Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Bowhunting Cutting diameter for crossbow broad heads?

Recently started hunting with a crossbow. I have a Excalibur x-bow and and looking to get some broad heads. Are the Bolt Cutter 150 grain fine for deer? A little searching says that some folks think the 1 1/16 inch cutting diameter is too small and will result in lost game. I see some of the mechanical broad heads are sometimes over 2 inches in cutting diameter. Is it a big deal or is good placement the key? Thanks.

As with bullets, arrow placement is all important. Check your local laws. Here there are minimum size requirements.
I know a bear hunter who uses a bow, and those tips are just larger than the arrow shaft (illegal for deer) but larger does not penetrate as far.
Larger heads make a larger hole, and do more damage at shallower depths, so it is a trade off.
I use mechanicals nothing fancy, silver strikes, with about 1&1/2 dia. Cut, i think. Same on my bow and crossbow.

Edit: http://www.archerytalk.com/vb/showthread.php?t=774418#/topics/774418?_k=f7j0of

These guys are discussing silver strike tips.

Thanks for the information. I always figured that shot placement was number one, whether firearm or arrow. I didn't think that a few 16s of an inch would be a big difference but as I said, the crossbow stuff is new to me

The big heads are in case you make a bad shot, like a larger diameter bullet, sometimes just a bit matters.

Like a local gal this morning missed an intersection and scratched the main gas line into town with her car, it cracked and leaked. literally I think 1 or 2 inches right she'd have broken it totally while dragging sparks. Poof.

A bigger head never hurts. But I've never actually seen a shot that would have made it for that, or not made it for narrow. Vice Versa.

First thing first, learn where it needs to go and then put it there.

I've never lost a single animal crossbow wise with 1 and 1/8 slick tricks....

I rarely shot anything larger than 1.25 with a bow....

Quit counting big game kills on deer at over 100 something with a bow probably around 2003 or so...realized how stupid keeping count really was.

With an old 45 lb compound and the silver strikes, i get one hole, boilerroom shots, no problem. With a 150lb crossbow, same head, i get full pass through as if the deer wasn't there. (Two holes =max bloodtrail with no plugs in the holes.)
Smaller heads have less drag but cut less.

Placement - the head has to get into the vitals to cut, how big of head doesn't help with poor shot placements, and not waiting for the right angle.

JMHO, I see a number of hunters locally using the wide-cut heads in lieu of spending a few extra hours on the range tuning their shooting form.

With your Excaliber, many of mechanical broadheads in the 2 inch range will open with one or both blades on the shot. You would need broadheads specifically for the crossbow.

If you put it in the right spot, you could probably kill them with a field point, but I wouldn't recommend it.

With my compound bow, I tried a lot of different things, but always came back to good old 100 gr. Muzzy's with 1 3/8" cutting width. They kill fine. Two years ago, I bought a crossbow and the guy at the bow shop talked me into Rage 2 mechanical. They're expensive, about $40.00 for three. They're bad ass though. When I run out, I've got some Muzzy's kicking around, so I use them. I generally use my Cabela's points to get new ones and about a month ago, they were on sale for $30.00. Rage 2 has a 2" cutting width with 2 blades. They open a huge hole and I always get a pass through.

I had this guy quartering towards me last year, and I shot him in the base of the neck, right in front of the shoulder. He was bleeding like a garden hose.

Don't ever kid yourself. Put the bigger head through the right spots and you'll do more cutting. More cutting means more bleeding. More bleeding means more blood on the ground, eventually.

Lots of bow hunters use small heads like Slick Tricks and they work superbly. When you punch an arrow through the chest of a deer a number of things happen. First, you creat a pneumo-thorax which means that Bambi's lungs now are not working much at all. The diaphragm pulling forward is pushing air which s now inside the chest as well as air in the lungs out. Some of the air in the lungs is now going into the chest which collapses the lungs some and when the diaphragm pulls back it sucks outside air into the chest collapsing the lungs more. The blood flowing into the chest pressurizes the chest more collapsing the lungs more. The blood flowing into the lungs drowns reduces lung function more.

OBVIOUSLY A BIGGER CUT GOING THROUGH AGGRAVATES ALL OF THE ABOVE AND MAKES A BIGGER HOLE FOR BLOOD TO COME OUT OF.

The down side of a bigger cut is that it takes more power to push it through Bambi. A 300 FPS + crossbow will drive a heavy enough arrow completely through Bambi with even 2 inch cut blades paired with 1 inch plus blades like some four blade heads.

No matter what you do to Bambi in this manner, rifle or bow, you have to expect Bambi to make it 50-80 yards. The only way to shortcut that is CNS shots with a rifle, something not advisable with a bow or crossbow. Last year I shot one doe very tight behind the shoulder and just above the heart. 2 inch Rage. It severed the heart loose from the lungs, punched both lungs and exited. She made it 200 yards + and when she crossed a mowed lawn 100 yards wide I could see the huge blood spurts almost all the way across. But... It took me about 2-1/2 hours to find the first blood because she went north at the shot and then when I couldn't see her dd a 180 and almost straight south until she tipped over.

Stick with a simple design like a Rage and mechanical failures are virtually nonexistent. Use a heavy arrow like an FMJ and it buys you some insurance to punch bone coming and going and still pass through. Personally, I prefer fixed three blade heads and 2/4 blade mechanicals like the Rage or NAP spitfire. Steel shanks won't break on hitting heavy bone. I punched a three blade fixed through the chest and then through the heavy shoulder joint cutting bone and the head still made it through the deer this fall.

That was one of my concerns with the mechanical broadheads, that at the shot, the blades would come open.

Using Rage 2 inch I use the O rings instead of the collars. I get the O rings at the hardware store and I buy the smallest diameter I can. I work the O ring into the notch in the blade so it's tight and they never open on firing. I do not trust the collars not to open, they're too fragile.

I am trying out NAP Spitfire 2 inchers. They do not open on firing and so far I have only killed one with them but it dd more damage than I expected to see to the lungs. Easily the most damaged lungs of any deer I have killed with any bow. I am waiting on the next volunteer to see if that's repeatable. Cut two ribs on the way in, two on the way out. No noticeable slowdown and buried the arrow all the way to the nock in the ground, had to stand directly behind it to see the LED. Earlier than normal start to the blood trail. Good blood trail to tip over.

I'm with Miles on the Rages, I prefer the rubber o-rings. I use the Rage replacements, they are cheap, come in a quantity, and easy to change out before season.

I don't "think" I've ever had one open on the bow or the crossbow.

I used the NAP Killzones with small diameter arrows and they were very effective. The blades seemed very secure, and left very good blood trails.

I have an Excaliber xbow and killed a doe a couple of yrs ago with the 150gr boltcutter. Double lung shot, bolt went thru and stuck in ground, and she didnt bleed a drop. She ran about 40 yds (out of sight) and if she hadnt been kicking and I heard it, I would have had a heck of a time finding her, if I could. That's the only deer I've shot with mine, but I changed broadheads.

I asked around and it seems a lot of hunters like the Rage, so I'm giving it a try. Rage crossbow X, 125 grain, 2", 2 blade, mechanical. We'll see...

1 1/16 too small? Horseshit.

No matter what you shoot, if you don't shoot it right you'll wish you did. The More Is Better marketing strategy has a physics problem.

Also, make sure they shoot well. My buddies and my fathers wouldn't shoot the magnum slick tricks at all but were fine with the standards. Too wide a fixed blade causes erratic flight at xbow speeds. My ten point turbo xlt II shot them just fine, though. The muzzys worked just fine for them, go figure...

I like the Bolt Cutters because they shoot to the same POI as the field points do, I certainly agree that proper placement is job #1