About to give up the stick and string

[Brian Krebs]

Conan said: "Thanks to all for your time and advice. I've been hunting with a stick n'string for 12 years and taken about 25 deer and 2 hogs with it. I'm not going to give it up (I just felt horrible) and I realize that it was a marginal hit since I didn't find it w/in 100yds"
                                                  OOPs - a misunderstanding Conan! When I hunted in Michigan over 20 years ago- the bowclubs had us record the distance of the shot; and the location of the hit and such; and everything showed at that time that the distance of the shot increased the distance of the blood trail.
                                                                                                   In my personal experience- and in the studies- a double lung hit deer will run about 60 yards; well within the 100 yards you mentioned. But hit the heart- and the deer will OFTEN push itself to about 180 yards. A gut shot deer might run 5 yards and lay down; and that is not a good hit. If you hit both lungs; and a leg bone on the other side it might push the deer past the 60 yards- even though it was a good hit. I made a quarting away shot on a bull elk that tore a huge hole in the liver; and hit lung. It ran over 350 yards before piling up. Liver hit deer - although hit mortally will often push beyond 100 yards.
                                                                                                   
I don't know if you just said 100 yards as an off the cuff statement; but - if your really thinking a deer well hit should drop within 100 yards - well cheer up- they go further when mortally hit.              
                                               
 I hope Conan that you; or anyone else- is taking this in anyway as a 'jump on Conan' thing. There are lots of people that ask a question - that the answers too : are heard by well...... 14,000 people !

 That is a GREAT thing.                      
                                                   Me: I am envious of your shot grouping  

[pintail_drake2004]

that funny, compounds are mentioned several times here, but when i did it, my post got pulled!

I can shoot consistant groups with my reflex/deflex but i am very disappointed in it. I am use to stacking arrows with my PSE at 30yds. I do not expect to get a pass through with my reflex simply because it does not have the speed my PSE does. Even if they both pull the same, an arrow traveling at 325fps will go deeper and further than an arrow traveling 175-200fps. If ya can get a double lung or a lung/heart shot, you dont need a pass through anyway. i have not had a double lung or a lung/heart hit deer go further than 20 yards pass through or not.

[Conan]

I've replayed the shot over and over in my head and realize that I did not pick a spot. As the Deer was walking in front of me I drew and as I was approaching anchor I saw that there was a branch in the way of the spot I had originally picked to shoot at. I waited until he passed the branch and never made the adjustment of repicking a spot. I just drew, anchored, and released. As a consequence I believe I probably hit him in the shoulder which of course caused the poor penetration. I've just resigned myself to add weight tubes to the shafts and either brass inserts or weights to the front of the arrows to increase the upfront weight.

[vermontrad]

I recently tried weight tubes on some GT 55/75's with a 160 grain bradhead and they made the arrows fly in a very strange way. Switched to a 100gn broadhead adaptor and no weight tube and although the weight dropped from 700gns to 630grns the flight was WAY better. I think because of the increased FOC. Weight tubes can bring your FOC back 'cause they ?grns per inch to the shaft and there are more inches behind the balance point then in front. Go for the heavy insert/adaptor/2blade braodhead...

[NDTerminator]

I experimented with brass inserts in carbon arrows to add weight/increase penetration of carbons.  Got great arrow flight, I'm just not big on carbon arrows for Trad so I settled on Easton 2413's...

[Nate Steen .]

Something I've wondered about, being from the west and only shooting one animal from a tree....

when you guys are up a tree 16 feet and the deer are right below you, it must be difficult to draw to a full anchor.  To me it would seem logical to place the stand where I could shoot farther out if my stand was higher than 8 - 10 feet.  Then it would be easier to draw full length because I'm not bending over as much....one inch shorter on the draw leads to many foot pounds of energy lost, and much momentum lost.

[-Achilles-]

in order to be the best at anything you must be the worst

[Terry Green]

I didn't read passed page 2....but if you can't pass through a deer with a decent weight hunting bow,......there is a serious problem somewhere.

Like many stated just on the 1st page....deer are not hard to pass through at all.