Great idea. I don't need the arrows, but have pics I can contribute. These two pics go back to the 2006 season which was my first with a crossbow. I had taken a nice doe and a yearling in the morning hunt with my Exomax. At the time, the county I hunt had a daily limit of two much like the rest of Virginia. For the afternoon hunt, I decided to take my son out to see if we could get him a deer. He was 10 y/o at the time.
We had a couple young doe feeding around and he took his first shot at about 30 yards in front of the stand. Without a lighted nock, it was hard for me to confirm if it was a hit. I saw the arrow skip off the ground beyond the doe and hit a tree about 40 yards away. The doe took off like it was on fire. I recall him being confident that he hit it. We kept sitting because the other doe was still nearby. Eventually it was slipping up through a thicket about 30 yards away. As I was using my arm to move tree limbs away from the stand to provide clearance for the Exomax limbs, I was getting ready to whisper to wait until the doe is in a clear spot when TWANG. He sent the arrow down through the thicket.
The arrow hit multiple items before it stopped. The doe took off downhill but turned back towards us at 50 yards and all movement stopped within 10 seconds. The doe still had to be close. After about 15 minutes of no further movement, we got down and found the second doe he shot at down not 40 yards away. It appears that the arrow must have bounced off of one of the front legs leaving a cut across it and hit the doe in the neck. A little luck can go a long way.
When we recovered the first arrow he fired, it was covered in blood. The blood trail was very sparse, but we found that deer, a button buck, about 75 yards later. He had drilled it through both front shoulder blades which explains why it departed with a purpose and left very little blood.
Here he is giving the two thumbs up.
And here is a pic of after Mom pointed out that he has blood on his hands.
Since that day, he's been a bowhunter. His two largest bucks were both taken with archery gear.
My first day of harvests with an Excalibur was the top of the mountain. It's been all downhill ever since.
