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25% off broad heads at Grizzlystik

Same point of impact?


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At 60 the timber sharks hit about 1 1/2" higher, I'm assuming that's because of the weight difference, but out to 40 yards which is farthest I'll shoot at a deer they hit the same POI.
 
Dang it. I saw this earlier today, checked the site and saw the mark downs. Went online about 6pm and the sale was expired. Oh well, better luck next time
 
Overkill Samurai 125gr for me.
Used them last year and was impressed with every aspect, from ease of sharpening to blade durability through bone. Put the same head through two deer and can still shave with it. Got to be the best bang for the $$$ for a single bevel broadhead.

hows the blood trail and be honest. I’ve never once gotten a good blood trail from fixed blades and I’ve never once seen an expandable fail to provide a fantastic blood trail. And they die within eyesight to boot.

I want to shoot fixed blade. I believe they are better if I hit shoulder and they will never fail to open like an expandable, but I just can’t bring myself to move away from mechanical when the blood trails are insane compared to fixed.

so how was it? Help me make the switch. Murder scene blood trails or shty blood trails like most honest people say when they answer this question lol. Even ranch fairy says the blood trails are not as good.
 
I killed three deer with fixed blades last season.

The first was a doe broadside at 22 yards hit with a Magnus Black Hornet Ser-Razor. She jumped at the hit, ran maybe 20 yards then stopped and stood still for a few minutes looking around before slowly walking off. The blood trail started from the point where she stood and continued right to where I found here 70 yards away. I have pics of the blood trail because it looked like the double yellow parallel lines on a road except these were painted red. I'll post when I find the pics.

The buck I shot was at 18 yards with a Samurai 125gr single bevel. He hunched his back/tensed up at the hit and just stood there for a minute then walked ten yards and dropped so I didn't need or look for a blood trail.

The second doe was a bad hit due to shooter error plain and simple. The same Samurai 125gr single bevel broke her pelvic bone and part of her spine before breaking two ribs on exit. She took off running with her rear legs not working too well and didn't stop until she piled up 90 yards away. I easily followed the blood at dusk without a flashlight.

The deer's lack of reaction on two of the hits is what really impressed me with the fixed blades. It seemed like they were confused about what just happened at impact. I've shot mechanicals my whole life and every single deer that I hit took off running like their a** was on fire and didn't stop running hard until they finally expired. Those deer most definitely felt the whack of the impact and the blades deploying. I don't think a mechanical would have penetrated or survived that pelvic bone hit on that second doe.

So getting back to your concern of blood trails, I believe it matters more on where the arrow enters and exits than what broadhead you do it with provided the arrow passes through the vitals or a highly vascular area. A low exit will usually give a blood trail almost immediately, the higher the exit the longer it takes for blood to exit because it is filling the inside cavity until it reaches the height of the exit hole. At that point the deer could have traveled quite far without leaving a trail for you to follow.

I will never shoot a mechanical again. I like stacking the deck in my favor and I feel the benefits of using a fixed blade instead of a mechanical far outweigh the possibility that I may have a poor blood trail.

Hope this helps with your decision.
 
Blood trail from the Magnus Black Hornet Ser-Razor hit doe. Need a better trail than that? The other doe hit with the Samurai was more spray/murder scene type but I didn't take pics.

blood trail 1.jpgbloodtrail 2.jpg
 
hows the blood trail and be honest. I’ve never once gotten a good blood trail from fixed blades and I’ve never once seen an expandable fail to provide a fantastic blood trail. And they die within eyesight to boot.

I want to shoot fixed blade. I believe they are better if I hit shoulder and they will never fail to open like an expandable, but I just can’t bring myself to move away from mechanical when the blood trails are insane compared to fixed.

so how was it? Help me make the switch. Murder scene blood trails or shty blood trails like most honest people say when they answer this question lol. Even ranch fairy says the blood trails are not as good.
Once you go to a durable fixed blade COC that your can readily sharpen you won't go back. I've always like three blade broadheads I went to the VPA 150's last year, learned how to sharpen them on a flat file and diamond flat stock with different thicknesses and put the same arrow through deer you just clean, re-sharpen and I always coat mine with a thin film of mineral oil (odorless and bought cheap at your local drug store) and it is good to go again to use on another animal. Besides the most important factor of maximum penetration on game for that "Plan B" arrow situation the RF talks about, the less talked about factor with going to a durable COC on a heavier arrow build is that you can keep reusing many if not most of these heads over and over and over again. With mechanicals you're chuckin' most of them after you put them into a game animal in my experience. Yes your initial investment is more with a quality, durable well built COC fixed broadhead but you can reuse these heads for the most part many many times more than mechs IMHO.
 
hows the blood trail and be honest. I’ve never once gotten a good blood trail from fixed blades and I’ve never once seen an expandable fail to provide a fantastic blood trail. And they die within eyesight to boot.

I want to shoot fixed blade. I believe they are better if I hit shoulder and they will never fail to open like an expandable, but I just can’t bring myself to move away from mechanical when the blood trails are insane compared to fixed.

so how was it? Help me make the switch. Murder scene blood trails or shty blood trails like most honest people say when they answer this question lol. Even ranch fairy says the blood trails are not as good.
I've only killed 2 deer so I'm not that knowledgeable but I can give u my experiences with fixed blade. 1 single bevel moderate weight and 1 double bevel heavy weight. The single bevel the deer was broadside when I shot but was in the process of turning away from me and almost totally facing away from me when the arrow arrived. I see the arrow enter and then pop out onto the ground and the deer runs 10yds and falls over with blood spraying up onto the tree leafs. Plan b arrow did it's job and full pass thru down the length of the whole deer (small doe) and cut all the main cables in the neck so it was like the movies with high velocity blood spray
The double bevel was on an extreme foc heavy arrow. Hit was broadside a little back from my aim point but classic double lung. The deer (small doe) ran maybe 15 yds and stopped and just stood there looking around until she got dizzy and the lights turned out. There was blood on the ground in-between impact to where she fell but if u see them fall it doesn't really matter. I'm a total weekend warrior novice newbie whatever u want to call someone who hasn't been hunting very long. I've had 3 arrows I've shot outta my bow actually hit a deer. 1 mechanical that I didn't recover the animal when shot placement was good, 2 fixed blade with 1 good shot placement and the other the worst possible shot placement and 2 recovered animals.
 
hows the blood trail and be honest. I’ve never once gotten a good blood trail from fixed blades and I’ve never once seen an expandable fail to provide a fantastic blood trail. And they die within eyesight to boot.

I want to shoot fixed blade. I believe they are better if I hit shoulder and they will never fail to open like an expandable, but I just can’t bring myself to move away from mechanical when the blood trails are insane compared to fixed.

so how was it? Help me make the switch. Murder scene blood trails or shty blood trails like most honest people say when they answer this question lol. Even ranch fairy says the blood trails are not as good.

It all depends on where you hit the animal. As Ranch Fairy says, better to have a 60yd track job than a 200+ yd track job with alot of blood. I have two unrecovered deer from mechanicals but zero so far with fixed blade heads. Last year I hit a buck who was within 10yds with my fixed blade and he was immediately bleeding more than any deer I have shot in the past 5-6yrs. Don't have pictures, but placement was great and I must have severed some arteries because it was gushing... That shot went through both shoulders by the way , a shot that a mechanical probably wouldn't have gone all the way through on.
 
Once you go to a durable fixed blade COC that your can readily sharpen you won't go back. I've always like three blade broadheads I went to the VPA 150's last year, learned how to sharpen them on a flat file and diamond flat stock with different thicknesses and put the same arrow through deer you just clean, re-sharpen and I always coat mine with a thin film of mineral oil (odorless and bought cheap at your local drug store) and it is good to go again to use on another animal. Besides the most important factor of maximum penetration on game for that "Plan B" arrow situation the RF talks about, the less talked about factor with going to a durable COC on a heavier arrow build is that you can keep reusing many if not most of these heads over and over and over again. With mechanicals you're chuckin' most of them after you put them into a game animal in my experience. Yes your initial investment is more with a quality, durable well built COC fixed broadhead but you can reuse these heads for the most part many many times more than mechs IMHO.

that is super appealing, being able to reuse the head. I’m using the new rage no collars and now those are going $45 for a pack of TWO! Yowza. So the higher price of the food high FOC fixed blades will definitely be more affordable in The long run.

sounds like the blood trails are pretty good.

on the videos for the guys runnin them on YouTube the trails look lowzy. It’s such a hard decision for me. I’m torn
 
that is super appealing, being able to reuse the head. I’m using the new rage no collars and now those are going $45 for a pack of TWO! Yowza. So the higher price of the food high FOC fixed blades will definitely be more affordable in The long run.

sounds like the blood trails are pretty good.

on the videos for the guys runnin them on YouTube the trails look lowzy. It’s such a hard decision for me. I’m torn
Id give it a try. Started with mechs my first yr archery hunting about 7 yrs ago and switched to 3 blade fixed coc for a while. 2 yrs ago i went back to mechs and I switched back last year and im not interested in using mechs again. ive lost 3 deer with shoulder shots with mechs and blew through all the bones with my samurais last year on 4 out of 5 deer. one was a farther back double lung and she dropped not far anyway. Like others have said they just dont get that expandable "shock" and wont take off like a bat out a hell. Dont really know what happened n then boop theyre dead
 
I ordered some 125 silver flames. Like I said I have tried numerous broadheads fixed and expandables and have always went back to expandables. I hope these change my mind. The only real reason I am trying to change is my wife hunts to and she only shoots 50lbs.we have lost some deer that I thought should have died due to not much penetration. I am trying to figure out her perfect setup.
 
The only real reason I am trying to change is my wife hunts to and she only shoots 50lbs.we have lost some deer that I thought should have died due to not much penetration. I am trying to figure out her perfect setup.
For what it's worth, I had a 150gr Magnus Stinger Killer Bee go straight through two deer standing broadside last year. That was a 607gr TAW arrow out of a 53lb bow.
 
Well I've bowhunted now for 20 yrs and I was always taught when first starting out that lighter arrow for lighter poundage bows and everything has changed now. Which makes sense to me. Take a ping pong ball and throw into a mud puddle and see how far it goes. Now throw a golf ball into it and see the penetration distance. That's the best way I can comprehend penetration.
 
that is super appealing, being able to reuse the head. I’m using the new rage no collars and now those are going $45 for a pack of TWO! Yowza. So the higher price of the food high FOC fixed blades will definitely be more affordable in The long run.

sounds like the blood trails are pretty good.

on the videos for the guys runnin them on YouTube the trails look lowzy. It’s such a hard decision for me. I’m torn
Three years ago at 8 yards I shot a small eight pointer with my light arrow, 100 gr. three blade NAP spitfire mechanicals that I had been using since the early to mid 2000's. I shot my biggest ever buck this same bow, arrow and bh and that buck dressed 194. I shot him at 16 yards he went 35 but over a steep ravine and piled up. Ever since that buck I got cocky and the mechanicals were easy to tune so I stayed with them. On this buck three years ago, the blades deployed fine, the deer was recovered in 40 yards but what horrified me was the dismal penetration. Back in the day, before mechs I used aluminum 2213's, 2117's, and 2413's typically with muzzy 100 grain heads or something similar (NAP Thunderhead, Wasp, Savora Swept Wing) I always had either pass throughs or very decent penetration. Arrow flight was never as perfect as I thought it should be and once I started shooting mechanicals I was lazy, put 100 grain field points on and "never had problems." Nonetheless, this little 8 had just finished freshening a scrape and I could have spit on him. Upon release the arrow flew perfectly, the buck made a sound I never heard before when the arrow hit, like a person gasping when a kid is going to fall or something like that.... that arrow only penetrated like 10 inches was sticking out of its side and pulled out not even 10 yards from the hit sight. Like I said blood was good and I recovered that buck almost in his bed. But I just felt like, why wasn't I getting better penetration? The next year I went back to muzzy 100's and started using my old heavier aluminum arrows again. I shot a spiker at 25 yards and again this heavier arrow fully penetrated. I started hunting with my old aluminums and muzzy's again. So it was a natural progression when I started watching and seeing others like the RF and the THP folks and then doing some research for going trad and seeing that many trad bow hunters use heavy arrows and beefy COC heads because most of us can't draw and hold 55-75 recurves or longbows so they rely on heavier arrows and tough broadheads to do the "wet work."

Last year I shot a decent 8 at 15 yards. If I would have been using a mechanical I wouldn't have harvested that buck. This buck had just finished freshening a scrape too. It was a perfect text book hunt. I watched him freshen the scrape and then he continued on one of the trails I was looking heading into bedding. At fifteen yards broadside I "Mehed" him and man that deer went from super calm to like a set trap in nano seconds. I was at full draw and the wind was perfect and more importantly so was the shot angle so I decided to release anyway. Man that buck immediately whurled toward me and I ended up hitting him in the neck on the opposite side and at went down his right side and came out by his right shoulder. He ran like he was spanked, squatty and tail straight out and I recovered him at 150 yards. That arrow severed his jugular on the opposite side. If it was a mechanical with a light arrow I'm convinced that based on the angle my heavy arrow hit him, a light arrow with a mech would have wounded him and glanced off because of the strange angle. Needless to say, I definitely recommend a heavy arrow and a super beefy COC BH.
 
I ordered some 125 silver flames. Like I said I have tried numerous broadheads fixed and expandables and have always went back to expandables. I hope these change my mind. The only real reason I am trying to change is my wife hunts to and she only shoots 50lbs.we have lost some deer that I thought should have died due to not much penetration. I am trying to figure out her perfect setup.
I used to shoot 50lbs. its just not enough for an expandable to do what it needs to. Get her set up with a fixed blade 550 gr arrow n watch the magic happen. Your wife is a beast by the way! I wish mine could pull 40lbs so i could chuck the xbow.
 
My brother due to shoulder injury only pulls 45, won’t go xbow. After losing a second deer last year in my eye due to mechanical failure he finally let me build him arrows. He’s at 525 with a massai head. Idt he’ll have a problem this year.
 
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