Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Bowhunting Never been a huge fan of Mechanical broadheads

I have used them for about 10 years to take at least 50 deer. I never had a single problem with them I could honestly attribute to the head. [/quote]

I still use the 125 steelheads. I think I switched to them around the 2000 season, and I typically shoot 2-4 deer a year with the bow. Never had a problem. Mostly I shoot pretty well and at closish range so shot placement is pretty good, but last year I had one hit a little forward, busted the leg bone and still had a pass through.

Id go to a fixed blade head if I were going to shoot something bigger than a deer, but on deer I figure its shot placement, shot placement and shot placement thats important.

I did muzzys for a number of years and it was a good head but it required a bit better tuning than does the mechanical heads. Someday I may pick up a few slick tricks ad see how they shoot.

T'Man, I'm glad you are happy with the results you are getting. I was not. I will say this more than half of the preformance you get is hitting the right spot, and in that regard the Steal heads are very good, beucase they do shoot well. I have used many different products over the last decade or so, and taken a lot of animals (not going to get into numbers, because I don't want this to sound like a pissing contest) my experience with the Rocket stealheads, though more limited than your own, did not produce the results I have seen with other products, ie muzzy's, spitfires, etc. So I chose to move on.
I asure you though my experience is not that of a "one deer wonder"

I would like to hear how many deer were lost . I work for a outfitter Milk River and i see lots of deer killed with all kinds Mechanical and fixed . I can say if you take a broadside shot no 1/4ing shots and no bone nothing works better fixed we do not loose deer . We had to ban mechanical heads and if you have to shoot them it is one and done so if you wound a deer that is your deer. The one and done has been good because it has stoped the long pokes for people who think they can shoot 50 and 60 yrds at a deer that is not fav and even worse with mechanicals they take to much energy on marginal 1/4ing shots .

JMO

MTHunter,

It wasn't clear to me "who" your post was directed toward. If it was me and my experience with the Rocket Mechanical, the answer is One deer lost (one too many for me), my main complaint was the small entry and exit wounds that I saw. Maybe the six I had were lemons, dunno.
I think I will get me a pack of those slick tricks just to see how they shoot. Even if I don't use them this fall, I can still get some data on how they will shoot in my set up. The 85gr look kinda interesting, but a 1" cutting dia. leaves me a little nervous.

Mark, there is no difference between a 1" 4 blade and a 2" 2 blade in cutting surface, don't sweat it. I messed up with my math in my post above, was typeing and thinking at the same time, never a good thing for me. Since everyone was polite and didn't call me a dummy I'll say it, YOU DUMMY. A 2 blade 2 " is 1" each way = 2", a 3 blade 1 1/2" is 3/4" each way = 2 1/4", a 4 blade 1 1/8" is 7/16" each way = 2 1/4", a 4 blade 1" is 1/2" each way = 2".

In the 80's we had slow bows and fixed heads, I remember when a 200 fps bow was fast. I used wasp and thunderheads back then. The combo of a slower bow, heavy aluminum arrows and heavy fixed blade head produced accuracy, KE, and we killed animals with it.

In the 90's the bows got faster and faster,and releases became popular. Add the old arrow and head to that combo and accuracy became an issue. Mostly it was trying to have your broadhead hit with your fieldtip. On a two week elk hunt thats important, if you're in camp at midday you want to shoot your bow to keep in form. Not much confidence building if your broadheads are in the bull but your fieldtips aren't. I believe mechanicals became popular because of this, it seemed shooting a mech on a lighter arrow at faster speeds had about the same results as the older setup on game, but shot flatter. We killed animals with it.

Today we have super fast bows, mechanicals that are tougher, fixed heads that are accurate, got to love it. Like everything else in life it's not one size fits all and thats great. I set up for elk and hunt everything with that combo. I've choosen the slick trick, but I'm sure there are other options that would work.

This has been a really good civil discussion.

Kent

Kent,

Excellent post, good info! And I agree this has been a civil discussion. Nice for a change, to have a discussion and not a series of commercials for this product or that. Thats why I have never commented on a product I have not used. I have not used the Slick Tricks (though at least a test session is in the near future), so I have no opinion good or bad.

I lost a deer in 1983 shooting a 125g 4 blade satalite. I think I hit her in the shoulder and it was misting rain... looked for hours till way after dark and most of the next day..just lost the blood trail after about 100 yds and walking grid pattern the next day didn't help. I did find the arrow a few years later about 400-500 yds away, bent and the blades broken off the broad head.

I lost another around 1998 or so. Muzzy head. 20 yd shot. I had a deflection from a small branch and the arrow hit the deer in the side of the snout. He ran off and stopped about 80 yds from my stand (which where I hunt was a miracle I could see him) The arrow was sticking out of the side of his head, looked like it had penatrated less than a few inches. I watched him for a few minutes to see if he was going to go down and he walked out of my view. Looked for about 8 hours (I shot at him at maybe 7:30am) and didn't find anything except one single drop of blood. I often second guess not flinging a second arrow at him at the long range. It would have been just a fling and a prayer as I have no idea how to hold at 80 yds.

I have cleanly missed a couple of deer over the years (some for reasons I understand and one I can't( of course he was a big one . I have also had a few where I wish that I did a better job of shooting but recovered then just fine. Largely I credit my success to a fair amount of practice and that my typical shots are 12-20 yds or so. Its very rare that I could ever see a deer more than 20-25 yds from one of my stands.

One thing I know for sure if you bow hunt long enough it will happen to everyone once. If not your either lucky or lying

megalomaniac I agree with you that the shot experience I had does not prove that fixed are any better than Mechanical. the point I was trying to make is that when a shot goes bad like the one I made that having a mechanical broad head that is going to absorb some of the kinetic energy is going to leave you with an arrow with less energy after The blades are deployed. The fact is that if the fixed blade (muzzy) I was shooting could not drive thru the rib after breaking thru the leg bone a mech could not possibly do any better.

Well good or bad mechanicals if you shoot them good luck shoot strait and have fun post pics this fall of your buck . I my self would shoot fix montec steelforce muzzy shoot what you shoot and shoot it well. good luck MTHunter

I am still in love with and always will be with the 90 grain muzzy 4 blade. They are a great Broadhead and for me and my bow, they hit the same spot as a 100 grain fieldtip. Not much tuning or anything needed really.
But I too have made the switch to the Rage broadheads. Not because they are better, but because of the hype and the need for me to try them so I can further educate myself with new archery gear. We'll see how they work this year.

My experience with mech. Heads has been limited. I wounded a deer that the arrow hit and bounced out of it. I have taken and helped friends take javelina with Mechs. They do a job on the game. Where they fail is the after the hit part. Most people like pass thru shots and for tracking reasons they are great if the wound channel is big enough. However if there is not a pass thru shot, you want an arrow to cut and slice every step that animal takes. Mechanicals do not do this. THey hit, and because the blades deploy, if the arrow does not go thru, it will slip out with the blades closing. If they go thru, they make a mess.
My suggestion for the next Mechanical broadhead maker is this. Find a way that the blades will lock once they are fully deployed so they cannot close. They will never cut and slice and dice like a fixed head once inside, but at least they will stay locked and prevent that head from slipping out and still possibly do some cutting once inside.

Fixed heads are great, they knock the crap out of things and for the most part handle more punishment than a fixed head. If they don't go thru, they stay inside and cut the crap out of the animal making a better blood trail.
They are harder to tune at times and at times don't shoot like a fieldtip. For some people especially beginners this is tough. That is really all that is bad with Fixed heads.

Pro's and con's, they are about equal, but if you ask me, I would rather shoot an elk with a fixed head than a mechanical head. Get rage to add a lock to those blades after they deploy and maybe I'll change my mind. Tobyjoetruby almost has me convinced after reading his experience with clients shooting the rage.
Here is the link:
https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbth...&topic=0&Search=true#Post1712420

But I'll draw a conclusion on these rage heads once I get to poke something with them.

Kique

Anyone(and this is not directed at anyone specific) that cannot get a bow tuned with a fixed head on it has serious bow issues or does not know what they are doing. Using a mechanical for that reason is a weak reason.

Granted I dont' like em at all. I still find nothing better than Black Diamonds or Snuffers, but I've got my fair share of Muzzy and still haven't made time to order the sliktriks...

We used mechanicals for 2 years. off and on they were great and then sucked bad.... The final straws were taking a raking shot on a really nice 8, and all it did was slide down the hide... Shooting a fox and about cutting it in half, and 30 min later a doe where it never opened but I screwed the shot and luckily hit the spine. Thinking the bone was an issue, I shot a cull 6 a week later. Double lung, perfect shot on an older bigger deer. Appx 12 yard shot. Buck ran, and lost arrow and I knew right away I should have had a pass through but it wasn't. Appx 10am. I went later and looked. VERY little blood and found the head end of the arrow, blades still closed. I did a methodic almost ALL DAY grid search. Knowing well the buck was dead somewhere. more than likely in brush having laid up and died in a thicket. No trail. I started in around 130 to look seriously after i'd lost the blood that morning. At literally dark thirty I found him balled up in cedars. I was lucky... That was appx 9 hours after the shot.

Nope, don't care if they are the best thing since sliced bread. Bad taste in my mouth.

And since fixed blades are tuneable. Its a non issue.

Jeff

Exactly Jeff.

I agree, tuning should not be an issue. At the same time, I can believe it could. There are a ton of weird people out there. I remember a few years ago, one of my clients showed up to camp with a new rifle, tags still on it. It was a little 243 wsm with a scope. Never shot, never out of the box as far as I am concerned. We wasted a day shooting and sighting in the rifle. Before it was over, we made the decision we needed to be as close as possible, anything farther than 100 yards was outta the question.
That being said and the points I have made, I can see how people would rather shoot mechs than to tune fixed heads, which we all know is no real issue.

Like most of you on here, I am hooked on fixed heads, the vortex put a bad taste in my mouth like the mechs Jeff had. In any event, I owe it to myself to try these rage heads out and see what they are made of. And if all they work for is Javelina, oh well at least I know I can use them for that.
I still have my Muzzy 4 blade 90 grain ready to go in the event that the Rage fail. But after what I have read and seen, I am not sure that will happen. If they do, then they'll (rage) be my Javelina heads.

thanks for the experience sharing Jeff. Can you tell us what heads you used or PM me the name soI can stay far away from the ones you used. Hopefully they weren't the Rage I am about to use.

Kique

I've shot Rocket steelheads for a few years (on deer) without an issue but I don't take raking or shoulder (bone) shots. They work well and I've always had pass throughs.

But...I'm one of those guys that always tinkers with things so I dedcided to try Slick Tricks last week. The Slick Tricks were dead on to 40 yards. I don't know which head I'll be taking this fall for deer but I know what I'll be using if I ever go for elk.

To me this is another Ford/Chevy or Mathew's/Bowtech arguement. They both have their limitations and advantages but when used properly, they work well.

RH

There is nothing as satisfying as shooting a broadhead into your target, and following it up with field points tightly grouped around it. (In my case, they are Muzzy MX3's).

I use fixed blades, partly because some areas I intend to hunt either require or highly recommend them over mechanicals, but also because I know my bow is properly tuned, enough so that point of impact with broadhead and field point are exactly the same.

The biggest drawback I see to fixed blades is one of safety- you always have to be conscious of carrying several razor-sharp blades on the end of that arrow, which can easily and quickly cut anything they come in contact with, including bowstrings and human flesh.

I've got no one in my pocket on this... I guess its why I always wanted to do a tv type show or magazine/paper but just could not...

They were all variations of Wasp products, jackhammer sticks in my head.

After seeing my wife hit a 350plus pound boar hog in the heart with 2016s and about 52 pounds of weight, and having it totally penetrate one shield and the heart and ribs and just a pin prick hole on the other shield, those Zwickey good and filed sharp, just continue to impress me with penetration. But you have to sharpen, and tune or shoot each one and sometimes change inserts etc... and they are big enough that they wind plane....

I just watched a deal on tuning tips to bheads.... I mean I tune for broadhead perfect flight, still the old way, through paper. And if I'm anal, I either sight in all year for field tips and rezero for broadheads shortly before season. Or used to mess with arrow weights and tip weights and could usually find a set to match, IE 2117 and Zwickey and 2219 and tips....

Aw shucks, fixed blades are so boring...

Seriously???

You guys are watching too much TV. Let me guess, Drury told you this was the balls? You're probably wearing their boots and sitting in a tree with some kinda BS real tree camo on while jacking off to Tiffany Lakosky... No doubt douced with the latest and greatest scent killer.

Do what you will, but physics is physics. Mechanical advantage still means something.

It's kinda nice how a guy can stumble upon a thread like this every five years and still see that the same BS question out there. Makes me feel like I haven't missed anything.

Do some homework.

Less is more.

Kill two dozen deer with the SAME (I don't mean the same brand, I mean literally the SAME broadhead) blade and then you're on to something. Kill, run over stone, repeat.

Of course, there's no money in that. Why in the heck would a manufacturer produce a product that can be reused? Why? BC it works.

NimrodRx What broadhead did you use to kill 2 dozen deer That broadhead was a very good investment.

hell any good fixed blade would take on 2 dozen deer if it didn't get lost. I know I had Zwickeys take on well over 10 hogs, but unfortunately at the slow rate I killed deer, I just don't recall on them.

I know the snuffer has the same results. Generally what kills the heads for us was impact with rocks ruining the tip ends so that you'd have to file a new point on and didn't want to risk that to a deer.

Jeff