For the mechanical guys

Im huge Rage fan, been very successful with them for over a decade. However, I am interested in other brands as well. Any thing you like better? The G5 megameat has my attention, and NAP Maxx I believe. and a few others. Give me your thoughts on the mech you choose to shoot. 3 blade? 2 blade? 1.5" cut 2" cut, larger? What like and dislike about them. DO NOT want this to be a basher thread. This is for guys that shoot mech heads. I am looking to get some real reviews from real hunters. Thanks

 

I am intrigued for sure on this one.
Will be interesting to see everyone's various experiences.
I am still new enough to all this to be unbiased, and my only thoughts to it would be if I chose to try a mech out in the future, I would go 2 Blade to keep frictional cut force down, min. 2" cut to hopefully create solid blood trail, and min. 500 gr. TAW so that there is momentum behind the head to push it as deep as possible.

Thanks for starting this thread...

 

Lots of us shoot mechanicals with success. I am leaning towards a 3 blade wide cut for a huge hole

 

I'm on the Sevr train right now. I ran the Titanium 2.0s on my compound this year and my wife ran the Robustos on her crossbow. We combined for 3 kills. The ferule was in perfect shape on all and easily rebuild-able. The entry holes were phenomenal on all... rear deploy worked as it should. Penetration/passthrough was good. Concentricity has always looked good on a spinner.
I really like that you can pop one screw in and practice with them. I have not had a single instance where they have not shot exactly like my field points. At one point prior to hunting season my bow was out of tune and fixed were not grouping well... the Sevr hung tight with the field points.
Just my opinion and experiences. I plan to stick with them.

 

Muzzy Trocar HB. No blade retention clips or bands, bleeder blades on the sides.

 

Disclaimer: We are sponsored by NAP and I have personally been shooting their broadheads for almost 15 years. Some people will say that makes my opinion not valid. Those people are morons.

With that said, I've killed deer with both the "correct opening" type of mechanical (Rage, Killzone) and the "over-the-top" style "Spitfire, Grim Reaper". Having shot multiple deer with each style, I much prefer the over-the-top style.

Because they are closed or slightly open on entry, they create an entry hole about the same size as most fixed blade heads. IMO this is where you lose a lot of energy and penetration on a correct-opening mechanical. Because they are fully deployed on entry you have to get through all of the hair, hide, and often the ribs with a monster hole.

Also, when those blades fully deploy on entry they often over-extend and form more of a square/hatchet configuration where the blades are perpendicular to the arrow instead of swept-back. This also inhibits penetration.

With the Spitfire-style head you get a smaller entry wound and then the blades fully deploy once inside the animal, creating tons of damage to soft tissue, and leaving massive exit holes.

I've personally shot dozens of deer with Spitfires and it's very rare that I don't get both an entry and exit hole, and usually get an entire pass-through. The same goes for the rest of the guys on our team. If you go watch all of our videos you'll see that pass-through shots with Spitfires are by far the norm, even though people's negativity and confirmation bias tend to remember the ones that don't rather than the ones that do.

You can shoot 10 deer and get clean pass-throughs on 9 of them and people will still be in our YouTube comments like "Should've used a fixed blade head and not one of those flappers!" Even if the deer bled like a stuck pig and died in sight.

With all of that said, knowing you're shooting a shorter/lighter arrow I would recommend sticking with the 1.5" original Spitfire rather than the 2" XXX version. I personally prefer the XXX, but I'm usually shooting a 450-500 grain arrow and pulling 67-ish lbs.

We have almost 25 people on our team who have been killing deer for a long time. We are sponsored by NAP which means we have to be shooting their broadheads, but we can pick any make or model that we want. The Thunderhead Nitro and Hellrazor are both great fixed-blade heads, and we have a handful of guys using them. However, the overwhelming majority of us have put our stock in Spitfires. Over a decade of shooting them all and hundreds of animals killed, that's the broadhead most of the people on our team trust to get the job done each and every time. I have yet to see one fail and nobody has ever complained about them. And trust me, these guys complain about everything.

 

great review Justin, as always. Yeh, I will stick with 1.5" cut if i don't go up in weight. so which one is the 1.5" spitfire?

 

I'm not a mechanical head guy. But I have tryed them and shot deer with them. Couple of my top 5 biggest bodied buck fell to the rage. I personally just didn't fully trust them, so been fixed blade every since. This was purely for my confidence and nothing to do with mechanicals. If I would try one again, I would seriously look at the Sevr heads mentioned above^^^. I really like the idea of a very strong ferrule. Plus they get great reviews online.

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I think I read where the sevr head did not leave a great entry hole...or maybe it was exite? IDK. but they are well built

 

The original Spitfire is 1.5"
The Spitfire Maxx is 1.75"
The Spitfire XXX is 2"

 

so you believe the over the top deployment is better?

 

How does the Spitfire compare to the Grim Reaper?

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a buddy of mine used to shoot the reg. 100gr Spitfires(killed several nice deer with 'em, till he hit to far forward, and didnt get penetration and he/we lost the deer .. he then went to Slick Mags and has had no problems...I always used good 'ol Rocket Steelheads (1 1/8") and the XL's (1 1/2") both 100 grs, I have plenty of both left and use 'em from time to time... same for the 'ol Sidewinders, Rocket has since discontinued the whole Steelhead line and not sure on the Sidewinders (dumb assed Rocket !!)... however, my two main heads are the fixed Exodus and WickedTricks ... the 152lb buck I killed this year was with the WickedTrick/full pass thru/heart/lung, still trying for a Doe with the Exodus or Steelhead XL .. (if I can get back out that is ...work sucks !!).. I still carry all three in the quiver, 1 Exodus, 1 Wicked's and 1 Steelhead XL plus a NAP Scorpion 100gr (Discontinued, razor tip 1 1/4 cut)...

 

I do, yes. Correct opening mechanicals are better known and easier to market because of their massive entry holes (It's like throwing an axe through an animal!) but I think the over-the-top style is an all-around better broadhead.

Neither of them will stand up to dense bone if you hit it, but since we tend to hit further back than forward, I'll take the extra cutting diameter when I can get it.

 

I've never personally shot a deer with a Grim Reaper but I've looked at them a bunch and shot a few into targets. They're essentially the same thing with different mechanisms to hold the blades closed. The Spitfire uses an internal spring clip whereas the Grim Reaper uses an o-ring.

 

I prefer the Spitfire over the Grim Reaper. I think they are simpler and it is the only Broadhead I have never lost an animal with. I hope I didn’t just jinx myself


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My favorite that I’ve used most recently is the NAP killzone maxx. I actually posted about it in the equipment review section because I was curious what other people thought. The 2 3/8 cutting diameter leaves massive holes and creates blood trails you can see from your stand. Biggest down sides are durability and penetration. That said, a complete pass through isn’t necessary when you have a fist sized hole in the boiler room.

Also, for whatever it’s worth, I had a grim reaper fail to deploy on me a few years back on a real nice 10 point and haven’t touched them since.


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Amen!

Amen!

 

I have 4 packs of Grim Reapers that I honestly cannot get to shoot right. And that bow is tuned, shoots big fixed heads and all other broadheads just fine. 2 packs of 2" Whitetail Specials, and 2 packs of I think 1.75" (maybe 1.5".) They are also pretty flimsy compared to NAP SpitFires. Let's just say I am not a fan, and thus they have sat in my broadhead bin since 2013.

For an over the top, I have no issues with the SpitFires, killed my buck last year with one. However, it fully or almost fully deployed upon impact as the entry hole was pretty big.

For reasons I already told the OP (and showed in Lusk's video) I wouldn't shoot MegaMeats at deer if they were given to me for free. I have no issues with the regular G5 DeadMeats, the blades on those are much more robust than the longer, thinner, and structurally comprimised MegaMeat blades.

As a rule, I have learned to try to stay away from any mech head that has a notch cut into the back of the blades- they snap off inside the deer way too frequently for me.

DeadMeat (no notch)





MegaMeat (notched)



This also applies to Rage HypoDermics:



I have killed several deer with the HypoDermics, and only once did at least one of the blades *not* snap at that notch, and it was on a rib cage hit where I somehow slipped it between the ribs on both entry and exits - never hit bone. Even then, both blades were noticeably bent at that notch. I bought several packs when they first came out, and as of now I only have one Hypo head left and it's for follow up shots or coyotes only. I have also found that the collar (I think they may use different material or even mechanism now) dry rots over time and breaks apart.

My favorite mech since 2015 is the Muzzy HB. They never fail to open, and even if you glued them shut you'd still get a 1" x .75" cut, they destroy bone, are awesome penetrators even with mid/lightweight arrows, and leave great bloodtrails. They are also reasonably priced and are not necessarily one-and-done heads. I have had a couple hold up 100% even after hitting bone, and even if the blades get tore up/bent a bit; they make a decent-priced blade replacement kit.

Muzzy HB - No notches:



unadulterated Muzzy HB entry hole in my 2016 buck:



It took a big chunk out of the nearside lower scapula (the thick part,) ripped through the heart/lung, and busted/lodged into the offside humerus. I had to cut it out (shaft broke off about 5" behind the head inside the cavity)




you can see additional shots of that here:

https://forums.bowhunting.com/threads/november-reign-team-17.81649/page-26#post-1291205

 

that's good detail brother. How do those muzzys fly compared to other mechs?