Here's a smaller hole. Same style muzzy. This deer only went 15 yards. (took three jumps, stopped, looked around, fell over)



arrow at impact spot. that has to make you smile.


one jump from the impact


two jumps later. smaller hole but I'm not complaining.

I was posting when yours popped up. You take yours further to the extreme to explain it so hopefully everbody understands the difference between cutting surface and cutting diameter.

Christine.....serious question. (And great shooting by the way)

Which head would you want in that animal if that little hole was at a spot slightly quartering to you where it nicks the liver and ends up squarely in the stomach: A 1"three blade fixed head, or a 2"three blade mechanical?? (any brand, make one up)

Thats the point for these big cutting diameter heads........a good shot is a good shot and I don't think cutting diameter, or cutting surface or tip styleor the Earth being aligned with Pluto is gonna change the fact that an animal is going to die quicky and bleed a bunch. But when the rubber meets the road on a deer that took a step just as you released that arrow, I wantbigger blades and aBIGGER hole.

Only two more pictures.


First is with an old digital so the quality sucks but you can kind of see the hole. This dink buck went 30 yards. (but to be fair, he ran into a tree and fell over. He might have gone a whole 50 yards if not for the tree) Major blood trail, tho' short. More to do with shot placement than broadhead.

Check out that awesome XI Demon I was shooting in '04. (with a huntmaster 2000 rest and calf hair glove)





Finally, I leave you with this awesome hole. That's some serious trick shooting there. 37 ft pounds of energy is not enough to push a muzzy through a tree and into a deer.

Matt, Certainly there could be situations where extra cutting diameter would help. However, I think those times are more rare than many folks here think. There are bones and deflections to add into the picture. From video that I've seen, deer shot with the big expandables also tend to react more violently to the hit, causing them to run like scalded cats. I'd rather have a deer with a smaller hole stop, look back and then die in a short distance than run on adrenline for another 100 yards.

These are just my personal observations. I don't actually have anything against the rage or other big expandables. I only hope folks don't use them and start getting careless with shot placement. ( I saw the remains of a gut shot deer that was shot with a two-blade rage. It was just as unrecovered (in a timely manner) as it would have been with any other head. I have a trail cam picture of a live deer with an arrow in it that was tipped with a rage broadhead. It was probably less likely to survive with bigger wound... but it was still alive a week later. Bad, bad shot placement. Not the rage's fault at all... but you see what I'm saying)


I'm down to 40lbs now. There's no way I can shoot any mechanical.

Can I answer too?

Obviously the mechanical since it isexactly twice as big in diameter and total cutting ability (or surface).
But a three blade 1.375" diameter vs. a two blade 2" diameter, flip a coin.
Or... a three balde fixed1.5" diameter vs. a 2 blade 2" diameterI will take the fixed 1.5" three blade head.

I guess I'll throw in my 2 pennies...The hog hunt I went on a week and a half ago really opened my eyes on the effectiveness of mechs. My group was a mix of trad and compound shooters. 2 blade COC, three bladed replaceable, and mechs were all used. Who had the best and shortest bloodtrails? The Spitfire users, by far. Me and another Silver Flame user made good shots w/ passthrus, but our hogs left very little blood on the ground and they kept truckin' for a little while. The trad shooters had similar experiences. I believe they were shooting Zwickeys and Phatheads. The biggest hog, about 350 lbs, was shot with a spitfire from a 60lb compound and and the woods was painted red.
I may nothave enough punch for a Spitfire, but I will at least be packing a multiblade head for now on. The Flames will be reserved for the really big stuff like elk.

Good to read, I'll be using a Spitfire for the 1st time this fall.

The same could be said for fixed blades...poor down range accuracy, planing, smaller cutting diameter, etc, etc.

Bottomline, stop trying to understand why other people do things and concentrate on those things that work for you. If fixed blades work, by all means use them. If they give you the confidence to get the job done, then brilliant! Obviously, I gather fromthe quote above, you have already made up your mind as to which type of broadhead you're using. Go with that decision and grow.

On the other hand, I will gladly show you photograph after photograph of all the problems I've had with mechanicals...they seem to be stacking up.

Matt and TFOX, I like your responses.

LOL.....

Wise words from the most accomplished hunter on this site.