Did you hit the off humerus?

If so, a little tip-curl might not be unforgivable?

But if the blades were badly dulled without hitting dirt, that seems like a problem…

200 yard run ,bent tip? Somethings not right.

Congratulatins on the buck!! I was kinda skeptical of those heads myself...thanks for the real life experience with them.

Is this the only deer you have shoot one with?

Did you take entry/exit pics of the ribcage? Pictures of broadhead?

I guess I’m not entirely clear on what you mean by “mid ribcage” and “decimation” of the lungs.

From the sound of it, I gather that you somehow missed any really sizable blood vessels (which can certainly happen), and the frontal lobes of the lungs probably didn’t collapse, allowing the deer to stay on its feet a lot longer.

How sharp were the blades after the fact?

Honestly, I would never blame anyone for abandoning a particular head after a bad experience with it, but it’s also entirely possible that this was just one of those hits were nothing goes according to the playbook. You definitely have to have faith in your set up; but it’s not always appropriate to fault the equipment, either.

For example, if the head were to have hit with blades parallel to (and in the middle of) a given rib, then both blades would be expected to lose some sharpness while passing through that bone. That’s fair. And rib bones themselves are proportioned pretty much like 2”X6” or 2”x8”s - they’re a lot “thicker” from some angles than others.

So maybe the head is legitimately at fault or maybe it was the opposite of a winning lottery ticket. SOOOOO hard to know. But I, for one, would be delighted to know every bit of additional detail that you can provide.

And just to be clear, I don’t pretend to know what happened here… I’m just wondering what can be learned.

A quality head definitely shouldn’t curl on a rib of a deer, I wouldn’t trust them now but, that’s just my opinion. It seems from your account of what happened it almost had to curl on impact which led to the poor penetration.

Impact is all that could have made It curl.

No broadhead should curl on a deer. They just aren't that heavy boned regardless of where they are from.

"I sharpened these broadheads to hair shaving sharp"

That fine and edge extended to the point may have reduced the point to bendable thickness. What angle of edge did you make for the blade?

I look at this event as a victory!! You learned something about your gear in a real world test that went wrong, and you still got your deer!! That's great, usually the second part of the previous sentence doesn't happen. Congratulations on a successful hunt!

And if it was me I would NEVER use that broadhead again because that's just my personality. I can't stand that uneasy feeling of doubting my equipment, my setup or my skills, makes the whole hunt a stress instead of an enjoyable experience.

ACE -and you good to go

This photo isn't mine but I did something eerily similar many years ago and the head stayed intact, just like in this photo. One of those ill-advised straight down shots. That deer went right down, but bawled like a scalded calf. Last time I ever took a shot like that. Oh yes, it was a fragile old Bear Razorhead, that guys nowadays seem to think are somehow not 'sturdy' enough for plain old deer. Too many good old solid heads that still do the job to look for new and shiny; well, for me anyway. Glad you found him Stix.

I've only killed 2 deer with those heads and had excellent results but as stated above, if you're not 100% confident in your equipment don't use it.

Long before the introduction of "premium" broadheads to the archery hunting market lots of us did our own broadhead testing.

At my house we used an old Duster that was way down in the pasture below the house. We learned quickly which heads would and wouldn't shoot through the doors and which ones would and wouldn't be damaged in doing so. It was pretty surprising how many heads that are seen in a poor light today did fine in that test, including those with replaceable blades. And how many that are praised now won't come through the test in any better condition than the older ones.

Stix,

I'm thinking that the angle of the grind reduced the thickness at the point that permitted the curl. A wider angle edge is stiffer because it is a shorter distance to the body of the blade. Hollow ground is a nice edge for a slice, but usually doesn't do well to a purpendicular blow.

Very nice buck, congratulations.

How much pressure would you have to apply and how much time would it take to thin the steel to the point of failure using a manual pull through sharpener?

That maybe the case but it seems unlikely to me.

Nice Buck, haven’t seen many mulies on the forum this year.

I use the 175 grain version and I have been very happy with the results, my arrows fly straight, the broadhead is hair popping sharp using the RADA and it doesn't show any weakness in the tip or anywhere else. For the price and the performance, it's a winner in my book.

Are they lifetime guarantee? Might get a free replacement.

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