Sorry to hear that you were not entirely pleased with the heads. Glad to see you got your deer though.

Spitfires are one of my favorite heads. I have had a pass through on every animal I have shot with them. Blood trails are massive too.

Mike........and your results have a great deal to do with the above.
That is a good choice of broadhead to compliment your set-up.
For the absolute best results time and again with Spitfires, that type of performance is a nice thing to be sporting.

(Well that and Texas deer only weigh on average........what about 15-20lbs?)

I am a great defender of mechanical heads. Most problems that people have with them are related to tuning issues or shooting one with too wide of a cutting diameter for the amount of KE their bow produces. That said, it has been my experience that Spitfires with their stiff blade retention clips and wide cutting diameter require a lot energy to achieve consistent pass throughs. My advice for a mech head would be get yourself some Rocket Steelheads in either 100 or 125 grain. The only trouble you will have with them is digging them out of the ground and tree stumps on the other side of deer.

The entrance wound on this animal was massive. It is what the exit wound normally looks like with and expandable. The blades and retainers where new and the blades seemed to open very easily.

What if the blades opened before they hit the deer?

The arrow should of passed through easier then right?

Spitfires have always worked well for my friends and I. I just made sure that I opened them a few times and that the retention area was clean. If you shoot them into a foam target, you MUST clean that area. The foam will build up in their and the blades won't open well

If you are worried about the retention spring, try the Scorpion XP's. Those babies are wicked. The 3 deer I shot with them only went 30 yards max! They have a cut-on-contact blade and use an O-Ring.

I amcurrently using some fixed blade heads just to try something new. I like to tinker too much!

I have shot 4 deer with spitfires 5yds, 17yds, 20 yds, and 30yds. All opened fine. My wife shot one last year with them and it never opened. Lost my confidence and in my opinion confidence is too important to bow hunting to lose. I will be shooting muzzy's this year.

Any thoughts guys?

I don't know I use both types. A deer dies from hemorrhaging. The bigger the hole the better for me. I like to be able to see them go down, that usually means a shorter drag. I go with the 2.5in. Vortex, or the 1.75in JakHammer.

Hey Bigjohn, the last two bucks I have shot have had that neat little triangle in their heart, just like yours. I love the spitfires.