Hey all, I've been kicking around a question lately and thought I would put it to the board of traditional experts. Mechanical broadheads?
Will the new models perform for those of us using the stick instead of the pulley?
I teach hunter safety in Michigan and I like to put out useful information to the new hunters before they get caught up in advertisement hype.

my personal opinion as an instructor here in Ak, No. Can they yes, but would I tell a new guy that, no! Reason being is most of them dont have enough knowledge in there equipment let alone know how to juice things up just to get the mech's to work 100% of the time. They might however work well on Whitetail deer, but if they start there you know what will happen, they'll try them on everything else too and I highly suspect there will be more lack of penetration issues on bigger game as some compounders are finding out the hard way up here on mid sized game. They are however deadly on turkeys from what a few friends are telling me. They are however all shooting compounds but I am sure they'd work great on the big bird as penetration isnt an issue, its not shooting through.

I think you will find that very few curve or lb shooters will entertain the idea of using mech heads. I know that I wouldn't use them and that is based on the personal experiences of people I know who tried name brand mech heads out of a high performace compounds and had multiple failures. Without exception they relegated the mechs to the garbage bin.

Speed and mass are factors in the penetration game and, while mass can be accounted for with a 'trad' bow, speed is not what it is with a compound. A cut on contact head, whether it is a solid two blade or a replaceable three blade, will always hold a more failure-proof advantage over a head that requires additional physical forces to operate correctly.

If all things are set up correctly on the wheel-less bow a fixed blade head will shoot "just like a field point" at hunting distances. Adhere to the 7P's and there is no need to try and cut a corner with mech's.

RC

(7P's: Proper Prior Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance)

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I wouldn't reccomend them at all, for any bow. Murphy's law comes on strong, and you don't need moving parts on the bussiness end of your arrow. They might work great for some people, but they have a greater chance for failure on ANY bow. This is why MUZZY won't produce a mechanical, even though they could make a mint on them. They have more respect for the game than they do for the dollar.

Chad

Long Bows Rule!

In hunter education we teach any things mechanical can fail, therefore never put all your trust in the safety on your gun or xtrud. IMHO this applies to broadhead also. Why take a chance on wounding and or losing a magnificent animal with some thing that "could" fail when there are plenty of very good and efficient broadheads out there.

Ted A. Young AKA COB