ORIGINAL: GMMAT
So the question is......WOuld you rather be shot with this......4 blades @ 2" ea.....for a total cutting surface of 8"........
or....
ONE blade that's 8" long?
Both wounds are going to cut completely through you.
" In my opinion" your on the right track. What you have to consider is the shape of the wound, there's really no such thing as "cutting diameter", the hole's not round. A three bladed head will give you a triangular hole and a four bladed head will give you a square hole. What I feel needs to be compared is the anount of surface area within that square or triangle. As an example I did the math forfour popular size heads; a 1" four blade, a 1 1/8" four blade, a 1 1/8" three bladed head and a 1 1/4" three blade head.
1 1/8" 3-blade head; 1.687" of blade cutting surface and the triangular hole has .474 sq in of surface area.
1 1/4" 3-blade; 1.875" blade cutting surface and .583 sq in surface area wound.
1" 4-blade; 2" blade cutting surface and .5 sq in surface area within the square wound channel.
1 1/8" 4-blade; 2.25" cutting surface and .632 sq in wound area.
An eight bladed hole like in the illustration would only increase the surface area minimally over a four bladed head and even though they give a large slitI worry about the hole made by a 2-blade clogging up.
This is how I understand the explanation that I got from Gary at Slick Tricks, I shoot the 1 1/8" Slick Trick Magnums.