Greatdane

In my few years of bowhunting(4) I have had kills and recently some non-fatal shots with mechanical heads (I shoot a MQ1 29" draw, carbons ). The questions that I want to know are the following:

Are fixed blades more forgiving that mechanicals?
(i.e. if you place it in the wrong spot what will yeild more damage)

What gives a better blood trail?

How do a good fixed blade head fly?(i.e Muzzy) How perdictable is their flight pattern?

What heads inflict more damage?


I thank-you for your insight and your thoughts!!!

stick shooter

Well I will put in my 10 cents. I shot a doe the other day with muzzy 4 blade 90 grain. She was quartering away, the range was about 40 yards. I shot her a glancing blow to her left shoulder. I didnt know that until later. I never did find the arrow. There was fresh snow and there was blood all over. I waited an hour, tracked her to a thicket where she immediately ran again to another thicket. Blood everwhere, easy trailing. I went to the house about 3 hours got my partner, my wife (haha). We bumped her out of the thicket, she staggered to another thicket, again leaving a heavy blood trail. I waited and followed where I shot her. On examining her, there was a vicious wound on her shoulder, not a killing wound. Heavy bood every where she went. I got her. Those muzzys fly good for me with my Mathews Ultra 2 set at 70 lbs. It shoots about 280 fps with a Beman 400 ics at 28 inches long. I use a drop away rest to get good feather clearance. Alot of helical on the feathers. Those muzzys cut good too!!!!

tbonecpa

I have taken about 12 deer with a muzzy 90 gr head and 1 with a shockwave. They both fly very nicely at high speed and seem to leave an adequate blood trail. The difference lies in the durability. The mechanical caused me to hesitate on a shot a week ago because the buck was quartering to me. If it was a muzzy on the end of my arrow I would have launched it immediately. At 90 lbs KE the penetration of the muzzy is crazy. It will bust right through a whitetail shoulder, I have done it. Luckily the buck turned a little more and I put the shockwave through both lungs. Nice blood trail, good penetration but I put the muzzy' s back on my arrows when I got home. I don' t want to question the integrity of my broadhead at a critical time. I simply want to pull back, pick a spot, and let it fly.

5 shot

Go to www.broadheadtests.com and read my section on Mech vs fixed. it offers some of my opinions on the subject and what I feel the criteria for making the right choice are.

PABowhntr

I have not read Chris' s web page yet but I am sure it will probably say the same or something similar to what I am about to post. It is nice to see you put it all together now Chris.

1. No, actually mechanicals are more forgiving of shooting errors and/or tune on any given bow since their is no significant exposed blade area during flight.

1a. Yes, but only if it is a larger cutting diameter mechanical.

2. In my opinion, again the mechanical provided it has a larger cutting diameter. The energy needed to open the blades fully also tends to punch more of a hole in the deer rather than just to slice along the blades.

3. I have found Muzzys to fly relatively well compared to both mechanicals and other fixed/replacement blade style heads. In fact, they would be my head of choice if we are talking about non-expandable heads.

4. Again, provided we are talking about large cutting diameter expandables and adequate KE levels the mechanical will inflict more damage for the reasons I listed above.

But, just to relate the downside....mechanicals are not a cure all for a poorly tuned bow and relatively high levels of KE are needed for most of the ones currently on the market.

TreePhantom

A lot of people say they loose animals because mechanicals did' nt open. They claim " perfect" shots. I don' t believe this. You can kill a deer w/ a field point. It happens every year. Someone pulls out their " small game" arrow on accident.

I used to shoot expandibles. I never had any bad experiences. I switched because I did' nt always get a passthrough. I want 2 holes not 1. Also, someday I want to hunt larger game. I don' t want to tinker around between seasons.

I now shoot Muzzy 100 4bld. (have' nt used one yet). Used to shoot the 3 bld. Performed great. I shoot a drop-away w/ 4" RH feathers and my arrows fly awesome.

It really depends on what you want your arrow to do. JMO

Orions_Bow

If you shoot a deer through both lungs then it really dosn' t matter which broadhead you use!

I like fixed better but I have used mechanicals & they will work too. either way I think shot placement is the number 1 factor, a nice tuned setup is next! I have seen some junk mechanicals & some junk fixed & either way both are not as affective as they could or should be.

I think a lot of people get mechanicals because they will hit for them but they still do not get a good tune on the bow & arrow combo. When that arrow hits the target at a funky angel due to a poor tune you get really bad penetration - even with a fixed. I can' t count hopw many times I have seen guys shooting mechanicals about of a poorly tuned bow & then wonder why they lost their deer or had poor penetration.

BHS

Friday was a great day for me. Using a 62 lbs. Legacy shooting carbons with 125 gr. NAP Spitfire, I dropped a doe at 22 yards with a spine hit at approx. 7:30am, and had a double lung pass through on a 5 point at 8:00am from roughly 15 yards. He ran about 50 yards and piled up. I fully endore the mechanical Spitfire.

stuckinthereeds

For me, it comes down to what I am hunting. If I am going for deer, I use a fixed broadhead. You want it to comeout the other side and give you a not only knowledge on what kind of hit it was, but also a good blood trail.

I use mechanicals for say turkey hunting. I don' t want the arrow to go all the way through so having more of a stopping availibility is good.

buck-i

vortex have been my choice for three years great blood trails and no problems with pass throughs.if i ever hunt with fixed blades, wasp or steelforce get my vote.