I've been shooting my compound at a Rinehart target a lot lately with a 3 blade broadhead and one thing I've noticed, is that when I shoot the target straight on at a 90° angle, my arrows enter the target straight as expected. But the Rinehart target is an octagon. The corners, which are at a 45° angle, also have targets on them and can be shot at that angle whileshooting straight at the face of the target. What this results in, is essentially the arrows impacting as they would be quartering to or away animal target.
What I have noticed is that when impacting the target at a 45° angle that the arrow redirects. The redirection, it's towards the middle of the target. My guess is that the blades on the broadhead on the target side are impacting the target first which then puts pressure towards the back of the arrow towards the opposite side that the blade contacts the target with first.
So I'm wondering how much this affects arrow direction on an animal. Assuming that an animal would have the same effect on a broadhead as a rubber target, this could mean that you would want to shoot farther forward on the quartering away animal and farther back on the quartering to animal.
Now obviously an animal is not a rubber target. Additionally, I would imagine that ribs would or could have more of an effect or the opposite effect depending on how they were impacted. But in certain cases, for instance when an animal is quartered away very hard and you may be aiming behind the ribs, perhaps this would come into play.
Also, I was shooting with a three blade broadhead, but I imagine that a four blade Broadhead could make this more consistent and a two blade broadheads could make this completely unpredictable, depending on if the arrow impacted horizontally or laterally.
I'm sure I'm not the first person to think about this and I'm curious what people's experiences and thoughts are.
I'll give your question some thought! Ha Ha!
If just standing target movement on impact may play a role?
It could have turned the target, but I shot each side and the front and it didn't appear to.
These shots were all in excess of 45 yards, mostly at 50-55, so it'd have been impossible to see during the shot. I'd have to go test it again, but I'm just about to leave for Nor Cal and my gear is all packed.
I should have added, the perceived angle or redirection was about 10 degrees.
Yeah man, overthinking it. Lol
Mark
I sent the mnfr of a prototype mech head the video of an arrow making a 60 deg turn on impact- quartering away shot in the shoulder blade- it was crazy. Ive seen other arrows hit and angle in. One nice buck a buddy shot in the chest in Ks- lots of blood- we lost and they shot ut a week later in gun season- arrow hit the chest but deflected down just inside the rib cage and out Tekan BH. The farmer said the wound channel was crazy.
The weird ones ive seen personally were over the top mech heads, angled shots and arrows on the lighter side ( under 400gr) ive never seen it with 2 blade or tapered COC heads those seem to take a straighter course.
I used to wonder about the same thing...but as previously mentioned, the degree of deflection would probably be influenced by the composition of the target/animal medium that it encountered.
However, such factors are beyond my control, because the arrow never goes EXACTLY where it is aimed. Such accuracy may be possible with a bullet, but not consistently possible with an arrow.
Nonetheless, it shouldn't stop one from wondering about such things. I find the mental gymnastics interesting...
The other unexplained event was a bull elk I thought I'd shot too far back, but a rib turned the arrow up into the chest on a broadside shot and the elk was down in seconds within 60 yards. These are extreme cases but if you hunt for 45 years with the bow you will see some unusual things, sometimes working against and sometimes for you.
I think deflection is a lot more common on big game animals then targets because targets are consistently dense. With animals you have bones with different angles and thicknesses covering a pretty much denseless interior. We all know what a small little twig can do to an arrow. Also, animals move, as the arrow penetrates the hide it will start to slow down the arrow, and as the animal spins and turns, the arrow can come out of a completely different spot then where it would have had it remained stationary. You cannot predict which direction the animal will move, so aiming more forward or backward to account for any deflection is pointless.
I once shot a turkey from my blind at 15 yards. I was using the Buck Blaster broad head, and when the arrow penetrated the bird leaped into the air forward, spun around once or twice, then landed several yards away off to my left. I was hunting in the woods and after recovering the bird I looked for may arrow, I was looking a few yards beyond where the bird was standing when I shot. I couldn't find it, so I was walking back to the blind where my buddy was, who was filming me, and my arrow was 10 yards from the blind with the broadhead end facing the blind. Obviously not a deflection, but reiterates my point about animals moving upon impact.