Arrow did not penetrate rib cage... why?

[Huntindad]

I shot this buck about 3 weeks ago. I thought I hit the knuckle low & tight. guess not. Really want to set up a good video system. Oh well...

Here is a picture of it after my neighbor shot it this morning. Dropped like a rock. He hit shoulder/lungs.

I hit it high, but it did not go into the rib cage. Found the arrow about 15 yards from the shot with about 6 inches of arrow broke off.

Trying to figure out why it didn't penetrate the rib cage. I don't think it was that high, but who knows at this point. I shoulda poked a hole thru the wound this morning when I gutted it to see where it woulda come thru, but didn't.

I went real slow gutting it. Did not want to find the broadhead the hard way.

he was 18" inside with about 9.5 g2's and 9" g3's and pretty heavy antlers.

thoughts?

[Bowtech Lefty]

What broadhead were you using? If mechanical, maybe the blades didn't deploy.

[Booger74]

Which was your shot? What lbs of draw weight? What broad head? Great Buck.

[flywise]

Tough to tell
Probably should have unless it caught the bottom of the scapula

[Ron]

It's hard to diagnose why this would happen. There are a number of variables that could have taken place, even a touch of buck fever He is an awesome buck.

[meltingfeather]

as high as that shot is you could have run into a mess of bone at the spine.

why are you gutting your neighbor's (nice) deer?

[Reaper87]

Oh no. The dreaded void thread is coming. Lol

[Shane]

My guess is that he ducked and rolled and your arrow hit just above the spine or in the top part of the spine without getting into the spinal cord and paralyzing him. You probably held low for the knuckle shot, and the arrow probably went straight where you aimed it. The deer probably just moved before it got there.

Nice buck! So whose freezer is it going into if the neighbor killed him and you gutted him?

[Playa]

I think you hit the shoulder blade. Depending on how he was standing at the time, or moved at the shot, that blade will slide under the skin so that the posterior edge would be right at the entrance hole of that shot

[tbgascorer]

I'd be sick if I wounded that deer and then the neghbor shot. Nice buck.

[JSAPP]

Probably rolled away and the broad head slid up the ribs and hit spine. Should have been some harware inside him still. It happened on my sons buck this year. Found the broad head lodged against the spine when he we cleaned the buck two weeks later. Broke two ribs but didn't go into the body cavity. Very od. It was a fixed two blade german kinetics silver flame. His point of impact was even a little lower than yours and it was an 8 year old 200+ lb buck. You wouldn't think they could move like that.

[Patton]

Without knowing the angle of impact, I'd guess you hit scapula or a vertebrate and didn't damage his nerves.

If you cleaned him, what did you learn about it? Sounds like you observed the damage?

[Mr. Whiskers]

Do you shoot a Mathews by chance?

[pblaetz]

Hard quartering away and it's lodge up under the shoulder?

Can you skin him?

[txdukklr]

Do you shoot a Mathews by chance?

lol i'm curious why that would even matter, what a crazy question