hi guys Dan Pickar here with Eastmans' Bow Hunting Journal today we are gonna
look at shot placement on big-game animals I think we can all agree that a
slightly quartering away or a quartering away shot could perhaps be the best
angle that bow hunter could ask for with the hopes of driving that arrow up into
the far shoulder and penetrating both lungs if not the heart in this video
we're gonna analyze what has worked for me what I've seen over the years
anatomy of elk bears and we'll look at specific scenarios of what has worked
and what has exactly happened during some of the shots I've taken over the
years
first this is a high country deer hunt and this buck spooks out to 50 yards I
used a little Kentucky windage and I shot now I held down on his brisket with
the anticipation that he's gonna duck down and jump the string since he was
alert right in the heart and you can see that's exactly what happened right when
I shot that that buck heard that bow go off and he dipped down but you can see
that arrow was going right down for his elbow and he ducked down and was taken
off and that's where I hit him right through the elbow now luckily that was a
heart shot and that deer went 80 yards and piled-up heart shots always win I
also like that because that's a slightly quarter in a way shot too that's a high
odds shot no next we have a situation are sneaking up on this axis buck I was
61 yards he had no idea was there so my aiming point if you look is offside
front shoulder so that's really not that far in front of the hip on the near side
but I want to bury that arrow into the far shoulder so I take my time and I
settle and I hit you can see very poor penetration that buck runs off of that
arrow sticking far out of them you can tell that this buck he dropped he he
ducked a string he heard the Bow off and that broad head hit him right in the
scapula right in that shoulder blade and you can see it kind of kicked down and
that broad head rode up on the scapula now that shot was a little further right
than what I would have wanted it to be so if I was about four inches to the
left that would been a dead buck for sure that goose goes to show you what a
game of inches it is that we're playing out there and how imperative it is to
hit our mark every time we're gonna go right into a Wyoming elk hunt I spent 45
minutes at the base of this hill watching these cows feed and eventually
I got my opportunity and this bull fed my shooting lane where I had rehearsed
the shot as he fed through I gave him a little cow call and he's slightly
quartering away this is a nice angle for shooting an elk but you can see on the
impact I hit him a little far back I was about five or six inches in front of
that hip line on the near side but that arrow when all the way through zipped
right through actually didn't even find the arrow the exit was about mid body
you can see the exit there this right here is the expandable cut and then this
little notch right here is the cut on contact cut so big holes elk don't go
far it's a quick kill that's exactly what we're looking for
this elk went sixty yards from where I shot him and he died within eyesight and
this is the six elk that that's happened with this broad head and that's why I
like this broad head I've never been a fan of expandables for elk I just don't
like it but I like the hybrid got an inch fixed and then you have that
expandable I'm shooting a setup I have 91 foot-pounds of kinetic energy for
reference there that's enough to kill a cape buffalo absolutely no reason I
shouldn't be shooting a big head like this I'll shoot a head like this at elk
with that big cut any day over a completely fixed head these have just
proven to me over the years to kill so much faster alright guys here's the exit
you can see that in that rib meat I left it there so you can see I missed a rib
on the exit and check out that hole so you can see this muscle it's really thin
it has a lot of fibers criss-crossing that's the diaphragm this hole in the
diaphragm is like the size of a golf ball so that shot went through the
stomach up forward through the liver which lays right underneath the
diaphragm it's right here and this popped the diaphragm now this
is a huge hole one that diaphragm pops it's game over it deflates the
chest cavity and you can see let's take a look at this lobe here get this rib
out be careful with these bones that was kind of dumb because you can get cut on
these sharp bones so just be careful look at this see that so that's the
grave digger hole right there that was laying right on the diaphragm so it's
the back of the lung gotta love that quarter in we shot at you you're better
off to be back then you are forward and it did its job so there you go there's
your Anatomy you can see the chest is full of blood here's the heart right
here just laying right on top of the brisket obviously it's blood but big old
long deflated so that was not long when it was inflated was back all the way up
there you still kind of see that's just the tail of the lung so that's one long
but that body cavity is what saved it so okay so that was a good example of a
quartering away shot on that Wyoming Bull let's jump in to my other Wyoming
Bull a few years ago he came over the ridge bugling in my face at nine yards
and I didn't really waste any time shooting him you can see that bull is
pretty quartering towards now hindsight I would and should have waited for that
bull to walk down to me a little more to get a better angle on him I got a
little excited but I picked my spot and I hit him a little high as you can see
but I went through that lobe of the lung and it buried into the far back hip so
it went through the lung crisscross the diaphragm through the guts and into the
hip with that gravedigger broad head and most guys might not think that's a good
shot but once again you crisscross that diaphragm that bull isn't
go anywhere as long as you can hold tight to the shoulder and your entrance
is tight to the shoulder you're gonna get the same result shooting that animal
quartering towards as you would if that bull was quartering away from you
so never overlook that quartering towards shot as long as you can keep it
tight to his shoulder and I watched that bull die within eyesight maybe not even
90 yards away it wasn't that far so here's another good example this is four
years ago I called this bull in and he came up to 20 yards and I gave him a
little whistle and he's slightly quartering towards now I sent this shot
a little high it was a little above center but in reality not very far above
Center but it still hit that lobe of the lung and that arrow exited mid body or
just in front of the hip on the far side and I actually never found that arrow
that arrow zipped right through and that's what the grave digger broadheads
once again and that was a victory 350 VAP I believe I think that hunting arrow
is 385 grains maybe that's a really light arrow but as you can see if you
don't hit any major bones it's still going to cut through an elk like a hot
knife through butter now let's move right into this antelope hunt this is in
2017 in Wyoming and I believe this buck was somewhere 73 yards 71 yards
something like that and he's quartering towards me once again and I'm shooting
the Night Fury extreme on this antelope and this is a two blade expandable two
and a quarter inch cut so this is a giant cut broad head and with antelope I
just want to create the biggest wound the biggest hole that I can possibly
create because number one they're thin-skinned they're light boned and
they are pretty weeks and so my goal with an antelope just like it is with a
bear I like to shoot a big cut diameter broad head and create as much
devastation as I possibly can
now there's a lot of different schools of thought on shooting an animal frontal
I think this is probably the most dangerous angle if you don't know what
you're doing or if you're shooting from a far distance my rule for me personally
if I'm going to shoot a frontal shot on an oak or anything smaller is 20 yards
or less and I have plenty of time the kill zone is very small and if that
animal especially an elk moves a little bit and you're off by just 2 inches you
can go from a clean kill to a disastrous wound and unrecovered so I really want
to caution you to be very careful when you're shooting a frontal shot on an
animal and in my book I keep it 20 yards maybe 15 yards or less because it's just
too risky this next shot is a mule deer laying
down I've never shot an animal laying down and I decided to try it in this
scenario because I felt I had a good exposure of his vitals kind of
quartering or quartering away from me and the ability to drive that arrow up
into his body cavity once again I was shooting the Night Fury extreme on this
buck two and a quarter inch cut this is a big cut and I felt confident that I
could make a clean kill but the kicker is your kill zone is probably the size
of a softball maybe a little bit bigger and this buck was 40 yards and I had all
the time in the world to make a shot and it looks I mean you can't really even
tell what the hit was like other than I hit him where I wanted to at normal
motion but as we slow it down you can see it just over 40 yards this buck had
already started to move and get up before the arrow actually impacted him I
gave him some time and I walked down there and he was piled up but lots of
damage that two and a quarter inch cut I don't think I would take this shot
again because this buck moved so much before that arrow even got there just a
risky deal I just I don't like that at all
it worked out for me but it could easily have gone the other way here's kind of
another interesting situation this is a Wyoming bull from 2016
he stopped behind this juniper and I had this little notch - right - behind his
shoulder where his kill zone is I took my time and I shot I think this was 35
yards and you can see arrow flight was perfect but I nicked that juniper you
can actually see the juniper twig blast off the juniper where I actually nicked
it with the broad head that Bull was right behind the juniper so that that
broad head didn't open it didn't cause any deflection or anything like that I
kind of got lucky I wasn't aiming to shoot the juniper but I was off by much
more could have lost that bull but as you can see as that bull runs away that
arrow it is placed perfectly behind the elbow about four inches behind the
crease but I only got half penetration and what happened as I shot this bull
with a grave digger once again and the expandable portion of the blades stopped
on the far ribs I split the ribs perfectly on the far side and that arrow
did not pass through it now let's go right into my British Columbia moose
this bull came in 214 yards and he stood there for a minute and thirty Seconds
frontal obviously I don't have a shot I'm drawn and hid the nose of that moose
is over his vitals B so a frontal isn't even an option otherwise I probably
would have taken a frontal shot if this was a bull elk or something because this
is 14 yards dead still and I had plenty of time to make my shot so I knew ahead
of time that my only shot was gonna be when this bull turned to go and luckily
it kind of was like a slow-motion wheel he turned really slow and it kind of
gave me the heads-up that I needed and slipping it in behind a rib and driving
that arrow forward and you can see that's exactly what happened at first I
was a little nervous by this shot because it was far back but once again
I'm shooting a 500 grain arrow and I shot him with a 125 grave digger hit him
just in front of the last rib and it was poking out the other side about the
sixth rib back and so it's a it's a far back hit it's liver diaphragm back lungs
but even with that shot and not that arrow not passing through this bull when
about 200 yards left good blood and I recovered him easily