This my 56 year of bow hunting dozens of deer shot. The bow, bolt and broad head combination.

Proven killer's used by myself wife and daughter.

Last evening about 40 minutes before end of shooting times. Over cast so it is going to get dark early.

I was sitting in my pop up blind.
The bow mounted in a Bog-pod tri pod

Over my food plot with a apple tree on the one edge.

I notice a deer move into my line of sight to my left.

I can not shoot that way because of the blind and branches.

When deer stopped a couple of steps short of my shooting area,

I could see lot's of horn. It was easy To see that it was a big buck

It feed there for about 3 minutes took a step forward.
The buck lifted his head and turn away. I then noticed a doe standing about 60 yards away.

The buck started walking towards the doe. It's butt towards me now out in the open.

I grabbed my grunt call and grunted he turned broad side at 3O yards. I settled the 30 yard dot behind it's shoulder and shot..

I heard a wack and the buck jumped ran across the food plot. In my sight for 80 plus yards.

Thinking back it showed no sign of being hit.

I gather my things up, called the wife told her to bring the truck and some lights.

As the wife was coming I found the bolt laying on top of the grass. About where the buck was standing.
Now for the strange thing.

There was no broad head or insert on the bolt.
No blood, no hair, no smell nothing.

Searched and search was out this morning with metal detector trying to find the broad head and insert.

Nothing but odds pieces of metal that one would expect in a old farm field.

The deer ran into a couple acres of woods looked through that also, no sign.

All I can do is write it off as sometimes sh!t happens when you pull the trigger

Weird!

It sounds like the broadhead struck a major bone and was imbedded there. The broadhead and insert are probably still in the deer. Is that possible from what you heard? Was the bolt found in front of where the deer was standing?

ok you said bolt instead of arrow. Are you using a crossbow or a regular bow?

Cross bow.

Hard to tell if in front could have been

interesting. Sorry if I am asking too many questions but I am trying to gather information on what might have happened. I have been archery hunting for 50+ years and have seen a lot of stuff. What type of broadhead mechanical or fixed blade? Is the Bolt aluminum or carbon? Are the bolts new or had you been practicing with them? Do you by chance know the speed of the bolt?

Carbon fiber bolt, mechanical, older bolt not shot a lot as it just used for killing deer. I have hunting bolts and practice bolts same brand and size.

Other bolts for practice. New broad head screw on this year. I have recovered a lot of arrows and bolts over the years.

I never just lost the head and insert.

As the deer ran off and wasn't recovered. It is a mystery.

Bolt speed around 300fps.

ok that helps. Can you check and see if the tip of the bolt has a crack or a flaw of any kind. Also try another insert in the tip of the bolt and see how much resistance there is. It should go in with some amount of resistance.

The bolt looks very good no cracks or flare at the end.

I don't have a insert to test right now.

ok I am going to take a shot at what I think happened here. The factors I see in play here are speed, bolt versus arrow, carbon not aluminum and mechanical broadhead.

I think the root cause was in-flight mechanical broadhead failure. Somewhere between the bow and the deer one blade of the broadhead deployed in mid flight. When one blade deploys in flight it sends the whole arrow/bolt into very bad instability and it will begin to wobble very badly. When this happens bolts because they are much shorter than arrows are way more effected by the wobble. The wobble can be as much as 45% off the center line and it will make the bolt/arrow go just about anywhere. The faster the bolt/arrow the more pronounced the wobble. So with the bolt wobbling when the bolt hit the deer I am guessing the bolt was at a bad wobble angle so the bolt essentially hit the deer almost sideways (probably 40-45 degrees off center). When an arrow or bolt hits off center there is a huge amount of forward energy on the broadhead and since the broadhead is not hitting the animal and has a lot of energy it will a lot of times pull the insert out of the arrow/bolt. This happens a lot with carbon because carbon inserts are press fit and usually aluminum are glued in. When this happens the broadhead/insert will fly quite some ways from the impact (20-30 yards). I have seen this happen a couple times while shooting targets with mechanical broadheads and have heard of it on animals.

I know I probably did not explain this very well but I suspect this is what happened. It is pretty rare and I would not worry about it but like you said shit happens.

Could be.

I wrote if of as a mechanical malfunction and shit happens.

A 14yoa girl shot a small buck last evening with the same type of bolt and broad head combo.

Complete pass through 50 yard run blood every where.

quote:

Originally posted by p dog shooter:
A 14yoa girl shot a small buck last evening with the same type of bolt and broad head combo.

Complete pass through 50 yard run blood every where.

That sound like me and my 12 year old grandson with the TV, phone, computer, etc.