Not a good way to start....

I finally got up the courage to take my bow out for the first time. Yesterday morning I had a nice axis buck show up standing a whole 17 yards out perfectly broadside. I thought "wow what a first bow kill opportunity!".

Well I took my time and got lined up on him, he was relaxed and didn't know I was there. When I felt comfortable I let one fly and heard what I thought was a solid hit. He trotted about 100 yards away from me and he laid down. Another "wow this is awesome, first kill and he is in plain sight" kind of thought. Boy was I wrong! He stayed on the ground for about 5 minutes before getting up and coming back to and past me about another 100 yards in the opposite direction. He then bedded down again and I just knew that would be it. Nope, another 10 minutes, me not making a sound or moving, he got up and walked into the river and around a bend where I lost sight of him.

I had a near pass through, only the fletching had not come through. As I was watching him walk away I noticed that I hit him about 4 inches too far back in the gut.

I went back later yesterday evening to track him and even had a buddy with two dogs come in to help. Lo and behold, we lost the trail and the rivers edge and never found another trail anywhere.

So my fist bow shot ends up being a gut shot deer that I watch walk calmly out of sight down the river. Talk about make a man sick to his stomach for the past 24 hours!!

That's how mine was too. All you can do is learn from your mistakes and do better next time.

What type of Brodhead were you using

100 gr Carbon Express Quad Pro.

Save those for the pigs and get you some NAP kill zone for deer, axis, fallow etc.. You will not be disappointed... I'm not selling these just wanting to help a fellow bow hunter... Even with that kind of shot the wound would be to massive for it to live that long...

From what I hear Axis organs are further forward than a WT and with a bow you almost have to have a quartering away shot to hit good organs.

They sit right dead with the shoulders and the lungs don't stick out much

Right almost in between the shoulders. I have seen axis gut shot and recovered but it was with a wide cut on contact broad head like a Muzzy Phantom.

Sorry Bro, ... Frankly I wouldn't use those broad heads on anything other than small game like rabbits or squirrels they are just way too small diameter broad head to use on axis or whitetail.

Lesson learned on my part. I wasn't going to use the Quads but I had ordered some replacement blades for my Slick Trick standards but left the things at home. I will be sure to never leave my house without them again.

While I am taking in all of this advice I might as well ask.

I want to go to a heavier arrow as well and was thinking about the Carbon Express Piledrivers. Anyone know about them?

Draw length is 28.5" shooting 60#.

If know you hit it in the gut, don't trail it for at the very least 18 hours, usually they bed down and will be too sore to move after some time. Usually you will find no blood because the intestines fill the entry and exit holes. So your best bet is to leave them overnight and hope the yotes don't get them, then go on the search. If you find them they are usually still alive but too stiff to move and you have to put them down manually. It's sad, but it happens and that's the best way I have found to go about recovering them.

From what I have seen of the Carbon Express BH's I was underwhelmed with their quality. I bought some of the Torid's at Walmart for about 12.00 a couple of years ago, they looked good in the package but they were junk. Poor quality heads often don't properly align with your arrow and if that happens you are going to miss your spot every time.

I use the piledrivers and have had pass throughs on pigs at 60 yards and blew through a 250lb boars opposite shoulder at 30 pairing them up with 100from g5 strikers
also draw length is 29.5 at 62# Martin exile bow