Sorry about your first buck being a mess up you probably shoulda sat a little longer like the rest of them are saying. I use the Rage 2 blade mechanical broadhead and love them they are in my opinion much better than the muzzys I was shooting.

How were they better? What do they do a tuned bow couldn't do with the muzzys?

They group better for me and they leave a much better blood trail but im getting a 2" cut instead of a 1.5" cut so I guess thats why you get a better blood trail.

If they group better than fixed heads....that's telling me something.

If you look at ANY whitetail in NA.....8" of penetration (strategically placed) WILL make it into the pressurized cavity. They aren't that big of an animal.

Thanks for the words of advice guys. I keep beating myself up thinking about the what ifs. What if I would have just waited longer, what if I was shooting a fix blade, etc. I let my excitement and impatience get to me. I probably only waited 20 min to go look for him..I know..not very smart. I actually had a perfect broadside shot. I think when he turned his head to look my direction his front left shoulder retracted a little bit and I hit it. I think sometimes I aim a little far forward in fear of having a gut shot.

Hang in there. Lots of seasons to go. You did your best.

I last year, took a quartering to me shot and knew I shouldn't have. It only went 30 yards and dropped, but could have turned out differently just like yours. So I went complete cut on contact this year.

For me, one reason and one reason only: A 1 3/4" diameter three blade exit wound. Being colorblind, the more blood I have on the ground, the better my chances of finding it are.

Tough luck man, I dont care who you are if you hunt long enough it happens. Ive seen deer go forever on a one lung hit. It usualy does kill them but they can make it for a long time. I shot a small doe last year and hit her a tad high just clipping both lungs, and cut a major artery along the bottom of the spine. From my angle it looked good.There was blood spraying out as she ran off, but I had to sit in my stand and watch her flop around for close to 30 minutes before she fell into a creek and drowned. As for your choice in broadheads, rages are fine. Some people like bigcountry seem to be discusted with mechanicals which is fine but they do work. You just have to take into consideration the limitations of your equiptment. A mechanical isnt going to bust through a shoulder as relaibly as a fixed blade head but they still kill deer. I shot a big bodies 12 pointer with a G5 tekan last year and smoked both of his shoulders. He didnt go 40 yards.

The problem in mechanical heads is NOT inherent in the design. The problem is (and I'm not pointing a finger at anyone....unless it's ME) that most hunters don't know how to tune their bow/arrows correctly to shoot them (mech's).

An arrow with ANY BH on it....that isn't tuned....will sacrifice a LOT of it's energy, upon impact. Been there - Done that. The problem with mechanicals is.....you don't know you're not tuned, until you hit an animal. With fixed heads.....you'll know when they won't group.

I think anyone who's gonna shoot mechanicals....should tune to shoot fixed heads....THEN switch to the mech's.

I have been on this page for 10 years, and its the same story year after year after year. I went thru it in 98, and started using spitfires, A few close calls, and I said heck with that. As long as I tune my bow, I can penetrate better and not have the "if I only used a fixed head" thoughts.

I mean how many posts over the years have you seen talking about poor blood trails and lack of penetration from a thunderhead? Or Muzzy 4 blade?