I want the responsibility of my shot, if it's a bad shot, it's on me. I have no one to blame but myself. There is nothing simpler than that. Unless you shoot every single broad head out there, it is nothing more than marketing. I can hit a deer in the guts with my muzzy and still kill and recover. There is a good degree of luck when it comes to marginal hits. If you start making comparisons what one head would do against another, it is subjective at best.
Hearing a gut shot deer drop, is extreme. I've seen deer hit in the guts with high powered rifles and they take hours to die. The more I think about it, I've never seen any gut shot deer die quickly. Liver...there isn't a whole lotta blood there. It takes time for that blood loss to take place.
Those marketed heads sell way more than what they are capable of. I can't even get that type of performance from my .300 mag, what's an actual fraction of an inch going to give a broadhead?
It isn't the size, it's how you use it......
Dipper, I'm telling you flat out, I'm NOT BSing on those 5 deer. I've got witnesses on 2 of them (though that's easy to say, since they aren't on this or any other hunting forum). I don't believe that the gut shot deer died that fast because of the hole the heads made through the guts. I believe it was the trama of literally having their intestines spilling out, dragging them on the ground, getting caught on all sorts of things combined with the hole. Now, will that happen every time, I'm sure not. some holes will get plugged with the stomach itself, I'm sure. It just hasn't happened to me yet. What I posted is what happened.
The liver hit was an absolute blood bath, with a crystal clear blood trail across a harvested soybean field. Made it 5ish yards into the woods, hit a tree and dropped...70-80 yards total, flat out death run the entire time.
I'm not trying to tell anyone that they should switch to anything. In fact, if you or anyone else is happy with the head they shoot, I'd strongly suggest not changing. I couldn't agree more that if you hit them where you are supposed to every time, it doesn't matter. I'm saying that I personally love the Xtremes and explaining why. Heck, the same company that owns Xtremes owns Muzzy (they bought them 2-3 years ago, now). So, they are just as happy you are shooting them and would be just as happy if I told you how much I love Muzzies. I don't. I've never been able to get them to group consistently. No doubt it's me, but that doesn't change the fact that I've never succeeded in getting them to group, despite multiple attempts. That said, I don't doubt that you can. Just because I haven't done or seen it doesn't mean it can't be done ;)
I DO take responsibility for every shot I make. I take that responsibility VERY seriously. I practice dang near every single day starting next week all through season (including much of that time from treestands), and I can count on 1 finger the number of stupid shots I've taken in at least the last 5 years. With doe removal responsibilities and 3-4 bow buck tags each year, I shoot a heck of a lot of deer each season with a bow, and I mean a lot. Most of the ground I manage is disgustingly overpopulated. Like it or not, sh!t happens sometimes, no matter how seriously you take it, IF you are going to shoot a decent number of deer year in and year out. If anyone tells you any differently, they've either been exceptionally lucky, haven't killed much or are BSing.
P.S. I sure don't jump for every shiny new object. Over the last 25+ years, I shot Rocky Mnts Broadhead's regular fixed blade until they came out with the Titanium fixed blade, shot that until the Rage hit, switch back to the Titanium until they came out with their Titanium Rage and then the Xtreme. Now, I've tried many others that never came out hunting with me. Ultimately, even if you count the brief flirtation with the original Rage, that's 5 heads in 25 years, and 20 of those years were split between the 2 Titaniums.
