Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Bowhunting Crossbow Recs 2.1 and Done -- Broadheads

After watching a few on fleabay, it seems reasonable to hope that I can get a good one, with some of the gear, for 600$. Obviously I'm a noob, so will bore ya'll with only one crossbow-specific question: is there anything about a crossbow's higher speed that makes broad heads different than for regular archery? The short axis of the Excel Micro line is pretty appealing.

My lifetime bow has been an Matthews MQ32, which is not especially speedy. Bowhunting is always a short ranged proposition for me due to tactics. My farthest shot is 32 yards, most were inside of 20. I've been using the old style of Muzzy replaceable blade heads for over 20 years. I like the older ones rather than the shorter-bladed models. Been using 100-grainers. Never had a deer jump the string, which is pretty hard to do at 15 yards

With crossbow accuracy, it seems reasonable to think I could extend range to 50 yards without much trouble, which would be pretty helpful on some water hole hunts. Any reason to think the same broached isn't good? Really don't care about a few feet per second, and don't expect an arrow to penetrate bone shoulders with any broadhead. My first shot is always through the ribs, and have only needed a second shot once. These requirements seem pretty relaxed to me.

Is the Muzzy still a good choice? And do I need 125's now?

Tks,

J

I like mechanical heads I shoot a few with fixed heads, but more cut just always equals more blood. Fixed heads have shown me that they can be capable of planing when they come of a bow that is spitting them out with that much force, and I could not fully compensate even by going to very stiff arrows. If you are serious about shooting beyond 20 yards you need to be prepared for deer to jump the string. They can do it even at 330 FPS and 20 yards. If you go beyond 20 I would plan on it happening and shoot a heavy arrow with a tip that will punch bone like a Rage Hypodermic. The regular Rage crossbow head will not reliably punch bone. I have pinned a whole boned out front leg and shoulder to a block target and shot it a bunch of time to see what really goes on. Shoulder blades are crumbly bone and even the regular Rage head will penetrate it nicely Hard bone like humerus and radius/ulna or the ball of the joint will fold up an aluminum ferrule. I had a NAP Thunderhead that penetrated a couple ribs on they way in and went through the chest and hit the off side ball of the shoulder joint on a live deer, not bone pinned to a target. That one split the ball into three pretty equal pieces and 8 of inches of arrow came out. If you shoot 20 yards and more you will get some that jump the string and then you cannot begin to predict where the hit lands. The standard 3 blade Muzzy is a good head. NAP Thunderheads are good. Rage mechanicals are good. The new Rage Xtreme can produce outstanding blood trails, but they are not legal everywhere, and wouldn't work so well if you hit more bone than ribs.

The total weight has to be enough to avoid damage to your bow. The manual should have that figure. If no manual, call them, or look online once you have one.

I bought the Muzzy 125s because I have a nice, undeployed mechanical I cut out of a buck I shot with a ML. He carried that for a year, along with about 2" of shaft. Also, Muzzys are reasonable in price. Four dead deer with massive trangular entrance holes agree. I'm sure other heads work well too, but I have no reason to change. Mine shoot straight and to the same POI as field tips.

Excalibur recommends a 150 grain head - I run their “Bolt cutter” model head. We’ve taken one elk, and several deer with these between Idaho, VA, and PA.

While not perfect for everyone - we’ve had good results.

I’d like a bigger blood trail, but we haven’t lost anything, or had to track very far.

I personally wouldn’t drop below 125 grains - you have to balance the force of the limbs against the weight of the bolt. Too light, and it’s creeping towards a dry-fire type reaction.

A 50 yard shot probably could be made, doesn’t mean you should...

You have to work at it to get below minimum arrow weight with Excalibur bows. The ones I have seen from the Matrix series have a minimum arrow weight of 350 grains. That's not all that easy to get to even with 100 grain heads.

I will be using these Hellrazors on the recommendation of a few crossbow users.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000W8KTIS/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Most queried said to not use the mechanicals.

Check out Crossbow Nation

Thank you kindly! Glad to see solid results from several types. I’ll stay within Excalibur’s recommendations. It’s always sobering to observe the devastation from a broad head through the slats. No boom from a rifle, and the deer never has time to figure out WTF is going on

Damn things scare me to death. Out of the four shots I've taken, I only recovered one bolt. They just keep on going. Last one I shot was at dusk. It was awesome watching that glowing nock zing in there (never to be seen again).

Hunting in mild weather has its points too, but as a recovering compound shooter you already know that.

My son shoots the 3-blade 100 gr Muzzy's out his TenPoint and they have performed well on several large whitetail bucks. You should be fine trying those.

I have been shooting the original slick tricks since the inventor was selling them out of his garage. They are tough, and have not given me any problems with erratic flight from 3 different ten point crossbows. Excellent blood trails. I am not a fan of adding points of failure (mechanical broadheads) to a situation. I have tried a dozen or so different broadheads, including a couple mechanical but always went back to the slick tricks. Whatever you choose, any imperfection will show up at the speeds you will be shooting.

Speaking of slick tricks I don't know what to think. Last year when I bought my first crossbow I decided to give them a try. Ordered the 125 grain standard model and when they arrived I could not get the blades into the slots in the ferrules. Called the factory and they sent me 4 new ones that were perfect. On November 2 I shot a very nice 8 point and every thing was good. Last week I decided to buy 4 more from Amazon. When they arrived the same thing happened except 3 were bad and one was ok. This time when I called the factory they told me to send them back for a refund which I did. Think I'll try something else. By the way other reviewers on Amazon had the same problem with the 125 grain standards.

I can’t prove it, but the internet rumor was for a while that a distributor for Amazon slipped a quantity of Asian copies into the market.

Packaging was close enough that by the time you figured it out, it was too late to return, or the seller was gone.

eBay has dozens of Rage knock-offs for sale at any given time.

I use the 100gr slick tricks. Zero problem. Been using them with my 10point for about 6 years. Plus, they shoot the same as my field trips so I don't have to waste a broadhead to check zero. Very happy how they work on deer and turkey.

Many rave the Slick Tricks ...

I'm also a Slick Trick user.

Holy crap MQ32 was many many moons ago ...that was the worst shooting of all the Mathews bows I've owned but the first one, Shoot their latest offering just for fun and you may reconsider the cross bow...it will be much quieter than a Xbow and 50 yds isn't a stretch for one of the new line

this was my first year with a x-bow there is no doubt x-bows are some what easier to use,but when we have poorer health its our best chance to hunt a little in the fall. i purchased a Ravin x-bow to hunt with and its extremely fast and powerful so the best most accurate broadhead i found to use was some older mechanical broadhead called > steelhead 125 gr. work just fine on a nice buck at 30 yards.i did put 2 bands on this broadhead instead of one so it did not open to soon.

Rocket Steelheads were probably the best mechanical I used them till I switched over to fixed

this Ravin x-bow is fast and fixed broadheads don`t shoot well out of this x-bow and i don`t like to load fixed broadheads in this x-bow either i get cut to easy in this x-bow.

I actually saw a broadhead shot thru a deer and it was really torn up. I am thinking it was a 400 FPS+ bow . Made by Slick trick,.