First recurve deer, zero blood, thoughts?

[stash59]

1. You had an animal down in 70 yards. You can’t ask for much better than that using archery equipment.

2. You hit her a shade high and she very well may have dropped ever so much on the shot which you can’t control. Longer fill time on the chest cavity with a higher hit. Remember #1

3. It’s early season and everything is still tall and green. Blood is very tough to find when everything is tall and green. Compound that when you’re in a waist high bean field that is still green.

4. You wouldn’t have even worried about a blood trail had you saw her drop. But you were on the ground and that’s a common disadvantage of ground hunting is limited sight.

Conclusion: Bad luck considering you could not see her fall over in a bean field after an explosion of deer upon the shot. Shoot to kill. Don’t shoot for blood trails. Congrats on your first trad deer! Here’s a good video on blood trails.

https://youtu.be/MPofymZs7j0

Learned a few new things from the video. Thanx for sharing!!!

And yes...... congrats Sam. Should give you alot of confidence when you shoot your buck!!!

[Hilts]

Aside from all that's been mentioned already, an additional factor may be that you shot her from the ground. Your exit is the same height as the entry when shooting at ground level. It's one small disadvantage from stand hunting where the exit is generally lower, which will help with blood hitting the ground sooner.

[cspot]

First Congrats on the Deer!

My experience with blood trails is there is I have seen both extremes on boiler room shots and with many different broadheads. Heck I have seen double lung hit deer shot with a rifle on snow that didn't bleed for further than that.. It all depends on how the tissue, fat, organs etc either block or do not block that hole(s). 70 yards isn't that far and if the deer ran full out to get there you are only talking a few seconds.

[SamPotter]

1. You had an animal down in 70 yards. You can’t ask for much better than that using archery equipment.

2. You hit her a shade high and she very well may have dropped ever so much on the shot which you can’t control. Longer fill time on the chest cavity with a higher hit. Remember #1

3. It’s early season and everything is still tall and green. Blood is very tough to find when everything is tall and green. Compound that when you’re in a waist high bean field that is still green.

4. You wouldn’t have even worried about a blood trail had you saw her drop. But you were on the ground and that’s a common disadvantage of ground hunting is limited sight.

Conclusion: Bad luck considering you could not see her fall over in a bean field after an explosion of deer upon the shot. Shoot to kill. Don’t shoot for blood trails. Congrats on your first trad deer! Here’s a good video on blood trails.

https://youtu.be/MPofymZs7j0

Learned a few new things from the video. Thanx for sharing!!!

And yes...... congrats Sam. Should give you alot of confidence when you shoot your buck!!!

Thanks Stash and others- that’s the plan, tip over a couple does to calm the nerves and build confidence...

[Ack]

Congrats on the receive doe!

As far as the broadhead, Stingers have always been notorious for weak blood trails, but what the guys are saying about direction of the cut makes sense. Use a three blade or something with bleeders and the trail should be better.

[john1984]

[SamPotter]

Yes it can happen with 2 blades. I shoot Simmons sharks and have never had it happen like I did with straight edge 2 blades.

Which particular ones Dave? I’ve heard the tree sharks mentioned on The Push, but they sure seem like they could have a planing issue being so wide.

[Huntress13]

The benefit of the two blade is penetration, especially for lower poundage / lower energy setups. Once you start adding additional blades, you introduce more friction to slow down the arrow and potentially prevent pass through.

So I would think through changing your BH if you aren't shooting a high energy setup. If it's borderline, I would err on the side of preserving as much energy as possible.

[Redman232]

The first recurve kill I got was with a 2 blade Zwickey. I can’t remember if it came as a single bevel head or I sharpened it to be that way after reading. Regardless, I got an S shaped entry and exit with good blood. If you haven’t watch some Ranch Fairy videos, he has some great No BS information on arrows, broadheads and blood trails.

[DaveT1963]

Yes it can happen with 2 blades. I shoot Simmons sharks and have never had it happen like I did with straight edge 2 blades.

Which particular ones Dave? I’ve heard the tree sharks mentioned on The Push, but they sure seem like they could have a planing issue being so wide.

165 landshark, never had a problem with planning

[milkweed-militia]

Congrats on the deer Sam! Awesome being on the ground and that close.


I've had similar luck with two blades too. The deer died within 60 yards of me and the hit was great but the blood was terrible. I've been using 3-blades for a while now and have had much better results.

[moog5050]

Congrats on the trad kill Sam! I shot 2 blades with the recurve for the first few years when I switched to trad. They were very sharp (German kinetics). Regardless, there is no doubt that the trails were not what I was accustomed too coming from a compound with mechanicals. But they generally were not horrible either - just smaller spots. Usually it took a bit longer for the bleeding to really start so the first 20-30yds were the most difficult. That's where watching the deer run helped. I would try them again. It may have just been a fluke. I did start with 3 blades last year. They work fine too and do add some cutting surface. I also think a green bean field is not the best to track in. Again congrats!

[moog5050]

By the way, I find the VPA 3 blade shoot really well as long as your bow is well tuned.

[Boogieman1]

Believe the major player is high lung from the ground. Takes awhile for the lungs to fill up to the hole. Being elevated sometimes helps just by the angle. I'm not a big believer in a certain brand of broadhead producing more blood than another for whitetails. I've had some gushers and some spotters from the same head. I choose my heads based on price, longevity, and ease of sharpening. Judging by u zippen through one and a short death run the head isn't a problem. Congrats on a fine kill

[Uncle Lou]

Congrats Sam, and the video was worth the watch for the information on blood trail generation.