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Preston,
That is a sad tale and I know you feel badly. Those incidents stay with a hunter for a long time… my condolences.
I’m not the person with a ton of kills, like some here, but enough to have some thoughts I’d like to share:
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a 500-600 blood trail and you assume it’s a one lung shot? 500 yard trail reinforces that assumption, but a good blood trail seems a bit suspect to me for that far.
Deer, in fall, having lived on green lush stuff all summer are packed with VitK to withstand the battles of the rut, nature’s provision, and they can take tremendous injury and endure…at least for a time.’).'”).”n
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There are many factors in your story that could relate to the occurrence beyond just penetration or failure of EFOC. Power is one of them, entrance angle and/or deflection can be another, either before it enters the animal or as it’s entering.
Sharpness of head… you have a winning combination, in your equipment, but it’s always easier to look to our set up than to factors beyond the equipment.
You already know that you should have backed off when you jumped the deer…at the great distance it traveled, one lung is a good assumption, but the amount of blood trail suggests a serious wound. Anytime, I’m taught, that a deer hasn’t lay down within 100 yards of where shot, you need to back off and wait.
subtle hiccups with wild critters can surely cause a loss. Such thick cover could mean you were within FEET of it, and not know it… I’ve found deer I shot in the worst 15′ high cane briars and how they got there, I’ll never know… but in their dying breath, they seek cover. Even scavengers may not yet have been able to locate that deer in such a thick environment.
At the range you shot, with the equipment you have, there is little to suggest equipment failure…location could be an issue… and while EFOC does much, along with COImpact heads to enhance penetration thru bone, it’s not foolproof. Not suggesting anyone’s a fool here, don’t read that… just that it’s not a rifle bullet and I just talked to several people who had pretty bizarre experience relating to deer tenacity with center fire rifles!
Had you hit a shoulder blade, a normal head, may have never penetrated…but it would appear that your head did penetrate enough to get the one lung… and cause excessive bleeding for that long, long trail you followed…
Your own words show that penetration with compounds was lacking where you obviously got decent penetration…
Laminate bows can produce more energy, perhaps, but 60# self bow at your short range, suggests, perhaps, location of wound entry was more the culprit.
Also, without knowing actual #’s, that high FOC, 60# draw and then saying you had a low spine arrow makes me scratch my head. Granted, Preston, I shoot “laminate” bows with center shot, and from what I’ve heard, most self bows are way not center shot by design and require lesser spine arrows to wrap around the riser on release.
So many variables. only two solid conclusions:
* you may have hit shoulder blade and only gotten one lung as you suggest.
*You now know that you should have backed off when the trail went that far and given that deer time to lie down and die!
Again, my condolences. Accuracy is way above penetration I would think. If you’re concerned with what your friend said, about not being as accurate with a self bow, does that mean that you are not sure of how accurate YOU are with YOUR bow? That could be critical part of the equation…
Let’s not assume 😳 that EFOC is to blame…there are just waaay too many “unknowns” here that may have over-shadowed what EFOC can over-come. As assumptions go, if you’d have used a lesser BH and lesser EFOC, it might have just stuck in whatever limited the penetration and done no harm…as it was, you had excessive blood trail but no recovery.
Focus on those things that you can control….accuracy, etc. More than once, I’ve short drawn when excited or eased up on back tension when I had to wait on a deer to hit a shooting lane, and got poorer flight. 3D shoots helped me learn that more than anything…
Good luck on the next one…dont’ give up…just work on the small details… KNOW you are accurate with your set up and confidence will bring success!