Lee, we were at our local bow shop the week before we left. They saw her arrows and the 200 grain field points she was shooting at their indoor range. They rolled their eyes and asked me about them. They are great guys and do all of our bow work, but I knew from previous conversations that they weren't believers in heavy arrows with high FOC. That's okay, to each their own. I am a believer and wanted to make sure my daughter had the best equipment that I could afford and I knew at 50 lbs of draw weight, she'd need all the help she could get. She was in Alaska last May, I wasn't a believer then, and her arrows weighed around 400 grains with a 12% FOC. Her broadhead was a 125 grain 4 blade Slick Trick. A great broadhead without a doubt and I killed my bear with one on that trip. But her bear, at the last second, pulled his front leg back and into the path of her arrow. The arrow struck the front leg bone and the bear ran off with the arrow. I bet that arrow didn't penetrate to the insert, probably fell out a few minutes later. We found no blood, nothing. Got it all on video, clear as day what happened. She was sick to her stomach and I couldn't get her to shoot her bow again for another nine months. She ended shooting her bear two days later with a rifle. I swore I'd do my best to prevent a repeat of that event should she ever pick up the bow again. Now I know, we don't aim for the leg. She was 16 at the time, inexperienced, and sometimes, s+^t happens to all of us. It happened. Fast forward to our prepping for Africa. I reached out to a man here in San Antonio that sells GrizzlyStik arrows/broadheads. He was awesome and set her up with the arrows. GrizzlyStik broadheads were a bit pricey and I'm not a fan of aluminum ferrules, so I went the solid steel Cutthroat heads. I researched that single bevel design and became a believer.
Her kudu was at 24 yards, quartering away from her. Arrow hit several inches behind the last rib on the left side and exited out the front right shoulder. He trotted 20 yards and stopped momentarily before walking into the brush. He stopped another 50 yards away and before she could get another arrow in him, brush was thick, he went down.
The impala, at 20 yards, quartering too her. Arrow hit in the right front shoulder, exited behind the left shoulder. Down in 15 yards.
The warthog, well, you saw that shot. He ran maybe 100 yards and we found him following the blood trail.
The wildebeest. A bit of confusion, blind had tricky windows. PH was ranging one animal, told her 2o yards, she could only see one animal, and it wasn't the same one. It was probably closer to 30 yards. Arrow was low and forward, hitting the front right leg. Same as the bear last May. This time, a different result. Arrow split the bone and still got 10 inches of penetration. Bloodtrail was easy to follow, 75-100 yards, downed wildebeest.
Am I believer in heavy arrows, single bevel heads, and high FOC? You bet, I drink the cool-aid.
