That was from my first post, and what I am basing my comments on. Of course their are lessor quality and poorly designed mechanicals out there, just as there are fixed heads. If a person has performed due dilligence in selecting a head that addresses " reliability, penetration, angle, and KE requirement" , and such heads DO exist, then the difference is moot or we can move our discussion to how far into the dirt the fixed or mechanical penetrated after passing through the prey...

My bow is tuned to the point that it will shoot both fixed and mechanicals accurately. I prefer to shoot at a level of speed that gives me an increased yardage advantage with my pendulum sight, so I choose a larger cut mechanical to also give me the advantage of better blood trails should reliance on them become necessary upon a poor shot (crap happens). It would prove much more difficult to get a 1.5" diameter fixed head to fly true at 294 fps than it does a quality mechanical...

The days of the knee jerk reaction of assuming ALL mechanical heads are inferior to their fixed counterparts are over, in my opinion...

That is not its " true diameter"

That is a measurement of two points on its true diameter - but NOT its diameter.

Yes if you measure it this way you will get a smaller measurement than its advertised true diameter - but its diameter is still 1 1/4" .

Excellent illustration R A... similar to what I was suggesting some time ago on a thread concerning cutting diameter.

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Navy, your point on a hole versus a slice is still well taken. Properly placed, both with still kill a deer. However, a slice is potentially more susceptible to closure or clogging than a hole, making a quality bloodtrail a potential issue.

No doubt they will both kill deer. Killing and finding are sometimes entirely different issues...

I' m going to avoid the mechanical vs. fixed debate, but I would like to add in something that was missed with the " compass" analysis.

One advantage that " chisel-tipped" broadheads (i.e., muzzy construction) have over cut-to-tip heads is that they produce holes much larger than the diameter of their blades. The tip on these heads is designed to pull in tissue rather than slice through cleanly, so that when the blades pass through, they' ve essentially " reached out" wider than their diameter.

Think of it this way: With one hand, make a circle with your index finger and thumb (the OK sign.) Drape a tissue, etc. over the circle. Now, imagine that your other index finger is a chisel-tip broadhead with blades starting at the second knuckle. Push the " broadhead" into the tissue, through the circle you' ve made. Watch how the tissue is gathered in as the " broadhead" penetrates, and notice at what point the " blades" (your knuckle) would begin to contact the tissue. Once the tissue would be cut, you could flatten it back out and the hole cut would be much larger than the diameter of the blades.

Just something extra to consider...