When everything goes perfect, almost any arrow works. IMHO artificial medium testing tells you nothing at all about arrow performance in tissues, and is a useless exercise. Two years ago a team of European Forensic experts was assembled to try and find a test medium that would duplicate the effects of human arrow wounds. After months of trying, they found none.
The big difference comes with the bones. They aren’t there merely to support the body, but also to protect it from impact and penetration. Mother Nature designed the skeletal system to deflect and redirect impact forces. Few bones are flat. They are domes, arches, spheres and cylinders, with most having surfaces simultaneously curving in several directions at once. On any shot that hits bone, it’s highly unlikely that the impact will be perpendicular to the bone’s surface. Mainly because of this, I’ve seen no test medium that gives results that correlates with those shown in tissues. Artificial mediums lack the infinitely complex, yet highly organized matrix of multidirectional force-deflecting surfaces that our hunting arrows must contend with. Even a tiny deviation in impact angle changes the entire force redistribution vectors - and the shot's likely outcome. The only answers come from analysis of results from LOTS of shots into real, and very fresh, tissues; to see what can happen, under what circumstances it is likely to happen, and how often it really occurrs. Knowing these, you can stack the deck in your favor by using what works most frequenty throughout the cross-section of likely shot outcomes.
Ed
Topic: penatration (Read 557 times)
