Reply To: Intentional Shoulder Shot

[M]

#15325

I shot a doe on saturday from a distance of about 10 feet. I was up in a cedar tree on a steep hill. The doe was facing uphill quartering away above me on the hill not the tree.One of three things went wrong 1. my lower limb hit a branch 2. I misjudged the extreme angle 3. the doe jumped the string. I think it was a combination of 1&2, but the arrow hit the doe in the neck and hit the spine. The doe dropped in its tracks but did require a finnishing shot. I was not using an EFOC setup because I am not ready yet. I was using carbon express heritage 150 arrows standard aluminum insert and a 145 Zephyr head with bleeder blades out of my Bear 55# Super Magnum 48.I think this qualifies as a succesful failure because the arrow penetrated to the spine but was stopped cold. The BH was not damaged bleeder blades gone, but not enough penetration.This was a lucky shot not planned this way but the arrow ended up where it shouldnt have. More and more my personal experience shows these classic non EFOC combinations leave no margin of error and I would never take an intentional shoulder shot with one and in fact I fear hitting a deer in the shoulder. That is why I think I and maybe others out there hit a little to far back and hit the liver with agonizing results for both hunter and animal. I think we are all saying the same thing a little differently but with an EFOC arrow/bh combination I would be more confident in trying to slide the arrow right behind the shoulder very close because I would have more margin of error if I did hit bone. Gun season starts next monday so I should be ready with my Ashby system when it ends. I am allowed 6 deer so I will keep shooting to gather some real world experience on single bevel vs. bone