Elk hunting with an expandable broadhead?
 

I put this in the bowhunting section as well.


I'm going on my first elk hunt in the fall. The only broadheads I have used are expandables. Mostly NAP Spitfires. I've had great success using this heads on deer. What are your thoughts on using this head on an elk.

Thanks

Elk are big boned and have thick hides and thick mid sections. I am not sure I would want to chance it with a mechanical broadhead but that is just my 2 cents worth.

rage 2 blade, only expandable I'll use, devastating on elk.

I wouldn't use an expandable on elk. Stick to fixed blade heads.

Agreed 100%

Rage 2-blade is all I have ever used on elk & never have had one reason to complain. They shoot great, penetrate good, & expand excellent... what more do you need?

Just like the commercial says, "its like throwing an axe through your game!":rock: haha

-South

I have seen fixed COC heads hit shoulder and not do any damage. I would stick to the fixed heads for a better chance. Like anything though you need to place the arrow in a good spot. If that is done the mechanical will work. My prefernce is the fixed head though.

I have killed quite a few elk with 1-3/8" cut Grim Reapers, unfortunately I do not know how well the Spitfires would work on elk.

If you use a high quality expandable I'd say sure. I recommend fixed blades for elk. Thunderheads or Muzzy's are hard to beat when it comes to durability. Same with fixed blades if you buy a cheap broad head you should expect poor performance on bone. If you want to test durability of a broad head. Set up a 1/2" piece of plywood, 1" of hard foam, and cover it with a tight woven rug. If it opens on the rug and still has it's blades attached while making a fully expanded cutting wound channel through the plywood then it will do it's job on elk. I've seen a lot of cheaper expandable's and fixed blade broad head's break on this test.

Agreed on the rage it's a nasty blood thirsty head. But I still like my fixed blades.

I was in your shoes about 2 years ago. I was going on my first archery elk hunt and was asking this same question here.
It was recommended to me that I use fixed blades by some I did the math on my kinetic energy. I have more than enough kinetic energy so I went with the expandable.
I did not get a crack at an elk on that hunt but my hunting buddy did. He had the same set up as I did and was using a 3 blade Stricknine expandable that has a 2" cut. He shot an elk quartering away and his arrow did make an exit hole. I also want to add that this was quite a long shot.....but when you shoot like he can you can stretch your distance.

Bottom line is do not be afraid of using your expandables.

Good Luck!!

I have killed elk with both and and fix blades have always performed better.

Fun little Vid

http://youtu.be/Qc-srIw3na0

Yeah kinda like proofs in the pudding kinda video.

I shot an elk with my Wacems and it blew straight thru the elk and into a tree 10 yards behind the elk and buried into the tree a long ways. The broadhead is still in the tree along with the insert. It was probably 28 to 34 yards to the elk and 10 yards further to the tree.

No way on the expandables/mechanicals. I'll bet my annual salary you will have a problem with them hunting elk. My bet is anyone who has shot more than 10 elk with an expandable/mechanical has had a problem. I'm guessing a lot will try to forget the times they had problems with them. I actually visited with a manufacturer of one of them. He said its just a matter of time before you have a failure. Every single mechanical/expandable will fail eventually. Thats right from the mouth of one of the manufacturers of them. Why risk that trouble on a possibly once in a life time shot at a big bull.

Oh one more thing to chew on. I went for many years not allowing expandables/mechanicals in camp. (nine wounded animals in one year) Many folks didn't like that and even had some hunters not come because of my no mechanicals policy. However, I became justified very fast when I decided to let folks use them again. I had lots of folks brag up the rage 2 blade. In two seasons I had 4 archers insist on using them because they are so great. I decided to give them a chance and let 4 hunters use them in 2 seasons. Honestly, 2 of the 4 wounded animals and did not recover their game. Thats really bad odds. Worst of it is, 3 of the 4 were professional hunters that were sponsored by rage. Sorry guys, mechanicals get a thumbs down from me.

Sorry turkeyward but I call BS on just about everything you just said...

-South

turkeyward; If you like you can pm me so I can get your address to collect your annual salary. I can do a cashiers check, money order, paypal or even a transfer.
In all seriousness, I have never had a broadhead problem, and I have killed a few more than 10 with mechanicals..specifically Grim Reapers.
In addition I have found the majority of hunters try to blame failures on mechanicals...after all there is no way they could have made a bad shot....yeah had to be the broadheads fault.

I've watched hunters have problems with their mechanicals while they were still in camp. It's just not worth it to me. There is not a person on this forum that hasn't heard of or experienced a problem with expandables. It's not worth arguing over, everyone should use what they want. But when I go up, I will have 125 grain Muzzys. I have never heard of any hunter having a problem with Muzzys, tried and true.

For what it's worth, Turkeyward runs a good outfit and I believe every single word of what he said. Just saying.....

Expandables are illeagle here in Idaho, for any game. Another vote for Muzzy, I have never had one fail!

I shot my cow with a rage 2 blade and mathews drenalin set at 70 lbs. The shot was 55 yards and i was up above her on a clay slide. The entry hole in the hide was huge the hole going through the ribs was big enough to fit 2 fingers in, however i had no exit hole and once she threw the arrow the entry hole was so high there was absolutley no blood. she only ran 80 yards but I walked in circles for 2 hours before i found her pilled up in a ditch. The rage did the job but i dont think i will use anything but muzzys from now on. just my .02 cents

The only place I have ever heard of or "experienced" any kind of a broadhead (mechanical or fixed) failure is on the internet. Needless to say I dont put too much stock in it. If I did I dont think there would be a broadhead out there that I would shoot.

We have all read thread after thread on mechanical broadhead failures. I have never read one on fixed blade failures. There has to be some truth to the matter. That's why I will stick to Muzzies. Not one thread on Muzzy failures. But to each his own.

One thing is for sure, if a hunter shoots an animal with a good COC broadhead and doesn't recover the animal for one reason or another, he's not left wondering if the broadhead failed in some way. The same can't be said about any of the mechinical broadheads.

These were just quoted off of a quick search on Muzzy failures....I suppose since I read them on the internet they must be just as true as the mechanical threads failures.

[quote]Satellites and Muzzys always breaking[/quote]

Quote:

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I have only soht muzzy (100gr. 3 blade). I do have one complaint -

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Quote:

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I shot a cow elk last year and recovered the front half of the arrow. The muzzy had one blade that was bent about 45 degrees, but I still got a pass through. Arrow weight was 450 gr. out of a 70# bow

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.......on second thought....nope still dont put too much stock in it.

Well I dont know whats going on with this site, but for some reason its not working quite right on the quotes. I even tried editing it and it went right back to whatever it wanted to do.

Ehh whatever.

Hurricane, you just believe and shoot whatever you want.

So since you found some Muzzy failures, are you telling us that you beleive that a mech., the one of your choice, would've blown through the animal and stuck in the ground 10" with the shortest tracking job ever, if used in the same instances?

A bent or broken COC broadhead means direct hit on bone. NO? Are you telling us that mechanicals would've been the better choice?

If you want to play the " I found broadhead failure discussions on the net", then by all means, let's play. I'll bet I can find more mech. failure storys then you can find COC failure storys.

My point has been....if you had bothered to read it.....either way it will continue to be... that you can read about a broadhead failure of pretty much any brand on the internet.

Dont believe everything you read on the internet.

I will reiterate the only place I have ever heard of or "experienced" any kind of a broadhead (mechanical or fixed) failure is on the internet.

colorado; thank you for your permission. I dont think I could have gotten by without it.

There is a lot of good information on the internet. Some folks are smart enough to read it and learn from it, some are not.

Your welcome.:wave:

Conversely there is a lot of bad information on the internet. Some folks are smart enough to not pay attention to it.

This is getting tiresome. Thanks again.

I just posted my opinion and you want to take it to the next level. (Go back and read the thread).

Bottom line is, if this is a true statement, you need to start hanging out with more bow hunters. I don't care what you shoot. I like fixed blade broadheads and will continue to shoot them. Muzzies were recommended to me years ago by a friend and they have never let me down.

These are the kind of asinine statements that become so tiresome on the internet.
I gave my opinion based on actually using a mechanical head (Grim Reapers), multiple times I might add. You gave your opinion based on hunters you have seen in camp (who knows what head), and based off of claims on the internet, while at the same time ignoring claims of fixed broadhead failure from the internet.
To top it all off you try to bring into question how many bow hunters I "hang out" with.
A very childish response at best.

Shoot whatever you want, but dont try to question those with the experience, and then try to back up claims with internet drivel. I'm done.

LMAO!!!:happy0157::happy0157::happy0157:

how many elk have ya killed Hurricane? Also, at about what yardages, and what's your set-up, and about what KE is the set-up producing?

Wonder if you can use anything but a Fix-blade in Africa on the Big five? I would Google it but internet lies. ( I know it was a cheap shot)

Well I have been reading forums on Bow hunting Africa forums and the majority of Archers use thunderheads a few mention Rage broad heads and its the same story good blood trails but they mention bad penetration on some of the bigger animals such as Zebra, Eland and angle shots not good. The majority would not hunt Buffs with anything but cut on impact heads seems like most of them like the Magnus brand and German Kinetics for the big animals .

IMOP
I think too many of us archers fall prey to the Ad Hype for new products and fall prey to extreme advertising .

haha
Whats the deal with you guys!?
Every single broadhead out there is made to work & they do...
I shoot nothing but mechanical (Rage) & have killed everything (including a Yukon Moose) w/ these; & I feel they have proven themselves. For those of you who shoot fixed blade im sure they have proven themselves also...

so everybody just go bowhunting & enjoy being out there...

-South

The DEAL is that not everyone that bow hunts shoots a set-up that produces enough KE to use mechanical broadheads, even an "axe" like RAGE. The fact is that there's not a mech. head made that will penetrate as well as any of the better COC broadheads, and when hunting elk, penetration is an issue. Everyone always says, I use XXX mechincal and kill everything I shoot, but they don't mention the fact of how much KE thier equipment is producing.
As far as we know South, you're pulling an 80# bow shooting 500 gr. arrows. Sure, that set-up works well, but what if someone is pulling a 50# bow and shooting 300 gr. arrows. Would you still recommend the "AXE" rage to everyone? After all, the commercial says "It's like throwing an AXE" and it "expands the kill zone" so it must work for everyone?

The DEAL is that not everyone that bow hunts shoots a set-up that produces enough KE to use mechanical broadheads, even an "axe" like RAGE. The fact is that there's not a mech. head made that will penetrate as well as any of the better COC broadheads, and when hunting elk, penetration is an issue. Everyone always says, I use XXX mechincal and kill everything I shoot, but they don't mention the fact of how much KE thier equipment is producing.
As far as we know South, you're pulling an 80# bow shooting 500 gr. arrows. Sure, that set-up works well, but what if someone is pulling a 50# bow and shooting 300 gr. arrows. Would you still recommend the "AXE" rage to everyone? After all, the commercial says "It's like throwing an AXE" and it "expands the kill zone" so it must work for everyone?

Where as, on the other hand, a good COC broadhead WILL work for everyone, no matter the set-up.

I understand 100% of what you are saying, but we can only hope people can figure these things out for themselves. For those who have a capable setup I think the 2-blade Rage is unbeatable; I have also shot the G5 Montec (COC) & it also preformed flawlessly every time. Like I said before it is all personal preference, & unfortunately trial & error is part of it. BTW... I shoot 70lbs. 28" draw, 320 fps, 400 grain arrows, Rage 2-blade, & a whole trophy room of results...

-South

To each their own, I guess (it a confidence thing). It's tough for me to comment on fix blade performance-I've never killed an animal using one. I've tried time in and time out to get them to fly with my desired percision (to my abilities) from my bows. They're hardly a comparision head to head with mechanicals. In terms of accuracy, a fix blade won't open either if you can hit em.

Here's my pudding...not a single animal taken with a fix blade.

http://www.gohuntingandfishing.com/u...eberry/gallery

I do agree with Howler though. Mechanicals are not for everyone, and then again, neither is bowhunting.

One last thing I want to toss into the mix. We all forget that animals spend their entire lives trying to survive. What makes people think they'll just stop once a hole has been placed thru em? Regardless of the broadhead, life's little battles aren't perfectly scripted. I double lunged a bull a few years ago. I used a second follow up arrow and hit the bull through the neck severing his jugular vein. I found him dead 3/4 of a mile away, according to my gps and as the crow flys. This was a testiment to this animal's strength and tenacity.

We can bicker all we want via the internet, but the bottom lines is, "do due diligence"! Research products, test them, and enter the woods with confidence in your gear. Enjoy the precious time God has given you. Connect the dots and make changes if necessary.

a lot of times elk can be in meadows with high weeds or brush. if and expandable catches something on the way and does a nosedive you will cry.