A little background: I have always shot fixed blade heads. Began with the original snuffers. I loved the 145 grain head. Shot it for many years with great success. Switched over to the snuffer ss. I killed many many animals with that head as well. For my own reasons, I switched to the slick trick magnum 125. I have had excellent results with this head.
I have watched Steven Ward, who is a sponsor here, post about his company, vortex.
I was amazed at the results out of this head. It performed flawlessly. And the blades Performed exactly how they’re supposed to. They didn’t break, one was bent very severely. But what that blade went through, I can’t blame it.
I shot this antelope from a ground blind at 53 yards. The antelope absolutely did move on the shot and that is critical in this story because when they move, a sizable amount of energy is taken away from the arrow.
This Broadhead cut his leg bone in half, went through the chest cavity, and was only stopped on the other side because of the shoulder blade. Normally, it would’ve certainly had enough energy to go through the shoulder blade, but the energy taken away not only by the animal moving, but by also cutting his leg bone in half.
This is the Broadhead if choice for me now. I only tell you guys my results because if you’re looking for a new head, particularly a mechanical, I highly recommend giving the vortex head a very serious look.
From what I can see there, one of your snuffers, hitting in the same place, would have missed the bone entirely and sailed on through.
It seems at least LIKELY that your shot deflected upward off of that bone; given the design of the head, it’s almost guaranteed.
Blood under the shoulder blade: that’s what happens when you don’t get an exit.
Blood loss in general - all animal’s die when they have lost enough blood, and it is generally the same % of total blood volume. The big variable is how hard the fight-or-flight response has kicked in. A big mechanical is virtually guaranteed to break at least two ribs on the way in and on the way out, slamming the animal very hard twice. That’s why mech-shot animals always blow out of there like they’ve been shot from a cannon. Plus, animals that are aware of something sticking into them (like an arrow) are basically getting the whip for their entire run.
Math Problem: If they bleed twice as fast and run off three times as fast, will your blood trail be easier or harder to follow? And what if much of that bleeding is internal due to failure to exit?
Durability: this was a Sage Goat. On a big deer or larger, do you think you would’ve broken that bone? Or would you have been better off sliding around it/missing it entirely? Because if you had hit it solidly with pretty much ANY head, the bone would have broken exactly the same. Question is, would the Broadhead have held up as well on a bigger animal? Or would the head have tripped over that bone, maybe penetrated just enough to break a rib or two and damage the near-side lung a bit, and allowed the animal to gimp off with a massive flesh wound and feed the coyotes?
One thing that wide-cut mech users seem not to want to think about is that anything that increases your chances of slicing through something vital EQUALLY increases your chances of hitting something NON-vital, which increases resistance, which increases the chances of failure to penetrate, which increases the adrenaline levels in the animal, which increases the distance and speed at which it’ll run, which thins out your blood trail. And makes for lower-quality meat on your table.
It didn’t deflect, it’s a proven head just the same as many many other fixed heads and mechanicals. Get over yourself. You’re not as brilliant as you think you are.
By the way, since you’re all knowing, what was my setup? Lbs, draw length, draw weight, arrow weight, etc...
And FWIW ... I don’t think I’m all that brilliant. I’m just a cranky, middle-aged guy who was trai e as a scientist and who understands how all that stuff he learned in school plays out in real life and how that can lead to misinterpretations of anecdotal evidence.
Yes, that Vortex SURE DID leave a great big hole and a lot of bloodshot to clean up. There; we agree. You happy now?
Good. Now explain to me how that goat is any more dead than it would have been if you had made the same hit with a standard 2-blade or one of those Snuffers that you used so successfully for so long.
Because if you think that that broadhead’s performance was “amazing” - as opposed to exactly what you ought to expect from a low heart/ double-lung hit that went slightly wrong - then you must have expected a whole lot less from THAT broadhead than you would expect from a standard design.... which does tend to make a rational person wonder why you’d have chosen that one in the first place.