broadhead penetration???

[joe ashton]

Hi.  a fun thread.
Two holes are best for blood trailing. Absolutely!
The only time that the  theory of the 'arrow doing more damage if still in the animal'  is "useful" is when comforting a stressed out fellow bow hunter that did not get a pass through, while he is waiting to begin a potentially difficult tracking job.

[JamesKerr]

I can tell you from my limited experience that two holes are always better than one. I have had only a few deer I could not find and they were due to there being no exit hole.

[RedShaft]

I like my arrow buried into the leaves at a 45 deg. angle.... cover in pink bubbly blood from head to nock.    

[JohnV]

A lot of the stuff regarding the "benefits" of having the shaft inside the animal as it ran off were started by target archers who used their low poundage bows and were incapable of pass-through shots on many animals and needed an explanation to justify the poor performance of their equipment.

[LONGSTYKES]

Full penetration, with a sharp broad head. Plenty of tracking blood to follow if needed. Works well for me.

[vintage archer]

Interesting I never heard any one say the the best shot would be if the broadhead stayed in side. The cutting is done as the head passes through.  
I am sure there is cutting by movement of the head in the cavity. I want my arrow and broadhead to pass through. that way I have a chance to recover  it and to see the color of the blood.
I believe the best chance for recovery is a pass through!

[[email protected]]

Interesting stuff.

Two quick stories.

I was the caller on this bull.  My friend was on the edge of a fence line and the bull was a couple of 100 yards off.  He was very interested but also very call shy.  I eventually worked my way up hill where I could look down and see the shooter and the bull as he slowly came towards me.  I was about 150 yards away when the bull finally presented a broadside shot. The bull, uncertain on what happened, went back in the direction he had come from finally jumping another fence.  I had a ring side seat of it all, and through my Zeiss 10's I was clearly able to see and mark the spot exactly.  Which turned out to be key in recovering this elk.

Rob was really excited, was not exactly sure of the arrow placement.  No worries I said and we went the spot where the bull had cleared the fence.  Fresh tracks but not a drop of blood I could find, either from the take off spot or the landing.  I began to doubt that he really did hit the bull.

We went to the area where he got the shot and eventually found the arrow broken in several pieces.  Good blood and I knew we had two holes.

I was pretty certain that I knew what happened but keeping Rob under control was...er...um challenging.  Early lunch, stump shooting, dirt nap.  Five hours later we took up the trail.  Only tracks, no blood...ever.  A magpie alerted us and there he was, bedded up under a tree not 400 yards from the fence.  He was too weak to move and soon passed.

We rolled him over and the bed had no blood, which I found then, and still to this day, just not possible.

The post mortum revealed that fat had clogged both holes!  Right then I swore off two blade heads.

Story 2.

Just before dark my brother stalked and shot a nice bear.  He said the arrow looked good.  We decided to go back to camp, have dinner and give him plenty of time.  We knew we had to find him that night because it was really hot!

After a long, tedious and nerver racking trailing job we found the boar quite some distance away.  The arrow was still in him and that allowed the blood to channel down the shaft.  Post mortum showed that in fact the three blade head did do considerable interior damage.  The arrow stayed in which I feel made the recovery possible.

I have also noticed when an arrow falls out or breaks off the blood trail most always "dries" up.

I don't really consider myself any kind of tracker.  You guys, back "East" just shoot a whole lot more animals than we can in the west.  You have a lot more experience than we do.

And those are just my observations.

Bob