fixed vrs mech revisited

[Tom]

There are many pros & cons.

Yes a mechanical head requires energy to open which a fixed blades does not. A fixed head has a greater chance of being deflected in flight just because they are wider.

Back in the early 80's they said that the 150lb bows had more energy then required to kill a "moose" and in fact, have killed many moose. In todays world, I believe just to promote the heavier bow, they promote the heavier bows as needed to make "KE". All it really does is make you look further for your arrows.

If you get a quality mechanical, with any Excalibur bow, the loss of KE in opening the head will only stop the head from travelling further after the pass through.

In the real world, it does not matter what style head (fixed or mechanical) you will get at times, "no pass through" when everything says there should have been. There is just to many variables which can effect the arrow.

Tom

[nchunterkw]

Some other factors are:
vert bow arrows stabilize quicker than shorter crossbow arrows so things are "lined up" better at impact since the arrows are not oscillating.

vert bow arrows are skinnier having less friction in the wound channel.

Just 2 more factors to influence pass-through or not.

Most think that a bigger head means a shorter blood trail. I posted data collected from over 500 deer kills that shows otherwise. It shows that deer travel the same distance after the shot regardless of type of BH used. I posted it last year if you want to search for the thread. Or PM me your email and I'll send you the documents.

Personally, I used a Montec a Slick Trick Magnums last year. 6 deer, longest distance was about 50 yards. Montec left no blood, deer went 30 yards or so. Go figure.

[bob1961]

after I got my exocet and found what it liked to spit down range, with plenty of shooting to get to know how the arrow combo I made worked....my first deer with the exocet was a 49 yard paced out 3 times shot....the deer never knew I was standing there, I was where I was at least 2 hours before the shot....my arrow set up is....

2117 alum arrows
110gr brass insert
w/two 25gr weights added behind insert
125gr slick tricks
18gr 2" blazers
550gr arrow from 200lb xbow

I was even shooting standing up off handed without sticks, that deer just walked still feeding after the arrow stopped 20yds behind it....walked only 20 feet before the drunken walk started at bout the 15 second mark....

[wabi]

My first Excalibur was a Vixen (the old black model with the limbs not pitched forward) I was shooting 2213s with Wasp JakHammers. I hunted with that setup for probably 5 years, killed 2-3 deer a year, and never failed to have a complete pass-through! My secret - Hit them in the ribs when standing broadside!
When I switched to an Exocet (again the old 175# model) the JakHammers were sometimes opening when launched, so I switched to double banding them. Killed a few deer, then had a heart shot (pass-through) where the blades did not open! Killed the deer (luckily it was a heart shot), but went to fixed blades at that point.
I suspect many of the failures with expandables are due to bad shot angles & bad hits.
I have also had a deer run off with a fixed blade stuck in it's shoulder (almost no penetration) when a scope failed and I had a bad hit.

My point - you have to put any broadhead in the right spot if you expect a venison dinner.