RE: vanes vs blades
DannyD go try it for yourself. I have a friend that was trying to just screw on Muzzy 4 blade broadheads and they woudn't shoot straight. He got so pissed he went out and purchased some Steel Force. And he got those to shoot. When I was at his house we talked about it and I put the broadheads on the shafts and they shot like darts.
The issues with broadheads are many. Is the broadhead perfectly straight, is it straight on the shaft, is the insert perfect[a bad insert can cause more problems than you want to deal with], are the vanes big enough to stablize the broadhead, does the broadhead/shaft balance, is the nock straight to the arrow shaft. I still spin arrows on the tip on the table, if it wobbles at all it probably won't shoot. You see it more in carbons shafts where you have a heavyspot in the arrow and it won't shoot a broadhead no matter what you do. Easton shafts would come with a swedge that wasn't straight and you could never get the nock on straight and that arrow wouldn't shoot a broadhead. I can go on and on. And the micro changes that can be made to a bow to have it ready to shoot broadheads is just as many if not more than the arrow shaft itself. I build my arrows, I tune my bow, no one else ever touches it. Here is my bottom line, I don't do something because somebody else says it is the best way, example I don't paper tune my bow. I have a better way. I am not looking to see broadheads group at 20 yds, not good enough for me, I want 6" groups at 80yds with broadheads. To me that is a tuned system. The only way it happens for me is if the 4 blade broadhead is an X. And if it sounds like I think I am better than everybody else, I don't mean to sound that way because I am not. But I take my bowhunting very seriouslybecause I am going to take an animals life and I owe it tothat animal, a quick death so it suffers as little as possible. I do things that aren't supposed to work, but they do and I found them by trial and error. Don't be afraid to try something and don't settle for OK, shoot for perfect.
Gselkhunter