In my limited experience, I prefer "fixed" hands down. The Montec G5 is a winner.

I agree on the merits of fixed blade broadheads -- I've actually had good experience with Thunderheads.

Slick Tricks

You are talking about whitetail deer, they are not driving around in a MRAP wearing body armor with plates. You made the best point for mechanicals yourself when describing the massive wound channel.
The price point is moot. It is not as if we get to shoot 50 deer a year. You also have to tune your broadheads and I wll not use a broadhead that has been shot into a target numerous times. Mechanicals like rage typically shoot very close if not spot on with target points so less are needed for practice and tuning is faster. Time saved is money saved.
The best reason of all is a gushing wound channel, quick blood loss and accuracy. You can't put a price on easy tracking, if needed, and recovery.

Just for the record I only use 100 gr muzzy broadheads, I am just in the mood to argue :)

I switched to Rages for one main reason I've yet to read here: I'm color blind. Yep, be it blood trails or morel mushrooms, I HAVE to find that first drop/roon and "tune" my eyes to it, then I can go to town. The massive blood trails mech's provide help me as a color-blind hunter. I could care less about shooting deer at 40 yards or more. I just don't want to lose a blood trail due to my eyes not "seeing" it. Once I find it, I'm on it till it ends. That's why I switched. The cost is not that much more but the piece of mind is very valuable to me. I shoot many deer, but a large majority are with a rifle or muzzleloader. The one or two I may shoot in a year with a bow deserve to be found, and a massive blood trail is the best way for me to find them. That being said, I've done very well with fixed in the past, it just helps to have a "non-color-blind" buddy handy to help me track.

I agree completely with your analysis, so no shooting down will occur from me!

I prefer mechanical but I completely agree with the logic above. Where I hunt there are plenty of hogs and if I get a chance at one within 50 yards during whitetail season then arrows are flying, so mechanical are commonly my choice. In my case i'm not concerned with spending some extra sheckles on the rage and having to replace them more often. I've heard the schacker mechanical are decent, does anyone have any experience with them they could share?

@FirstBubba: I used the montec G5 CS, one of them curled over just shooting my black hole targe, they seems very un-durible to say the least

145grn Bear broadheads for the first 20 years, 125grn 3 blade Muzzy's for the past 20-I won't switch again!

Nothing flys better then a Mech head. I dont care how tuned your bow is. My Strother Wrath can shoot any fixed blade broadhead with my field points out to 50 yards.

BUT, the Mech heads are much more forgiving and less effected by bow torque that is induced in hunting situations.

Bow hunting is a game of accuracy, just shoot whatever you have the most confidence in that you can put in the vitals.

That being said, I carry Slick Trick Mags and Rage 2 blade Chisel Tips in my quiver.

I've been using ThunderHead fixed blade broad heads made by NAP for years and they have never let me down, even on an unfortunate shoulder shot several years ago. My curiosity about mechanical broad heads definately been somewhat satisfied reading this artical.

I hunt where there is a lot of brush and shrub-like trees. Too much potential for a mechanical to snag and open meaning I spend more time putting it back together than hunting. My Muzzy's fly as straight as I can shoot them within my 40 yard kill range.

Fixed blades all day everyday. No need to worry about misfunction. Just line up the shot, take deep breath, aim, and release. I believe in simplicity when it comes to bow hunting. The less mechanical equipment I have to depend on the better off I figure I am.

To each his own. However, it doesn't matter if you use mechanical, fixed or sharpened flint rocks. If you don't practice regularly and try to take 30-40+ yard shots, your not going to get good performance out of either since you will probably shoot the deer in the a$$.........

Thanks for the comments, guys. The point of this post wasn't to compare the performance of mechanicals against fixed blades. Shooting deer isn't a science, and most of those comparisons are anecdotal and subjective. For every story of failure of one type of broadhead, you can find a success story to counter it. I've killed a bunch of deer with both styles. I've also wounded and lost deer with both styles.

Some broadheads just fly better out of certain setups than others (though I was talking Muzzys in this post, Montecs actually fly a little better out of my current setup; I just have more hunting experience with the Muzzys). The point of the post is, if you're a whitetail hunter and you shoot several animals in a season, the added cost and hassle of maintaining mechanical heads isn't worth any of the marginal advantages they may have.

Oh yeah, and you can get 6 Muzzy's for the same price as 3 Rage's or 3 Swhackers! Muzzy's are 'Bad to the Bone' but easy on the checkbook!

Rage bought muzzy. They also own nocturnal.

i shoot fixed three blade redhead balckouts...they are extremely cheap, and they kill extremely well. i have a box of replacement blades and it takes me about 1 minute to replace all three blades. they fly exactly where my field points do and i have no intentions of changing. my dad on the other just bought a new z7, couldnt get any fixed blades to hit where his field points did. he went out and bought some rages and walla accuracy problem solved, just waiting to see how the rages perform on whitetail.

A good fixed every time. I've shot Magnus Stinger 4-Blade, both regular and Buzzcut for seven years running. Doubtful that I will change. Accuracy is really, really good good. I have yet to have any animal go further than 47 yards. Practice with them out to 80 yards right alongside my field points with only about an inch difference. About long, windy shots out West? I have news, field tips and mechanicals blow right off course past 25 yards in wind, so wit for a better shot.

For something to be useful or worth any inherent risks, the thing it replaces has to be lacking something. That's not the case here.

My experience with mechanical heads (many styles) is this - they can fail to open properly and make for a long track, or they can open properly and not kill deer any faster than a fixed blade head. The shortest dashes after the shot I've seen weren't from mechanicals.

Some argue that they provide more accuracy and ease for making a good shot at longer ranges or just in general. Sounds great, but a perfect shot is no good when the mechanical head invariably fails at some point.

Personally, I don't see the accuracy problem with fixed broadheads. If you're shooting at reasonable archery ranges, they're just fine. Deer have big lungs. Even when practice shooting at less than reasonable ranges, I can still hit my mark.

They are an answer to a question that was never asked.

OOps-- Hank and I. Almost left Hank hanging there!

Fifty years of bowhunting experience has me filling my quiver with fixed broadheads. I was soured on the mechanical type early on.

I switched from Rage 1.5's to Montec G2 carbon steel and I recommend that all of do the same. If you think Rage broadheads have issues and are finicky, try putting the replacement blades on and see how they function. Here's the thing I have personally shot through a deer and into rocky soil, pulled it out and without resharpening killed 2 more deer in the same fashion. The R.O.I. and the wicked tough edges continue to prove themselves, and if you have something better I will be happy to replace these. One one of them I had to reprofile the tip and touch up the edge with a file, it is not shaving sharp anymore, but toothy and efficient. Cheers.

I am a bow hunter and have been for quite some time and I totally disagree with this article! I shoot a PSE Firestorm that has 80 lbs of pull and I used to own a set of Muzzy fixed 4-blade broadheads to shoot. I had been hunting with them for the season but hadnt gotten a shot off yet with the Muzzys on my arrow until I bought a target that could take broadheads and field tips. I shot the Muzzy heads and EVER single shot sailed to the right. Now I'm not talking about an inch or 2, i'm talking about 3 inches to the right of center, and that was at 20 yards! Think about how much drift they would have at 40 or 50 yards. I thought I may just need to adjust the pins but they were dead on with field points. What did I do? I chunked them in the trash and bought some Rage 3 blade expandable broadheads and they shoot straight as field points. And for those who say they dont open or dont last, thats a crock of sh*t. These broadheads have torn thru loads of deer for me and I still hunt with the same broadhead that has passed thru several deer.
Apologies for the long winded response but those who hunt with compound bows should DEFINITELY use expandable heads. They fly so much straighter than fixed blades do from ANY yardage.

People who use mechanical broadheads also put bone collector stickers on there truck and have little peckers