# A Tale of 2 Broadheads



## xxxxxxBirdDogger (Mar 7, 2008)

Some of you might remember my mechanical broadhead experience from last year. The short recap is that I hit a front shoulder on a 2 point and the broadhead shattered. The deer escaped largely unscathed other than a little cut on its shoulder. I saw the deer the next day and he appeared none the worse for wear. He wasn't even limping, just a little dried up blood on his coat.

Fast forward to this year: same arrows, different broadheads. I went with the standard edition Slick Tricks in 100 grains, purchased at Top of Utah Archery. On opening day I shot a 2 point at 50 yards. I hit the same front shoulder. I heard the loud _CRACK!_ of arrow hitting bone. This time the arrow punched through the left shoulder, both lungs, and the right shoulder. I had a complete pass through and the deer died in mere seconds.

Note to self- stick with Slick Tricks.


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## JuddCT (Sep 7, 2007)

Pics? You gotta share.


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## USMARINEhuntinfool (Sep 15, 2007)

Yah come on man, no pics... Didn't happen


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## nickpan (May 6, 2008)

Yeah where are the pics?!

last deer i shot, deer jumped the string and hit him hard in the shoulder. thought i'd never find him but long story short passed throught the thick part of the shoulder blade and he went less than 100 yards.

That was a fixed blade head and it looked like new after it was done. Sold me on em.


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## xxxxxxBirdDogger (Mar 7, 2008)

> Yah come on man, no pics... Didn't happen


It must not have happened. Sorry guys, my phone is a pre-paid model from the year 2000 (no Internet, no camera). It was so hot that I just took the hide off right then and there and got the meat into game bags and off the mountain. This deer was nothing to take photos of anyway.



> That was a fixed blade head and it looked like new after it was done. Sold me on em.


Same here. I could go shoot another animal right now with mine. There's nothing even bent on the blades or vanes or anything.


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## xxxxxxBirdDogger (Mar 7, 2008)

This story would not be complete without the requisite tale of how hard I worked to harvest the animal. After carefully doing zero scouting, I showed up at my chosen spot the night before the hunt. I could have chosen to scout around for awhile then, but I was in charge of dinner so I hauled out a heavy grill and cooked a mix of sirloins and T-bones instead. I had forgotten the BBQ sauce and we had to eat steaks seasoned only with butter, salt, and pepper. That was rough.
I rode my four wheeler around the next morning with my six-year-old son on the back whining for a Snickers bar. Sadly, I only had one on board the machine and he wanted more. He would not touch the peanut butter Clif bar I brought him so his starvation was self-imposed. He's like Gandhi. 
Anyway, when we spotted this buck I ranged him at 57 whole yards from the trail. I stepped off the machine and painstakingly hiked 7 steps up the slope before I drew back and fired. The deer was not far from the trail as he stood, but wouldn't you know it...He ran after being shot! I had to drag this deer at least an additional 25 or 30 yards downhill to get to the machine.


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## stablebuck (Nov 22, 2007)

good for you! I'm glad you found a tool that works for you!


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## TopofUtahArcher (Sep 9, 2009)

That's a very funny story! Glad to hear you n the kid got a bucky. I hope you'll bring his horns into the shop so we can post the much valued "Man-card" photo of your buck. Congrats. Way to get a kid into hunting the right way - without making a big deal about score!


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## Bears Butt (Sep 12, 2007)

BirdDogger that was a wonderful story. My kind of story. None of this hiking 5 miles (1.3 miles really), camping under the stars, eating granola and trail mix for 6 days and finally being able to sneak within range of a 7X7 with cheaters and trash.
You could have told us all that and we would have somewhat believed you. But being the honest man you are you did the right thing.
We still want to see pictures even if it's only a 5 inch spike. Thanks for the story!


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## Fishracer (Mar 2, 2009)

Great story. Honesty, something that seems more rare around here lately. Congrats.


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## neverdrawn (Jan 3, 2009)

I'd say any animal harvested with a bow is worth a pic. Especially if you can sneak the lad you were hunting with into the photo with his dad. Good job getting it done!


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## TEX-O-BOB (Sep 12, 2007)

Good job on scoring a kill but,










:mrgreen:


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## xxxxxxBirdDogger (Mar 7, 2008)

Sorry, I didn't take any photos. I took the hide off the deer on the spot and took the meat straight to the butcher. When asked if I wanted the head back, I said no. It was a tiny buck still in the fuzz, just meat for the table and nothing to be too proud of. 

If I'd had any sense I would have taken a photo of my son next to the deer's head when we got back to camp. I could have cropped it out or something to make it look like something different than a chopped off head. I'll try to remember the camera next month for my wife's CWMU hunt.


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## clean pass through (Nov 26, 2007)

Bird Dogger

Just wanted to say I had the same experience with "Slick Tricks" this year as well. Sweet blades. Mine went through my buck so fast I didn't even think I hit the thing because I hit the dead fall in back of it and it sounded like I missed. (Hit a tree/deadfall before so I know what it sounds like.) Good job on the buck, sounded like you scouted as much as I did. 

By the way, my brother brittonpoint loves his pup he got from you! other than it being ugly........ I am real impressed with him as well.


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## xxxxxxBirdDogger (Mar 7, 2008)

> By the way, my brother brittonpoint loves his pup he got from you! other than it being ugly........ I am real impressed with him as well.


Ugly can be fixed with a trip to the beauty parlor! :mrgreen: 









Glad you got your buck! Give the ugly mutt at your brother's house a scratch under the ears for me.


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

BirdDogger said:


> This story would not be complete without the requisite tale of how hard I worked to harvest the animal. After carefully doing zero scouting, I showed up at my chosen spot the night before the hunt. I could have chosen to scout around for awhile then, but I was in charge of dinner so I hauled out a heavy grill and cooked a mix of sirloins and T-bones instead. I had forgotten the BBQ sauce and we had to eat steaks seasoned only with butter, salt, and pepper. That was rough.
> I rode my four wheeler around the next morning with my six-year-old son on the back whining for a Snickers bar. Sadly, I only had one on board the machine and he wanted more. He would not touch the peanut butter Clif bar I brought him so his starvation was self-imposed. He's like Gandhi.
> Anyway, when we spotted this buck I ranged him at 57 whole yards from the trail. I stepped off the machine and painstakingly hiked 7 steps up the slope before I drew back and fired. The deer was not far from the trail as he stood, but wouldn't you know it...He ran after being shot! I had to drag this deer at least an additional 25 or 30 yards downhill to get to the machine.


Cool; not the story so much, but how you tell it.

Congratulations, now proceed to the Recipe section.


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## bwhntr (Sep 12, 2007)

Congrats. Now, stop shooting them in the shoulder.


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## Huge29 (Sep 17, 2007)

I didn't think Gandhi would shoot a deer; what an amazing tale of coming to age, converting Gandhi to a carnivore is just the icing on the cake.


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## elk22hunter (Sep 7, 2007)

Haha bwhntr. That's what I was thinkin'. I have heard of every story out there from the story you just told to the complete opposite. People sometimes put too much of the success or the failure on the broadhead. "Hit em right, they usually die" is my theory.


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## bwhntr (Sep 12, 2007)

elk22hunter said:


> Haha bwhntr. That's what I was thinkin'. I have heard of every story out there from the story you just told to the complete opposite. People sometimes put too much of the success or the failure on the broadhead. "Hit em right, they usually die" is my theory.


  Hit them right and they WILL die no matter what you shoot them with. Broadheads are made to compensate for our lack of perfection. Look at the kill shots I sent you this season. Perfect shots...dead deer. 8)


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## xxxxxxBirdDogger (Mar 7, 2008)

A broadhead should not shatter when it hits a bone. I think everyone should agree on that point. It's pretty easy to shoot two inches to the left. People should be able to have faith in their broadhead. I learned that lesson the hard way from a shoddy head. 

No, my shot last year wasn't perfect, but the broadhead darn sure should have done something other than shatter upon impact. It's easy to blame the shooter in this situation. It's true that I didn't make a good shot either time. Slick Trick provided a head that did the job no matter what.


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## bwhntr (Sep 12, 2007)

Good luck on the next shot.


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## Birdbow (Sep 22, 2009)

Here's a good example of a fixed blade head doing it's job. Shot this little desert buck at 25 yards quartering away. I was using a homemade 45# longbow with really light fluted aluminum target arrows and a 125grn muzzy 4 blade phantom. Hit him in the ribs and it broke the off side shoulder on the way passing through. He fell down at the shot scrambled off about 15yrds on 3 legs and was dead within 2 minutes. Phantom and arrow were in perfect shape and went right back in the quiver.


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## stablebuck (Nov 22, 2007)

nice job! that's a feat alright!


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## colorcountrygunner (Oct 6, 2009)

BirdDogger said:


> This story would not be complete without the requisite tale of how hard I worked to harvest the animal. After carefully doing zero scouting, I showed up at my chosen spot the night before the hunt. I could have chosen to scout around for awhile then, but I was in charge of dinner so I hauled out a heavy grill and cooked a mix of sirloins and T-bones instead. *I had forgotten the BBQ sauce and we had to eat steaks* seasoned only with butter, salt, and pepper. That was rough.
> I rode my four wheeler around the next morning with my six-year-old son on the back whining for a Snickers bar. Sadly, I only had one on board the machine and he wanted more. He would not touch the peanut butter Clif bar I brought him so his starvation was self-imposed. He's like Gandhi.
> Anyway, when we spotted this buck I ranged him at 57 whole yards from the trail. I stepped off the machine and painstakingly hiked 7 steps up the slope before I drew back and fired. The deer was not far from the trail as he stood, but wouldn't you know it...He ran after being shot! I had to drag this deer at least an additional 25 or 30 yards downhill to get to the machine.


If you are eating steaks then you weren't out anything leaving the BBQ sauce at home.


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## Flyfishn247 (Oct 2, 2007)

I agree 100% CCG. Give me a nice steak medium rare with a little salt and I am in heaven. Never understood why anyone would want to cover up the taste of half cooked flesh with something like BBQ sauce.


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## xxxxxxBirdDogger (Mar 7, 2008)

Nice shootin', Birdbow! 

Flyfishn247 and colorcountrygunner, you two sound pretty hardcore to me! Remind me not to mess with either of you. Imagine...steak without BBQ sauce...I'll bet you hombres sleep on beds of nails, too. Probably cover your breakfast cereal with water.


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## Nalgi (Apr 16, 2010)

*STOP! you're making me cry!*

Oh the humanity...

Back to the BH issue. Ive always been a Magnus guy, always had good luck with pass though shots. I just got a call from a CHP friend of mine. CA archery opened last weekend and he decided to try some Rage BH. Hit the bear Quar. away, little arrow penitration, bear ran off, never found it. Bummer


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## elk22hunter (Sep 7, 2007)

I am happy that you are finding good success with slick trick's. I have not heard anything bad about them. I would love to shoot nothing but fixed blades if they flew as accurate as field points and hit in the exact same place as my field points. In the "Olden days", that was possible. Now shooting 331 fps, accuracy has to be an issue with the newer faster bows. 
Broadheads should NEVER explode or break when hitting a bone. When hitting a bone, that has to be considered a marginal shot. If your head stays together, your chances are much greater of having that head do maybe "enough" damage to get the job done, even on a marginal shot. The first year of Epek broadeheads, the cart was ahead of the horse a bit and the head would not always live through a hard bone or rock. That was the major thing on the docket to get that changed. Some people got upset that the head was changing and they had purchased the previous model and wanted the "new" model instead. We felt bad that they had a less than desired durable head. They still did the job but had a flaw. Growing pains are a problem with all broadhead companies in providing enough testing to come out with the final product on the first go around. There are MANY good broadheads out there and Slick Tricks is one of them. I shoot mechanicals for the VERY reason that they were created and that is for accuracy. Good luck to all, whether you shoot mechanical or Fixed blade. I just simply feel that broadheads in general get too much credit and too much failure mention when the reality is a poor shot or a good shot. I wonder how many times a fixed blade doesn't even get to do it's job because it missed. The hunter usually thinks they ginched the shot when the reality is that if they were shooting a field point, they may have hit perfectly. Hmmm. makes me wonder.


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