I have heard these "it didn't open" claims for years in regards to expandable broadheads and I'm sorry but I sincerely believe that almost all of them are BS. I've killed deer with at least 5 different types of expandables. And I've shot at least 5 other types of mech heads besides the ones I've used on deer into various target materials. I have never seen one not open. Unless you glue one shut; let one rust shut; or tie one shut; it almost defies the laws of physics for a fold from the front mech head to not open when shot into a deer.

As for poor penetration, I attribute that in most cases to one of the following causes. And sadly in some cases a really disasterous combination of the two.

1. People who screw on a mech head because they cannot get a field tip and a fixed head to group together. This of course does not fix the fact that their bow is still untuned. And they are therefore probably still getting poor, wobbly, energy robbing, arrow flight despite the fact that their field tips and mech heads are now hitting the same spot. It's like slapping a bandage over a sucking chest wound, the problem is still there you've just covered it up.

2. People using mech heads with insanely large cutting diameters for the power level their bow is generating. Most people have never even shot their bow through a chronograph and therefore can only guess at the speed they are getting from their bow. Guesses that in my experience are almost always "highly optimistic" to say the least. These guesses are usually based on the bows IBO rating which is worthless unless you have a 30 inch draw length; a 70 lb bow and are shooting a minimum weight arrow with absolutely nothing attached to your string. The amount of energy needed to open a mech head isn't the problem IMHO. The problem is that it's hard to push a 1 3/4 or 2 inch wide broadhead through a deer without a lot of kinetic energy and good straight arrow flight.

End result? These folks head for the woods with their 27 inch draw, 60 lb, untuned bows loaded up with a 2 inch wide mech head; whack a deer with their fishtailing under powered arrow; get terrible penetration; and then run back to the internet to loudly proclaim that all mech heads suck.

Classic case of mis-identifying the actual problem.