i've been deer hunting with the crossbow for years and my NAP expandables have been great.....has anybody here used them on black bear?......thanks in advance....bearit.....

My advise is COC only for bear

The entertainment value of recreational sport hunting takes on a whole new feel when you're looking for something that can ruin your day.

Black bears are not deer, don't react like deer, don't become passive and give up like deer, and have quite an impressive tool kit to create trauma.

I would not risk anything with folding bits, rubber bands, and springs or latches on an animal that has the potential to cause me harm.

Having seen 3 different brands of mechanicals fail over the years, I'll be blunt, hunting with mechanicals is one of the stupidest things you can do. Even if its "only" deer.

X2
I have shot a few deer over the years that had been previuosly shot with expandable heads. Found pieces of broadheads while butchering deer.

Would go with a proven head like, snuffer, magnus, slick trick, muzzy

Idaho has outlawed expandables entirely. No big loss.

Two words for you....RAZOR TRICK. The only thing that needs to expand on any hunt is your head after you recover your trophy. Leave Murphy at home. JMHO

+100 and my choice would be RazorTricks.

A tough, sharp COC head will serve you well. There are a lot of them out there now days.

Oregon has too. Except I keep cracking up evey time I walk into Dicks sporting good store they keep them on the rack evidently the buyers are from the east coast and can't read the Oregon regs. I even told the store manager they are still there and I notice they are selling them.

I noticed that too, but as I read the regs they are legal for small game and turkey as well. Although that may be different this year. I read the regs about them a while back maybe even two years ago now.

JJHACK your not from the East. According to ehunter just us East Coast guys can't read.

Nope not an eastern guy, but I am From the western USA (wa.) and South Africa.

my son took a black bear a few years back with a blood trailer expandable. the arrow passed through and the bear did not go 100 feet.

i have used them also, and have taken a few deer with no prob.

but i have switched to the 100 gr slick tricks now.

-ken

The thing with expandables is they work 60% of the time. It is the 40% that makes me say no thank you. Some think 60% is good enough others want a higher percentage. I can tell you one thing your opinion of them will totally change when that 40% bites you. Specially if it happens on a high dollar hunt.

Or when you shoot at last light with a bear that you have to go search for in the dark with a flashlight. Your mind will be playing games in your head with all the "what if's and Oh No's"

The opinion of most sport hunters changes when that bear is missing and it's pitch dark with thick bush! Wait til tomorrow? go back in the light? Hmm I've seen way to many bear hides spoil over night, or get chewed to bits by other bears. Such an easily avoided waste of a bear.

That is the truth. I hunt some pretty think cover and always go after them. The dark can play with your head when its an animal that can and will defend itself.

There are so many schitty shots out there, that not sure how you can ever conclude if it was the expandables fault, when something limps off. Seems like the newest trend in archery is to take 70+ yd shots, and hope.

I agree with you that with expandables guys think they can just instantly increase their shot yardage.

However I hunt with a few guys that I know they know what they are doing. I know and am friends with a few more that I don't hunt with per say but they damn sure know what they are doing. Most if not all of them have tried expandables at one time or another. A couple were on the books with companies that made expandables. None of them have anything good to say about them.

I have shot a few animals with expandables and I don't care how you dress it up I don't like them. Have only had one head actually completely fail. Have had a few get torn up so bad that I think the animal hurt the head more then the head hurt the animal. To me a rib shouldn't be a game stopper. I appluad the states that have made them outlawed on big game or hunting all together.

Anything over a 50 yard archery shot has a lot of room for many variables that I am not comfortable taking. Personally my opinion is that archery is supposed to be a close range game. So unless I am hunting wide open land out west anything over 40 yards isn't going to happen. I shoot out to 90 meters at targets. I have all the confidance in my ablitity to make the shot. I don't have the control of keeping the animal still for the lenght of time it would take my arrow to reach it @ 90m. To me it doesn't make much sense, but there are many that could do it and probably some that have. The only saving point @ 90m is that the animal won't hear the bow shot noise at that distance to make it really decide to hit the highroad.

I should add aim small miss small and if your going to take a long range archery shot shoot low.

Archery is a close range sport, anyone shooting long shots has ruined the event for them self. Archery is pure hunting and should be pursued that way. Muzzle loader and handgun shots are not archery, Launching arrows long range at targets and hitting bulls eyes is great but it's not the effort to put your self in the shooting position ahead of time thru skill, knowledge, and experience.

The real testament to a true skilled hunting archer is not how far he can shoot, but rather how close he can get. That's hunting! 50 plus yard shooting is not nearly as much hunting as it is shooting!

When I hear guys say they made a 60 yard shot, I feel nothing........ when I hear a guys say he made a 15 yard shot, I'm freaking impressed and blown away by that level of skill and hunting ability.

There are about 1000 things that can go wrong shooting over 50 yards, feel lucky? As far as the blame when you cannot find the animal being on an expandable? Well the reputation of them is why that thought exists at all. Have you ever heard a guy say, " Darn it anyway, ..... Maybe my fixed blade broadhead did not open"

The head games that go on in your mind while in the pitch dark with uncertainty and doubt when your following the sporadic spots of blood or none at all with the beam of a flashlight .............. well............. use your imagination and this post will haunt you when that happens.

Yeah maybe a bad shot, Maybe a branch, movement, or a lot of other causes. But with a Fixed blade that problem is off the table. With a an expandable, well........ you're the one following the teeth and claws with a puncture wound, attitude and a very short temper in the dark not me! Mine get shot with a 125gr slick tricks and I have killed two very big bears in 10 days both complete pass throughs and both were recovered within 70 yards of the shot with easy to follow blood trails. Both also told me they were dead before I went looking for them too!

Nothing like the death moan of a bear.

For the record, I am not a fan of expandables. I shoot Muzzy.

That being said...I already know of one guy that wounded a mulie at 25yds this year, another that wounded a buck at 75, but eventually found him, and another that shot a buck at a claimed 74yds, but got him. I am not impressed by long shots either. Shot an elk at 12yds once. Now that was a rush!

Didn't point any fingers at you there dogcatcher223.

Agree the closer the better for pumping the bloodflow thru my veins.

I am glad you said know and not friends that can't make good choices or shots.

I prefer 40 or less. I do have a 50 and 60yd pin. Only for plinking though or if somehow SHTF.

Most of my stands you would be lucky to get a shot out to 30yards. The one I am hoping to get to hunt opening day (if the wind is right) only gives me 18 yards.

Heading back out for elk in 2 weeks. Going to hunt the last 9 days of the season. Lots of open country, but hoping the bulls are into the aspens by then. I know of a guy that shot his elk at 92yds last year, I just shake my head.

Well good luck to you and be safe. We want pictures too.

Thanks, you and me both! Still confident, season will only get better.