1. Never had one open in flight (and, if it did, it never affected flight). 2. Never broke one. Etc..., etc..., etc... Like I've said in the past. IF you have sufficient energy and your bow/arrow marriage is optimal, they are devastating. No quality issues observed, here. But..................this 40KE advertising strategy would be laughable, if it weren't so effective. The second greatest thing we can use to help us decide when and how to start a tracking job....is the evidence left at the POI (read - THE ARROW). If it's still in your deer, you're missing a vital piece of the puzzle. If you have 2 holes and no arrow.....you didn't get a pass-thru. You're missing your puzzle piece. Will that work out for you? It did, for me, 11 out of 12 times. Maybe 1/2 my dozen or so kills with this head saw me achieve pass-thrus - with 62+FPKE. 5-5 on pass-thrus (complete) in 2009. That's out of a recurve producing (I think) a little over 32FPKE with a COC fixed head. Think there's a correlation?
Yeah some sleeveless dumb redneck told that one to me over the tv, use it as you see fit jake. lol I'd love to see a BH perform like a lot of people claim they do. I honestly can't see HOW a Rage wouldn't open, the blades are very loose/free and to think they would be jammed shut as the arrow is pushed THROUGH a deer is ludicrous....and at that, if you put the arrow right behind the shoulder for a double lung hit even with shut blades/ or no blades at all, thats a dead deer. Something isn't adding up, BHs are just a convenient cop out over used by a lot of guys.
I blame teachers. Just to add fuel to the epic battle hashed out every year, I've never NOT had a pass through with Rages, shoulder hits and all.
all I can say is if you hit bone first most mech heads won't open or penitrate good. take better shoots and it really doesnt matter what you shoot but I have not had any prblems with my rages opening or penitrating
Rage Rocks Rage Sucks Rage Rules Rage Blows I injected my rage with PED's, I lost one in China after complete pass through of a deer and earth. Rage can kill superman Paris Hilton uses a rage to make 2'' coke lines Chuck Norris uses a rage to brush his teeth
Back to the topic. The Rage can obviously kill deer in the right setup. So can a butter knife. But the problem is, they have been marketed as the ultimate killing machine to a mass of bow shooters that dont know KE or MASS from a pimple on thier butt. And the horror stories are endless. I have been on several fruitless tracking jobs thanks to the Rage marketing machine, and it just burns me to think that they market a product that really has fairly limited use. Again, has anyone had a guide or outfitter ask them to be sure to bring large expandables to camp?
I have a couple of questions for proponents of the rage BH: What would be your recommendation for minimum arrow weight (grains per pound), minimum FOC and minimum KE for use with the rage BH? You can even use a pencil to figure out your recommendations . If you don't have any recommended minmums would it be because you believe this is a good BH for use on any setup?
Don't worry, Rickmur..It happens to everyone. Just start practicing more. Use a 3-D target when you practice, and, try to practice from an elevated position. Better luck next time, man..
Bruce: I still contend that "out of the right setup", the head is awesome. To answer your question......70FPKE (most any way you get there). And, really.....the KE number is USELESS out of a non-tuned bow/arrow marriage. Another good question might be.....How many people (%-age) do you think are shooting sufficient power from a tuned bow/arrow to take advantage of the Rage head (of the people shooting them)? Less than 5% (IMO)....and probably way less.
It's absolutely NOT a good choice for just "any" setup. For people shooting 70+ lbs of KE, the Rage two blade heads have performed flawlessly for me and the people I hunt with, even with some very marginal shots with better than 75% of them producing pass throughs. If your under 70lbs of KE I'd recommend a big diameter fixed blade, I prefer the Slick Tricks. If your under 55ish lbs, I'd recommend a cut on contact head, I really like the Magnus Stingers. That's what I typically recommend for people based on their setups. Every boiler room shot deer I've seen with every head I've been around has produced short trials. The real advantage IMHO is that the majority of the less than ideal shots I've seen tend to be too far back. Out of these marginal shots, the ones with Rage's definitely produced shorter trails and more blood. Your mileage may vary.
My comments have nothing to do with Rick, he seams to always shoot straight on here...no pun intended 05 hoyt x-tech??? 29" 70 lbs some sort of reverse opening mech head with 3 blades (1) shot (1)pass through 06 switchback XT 60 lbs 28" draw all complete pass throughs...several deer 07 guardian 66 lbs 29.5" draw all complete pass throughs except 1 spine shot, blades slightly bent but no worse for the wear (ferral) I consider myself a decent shot, nothing compared to some on here...in the woods I can shoot 40, but try to limit everything to 35 or less and nothing more than broadside to slightly quartering. I believe with these limitations the Rage head is absolutly devastating. If you run the KE numbers on the above bows, the XT would probably scare you, but all rage heads sent downrange went on through and into the dirt. I have shot them open, 1 blade deployed, rubber band on and off and accuracy was not affected in the least. I like to try new things all the time, but these heads will remain in my quiver for quite awhile. ***Before I joined a sight called hunting net and now here I would be that same jackleg yall refer to as clueless, so I can understand where the frustration with the advertising comes from. I agree with the numbers Jeff threw out on the actual percentage of hunters carrying enough KE for the heads, but I also believe a VERY hihg percentage of the horror stories associated with the heads was the indian and not the other way around.*** We rarely blame ourself. It is funny that a guy would shoot his bow 20 times a year, not tune it properly, buy a broadhead because it "flies like a fieldpoint" and then have the ability to see his broadhead open in flight, or the exact location of said entry hole where the broadhead failed to open. The same guy we flame for his preperation automatically becomes the say all for broadhead failure. I just re-read my post and Rage should send me several packs of heads because I wrote that as if i was on the payroll They should know however that if I could use up the last 2 and then the 3 snypers I have, that I want to try the shuttle T...I think they look cool
ohbowhntr i didnt stutter when i said a rage would have put the deer i just shot down way faster because it would have done way more damage. i showed you the video on the shot with the f-15 and ive shot enough deer to know what a bh with a bigger cutting diameter will do. the f-15 claims 250% bigger hole which is false. my rages make way bigger holes then the f-15 as far as putting a better shot on the deer. lol. again watch the video i put it in the best spot possible for the shot i had and ive seen way worse shots take deer down sooner with the rage. im not a pro staffer. i can only say what my experiences have been with a certain product. and as far as your deer going down at 3 yards instead of 2, i guess you'll never know. all's i can say is, i try out new product. i dont stick with one thing and think its the best. i want to see and test things that are out on the market. if there wasnt people like me trying out new things you wouldnt have anyone review things that could help or hurt you hunting performance
6 for 6 with the 3-blade rage, only nit I have with it is 5 of the 6 did not have blood trails, and the 6th was pretty light, now 4 of the no blood trail kills, 4 of them piled up within site of the stand and the 5th, I heard crash about 60 yards away. Shooting 69.5ke, so maybe a tad low, but seems to get the job done, just wish it had a good blood trail. Keep debating on switching to a 2 blade, but the success rate that I have had so far makes me hesitant to make the switch. The big selling point is they DO fly like my field points, every year I try a different brand of fixed blades, but I refuse to move my site around to accommodate for that, my skills on setting up a bow are not that advanced.
I'm not picking on you (believe me). This is probably the #1 selling point the head has. But, it's also the absolute WORST reason to shoot a mechanical.
