A friend of mine in Wi shoots nothing but the Rage broadhwad and swears by them, masive wound channels and and less trailing wounded deer however they are illeagle in my state.

i heard from a few peoople saying that more than once when they shot the broad heads at the deer they didnt open and the deer got away,though not injured. i dont think that i would trust shooting one while hunting

Set up a ballistic gel test or use wet phonebooks or sumething, then test test test with all types and fired at different speeds etc. like they do with riflebullets.. measure and compare and test extensively and come to your own conclutions based on the test results.. Basing it on "some say it works, some say it dont.." seems flimsy at best.. Dont make thousand of deer die suffering or not before any conclution is drawn.. If it works it works, if it doesnt it doesnt.. only testing extensively will tell.. and as with riflebullets even the best bullet in the world isnt gonna make up for a poor hit:P

I haven't tried them yet. They seem like just one more thing that could go wrong & regular broadheads with no moving parts seem to be working just fine. I'll just wait for a few of you to take ingebrigsten's advice. Let me know how the tests go so I'll know which brand to try.

In my mind, mechanical broadheads are another variable that can fail. I know some swear by them, by I've yet to have a fixed broadhead fail.

It's all about a little word called ETHICAL. Why would you ever use a mechanical broadhead when its possible for them to fail when you can use a fixed broadhead that will never fail and will always deliver a fast ETHICAL kill.

It's hard to argue with Walt Smith's logic on this--if they're not reliable ... he's got a point. I'll just let you guys test them for a while. Meanwhile, my broadheads are working just fine.

Mechanical Broadheads seem to fall foul of the KISS rule, I plan to stick with old fashioned fixed blades.

Back in the 70's and 80's I used bear razor heads and thunderheads. Had to give up the bow in 1993 due to a shoulder injury. Four years ago I was able to draw a Mathews so got back into bowhunting. I started out with Wasp Jackhammer over the top expandables. They blew thru everything but had small entrance and exit wounds. I finally lost a doe after a complete high pass thru and decided to change. I got on Ebay and bought about 6 or 7 brands of fixed B-heads and the Rage 2 blade. In every case the Rage was the most accurate so sold the others and went with Rage. In the last 3 years I have released 6 arrows at deer tipped with the Rage. One nice buck was hit in the shoulder blade and got away. Arrow broke off at the insert. Note that I also lost 2 deer in the old days with fixed blade heads that hit the shoulder blade. Anyway of the 5 other deer 4 had the arrow blow thru and all fell within sight of my stand. Blood trails were huge-like nothing I have ever seen. There is a photo on page 7 of a doe that was hit too far back with the Rage. Didn't matter she only made 56 yds and fell in sight. Note the size of the wound. You asked about a bad hit. Well that 5th arrow hit a big bodied 130 inch 10 pt buck. He was very close the shot angle was steep and the arrow hit high next to the shoulder blade and angled down into the chest missing one lung and the heart. The arrow fell out and I watched the buck run about 20 yards, stop, flick his tail , then walk out of sight. It was late and cool so I left and came back the next morning. My buck walked about 30 yards from where I last saw him and bedded facing his back trail. He was cold when I found him the next morning. His photo is on page 8 of my photo file. I just lifted his head where he lay for the pic. That buck bled out mostly internally. The bloodtrail did not start until the place where he stopped after the initial run. Most of the guys that disparage mechanicals don't say which one failed. Well there are good ones and bad ones just like there are plenty of fixed blade heads that are lousy. No head will kill if you don't put it in the right place. It seems to me the best chance for that is to use the most accurate head you can find that works. IMO that is the Rage 2 blade. Yes the blades sometimes deploy in my quiver or if the knocked arrow touches a twig. But I have never needed a second arrow.

I have a large collection of mech heads retrieved from deer I have harvested most never opened and they should have at least opened even though the hits were bad. Not too impressive. Use a fixed blade for best results.

I dont think it really matters regardless what type broadhead you use (fixed or mechanical) as long as you are taking good shots and chosing your shot placement carefully..just like it says in the article..you can kill a deer with a field point if you make a perfect shot

I did shoot thunderheads but had trouble with there flight. I wanted something that would fly more like my field tips. So last year I switched to spitfires and although they did fly very well I am not too confident with them based on last years results. I shot 4 deer last year with the following results:
Doe - 15 yard shot, complete double lung pass through, worked great, ran 40 yards and fell over.
Doe - 30 yard shot, hit a little back, complete pass through, ran 50 yards, stopped then walked away, tracked great blood trail for 250 yards, then blood stopped and never found her.
11 point 4-year old - 25 yard shot, lung shot, one blade didn't open so no pass through, good blood trail, recovered 60 yards from shot.
Doe - 30 yard shot, another failure in opening, poor blood trail, had to come back in morning to recover, ran 100 yards, destroyed by coyotes.

I've shot deer with the mechanicals and have never had a problem. I've used the Rockets and the NAP three blade. Both have worked very well. That being said, I prefer the 100 gr. Thunderhead to everything that I've shot. You can make this head fly exactly where your field points hit with the proper tuning and arrow spinning. The Thunderhead will penetrate exceedingly well and holds together on tough shots. I think that if you do decide to shoot mechanical heads, you should shoot more draw weight than is required for the fixed blade heads. I have never shot the Rage, but hear good things about it. I'm guessing that I've shot 30 or so deer with the Thunderhead and none have ever stayed it the animal.

i only shoot muzzy from day one, but i'm think of swiching to the rage just for the fact of the hole they make, i know people who shoot them ( rage ) & they love them, but i'm hung up on the bone brakeing power of the muzzy that i like.

WVHUNTER hit it on the head (no pun). Make the shot good and it doesn't matter what you're using.
I personally have used muzzys, Cabela's lazers. Had good luck with both - I have recovered fixed blades from deer and pigs before, so it can go both ways.

one word: M-U-Z-Z-Y, I shot one straight down through a doe years ago. Through the spine, the heart, the breastbone and into a root in the ground. (77 lb High Country bow shooting a 33 inch Easton 2514 aluminum with a muzzy 125 3 blade)

I've shot whitetails with both NAP Thunderheads and Spitfires. It seems to me that Spitfires don't seem to penetrate well on quartering-away shots, compared to Thunderheads. That said, I've had a complete pass through at 51 yards with a Spitfire, a broadside shot, with an arrow only going about 220fps, but the blood trail was poor and hard to follow. I stick to Thunderheads only now for whitetails, black bears and the like, and save the Spitfires for turkeys, where I don't want a pass through.

that looks like a real pic to me. looks like the arrow was stopped be the shoulder blade or the arm bone. just an unlucky shot for any type of broadhead.

I have always used fixed blade broadheads and will continue to use them after my cousin's bow season last year, he hit two does with expandable heads and neither one of them was recovered, two weeks later he went back to the G5 Montec and killed two nice bucks, recovered them without a problem.

I have been a big fan of G5 Montecs. All steel construction! Killed 5 deer with the same B.Head. Then I recieved some Rage for Christmas. They are devastating to whitetails! Kinda like the big butcher knife blowing through the deer. Always passthrough sometimes sticking in the dirt 5 inches. Never had one not open when shot. The only problem I have is you need to buy replacement blades. They usually bend after one deer, the ground doesn't help either. But talk about blood trails, short blood trails. Hit a doe far back, real far back she layed down after a 40 yard run and didnt get back up! Looked like someone carried a 5 gallon bucket of blood through the woods with no lid. And they were running! I like both styles of B.H. in the end. Just put them arrows where they count. Short blood trails to all bowhunters!

I have shot many fixed blade and expandible broadheads and have taken about 60 deer and as many pigs and turkey with a bow. My largest deer is 168 5/8" and the largest hog was over 700 lbs. I have settled in on 100 grain Spitfire (mechanical) broadheads. I have witnessed success and failure with both fixed and mechanical heads. In virtually every instance, the failures are attributable to poor shot placement poor arrow flight or other hunter or equipment issues. I believe it to be a rare case for a fixed blade broadhead to overcome a failure with a Spitfire just because it has a fixed blade. A dull, improperly tuned, or flimsy fixed blade is no good nor is the same with an expandible. I shot a 700+ lbs. hog at 40 yards with a 2 3/4" Vortex and got a complete pass through and clean kill. I shot a 140 lbs. Kansas doe at 30 yds. and clipped the left femur as the arrow buried into the right shoulder. The arrow traveled through the entire torso of the doe with a 100 grain Spitfire after the femur was completely severed as if it had been cut with a surgical saw. I have shot several 225-250 lbs. Kansas bucks with a 100 grain Spitfires, out to 36 yards, and got complete pass-thoughs while also burying the arrow into the dirt. I reuse the Spitfire ferrules over and over again, but always replace the blades with new ones. I find that the expandibles tend to leave much better blood trails, possibly due to larger exit holes. There are some "junk" expandibles as well as fixed blades on the market. The Spitfires and many other expandibles fly exactly the same a field tips. This is a great convenience for those who only have one bow and like to both hunt and target shoot. On longer shots, fixed blades require precise bow tuning and arrow spine, balance, and flight stability to shoot reliably, otherwise they are more likely to be erratic than most expandibles. It can be done, but many bowhunters do not have the knowledge, skill, or diligence to see it through. I personally think that if you are shooting 42-65 ft. lbs. of kinetic energy and attain good shot placement, you should be able to take any North American game with a Spitfire or other quality expandible broadheads. I believe that most, if not all, of the examples of mechanical broadhead failures are due to operator error involving shot placement, failure to replace dull blades, poor arrow spine or balance issues, inferior equipment, or poor archery or hunting skills. GWH

I have used and trusted my muzzy s for years. Since i bought my Mathews DXT I've had a problem getting my bow to tune with fixed broad heads. my arrows are corkscrewing bad. i am shooting carbon express 6075 arrows with a slight helical. I use a QAD ultra rest. everything is paper tuned and shooting correctly. I have been told by other Mathews owners they had to switch to mechanical broad heads for the same problem. i really don't want to go with the mechanical. i am looking at the Grim Reaper. Any thoughts or tips would be appreciated greatly...