Here is a pic of a deer shot by my brother yesterday, only that isn't his arrow in it. He uses Muzzy's and it went clean through. This one went in about 1 1/2-2 inches and was stopped by bone. One thing I noticed is that the tip of one of the expanding blades may have hit the bone first and stopped not only the arrow from opening but also the arrow from penetrating any farther.



Here is the arrow head, can anyone identify what kind it is?

Piss poor shot placement. I have had standard broad heads stopped because of hiting bone. I shoot Plukett bloodtrailer expanders and have had not a bit of trouble with them. Bow hunting shot placement is all important. What we don't know was what weight the bow was nor the speed. I don;t recommen expandables for slow or lighter weight pulls.

P Dog is right, takes mucho power to break through bone with an expandable. Target bows have no place in hunting.

The broadhead is a Gold Tip product. I think they're called Gladiators though I'm not possitive of the name. This head has two fixed blades and two that expand. Nice Deer.

Yep, that's a Gold Tip. I have killed several deer with those heads without failure....of course I didn't shoot any in the top of the neck! I quit shooting them because the ends of the folded-up blades were pointed and a safety issue. Shoot him there with a Muzzy and the same thing will happen. Nice deer.

Again, I think we can all chant together and beat the ol' drum... "shot placement shot placement shot placement...." As we all know no amount of gadgetry can work around that 100% of the time.

I do think that if this had been a Muzzy it would have cleared the animal, I think a big factor here was one of the expanding blades contacted bone first and forced the arrow to the side like a pivot. I primarily posted this because here was this discussion going on and then what does my brother stick that very same day! Personally I use Rocky Mountain broadheads but as any conscientious hunter there are shots I do not take at times.

We just found out today who most likely shot this deer so sometime I'll be able to hear what his story is.

One time, shooting from the ground, I hit a doe low through the shoulder, down in the part of the leg where the bone is round...anyway, the bone was shattered and the arrow went through to the opposite ham. I was using a Rocket Steelhead. My point is, does anybody have stories about shooting through a large buck's backbone? Not just paralyzing the animal by clipping the spinal cord, but actually breaking right through the middle of the bone? If so, did the broadhead hold up?

I shot a doe through the backbone at 10 yards, with a 2314/rocky mountain fast flight/68# bow. the arrow penetrated past the spinal cord, but didn't break all the way through the other side. It stopped the arrow dead, like I shot a fence post.
It seems the picture in my mind looks more like the bow poundage was way too low, or the guy shot the deer at way too long out of range. That shot should have dropped it.

Unless the arrow hit something else on it's way to the target. That may explain the poor shot placement.

I shot 2 bucks in the spine. First one the shot hit a 1 1/2 year old 9 point high and dropped him on the spot requiring another shot through the lungs to finsih things. 12 years ago I shot a 11 point 3 year old buck that scored 122 5/8 (grossed 138 4/8) in the spine which dropped him on the spot as well. He never took another step, but I did give him one more in the lungs as insurance. I was shooting my Hoyt Proforce at 65#'s and 2216 XX75 tipped with 125 grain thunderheads. Tough shot to make, but very effective. He's hanging over my desk right now.

P Steve Morgan, I shot a large doe in the shoulder. Arrow went through it and the spine and cut the ball joint in half on the opposite leg. Arrow stopped at the fletch. I used a Snuffer head. It took 82# to do it with a 2419 shaft. A toothpick would have stopped in the shoulder.

What I was talking about when I asked if anyone had shot through the back was the 'backbone', not slicing the spinal cord. The buck in the original post may have been hit squarely in one of the vertebrae from the top--not between the vertebrae, and not just underneath the vertebrea so the spinal cord is cut, but exactly in the bone from straight overhead. That would indeed be hard to shoot thru--unless you were shooting a Muzzy of course.

I think I'll add that to my list of reasions for shooting over 100lbs of KE.

The bones that make up the spine are very hard and dense and pretty thick. I have never shot s deer in the spine with a bow so I can't comment.

Again , I think that to many people are shooting expandable heads out of bows that are not up to the task of opening the head and pushing it deep.

Thye one thing that I don't aggree with about Rocket heads is that they state a speed rating for their heads to work properly and not a KE .