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Given your 'druthers, what would an ideal broadhead for killing deer be and why?

For me:

I would first have a steel ferrule. Aluminum just is not strong enough to stand up to a heavy arrow and the power of a crossbow.

Second, four blades, or at least three with a very large cut. Something like the 2.3 inch Rages, only a minimum of three blades or better yet four blades.

Third, the blades would be a minimum of.040 inch thickness so as to better handle bone.

Weight could be up to 150 grains, but not more. If we can get almost sturdy enough blades and ferrules and near that much total cut at 100 grains We should be able to manage what I want at 150 or less.

Once an arrow pushes it's head through the off side hide it has done it's work and almost nothing more can be gained, so spending the energy it carries cutting with a big head makes sense. I suppose titanium would be strong enough for the ferrule. Aluminum definitely is not, hitting even ribs can bend them and leg bones PROBABLY will bend the ferrul at the least.

Based on the kinetic energy determined by arrow mass and speed, I don't see any real difference in the basic requirements between "crossbow" broad heads or any others at a similar FPS.
I'm useing the same bear two blades with bleeders that I slung out of my compound bows for years. They fly extremely well, that is my most important criteria, plus they have a long history of durability and efficient kills...providing I do my part.

Edited to say,
But then I am fairly new to the dark side, so my thoughts could change over time...

This last season I tested out some one-piece heads... Tooth of the Arrow. Fly well, very tough and kill things. Those, along with Slick Tricks, seem rather usable.

I think you are correct, but each hunter has an opinion on what works for them.

To the OP: Ferrule - my aluminum Rages have held up well over time, but steel is good as well, and tends to hold up better under an Ooops!

4 blade with thick steel blades, but I'd like the blades removable/replaceable.

I like your cut width, but getting a blade that won't plane would be hard with that amount of increasing width, and increasing speed.

I don't mind a pass through, as the shaft is plugging something in the wound.

I'm using the same silver strike mechanicals on bow and crossbow. I gave up on the two blade with bleeders due to planing. They kept drifting off target. I see no need for different heads on each type. All my replacement blades are interchangeable. They are consistent, not that expensive, and I don't worry much about damaging them.
They have not quite finished thier work once they pass through, or more accurately they need to fully pass through, shaft and all to clear the exit wound and bleed out fast and with a heavy blood trail. So they should not dump thier entire energy inside the deer. I want that full pass through.

I have seen some really messed up insides when the head did not exit the chest. Way more than what happens when the arrow just goes through. It can look like someone took a Cuisinart to the lungs.

I have taken boned out legs and pinned them up on a block target and then intentionally shot the bones in different places. The aluminum ferrule on a Rage is fairly dependable to penetrate the scapula and other like bone. When it comes to humerus and radius/ulna they tend to bend and break.

With blades the size I am looking for they have to be mechanicals or they'll plane way too easily.

Although I plan on trying rages trypan next year I have had excellent results with both standard and magnum slick tricks. Simple tough design that flies true for me. 4 blades increase the cutting area nicely.

Ordinary Slick Tricks for me. - IF I was going for REALLY large/tough game like a rhino/Cape Buff with my XB, a heavy duty 4-blade would be better for that particular task.
(A friend of mine from South TX took a Cape Buff & a > 20 foot crocodile with her XB in 2016.)

yours, tex

I shoot 100gr Rage 2 (2 blade). They fly great. When I run out of those, I've got a bunch of 100gr Muzzy 3 blades laying around that work fine. My favorite stand is just inside the woods off of a hay field. I always pass through, so I tend to lose my arrow in the grass. The last three deer I took with the same Rage 2, just clean it up and put a new collar on it. Except the last deer I killed with it, I lost that arrow.

The Rage 2 is nasty.

Do you have any experience with a bow on large heavy game like that? A guy I grew up with hunts bear with a bow (yes, I think he's nuts) but he uses very small razor heads just a bit larger than the shafts, because he says large heads do not penetrate far enough to hit the vitals. Just pisses the bear off. I don't know who made 'em, but they were not hand made.

Sounds almost like not enough bow or trying to shoot too far.

kellory,

NO, I don't have any personal experience with game that BIG but I am going to take my XB with me (as well as 2 big-bore rifles = my 9.3x62mm & likely a .400 Brown-Whelen Improved) to Africa, when I go next year for Cape Buffalo & (HOPEFULLY) a leopard.
(Our friend "GuideGirl", who is the president of our local XB hunting club, is believed to be the ONLY person to ever take a Cape Buff or a Nile Croc with a XB. - I would happily be "El Numero Dos".)

"GG" said that she stuck her Cape Buff at 31 long steps, from a blind near a waterhole. - She said that the Game Department "big shot" insisted that she was "NUTS" to try a Buff with a XB & DEMANDED that TWO game rangers "back her up with heavy rifles". - A "follow-up shot" wasn't needed. She collected her NICE trophy on the 4th day of hunting, shortly before dark.
The Buff, according to "GG" didn't go 25M before his legs buckled & down he went to stay.

yours, tex

Old_Toot,

Either "not enough bow", too long a range and/or POOR shooting, is my GUESS. = Most people don't understand how DEADLY that a 150# XB is.

yours, tex

This is sort of why the question occurred to me. A relatively tiny cut broadhead run through both lungs can kill about anything. Poke a hole in the chest and it is entirely possible to collapse the lungs and kill the animal, no matter what it is, without bleeding. Bleeding is of course better, because it can greatly hasten death. Blood pressure is a great way to deflate lungs permanently. While a bigger cut will do a better job of creating and maintaining a pneumo-thorax, it is not so clear that a bigger cut will
deflate lungs any better or much better. I am of the opinion that the bigger the cut the better because bigger holes are less likely to plug and bigger cuts are more likely to cut arteries and cause more bleeding. But, I know people who always use Slick Tricks or Montecs that just are not all that big, and they kill a lot of deer and have no more problems with them than other competent shooters use much larger heads. I have absolutely zero empirical evidence that biggeris better, I have shot enough deer with smaller heads to know that they can work every bit as well as huge heads. Been there, done that and ate the deer. Had deer go down where they stood with smallish 2 blade heads and huge heads.

It seems pretty reasonable to me that big cuts will stand out with enough deer killed, but with only a couple dozen + deer killed with arrows, the numbers of those killed by me do not support that. From my numbers, it could be very well that a smallis 3/4 blade head is such an over whelming insult to lungs that bigger just doesn't make much difference.

I use the Montec G5 for everything from deer to Turkey and coyote. Judo for small game. Simple and tough.

Good arrow flight and durability along with optimum cutting characteristics are the a must in any broadhead. I can also see the advantage of cutting width in relation to the broad heads path through tissue. Where an other wise nick in a vital organ might be opened up enough to make a difference.
What I don't think, is that cutting width is a factor for taking marginal shots, nor should they be marketed as such imo.