Todd1700

Wow, where to start. First of all if a Rage head failed to open it would pass through a deer more easily as it would remain a much smaller, slimmer diameter. I'd love to hear the explanation on the physics behind how an unopened Rage would reduce penetration. Sorry but that doesn't even begin to make sense right off the bat.

Second, if I had a dollar for every "perfect hit" claim on a difficult to find deer that when eventually found turned out to be "Uh Oh", not so well hit. I could take everyone in this thread out for lobster and have money left over to leave a nice tip. Sounds to me like you hit the shoulder bone. A direct hit on the shoulder bone (despite what many think) will typically stop even fixed blade heads. Standard Rage heads have a huge 2 inch cutting diameter that probably would not make it through that bone unless fired from a very powerful set up.

Penetration issues are affected by where you hit the animal, how well tuned your bow is, and the amount of kinetic energy your bow is generating. Without knowing these things I can't really go any further.

Stonewall308

Just go with the muzzys.

They hit in nearly the exact same place as my field points. I just don't know why people even bother with mechanical broadheads. I've yet to have a single problem with good ol' fashioned muzzy 100 grain fixed blades.

wilk

i think its fine no matter what anyone says, its up to them but for me i will stick with rage, i have shot deer with them since they first came out and i was so impressed with the size hole that i will never switch to any other, my friends starting using them and love them, so its each to there own, but no way am i switching,

huntingkidPA

thats true. but with any mechanical why not check to see if they do work? i never said they dont open with the brand new orings. they did for me. i just did what made me feel a little more comfortable and loosen it up a bit. i didn't have one of them not open up, target shooting or in the field.

legacyhunter

Not putting you down or anything, but like Todd1700 said unless you have the deer on the ground you would be surprised at how "perfect the shot" was regardless of broadhead. Have helped friends who said the shot was perfect and behind the shoulder and after long and tedious track jobs discovered not so perfect shots. Broadhead choice is an individual thing. Have seen many more lost deer from friends using fixed blades than I have heard of from rages. I have shot 4 deer so far with them and all were complete passthroughs. No deer went farther that 30 yards. But once again if you have no confidence in them use something different. Good luck on your next one.

TX_Hoghunter

I did not read it all but I have shot somewhere between 15 and 20 animals with rages. All but 1 were pass thoughs and it was a severe quartering away shot that got 23 inches of penetration. With any mass produced product I guess there can be a problem but I have never had one with them. I did try the new Monitec T3's this year and was not satisfied with their performance.

I shoot a Mathews Drenlin 27 1/2 inch draw set at 64 pounds.

-john

Leverdude

Sure it does. There are no cutting edges exposed when theyre shut. I'd imagine it would act similar to a judo point because the geometry thats designed to catch & slide the blades back would catch & slow the arrow instead.

That said I have trouble seeing. one failing to open.

nodog

Don't bother with the fighting, it will come no matter what. You did what you could and it didn't work out. Learn something and move on.

I've seen rage heads and not a one of them had a problem opening, staying closed was and is the problem I have with them.

Sorry you lost a deer, I hate that.

browtine7

I personally think yall are crazy saying that rage is junk, I killed a 110 pound doe this morning with one and a blind man could have followed the blood trail. She only went about 75 yards, I have been useing them for 3 years now and killed about 8 deer with them and have had 0 problems

GMMAT

When I was shooting a compound, I shot the rage heads for a little over a year. I had mixed results, but still took 12 whitetails with them.

ALL of the problems I experienced with these heads could have been avoided. I blame no one but myself.

First of all, I was shooting arrows that were too stiff for my setup (65# Bowtech). The lesson here is....the amount of FP's of KE you're supposed to be shooting (based solely on the calculators) can be a far cry from what you're actually getting...ESPECIALLY at range (POI). I can easily see an arrow tipped with any BH not getting optimal penetration especially if shot placement isn't optimal.

Your setup is producing (IMO) enough KE (or, it should be) to shoot these heads. The mktg. of these heads lends hunters to believe that "hitting the same place as my FP's" is good enough to go hunting. That's a misnomer......a HUGE misnomer.

IMO, if people shooting mechanical BH's would go through the steps of BH tuning with a large, fixed-blade BH...before ever screwing one of these mechanical heads on, we'd not see nearly as many threads like this one.

FTR, I never had an issue with a head not deploying. And, at $40/pkg, I re-used heads over and over.

Good luck with the rest of your season. Whichever head you choose to employ from now on, please go through the steps of properly BH tuning your bow/arrow combination. You and your quarry (well, you anyways!) will be glad you did.