Here's my dilemma: I'm shooting a Mathews Switchback XT (@ ~65 lbs.) with Easton Axis 400 arrows & 100 gr. Spitfire broadheads. I've never gotten a pass-thru with this setup, and am beginning to get worried about it...Last week (opening afternoon) I stuck a doe @ about 10 yards (perfectly broadside), and didn't get a pass-thru. The shot looked good, but maybe just a little bit high (4" or so below her spine and perfect forward/back). My Dad and I tracked this deer for 150 yds. or so before we lost the blood trail, in which we only found 3 softball-size spots of blood. This makes the 3rd deer I've stuck in the last 3 years (same exact shot) with the same result (no deer, no arrow)...I understand that a mechanical broadhead slows the arrow down alot, but @ 8-10 yds. I feel like I should be getting a pass-thru! I've been told that I may be shooting too light of an arrow...I have too much respect and appreciation for the critters and sport for this to continue! Would greatly appreciate sensible thoughts/opinions...thanks!

Is your arrow flight good?

I shoot the same bow, but with a lower pull, mine is actually at 64. I shoot Gold Tip 5575 with 125 grain Slick Tricks. Pass thru shots have not been a problem for my set up since I have had my bow unless I had poor shot placement and hit a shoulder blade. I would consider another type of broadhead. Just my

It is not always about speed. Compare to getting hit with a small hammer very fast or big old sledge hammer and slower speed. Hit them hard and they will fall.

yeah...I fletch my own, and typically get good flight/spin...I tend to shoot pretty good groups

thanks, I couldn't agree with you more...whenever I got ready for some new arrows (a couple of years ago), I decided to get the light-weight/skinny Axis arrows (thinking I could pick up a little speed), but I'm afraid that might've been a bad move...I've killed/recovered 3 deer with them, but (like you said) I hit them hard but still no pass-thru with a pretty weak blood trail...I've been told that I need to swap to a heavier arrow to get a little more energy/penetration???

Try a fixed broadhead, a cut on impact would be even better..

If you are shooting the cheap spitfires with o-rings and a big chisel head from Walmart......they are junk. The chisel head is dull as heck and is the equivolent surface area of a field point. The Spitfire XP Pro's have a blade on the tip, no o-rings and cut a nice hole.

start shooting tricks or muzzys

Yrs ago the first deer I stuck with a mechanical broadhead straight under my tree hit shoulder bone and went nowhere.Went back to my muzzys and honestly broke everybone in a deers body at one time or another.With a single came bow and fall away rests they fly as good as any mechanical.Ill never change again.

400 should be heavy enough of arrow, but I would look at another broadhead. Just me. I am starting to put my faith into well made fixed blade heads. I have shot several deer with different mech heads that just plain fail to penetrate. Blood trials are always better with two holes.

Now that said I have harvested two does this year both with mech head. Shooting almost a 475 grain arrow. But now have swapped everything back to muzzy.

Good luck and let us know what works for you.

It sounds like to me the shot placement could be the culprit. I have had fewer pass throughs and recoveries on deer that were shot higher in the chest. The ribs are much thicker/stronger, you're getting high lung penetration which isn't always fatal, and penetration usually isn't as good. I'd bring those shots down just a bit.

ditto. Cut on impact broadheads buddy have never let me down.

I have pretty much the same set up only i shoot 70lbs and i do not use mechanicals.
I use the G5 100 grain 1 piece broadheads.

I shot a buck 40 yards and it went threw both lungs and the top if his heart. complete pass threw.

Maybe making a switch to fixed blades might make a differance.

Hope this helps you.
:-)

My wifes old set up was Browing Micro Eclipse shooting 38 lbs shooting 210 fps with a 350 grain arrow tipped with 125 grain Simmons landshark deer 22 yards impact on shoulder exit just behind the op shoulder complete pass through..Other deer 15 yards shoulder through shoulder complete pass through..Your arrow is loosing alot of energy to puncture the hide and having to open the blades..

i say heavier arrow. i shoot a switchback XT set at 70 lbs. rage 2 blade expandable. i have shot deer at 45 yds w/ complete pass through. before rage i've shot muzzy,slick trick,and vortex. all with complete pass thru's.

Get A Hoyt . I shoot a Hoyt Katera @ 28 62# with a 351 grain arrow with the spitfires and have killed 10 or 11 deer with them and had a pass thru everytime. Even when i had my switchback i shot 27/62 with a 348 arrow and spitfires and still got pass thrus. So really dont know what to tell you. My Katera right now has about 74# of KE.

A ten yard shot from an elevated position creates one hell of an angle to shoot a deer at!! You most likely got the back of her shoulder blade. My suggestions are..

1. Aim at the hair line on those close shots. They're going to react no matter how close/far they are. If you aim low, they'll duck into the shot and it will hit them above the hair line and below the shoulder blade shredding both lungs. You'll find the deer within 50 yards.

2. If you can, let the deer get 15-20 yards out to increase you angle at the body. This way, you have more body to shoot at thus increasing your margin of error.

Hmmm...I wouldn't buy my archery stuff from Walmart. Mfg's have to meet such stringent price points if their products are sold at W'mart that the mfg will sometimes cut corners. (Also, don't buy your John Deere mowers at H'Depot or Lowes as the same is true. Buy'em from a traditional dealer.)

Regarding machanicals...if you really want to stay with machicals, try the RAGE broadhead. It takes less energy to open than the older over the top opening type.

Also, you may be hitting the deer too high. Also, quality fixed heads? Well, you can't go wrong with'em!!!!!

I hate taking a shot at a deer that is closer than 10 yards, especially when I am 20-25' up a tree (which I usually am during bow season). At ten yards or less, you are shooting at the top of the deer, and not the side. Where the ribs come out from the spine, they are much thicker and stronger than they are halfway down the rib cage. And this is what you have to shoot through. Second, a deer is deeper than it is wide, and you have to drive the broadhead through more muscle (backstrap) than on a broadside shot. This muscle is a lot more dense than lung/heart/liver, and sucks up kinetic energy and penetration. A quartering away shot is even worse for penetration, as now not only do you have to drive the arrow through the thick muscle of the backstrap, then the thick bones of the upper ribs, but then you have to push it through the offside shoulder, leg bone, or sternum. This means it is much, much harder to get a pass through on a close deer than a deer broadside at 20-30 yards. Combine a shot without an exit hole and a high entrance hole on the top of the deers back and you'll have a weak blood trail. I have shot several deer from 3-10 yards from my tree, with both fixed blade (muzzy and thunderheads) and expandables (rage and gators). You can kill a deer with any of them. But, you'll have trouble getting a pass through with any of them, and the blood will be sparse. I hate really close shots. I will say that the front opening broadheads (like the spitfires) do rob you of more kinetic energy than do rear deploying mechanicals or fixed blade heads. But, even with the smallest diameter cut on contact fixed blades, it is tough to get a pass through on a close deer with a normal bow. And I won't turn this into another broadhead discussion, but I will say that I don't like the spitfires. I bought three of them when they came out, and I shot 2 of the three into does. Neither was a pass through, though both killed the deer and I found both less than 100 yards away. I never shot the third one, and it still sits in my broadhead box. You will get better penetration with a rear deploying mechnical or a cut on contact fixed blade than with the front opening mechanicals.