crossbow Broadhead Recommendations

[yoderjac]

FYI my last crossbow I had for 4 years and I used rage expanding blades. These fixed blade heads did just as much damage from what I've seen. I'm only taking shots 35 yards and in.

Thanks. The issue I have with fixed blades is that with same size exit wound, the don't fly as accurately or consistently for me. As for crossbow choices, it has been years since I've had any experience with Excalibur. Here is my experience for what it is worth.

I'm a Hunter Ed instructor and the state had bi-annual instructor training where the instructors get together for a weekend and take advanced training classes. Back when they first legalized crossbows in Virginia without a medical exemption, several crossbow manufacturers sent representatives to our advanced training to demonstrate and provide safety training for their crossbow products to our instructors. We had an opportunity to fire each crossbow at the range.

Excalibur had two big selling points the emphasized, speed, and the ability to change strings in the field with the simple recurve limb design. When we used them at the range, all were louder than a compound, but the Excalibur sounded like a .22. It was extremely loud. During the training portion, one of the questions to the Excalibur representative was "What about string jumping?" He fumbled for a response and finally came up with "Our crossbows are so fast a deer won't have time to jump the string", at which point all the instructors in the class laughed and he kind of blushed knowing he was spouting the company talking point that was patently false.

Excalibur may well have changed their design since those days. I haven't looked at the latest crossbows. To my way of thinking, a quiet crossbow (or compound) is much more important than a fast one since bowhunting is limited to short range. My latest crossbow is a Mission which is a Mathews spinoff known to focus on quiet first and speed second.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[yoderjac]

Just throwing this out there... but if you are worried about mechanical failures then a mechanical broadhead might not be best.

Fixed heads can fly very accurately and repeatably even if they don't have the same poi as a field point. Simplest solution is to practice with broadheads.

To each their own. I hope you can find something suitable.

Cat,

You are right. I shot fixed blades on with my old Martin Scepter compound for many years before switching to exandables. They have a different impact point than field points, and it takes a lot of tuning with arrow building to get them to group well. The larger the cutting diameter, the harder it is to tune. I really needed to work at arrow building to get the blades aligned perfectly with the fletching. The larger the cutting diameter of the blade, the larger and stiffer the fletching required to keep the blades from steering flight. Then comes practice. You need a broadhead target to practice and they chew it up much faster than field points in a bag target for practice. Of course, you then need to changes all the blades after practice before hunting.

I found that with expandables, I was able to get get a larger exit wound with better accuracy with much less tuning and could use ballistically equivalent practice heads.

Expandables have come a long way since the old days. I wouldn't say I'm worried about mechanical failures. I'd say, I won't hunt with an expandable without a lot of testing. For example, a particular expandable may open in flight when shot from one bow setup but not from another. So, I need to test to make sure it doesn't open in flight with my setup. Of course, the other end of testing is terminal performance. There is only so much you can simulate in the back yard. At some point you need to see how it performs on game. That is where getting input from folks with experience using a particular broadhead in the field becomes important.

I'm sure I'll find a suitable solution. It is really coming down to cost. I have a bunch of new Rage chisel tip 3-blade broadheads left and a whole loft of shot-once broadheads. Since I can't replace the blades in the shot-once heads, I could always continue to buy more at $40 for 3 heads and discarding them after one shot. I'm asking myself why Feradyne stopped selling replacement blades. I'm wondering if they will discontinue these heads soon. I just thought it was time to start looking into changing to something new.

The DeadMeat that @Spike_Horn_Shooter suggested look like they may be a viable alternative. I'd like to here more from users of that broadhead.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[Jerry-B-WI]

I'm sure I'll find a suitable solution. It is really coming down to cost. I have a bunch of new Rage chisel tip 3-blade broadheads left and a whole loft of shot-once broadheads. Since I can't replace the blades in the shot-once heads, I could always continue to buy more at $40 for 3 heads and discarding them after one shot. I'm asking myself why Feradyne stopped selling replacement blades. I'm wondering if they will discontinue these heads soon. I just thought it was time to start looking into changing to something new.



Thanks,

Jack

I bought the Muzzy HBX with the idea that I could just replace the blades. Came time to buy replacements and ....Oh we don't make them any more.

I'm thinking of switching to Truglo or Sevr. Whatever I get I don't want an aluminum ferrule.

 

[Bill]

Just throwing this out there... but if you are worried about mechanical failures then a mechanical broadhead might not be best.

Fixed heads can fly very accurately and repeatably even if they don't have the same poi as a field point. Simplest solution is to practice with broadheads.

To each their own. I hope you can find something suitable.

I haven’t responded because I won’t shoot mechanical blades and had nothing to offer. To many problems in the old days. If their better now good for them but they left a bad taste in my mouth.

I shoot little 1 1/8 Dia 4 blade slick trick broadheads. No clue if they shoot like a field point because I practice (sight in) with the broad head. They are consistent, accurate and out of my ravin they blow right through both shoulders.

 

[Angus 1895]

I like the F15 fixed 4 elk.

I wait 4 broadheads to go on clearance 4 deer.

Sometimes places like Walmart are practically giving them away.

 

[blueKYstream]

I have tried a select few mechanicals and fixed blades. The problem with mechanicals at times are the angle, if the blades open too early, open too late, don't open, etc. If fixed blades fly true, you don't have to worry about any of that.

Slick Trick broadheads have worked well for me. I use them on both bow and crossbow. I'm sure there are plenty others that work, but these fly consistent with my broadheads on all my equipment, they're always sharp (replacement blades available), and I've never had an issue following blood trails. There was a comment earlier about going through a shoulder. My first crossbow kill went through both shoulders and buried in the ground. They have different sizes and variations, but the standards are what I have been shooting for a while.

Slick Trick

 

[Angus 1895]

IMO the slick trick is designed to perform.

The package I bought………… my feeble mind couldn’t get them assembled. I knew if I pursued it I would B



bleeeding.

 

[david]

I haven't used the G5 Deadmeat in a xbow, but I shoot them on my compound. I have had a lot of success with them and no failures. I have bent and broken a blade on a rib, but I would say less than 25% of the time. I used the predecessor to the Deadmeat, and I will say the clip system on the Deadmeat is much better. I have been happy with accuracy and performance. I typically buy a couple sets of three. If I break a blade on one, that other two blades become replacements for future use.

 

[Troubles Trees]

For what it is worth, I was skeptical about mechanicals and have a biased opinion on broadheads since I have always used Rage (I started out hunting with my Dad's Razorback 5's, remember those bad boys?). Most of the skepticism came from the ideology of if it can go wrong it will, and the more moving parts the more chances you have of something going wrong. A friend of mine gave me some Rage practice tips and they truly flew like my field points so I gave the broadheads a try. I didn't like the old style rubber band type of blade lock but it was cheap enough to buy extras. I have always been impressed with the hatchet wound they make on entry and exit so I have always used Rage 2 blades and really like the plastic lock in collars over the old rubber band style. I don't follow trends, I stick with what has worked for me.

I was dirt poor my first year getting married so I tried to buy replacement blades instead of just buying new broadheads. I ordered them and watched a few videos to get familiar with the process. I bought them off ebay from a reputable seller but all the blades came wrapped in a tissue or paper towel and didn't have the replacement pins so I wasn't impressed from the start. The ferrule is round and a table surface is flat so trying to hold the broadhead, the punch and a hammer to pound out the tiny pins through a drill hole in my work bench was difficult to say the least, so I did the redneck thing to hollow out a divot in a chunk of 2X4 roughly shaped like the broadhead, then fine tuned the bed with a chisel, then drilled a hole for the pin to drop through. This was much more difficult than anything I saw in the warmup videos and got a pretty bad cut somewhere in the beginning.

I will always skip all that and just buy new broadheads from here on out lol it is my stocking stuffer present to myself every year hahaaa

 

[Bill]

IMO the slick trick is designed to perform.

The package I bought………… my feeble mind couldn’t get them assembled. I knew if I pursued it I would B



bleeeding.

They are a pain to put together. There is a trick to it. I can't tell you the trick because I have to relearn it every time. haven't assembled any since last fall.

 

[blueKYstream]

They are a pain to put together. There is a trick to it. I can't tell you the trick because I have to relearn it every time. haven't assembled any since last fall.

Flip the head upside down, slide the blade with the long slit that opens at the bottom in first, then slide the blade with the opening at the top, insert collar and screw on.

 

[yoderjac]

Well, it will be a while until I run out of rage broadheads, but I went ahead and order some of the DeadMeat broadheads and replacement blades to try.

 

[Booner21]

Those are fixed blade. I have found I get much better accuracy from mechanicals.

TruGlo Titanium X 4-Blade Mechanical Broadheads

• Grade 5 CNC-machined one piece titanium ferrule • Tough .031" thick stainless steel blades • Tru-Thru precision sharpened blades for quick pass-throughs • Spin and sharpness tested for ultimate performance • Designed to open on impact and create massive hemorrhaging • Cutting diameter: 1-3/4"...

lancasterarchery.com

These are what I am talking about they Must have two versions


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