I have been hunting with fixed blades the last few years and do love them. However, I see the value in both. That’s why this year going after caribou in the open tundra expecting longer shots in the wind I am taking mechanicals as my primary and fixed as my backup for closer shots (especially if shooting through tall grass).
You get a better blood trail with a clean pass-through, even if the whole isn’t as big. If an animal knows it’s in danger it releases an enzyme into the bloodstream to coagulate the blood so they won’t bleed out. If you get a pass-through they won’t know what happened. A lot of times they will run ahead but stop and try to figure out what happened
There's always so much that can be said here. I think it not only depends on what animal you're hunting but how much velocity your bow is sending down range. With a higher poundage bow you can get away with a lot more. With lower poundage and lower draw weight you have to make up that momentum somewhere... I feel like using a mechanical at that point is not a great idea unless you're shooting small animals like Texas whitetail, cous deer, antelope, etc.
Kinda crazy on the situation side of things. I arrowed a bull at 23 yards back lungs with a fixed slick trick with just the veins sticking out. And the following year I arrowed a bull high lungs at 54 yards with a grim reaper pro series 3 blade and got a complete pass through arrow even stuck into the dead fall.
Nothing wrong with using expandable unless you are using them because you are unable to tune your bow. Have used expandables for over 30 years and will keep using them.
Using a mechanical limits your shot opportunities by so much. No hard quartering shots no frontals and so much that could go wrong. The animal your hunting deserves certainty that your broadhead won’t fail. Find a sharp fixed blade that flies incredibly well and call it a day
The end was spot on, shoot what ever works for you and if you listen to someone, make sure they know what they are talking about! Keeping killing it Dan!
Good topic guys. Not sure I heard structural integrity mentioned. The broadheads must survive impact and stay razor sharp through the animal. Blood trails are not predictable and if we shoot animals up front lower third where all the goodies are, they die and you see them go down which is way better than praying for a blood trail. May be good to have a vet or wildlife biologist on to discuss this topic. Thank you.
I shot a mule deer at 50 yards and doubled lunged that thing with a Sevr 2.0 and the broadhead passed through by the arrow stuck in it. Itty bitty little drops of blood. I think that whitetail are my maximum size animal to even consider a mechanical broadhead. I played around with many broadhead before that mule deer hunt and I wish I would’ve used the Exodus. They flew well but I psyched myself out that they would plane in the high winds of Wyoming and didn’t bring them along. The wind was dead calm when I shot that mule deer and I’m sure the Exodus would’ve done better.
These conversations haven’t changed much in 2 decades. From your post, I’m not sure what happened. Are you saying you double lunged with a complete pass through and didn’t recover the deer? If so, you didn’t double lung the deer. Fixed Broadheads favor weaker setups, if you have a strong setup, your choice of Broadheads won’t matter much, except in a few situations. Shot placement will always be the most important in determining your results.
i wouldn't even use a mechanical on a whitetail any longer, i did for years when i was a kid, shooting low poundage and shorter draw (wasn't properly tuned) and did ok, but with higher poundage bows mechanicals ALWAYS break.
@@MrRazorback1975he was saying the arrow was still in the deer not allowing blood to get out either side even though the sevr was poking through the opposite side. 2 holes will always be better than 1 & you don’t want the arrow plugging up the wound by staying stuck inside the animal
I’m new to bow hunting I’m gonna use a gold tip pro 406 grain 340 spine about 66 # 28 1/2 draw 29 in arrow with a 2 inch grim reaper mechanical for black tail
I think you both had some good points. I have had to good of luck with the expandable to change. The fixed three blade does work good. I just never felt with the winds we have it could work with my current bow. My previse bow yes. I miss it should have never gotten rid of it. That being said I use a chisel head. It has never let me down on elk. I always loos an arrow cause when it comes out the other side it only goes so far and stops and it always gets destroyed by the time I get to the animal. Thanks for sharing.
I been a fixed head guy since day 1 cuz that’s just the way Idaho is but after they changed it to mechanical heads I started shooting sevr 1.5 and they crush the deer and elk I have shot and I took them to Africa with me and got 6 plans game animals with them I think is all shot placement if u shoot for shoulder your not making it in the lungs fixed head or not
I been a fixed head guy since day 1 cuz that’s just the way Idaho is but after they changed it to mechanical heads I started shooting sevr 1.5 and they crush the deer and elk I have shot and I took them to Africa with me and got 6 plans game animals with them I think is all shot placement if u shoot for shoulder your not making it in the lungs fixed head or not
I been a fixed head guy since day 1 cuz that’s just the way Idaho is but after they changed it to mechanical heads I started shooting sevr 1.5 and they crush the deer and elk I have shot and I took them to Africa with me and got 6 plans game animals with them I think is all shot placement if u shoot for shoulder your not making it in the lungs fixed head or not
I like both takes! However on a fixed blade you will need more vane which means more noise regardless of how well you tuned your bow. Every arrow better be tuned the same or they will not impact the same at distance. There is something to be said about down range noise between a fixed (vented) and a mechanical . And the most important factor is accuracy (then sharpness) in my opinion, and I believe a fixed requires more perfection behind the bow than a mechanical which means forgiveness in accuracy is favorable to mechanical. Although I have killed animals with both, a well built mechanical wins for me, whatever hits behind the pin when Im less than perfect is where I tend to want to be. But I also have fixed blades on my wife’s setups, she’s not shooting very far and not a lot of poundage so cut on contact fixed wins for her.
