It's muzzle loader season here but I have had terrible luck so far this year with a muzzle loader. So I decided to dust off my cheap little crossbow and give it a try. Another reason was because the spot was pretty much a bow only spot and is loaded with deer. I first started shooting arrows with a bow about 32 years ago and I have since transitioned to a crossbow when it became legal for everyone to use one here. Up until today I had never put a deer in the freezer with either compound or cross bow. I had a doe walk in front of me at first light about 20 yards away but I didn't like the shot so I held off hoping for a better one. About a half hour later another comes by at about 15 yards and with a dead broadside shot and I take it aiming dead center of her chest, missing over her back. I thought I might be adding another year to the dry spell for a moment. But 15 minutes later another doe walks up. A friend of mine has been telling me over and over the last few days to shoot for a neck shot. He kept saying if you miss, you miss. But if you hit one in the neck it will drop right there. So I decided to listen to him and aimed for the thickest part of the deer's neck and squeezed the trigger. I watched the arrow fly true and then heard the "THWACK" sound of the arrow hitting the deer at the base of the neck just above the shoulder. I was shooting an old Horton Steelforce 150 pound cross bow with 17 inch bolts tipped with TROPHY RIDGE HAMMERHEAD mechanical broad heads that have a 2 inch cutting diameter. After she got hit she did a u-turn and ran back the way she came. She made it about 20 yards and expired. Breaking a no less than 30 year dry spell of hunting with a string and stick. Here are a few pictures. Some may find them a little too graphic so I should warn you. Here is a picture of the broad head closed, The rubber band that holds it shut is missing. It goes where the notch is at about the center of the broad head.
Here is the deer. She weighed 70 pounds dressed.
Here's a better shot of the wound. There was no exit wound but the hole going in caused so much trauma she didn't go far.
Here is the deer. She weighed 70 pounds dressed.
Here's a better shot of the wound. There was no exit wound but the hole going in caused so much trauma she didn't go far.
