Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Bowhunting Do Rage broadheads really work ?

I personally did a lot of work looking into new broadheads for this year, and decided on the Blood Runner two blades.

I tested both rage, and the BR2's, and the blades on the rage showed "deflection" going through hard material...plywood,(and I know this isn't a realistic test according to the usual cutting surfaces/material-tissue/light bone)and a steel drum.

The BR2's managed to punch straigh through, as the true mechanicals had slight angles on entrance....The BR2's blades in all but one broad head (1 of 9) were still workable after penetration. The rage had 5 broken blades after the test.(All shot through my Alphamax at 65 lbs, 30" draw).

I also liked the thought in the back of my head, that even if my BR2's failed, I would still have a 1" cutting diamter through the boiler room--a more then adequate hole to create fatal damage and a decent blood trail.

As most say, and as most will agree- anything mechanical, can, and WILL fail some time or another.

With that said, I do believe the rage are decent broad heads, and on any given day if that's what I was given, I would use them without a hitch or any sort of complaint. I would just prefer, and suggest the BR2's or a like (hybrid mechanical)broad head incase of failure...strange things happen with stick and string in hand..conditions are not quite as controllable when you have a rifle, and if I ended up hitting heavy bone in the shoulder, I would bet 10 to 1 that a fixed/cut on contact will withstand the barrier better then a mechanical.

B8

B8

Does a Yugo work? Short answer yes to get from place to place. Is it the best car for all purpose? Hell no. Rage are the same as a Yugo they will work but not by far the best.

I'm no fan of mechanicals, I don't use them and I'm usually concerned with the hunters that bring them to hunt with me. I've seen them work well and also have very weird bad performance.

They very much remind me of the original Barnes X bullets. When they worked nothing was better, when they don't they are a nightmare. However, there is this constant statement that anything mechanical can fail. I'm not arguing that point one bit, but lets address this mechanical issue completely. Are we all so worried that our bow will fail? the truck/ATV/snow machine taking us to the hunting site? Our alarm clock in the morning to wake us up for the hunt? Our hunting trip is stacked with mechanical "stuff" the broadhead is just one of them.

I'm not lining up to buy mechanicals any time soon, but I'm also open to the idea that we are getting closer and closer to the time when these will be the norm, not the debate. Just like the X bullet was a disaster and not something I would have ever chosen. Now I'm shooting them 100% for my hunting with a firearm.

I'm not so stubborn to believe that mechanicals will be risky or unusable forever. I think we are going to see these in a dependable design very soon. Maybe even now one of them is 100%, or as reasonably close as possible. I'm not interested in being a guinea pig to use these for my hunting trophies, but I'm liking the folks who do want to be Guinea pigs and get the data to share with us.

Think back to 1975 or so when the compound bows came out. All the recurve boys were laughing and yelling silly fad, and how much junk............ now look at the bow hunting world! Compounds are the norm! There are expandable designs that show me some great merit, not proven with enough resolution to satisfy me yet but they are right there on the edge of success in my opinion.

I've had hunters use the Trufire switchbalde at my camo in Africa. Never failed, (fly perfectly from my bow too) and for all the hunters using them. They are as close to a perfect design as I can imagine. I saw 25 animals or more killed with them, everyone was flawless.

One big problem in many states with this design. Most states I'm aware of will not allow a "barbed" broadhead. This design meets the definition of Barbed because the back of the blades are not close to the shaft. These would be illegal in many states. Not because they are mechanical but because they meet the "barbed" definition.

Well said and my own experience with the 2 blade rage (the 2") model has us very close!! My next broad head to try will be the 1.5" two blade Rage (the 40KE model)
It might be the perfect broadhead for my whitetale hunting..