I realize the broad head topic gets beaten to death. But crossbows are new to me despite hunting with a compound for years. I have shot Slick Tricks for years with my Hoyt and love them. I bought the crossbow for my sons who are old enough to hunt but not old enough to pull enough draw weight on a compound. One of the main reasons I like Slick Tricks is that they are durable and can be used multiple time. The blades can be replaced as needed as long as the ferrule is in good shape. My question is this; with crossbows shooting harder than compounds, is it even worth considering a mechanical? I do not want to use a one and done broad head with a crossbow. However, since my boys are only six, I am tempted to try a mechanical head for a bigger entrance wound in the event they make a poor shot. Are there any mechanical heads tough enough to be used more than once from a cross bow? I would hate to lose my kids' first deer if a poor shot happens but I would rather not buy new broad heads every three shots. My oldest shooting at 20 yards in the picture below.
Looks like your son is shooting just fine. If you are anything like me - after you shoot, if the arrow passes through the animal, it's going to hit the only rock in the entire field anyway! Good Luck!
I use rage broad heads for my crossbow. they hold up pretty good. ive had issues with fixed blades not being as accurate.
I use 100gr Swackers for both. I have used Rage and NAP as well as a few others in the past. I have only killed a few deer with the Swackers but I have been very happy with them.
honestly just some I had lying around the garage probly muzzy or some generic from walmart..ha I think its really all just a matter of preference. but ive been using rage for about 3 years now and ive been pretty happy with them.
I tried a few head and have not been real happy and or too expensive to shoot---I went back to my old favorite heads the original style 4 blade 135 gran muzzy,s really knocks em over insert new blades and keep going
I still use my crossbow on rare occasions with hog hunting. I use a fixed blade with them. Muzzy or Montec. But when I did use it for deer hunting I only shot KillZones 2 1/2". Never had any problem. G'kids use the crossbows mostly now still with KillZones. I shoot traditional bows now
There are mechanical heads designed for xbows. They have to be tougher then compound bows. If you miss the boiler room another inch of cutting diameter will not always pay off. I am a fixed blade fan because that is all there was when I started bow hunting. I now use Magnus Snuffers SS 125 gr and use them with my recurve, compound and xbow. Bust one and Magnus will warranty it. You can sharpen them and they will poke through a big fat Kansas buck shoulder blade. If your field points hit different than broadheads then you have a tuning issue no matter the type.
Many of the manufacturers make mechanicals specifically for crossbows, to handle the added power and speed. I use 100 grain Killzone Crossbow heads. They work great and I have never had one open up in flight.
I use the NAP Spitfire for crossbow, 100 gr. Tested at the indoor range at the store and they shot exactly the same as field points. Granted, it was only at 20 yds, on a solid rest. Same entry hole. Have not shot a deer yet with one but hopefully this year.
Try to practice with whatever broad head you plan on hunting with, building self confidence with your equipment is a big help before the season. That being said ,there is a lot of hype between standard heads and so called crossbow heads with very little difference between them. The one big difference I have found has been what kind of speed your rig produces. Arrow shaft spine and broad heads seem to work well even with a few hiccups as long as you don't venture over the 350FPS threshold. Its after this speed that things seem to get more fussy and attention to detail becomes paramount. In the case of mechanical heads, additional orthodontic bands are needed to prevent blades from deploying during flight( if you get a flier way out of the group this could be the problem) I have taken a number of deer with mechanical heads and prefer them over fixed blade heads with most animals going down in sight. Blood trails are excellent as well.
I was somewhat surprised to read in the owners manual for my recurve style crossbow that the manufacturer recommends either a fixed blade of no more than 13/16" or a mechanical. A sub-inch cutting diameter doesn't sound very appealing to me. It was a gift and I'm pretty sure that it isn't a high dollar piece of equipment but it seems to be shooting accurately so I think I'll go with a 2" cut Wasp Jak-knife because I have some already on hand. Sent from my VS500 using Bowhunting.com Forums mobile app
I have used wasp Jak Hammers out of my excaliburs with great success. They open up to one and three quarter inches and have some of the heaviest blades for any mechanical out there. I like the heavy o rings too, You need to change them out before the season. They do take a set and weaken up over time, this alone may cause premature deployment during flight.
I used muzzy's for years till they finally got the machanicals figured out and I think I've shot most of them. I like the flight and accuracy of the shwackers better than all the others. I really like the idea of new blades opening inside the deer, and they've preformed flawlessly for me. When I was forced to go to a crossbow a couple years ago I again tested quite a few machanical broadheads and I'm still shooting shwachers, they've seemed to shortened the tracking too... either that or I'm shooting better, which at 60 is hard to believe. I also have replaced the original bands with orthodonic bands as my predator shoots 375
I use the 125 grain Kill-zones designed for crossbows on my cross bow. This is a 9pt I got the broad-head blew through both shoulder blades the deer didn't make it 20yrds. This is a 4pt I got and the entrance and exit holes were massive!
