Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk Aldeer Bow Talk little help for a new bow hunter..

True story worked with a guy when I lived in Louisiana and hunted Mississippi that used them. I think he called them pods. He said he used them and I think he got them from the vet. It was just a muscle relaxer if I remember correctly.

Yep, it's legal in Mississippi. The drug is Anectine. It is a potent muscle relaxant used primarily as a supplemental agent in anesthesiology during surgery. Hoofed animals are 1000 times more sensitive to it than humans. It takes 60 milligrams to kill a human adult and less than 1 milligram to kill a deer.

I used to be skeptical of mechanicals as well. I figured that there was enough that could go wrong bow hunting without the possibility of a blade not opening. I broke down and bought a set of 125 grain rage 2 blades and haven't looked back! With the way they open there is really no chance they won't deploy and they have a chisel tip just like the old muzzys.

My concern is not them not opening but limited penetration if a shot goes wrong and hits bone.

I can definetly see where you could be concerned about that and trust me I get your side of the argument. I don't worry too much with that because my arrow is heavy enough already with my draw length. I don't want to sway you either way but I know that the Rage is definetly a killer and they fly a ton better than a fixed IMO.

I realize a lot of guys shoot mechanicals because they fly like a field point. I shoot recurves and longbows and am positively anal about tuning. The broadheads I shoot will perfectly group with field points.

I do a lot of bareshaft tuning and have seen trad guys that didn't know about proper tuning strip their feathers and find out they were shooting a shaft way out of tune. I've seen them so bad that bareshafts would hit a bag sideways at 10 yards yet they looked fairly good with feathers. After we got these guys shooting the correct shafts they suddenly found their arrows penetrating a lot farther in their targets.

I often wonder if compound guys are way out of tune with their arrows, especially if they feel the need to shoot mechanicals just because they shoot so much better. I think if the shafts were tuned to the bow they wouldn't have the problem of broads impacting differently than field points, except for a few broadheads that just don't fly well. I wonder if the combination of a poorly tuned shaft, and a mechanical which requires more force to penetrate well, cause a disaster on an animal.

I didn't realize you shot Traditional... If I were in your shoes then I would shoot a fixed as well. I get what your saying about properly tuned arrows, I paper tune my bow every year so I'm confident that it is tuned to the best of my ability.

There are a lot of bow hunters I've ran across over the years that assume if they can hit a pie plate at 20 yards then they are good... they are usually the ones that don't shoot their rifles every year as well.

Haven't shot compounds in about 15 years. Even if I did, I wouldn't shoot a mechanical unless it could bust a leg bone and still get penetration. On the other hand, with my old compound , I could shoot quarters to about 40 yards, so if everything went perfectly, I'm sure a mechanical would leave a good sized hole. It's the imperfect that I worry about, especially considering how easily an arrow is deflected by even a small branch, you didn't see.

I shot one just like you several years ago second day of bow season. I hit back because he was quartering away and I shot further back than I had intendend. Arrow sticking halfway out as he ran off. Good dark liver blood trail for 75yds until I found the arrow. Then nothing. Searched for 8hrs and then the next time I came down but never found him. I just knew he was dead but never found another sign of him until mid january. He came walking by me in my climber. After I shot him and walked up on him I thought this was him. He didnt walk funny or look injured in any way. Once I skinned him he had a perfect circle in the fat where I had hit him. He was alive and well. That may be what happened to yours.