SwampCollie

I want to hear about someone who has acctually had a mechanical broadhead fail/break on a deer that THEY shot.

None of this my cousins' buddy's Dad stuff. Unless you were there to see it happen....it doesn't count.

What happened? Was it the broadhead....or was your shot....perhaps a little "off"? What was the outcome? I'd like to hear some honest feedback.

HuntingBry

I'd like to hear this too, but none of the "Dang mechanical failed and I lost my deer" crap. Let's hear about a deer that was down and the mechanical came apart on impact or you could tell it did not open because the entry and/or exit holes were very small.

Real experiences here.

bawanajim

If its got tits or wheels you will have a problem with it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Is there really any reason or need to use one in the first place? Or is it just the fad of the week? Another better mouse trap? Or another way to piss yourmoney away?

LittleChief

Jim,
You should add "moving parts" to your list.

SC,
This'll be my first year bowhunting, so I can't give a hunting example, but I tried mechs first, and had a significant problem with the blades deploying on release. I say significant because two out of six did this, one on its first shot and the other on its second. The second one cost me $105.00, but it was my fault for strapping my target on top of my mobile water hose cart.[:@]

IL-Cornfed

I always get a kick out of the nimrods that claim their mech b-head failed because "it didn't open" because theynever found the deer! [&:][:@]

DougE

I find it hard to believe that a mechanical will not open.With that said,I've killed at least 15 deer with mechanicals over the years and never lost a single deer.I killed one deer with the original 2 bladed spitfire.I had a dead deer and no damage to the head.I killed two deer with rocket sidewinders.I bent some blades but none broke.I killed three bucks with steelheads and broke one blade on two of the deer and two blades on the third.I recovered that deer but it was one of the toughest tracking jobs.The deer ran a half circle for about200 yards in some thick steep terrain.I've killed a bunch of deer with Wasp jackhameers also.While I never acually broke a blade,the ferrule broke more than 50% of the time where the black of the blade makes contactand the blades were just hanging there by a wire.

It depends on what you consider failure.I guess I never experienced a failure because I never lost a deer.However,the inconsistant results I got with mechanicals caused me to go back to fixed blades and I've never looked back.

SwampCollie

I will give you an example of what I consider failure. I was hunting last summer (August) with a very good friend named Miles who had just finished a tour in Iraq with the USAF. He took a very nice buck with a rifle on the 21st and told me he wanted to come back in Sept and try to get a doe with his bow. So Miles came back after the 15th and we went hunting. He was on a stand about 150 yards from me on an old dyke that overlooks a swamp bottom that 300 years ago was a rice and tea plantation. The deer spend the day in the swamp, and head up to the oak flat that sits on the edge of it....its the deer trap from way back.

Miles was shooting the Rage 2-blades that had just hit the market. I acctually ordered them for him at his request. I smoked a fair sized doe that night, and I heard a deer bolt off towards the thick stuff. I figured that he had either been busted...or had gotten a shot. I met him just after Dark, and he was already on blood. We found his arrow, and I noticed that both blades were broken off it. But it was coated in lung blood. The deer bled like lung shot deer bleed, and we found it easily within 75 yards. The entry hole was as advertised, the exit hole looked like a field point. Somewhere...somehow, inside that doe, those blades sheered off. Could have been a loose screw for all I know....most equipment failures are linked to user errors too (like shotguns that jam because of rust in the chamber or fouling in the gas system...thats a user error, not a gun failure in my eyes). He took the deer with him to his processor, and we never did get the whole story. I didn't think at the time to check to see exactly what happened. The deer did die, and the head did open at one point. But in my mind...that was a mechanial broadhead malfunction/failure.

I give this credit, because I was there, and saw it with my own eyes. Not second hand information, first hand account.

I shoot Hammerheads for turkeys, and have taken a few deer with various mechanicals, with nay a problem. They are, as DougE said, not the most durable thing in the world. In my experience, an expandable broadhead is a single use item, in fact, most replaceable blade heads are as well, at least some of the time. But bending blades is not a big deal. If the game is killed, it is killed....but....has anyone had one not work as advertised or as its supposed to work?

quiksilver

I spined a nice (16-18"), big bodied 4x4 with a 125 grain Triska SK (Gold Tip XT 55/75 arrow, Jennings Airmaster 76#) at 5 yards.

The shot was perfect, straight down into the spinal column, but the broadhead completely failed.

At the shot, the deer was flattened to the ground.Before I even had time to pumpmy fist in victory, heimmediately stood up and bolted. My arrow fell out of his spine about 80 yards away. The head was totally demolished, 2 blades sheared completely off, and the third blade left badly mangled. The ferrule was crushed like a tin can. Really, the head looked like I'd shot it into a concrete wall.

I have no doubt that if I had been using a Muzzy or a Thunderhead (the alternatives at the time) - I'd have had my dragging harness on.

I know, some of you guys are saying to yourselves "bad shot selection." No. I've killed deer before (and since) with fixed heads to the spine. I never hesitate to bury it when that shot presents. If it's placed correctly, you either crush the entire vertebral body, or miss slight left or right, passing straight into the chest cavity. I've only ever lost one deer with that shot - this one.

Nothing sucks more than knowing that your aim was true, and you still didn't seal the deal.

buttonbuckmaster

You and me both

bawanajim

Nim·rod /ˈnɪmrɒd/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[nim-rod] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
–noun



1.
the great-grandson of Noah: noted as a great hunter. Gen. 10:8–10.



2.
(sometimes lowercase) a person expert in or devoted to hunting. [/align]

Just in case either of you didn't know.....[&:]