Fixed Blade or Mechanicals?

I have killed 27 deer with a bow and 23 of those were killed with Rage broadheads

Never reuse a shot mechanical.

Buy replacement blades, immediately removed the used blade, put them in a water bottle, cap it, and throw it in the trash


That being said, I set up my some Day Six Evos for elk hunting and never got to sling one. Gonna let em eat in OK in 2 weeks

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What do y'all like?

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heavy, single bevel, fixed

I had a rage bounce off a doe. I’ve killed a bunch with muzzy and more recently, slick tricks.

A lot of factors play in. What draw weight and arrow weight? If you have a lighter draw/arrow I’d stay away from mech’s completely. With 70 pounds and a 450 grain arrow, I’d be confident sending just about anything through a white tail.

The big cutting diameter mech’s with steep blade angles are much less efficient as penetration is concerned, and much less forgiving if you hit the shoulder. With a properly tuned bow and a properly spined arrow though they are BRUTAL on a shot through ribs. With a decently weighted arrow that is.

I shot everything with a rage until last year. I switched to fixed blades last year and the biggest thing I noticed was how sharp you can get them. none of the deer i shot last year knew they were hit. It zipped through and they just walked away and keeled over. Every deer I’ve hit with a rage ran like a bat out of hell after it hit them. I don’t know if that’s consistent but it’s something I noticed

I’ll probably try some more mechanicals that are sharper and have a better blade angle than the rage.

Either of them put in the the area they need to be will be fine.
I have found a thunderhead in a spine area of a deer covered in cartilage deer was fine appear to have been shot year or two before.
Found a deer with scar tissue and obvious outline of a fixed blade 4 blade broadhead in the scapula of a deer same thing year or previous season.
Both shots I’m sure the archer just knew he had a dead deer and both shots I don’t blame the head.
One thing is you should never reuse a head unless it’s been resharpend razor sharp is critical for hemorrhaging.
As for the rage thing I don’t have a lot of history with them but have killed 4 deer with them now, killed prolly 20 with a fixed blade muzzy. I can say that all the shots were deadly and I’ll be sitting in a tree tomorrow with a rage.
As for the angle issue with rages,, my daughter made a shot with her cross bow a few years ago. Doe was broadside and she squeezed it as the shot broke she turned arrow went in front of ham and lodged under skin of off shoulder, about as quartered as it can get. All blades were deployed deer ran 60yards no blood from lack of exit.
Head did it’s job but without my dog maybe i would have been cussing it.

If you are shooting good groups with the fixed blades and don't plan on shooting crazy far shots, then I would go with the fixed blade.

I have 3 grim reaper 125s small diameter mechanicals and 3 125 day six evos (fixed) in the quiver currently.

Got an elk a couple weeks ago with a day six. Long shot and it performed very well.

Day Six will likely be first out the quiver for deer .

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No reason to introduce extra points of failure unless your bow is tuned like shite and just won't shoot fixed heads.

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Oh look, a stupid frick. If you prefer fixed blades, dont mind the decreased cutting area and less accuracy, that's fine. Shoot them. But there are no "points of failure" on quality mechanical broadheads. Stories of them bouncing off deer, not opening and so on are lies. We hunt primarily in the Miss Delta and Kansas. Annually I kill more deer, and bigger deer with a bow/arrow than anybody on this board. And they are all killed with a 2 Blade Rage broadhead, and have been for ~15 years. People that have a problem with mechanical heads either have never used them, and can't shoot worth a frick.