While doing some last minute scouting of my hunting grounds yesterday, I stumbled upon the skeleton of a whitetail buck. It's antlers were missing, so I suspect it succombed to last winter's cold. I brought the scapula home and scheduled an unofficial penetration test for early this morning.
I mounted the scapula flush against my 3-D target, and grabbed my favorite osage bow and a fist full of ash arrows, tipped with 190 Grain Grizzly's.
I took my shots from 10 yds. My unwitting assistant took the punishment well.
The test produced at least 3" of penetration, to the back of the broadheads. Undoubtedly, the 3-D foam impeded that to a healthy extent. The third arrow went in the best, due in part to damage caused by the first two hits.
The Grizzly heads survived, unscathed. I'll resharpen them and stick them in my quiver for this season's hunts. I couldn't pull the broadheads back out of the bone, so I had to break the shoulder off to remove them.
Next, I wanted to see what a direct hit on the ridge would do. (I moved up to 5 yds for that one.) To my surprise, it split the ridge. But again, previous damage played an obvious role. I doubt that would be the case with a fresh shoulder bone in good condition.
What does all of this demonstrate? Well, admittedly not much. I fully appreciate that bone brittled over half a year's worth of weathering on the ground is not as strong as living, healthy bone. But it reaffirms my faith in the toughness of Grizzly's and does give me some degree of confidence that if I do hit the flat part of a whitetails scapula, I might get enough penetration to bring the critter down.
Topic: Scapula Penetration Test (Read 339 times)
