Cool, no problem if you want to shoot rages. I have shot Muzzy for 20 years and have yet to have that head let me down. No reason to switch especially when Rages are so costly compared to my Muzzy head.
I have shot a lot of deer, some I see, some I don't No one is going to see every deer drop, one thing the rage has going for it. Is it will make your misses better that are not in the shoulder bone. In hunting it's how good your misses are!!!
Just my $.02 :D I have had no issues at all with the Rages so far. Three Deer and 4 Turkeys. You IMO Wont find a better head for especially Turkeys.
Sorry madhunter, my question was actually directed at GMMAT that said he had blown through the large shoulder/leg bone. I am guessing it was on a southern whitetail deer and my point was that I sincerely doubt he could do that on a mature midwestern whitetail that was pushing 300 lbs. Huge difference. Our does get bigger in body than most of the southern bucks. No offense to southern animals, they just dont need the body mass our deer do to survive the brutal winters we can have. This morning it was -6 degrees and minus 30 windchill here with 14" of fresh snow. Bottom line is, we all shoot what we are confindent in and have had results with. I just know a lot of guys (including myself) that used to swear by large mechanicals and now have gone back to shooting fixed heads. Experience is the best teacher. By the way Madhunter, I noticed by your own admission you only got enough penetration to barely get to the vitals. Glad your outcome was successful. That would cause concern for me. To each his own.
Everyone knows I really like the Rage's, I've shot somewhere around 6-8 deer with them now. All of the shots were in the boiler room until this year, and as expected all of those deer died within 100 or so yards of where I shot them. My last 3 bucks were all within sight when they went down. With that said, this year I made my first bad shot on a deer with a Rage. I completely shot a doe in the guts this year, and a bit high. She also didn't make it even 100 yards. I caught about 1/2" on the edge of the liver as well, but most of the damage was pure guts. She bled like a stuck pig, everywhere. When following the trail I began to question if the shot was as bad as I thought, if if weren't for the color of the blood it was spraying out of both sides of her just like a double lung. When she died she was still close enough for me to hear the death moan. I keep thinking about trying another head, but just can't bring myself to do it. I've still got over a dozen of these heads and a couple packs of replacement blades left, and several of those heads have killed more than one deer now.
I made the switch from Montecs to a Rage a few years ago. On my first hunt out I hit a deer and found that I only had around an inch of penetration. Did the head fail due to user malfunction? head malfunction? bone contact? I don't really know. I do know that the Montec has been through bone. I wanted the Rage to work, as the blood trails with the Montecs are not very good. The buck I killed this year was with a Montec and it went around 70 yards, with no blood trail. I have NAP Bloodrunners put on my arrows now, and figured I will give them a shot for the late season. I do use Rage for turkeys.
I'm new to this forum,but addicted already.Have any of you midwestern hunters ever tried or heard of Rocky Mountain Gator Broadheads?
I was actually worried because when the deer bolted the arrow was sticking out quite a ways. But I was lucky enough, and had a tough head. That is why I have confidence in the heads that I shoot. I have always told people that it does not matter which bow, arrow or head you choose, it matters that you have confidence in your ability and equipment. I also agree on the difference in deer. I have killed a few deer that were close to the 300# mark, and that is a huge deer. Not like the deer that I have seen farther south. Or even some of the Blacktail that I have shot.
I like lots of heads....killed deer with wasp, muzzy, slicks..etc.. they are all wonderful. I never said they were not, and never said a Rage was better...I just said for me, they are the most devistating head I have seen. this post was those who were thinking about going to the Rage heads....it wasn't a debate about which is better...it was a post on my experience with these heads...i could less about what head anyone chooses to shoot...they are all good. but if you are skeptical about Rage, I can tell you that I have killed 13 out 14 deer with a Rage 2 blade...the one i lost was high in the shoulder bone and didn't bust through...I don't know if a fixed head would have done the job or not....that's the truth. no need for a debate...I think 13 out of 14 is a darn good ratio myself...I used to be a huge opponent to Rage heads before I shot them...they are simply destructive...
I have a question, I have heard some folks say that some heads (Montec) do not leave a good blood trail. How do each of you think speed would effect that? I know that I do not have a problem and never have. But then until getting a Bowtech (from Mathews), I was shooting relatively slow. With a 26" draw and the loss of power with shorter dl, I also suffered loss of KE. Just wondering if faster speeds can have and effect on blood trail or performance of a broad head??
I don't think so. But to give you an idea about penetration and the rage standard 2 blades: I have a 26.5" draw, I pull 72 lbs, and my arrow weighs 367 gr at a speed of 280 fps. I have had no issues with KE...or blood trails with Rage or fixed heads...calculator says I have about 62 lbs of KE.
I was wondering because like you I have a short dl. I now shoot a Bowtech and I get similar numbers too. I have yet to have trouble with blood trails.
That was my thought too. I shot muzzy for 10 yrs. I switched last year after seeing all the huge holes and all the blood. If Rage ever lets me down on a shot I truely believe was a good one I will go back. I doubt this will ever happen because I have only made one shot on a deer over 30 yrds in all my life with archery. I guess I dont feel comfortable shooting that far when it comes to crunch time. Like said a hundred times on here if you shoot a Rage at the front shoulder your chances are not the greatest at getting much arrow in the deer. I made myself last year back off the should a little more. There is plenty of lung there to hit 4 or 5" from the front leg. At the same time the deer I have killed with the Rage havent been past 15 yrds so there wasnt many things in the equation that could go wrong other than my own mistakes. I wish some people would realize that 99.999% of the time it is shooter error and not the broadhead they are using. You can never be sure exactly where you hit the deer until it is ground checked.
no, the 9 pointer my brother shot the night before i got mine. i got another nice buck in gun season though. we only get 1 buck tag here in wisconsin, but 1 is enough
ok im gonna end this thing about rage broadheads first off me and a friend shot 1000 total times with new gum bands everytime. ok know thats said we didnt have a single one open up early or cause an arrow to fly irradically. the two main reasons for the arrow to mess up or the broadhead to open in flight is because the gum band is not set correctly like a twist or one of the blades aint set correctly or they use the gum band over again. Id say if everyone could go back to the moment they missed or before they shot and check the gum band and tip they would of been able to fix the problem before it even happened. Everytime i go to shoot a deer i make sure nothing is wrong with the broadhead or my bow because i dont wanna wound an animal or screw up something. I do this even if i blow a chance at a monster buck or bear or anything. So With a 1000 arrows shot and out of a bow set at 72lbs and a bow at 64lbs id say these are the best broadheads i ever shot except for the rocky mountain snypers which are almost the same thing.
