re: Fixed Blade or Mechanicals?

I have never hit one. I have never recovered a deer that another hunter hit. It's way forward.

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I personally believe a good fixed head gives you more “what if’s”

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Why?

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What if… I’m two inches high?

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You'll miss it.

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What if… something less that ideal happens?

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You're not recovering the deer.

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But there are no "points of failure" on quality mechanical broadheads. Stories of them bouncing off deer, not opening and so on are lies

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Wild story:
My buddy shot a perfectly broadside doe two seasons ago with a Rage 2 blade mechanical. The broadhead went into the shoulder, and the arrow broke off. We put my dogs on it and never found it. Fast forward a month or so, and he shoots the same deer with his rifle. When he cleaned it, the broadhead was lodged between the last rib and the hide on the same side the broadhead went in. The broadhead legit deflected off the shoulder bone, slid along the body between the ribs and skin, and then just sat there for a month. Never saw that before or since.

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you will get better penetration with a fixed blade,

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I think thats largely limited to cut on contact style heads. I dont think something like a muzzy necessarily will out penetrate something like a rage. You might lose a little negligible bit of energy to open them. I think the total length of blade on both of them is similar and thus the resistance traveling through something should be similar.

With all the variables involved in actually shooting live stuff, I really don't think the head matters all that much once it's broken hide and the blades are out.

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I think people really overlook sharpness.

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I know there are people out there who will shoot the same head multiple times. My policy was always that hunting blades get shot only at deer, and they become target blades after they're shot once.

Eta: I'm becoming more and more of a fan of the big triangle fixed blade stuff. Being easily resharpened and reused, cut on contact, and heavy enough to shoot elk with if I get the chance one day.

One of the last tracks I put my dog on though was a clear example of piss poor penetration from one of those big tomahawk looking things. Arrow was broke off almost full length laying on the ground and the deer was never found. No clue what that one hit. It can happen with any of them.

I think that exact shot right there is responsible for a shitload of lost deer. People shoot it like they would with a rifle and off it runs.

Quartering on is a bad shot to take with a bow. No real good way to do it.

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I’d recommend sharpening all new heads.

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I agree. I sold my crossbow this year to get back into compound bow hunting. I bought a pse carbon levitate. I figured I may as well set it up with a heavier arrow and a cut on contact broadhead. I ended up going with a 125gr Maasai single bevel. I figured they would be scary sharp out of the box, but I couldn’t shave hair with them. So I put them in my KME sharpener and now they shave hair.
I’m going to Missouri in November and I want to be able to take that quartering to shot you posted above, in case a big buck comes out and that’s the only shot I have. Definitely not ideal, but I don’t want the trip to be a waste because I couldn’t get a perfect broadside shot. Fwiw I’ve killed a good bit of deer with grim reaper mechanicals. I just wanted something stronger and something that I can resharpen myself.

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I don’t disagree with you, just illustrating that the scapula can be guarding things you want to hit.

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It's a bad shot regardless of the point.

Rage fans are like Bama fans…. They just can’t get out of their own way. We get it man, you’ve been good for a while. There’s a reason people are switching, is it the heads, is it super light arrows, is it bad shot placement or a combo of all three causing shite penetration? I don’t know….. I do know this, when I went over 500 grains, increased FOC and went to Exodus or Black Hornet I magically went from two holes sometimes to two holes every time. Less blood in the beginning? Yep…. Shorter track jobs? Yep! I’m sold and will never go back, especially on my out of state hunts. That said, a whole bunch of critters get killed with mechanicals every year so to each us own.

I'd been shooting Wasp Drone 125 grain heads for years. Recently dropped down to 100 gr and went to magnus stingers so I could resharpen them.

Thunderheads are great.

I shot rage for a while but quit when one rode the shoulder down instead of entering the vitals. I'm not a great shot so I'm sticking with fixed blades.

Eta: hogs gave rage heads hell.