or ten I've killed with a bow all but one have been a pass thru. The exception was a buck that was only three steps from my ladder stand. I tried to shoot just beside the spine but I nailed it center. He went down in his tracks but I had to do a follow up shot to finish the job.

[hunt-m-up]

All of them that were hit in the heart/lung or a little back passed through, aluminum and carbon, although the carbons seem to cut like a hot knife through butter. I spined one a few years back, dropped him, but wasn't pretty.  I don't get or take a lot of long shots, mostly 30 yards or less from treestands. Worst penetration I've ever had was from an early expandable shooting light aluminums from an overdraw, a bad combination. Fortunately it was a coyote that it didn't kill and I never used them on deer.

[BUCKDUSTER]

i'd say 75%.  this year i used rage broadheads and they all passed thru.  the mechanicals that open from the front and flip the blades backwards to open, dont seem to pass thru. fixed blades pass thru pretty regularly.  hard to follow a blood trail when the arrow don't pass thru.

[Empty Quiver]

I'm going to guess about a quarter are pass throughs. By that I mean an arrow that was used again. For the most part I wait for a quartering away shot and then do my best to put the arrow through the off side shoulder. I do succeed most of the time. That bone will really slow an arrow down. Nearly all the deer I've taken were with a 125 or 160 grain Thunderhead, these were usually on a 2216 or 2514 aluminum measuring 31". I shot 65 -70 lb round wheel compounds, roughly 190fps. Now 95% of the time there are two holes. But most of my arrows are in two pieces as soon as the deer moves a leg.

[Big Nasty]

Over the top mechanical's loose kinetic energy which in turn slows the arrow down quite a bit resulting in most often a broken arrow. Over the top mechanical's also can give a high rate of deflection. If you take an angled shot the blade that hits first can change the course of the arrow flight dramatically. With rage broad heads I found from personal experience are way over rated, I had one bounce of a deer ( I DIDN'T HIT THE SHOULDER ). I researched Rage when this happened to me, and found that many people have had true real life problem with Rage not just someone complaining when it was there shot to begin with. This year alone I have had to good hit deer lost with mechanical's. If I had found them the total in the freezer would be four. I have changed to fixed blade, and will not let another good hit deer go to the coyotes because of blade failure. With fixed blades it is obvious who is at fault. Yes I have made many horrible shots with my bow during the learning years but that is why I call it that. I have never met a person with a 100% success rate bow hunting from the first year, they could be out there but they are few and far between. One of my buddies has been bow hunting for twenty years with a great success rate, and still has one every now and then that gets away due to bad shot it even happens to rifle hunters.

[Empty Quiver]

Big nasty, you will not regret your decision. The mechanicals are a novelty item in my opinion. A solution looking for a problem that can be fixed with a modicum of tuning. If your fixed blade broadheads are failing it is because you bought a piece of junk. If your mechanicals are failing, well you might want to look in the operators manual. I have heard more stories of how the Gee Whiz Dyno Wing 2000 with Astro Sprinkles, has failed to deploy its super dimensional hyper phastic blade pack than I care to. It seems the key is to have a video crew and a source of free Gee Whiz Dyno Wing 2000 with Astro Sprinkles.

From invading Mongol Hoards through English Longbowmen, right up to our own American Indians, there is nary a written documentation of a broadhead failing to open up inside the target. These folks built pyramids, sailed wooden ships to distant shores, invented metalurgy, but didn't feel a need to make a poorly designed broadhead. I have it on good authority they were pretty danged successful at killing stuff too.

Just something to ponder.