A mechanical broadhead produces unexpected results. A blood tracking dog finds the deer.

by Andy Bensing

 

Sometimes the Hunter Doesn't Lie, but Equipment Does, Another Live Recovery for Eibe

This video documents an interesting call I had this week. The hunter was using a crossbow at about 12 yards. Of course he did not see the bolt hit the deer but he pointed right to a quartering away heart shot when he showed me on my deer diagram. I did not believe him or I would not be there. There was almost no blood or hair to start the track and the bolt was not recovered so there was little to go on in figuring out what had happened. As you will see in the video, the hunter was exactly right. He hit the deer at a spot that should have been a perfect heart shot. Watch the video to see what really happened after the bolt impacted the deer.

Video - https://vimeo.com/49649786

 

 

Mechanical Broadhead Failure from Andy Bensing on Vimeo.

When this video was posted on Facebook, it generated quite a few comments. John Jeanneney wrote: "Bowhunters should be aware of the limitations of mechanicals. There are high risks on angle shots to the rib cage. In this deer case a good fixed blade head would have been much more likely to penetrate at that angle. Some mechanicals are better than others, but they all seem to have trouble passing though rib bones.  This makes for tough eyetracking, although it is not a problem for a good tracking dog that can follow the interdigital scent of that particular deer. As a tracker I have far more calls from hunters who shot mechanicals including Rage. Of course I don't have statistics on how many hunters use each type of head."