Above are parts 1 and 2 of a video interview with "Tracker John," a professional blood tracker with 4 decades of experience. As somebody with a pup who shows potential at trailing, it was very interesting. But I think it's worth a listen for anybody who shoves broadheads through deer.
Part 2 around 20 minutes in, they start talking about broadhead choice. I get beyond tired of the conversation, but in this case it was interesting the hear the thoughts of a man who has been on hundreds if not thousands of trails and who has a dispassionate, objective, strictly-business attitude when it comes to recovering deer. He doesn't even bow hunt anymore, just finds the deer other yahoos shot at.
For those not inclined to listen to the whole thing, his thoughts are:
- shoulder and high hits generally do not have happy endings, regardless of what you hit them with
- gut shot deer are generally very recoverable and he would much rather trail a deer hit too far back than too far forward
- people shooting low KE setups (trad, youth) at whitetails would do well to shoot fixed COC heads
- if you're shooting a modern compound or crossbow, a big hole becomes the priority, and he doesn't care if that big hole is made by a mech or a fixed head
- people suck at knowing where they hit a deer