Shooting through brush

[Twanger]

Now I'm REALLY confused.

I've been saying for years that shooting through brush at deer with a bow is a HUGE no-no.

Lately we've been walking the Hunter's 3D course on a wednesday evening at the BCC IWLA (Poolesville) and in an attempt to learn something we've been shooting at long range, weird angles, and through brush. I'm not talking about sapling here, just leaves and thin twigs, tops of tall grasses and bushes. So far I am AMAZED at how well arrows are punching through this stuff and hitting the kill zone, even with the target well beyond. For example I had a leafy window at 20 yds on a 40yd elk shot and punched it right through, hitting the 8-ring on the bull. The arrow clearly contacted the brush on it's way through. Two weeks ago I would have NEVER believed this would work with such high probability.

So the boyz and I are having a little debate.
I'm saying that you might get away with this alot more often with field-points, but with broadheads your deflection rate will go WAY up. Some of the guys are saying that the broadheads will deflect less because they will cut through obstructions. I call BS on that.

What do you thinK?

[freedomrules3]

I'm thinking the same way that you are Walt. we all now that field points are not as sensitive as broadheads. if the arrow is spinning any at all and the broadhead hits something, it may cut through but its gonna deflect much more than a field point will.

looks like you may have to take a broadhead or 2 with ya next time and take 2 shots from the same spot, one fp and one bh and see how close they hit the target.

we have all at one time or another tried shooting a deer through brush of sorts. my experience with it is .. not even close . ussually i get the old pinball arrow if i try. i no longer even try it . a big reason why i didnt shoot atv " old whitebrow" in Ohio last fall. it may work now and again but i would say its a small percentage.

[Twanger]

Thanks Rick.
On a different subject, I'm amazed at how far arrows can go when deflected a little.
We had a little softball sized pumpkin in a plowed field were were shooting at. One of the shooters had an arrow skip off it and rocket up at a 15-degree angle. It went over the tree-line 80 yards away and into the next field, moving fast, fast, fast. We never found it. It was LONG GONE. Pretty scary.

[ncboman]

I've killed a couple of deer shooting thru a few soybeans in the way but I remember a buck that left me with a very bad taste for a long time.

It's a judgement call I hate to make.

[Twanger]

"It's a judgement call I hate to make."

Me too.
You probably remember that I shot down through the leaves at a nice buck last season and rolled him, but never found him. Looked for two days. No blood.

The other big problem with an obstructed view is really nailing down where the kill-zone is.