Knight, it's actually really funny that you mentioned Pike County. I actually have a guy over at my house right now because his daughter is in college here and is my roommate and they're visiting, AND just so happens that they're in or right by Pike County because we were talking about it tonight. He said he has a bunch of friends that hunt around there and I could come out and hunt on several properties in that area. Thank you for reassuring me on that, now I definately will have to look into that pretty hard and maybe make a trip out there and try to bring in a nice buck!
Just be sure to register for a license and tags early. They definetly aren't cheap for non-resident and they usually limit the amount of tags.
I use 2 blade rage and those babys are something else. Elky on a longer trip I can see having to always mess with those blades being loose. Only thing I can think of is thicker O-Ring which you can get from a dentist and should not effect penetration at all. As for why you should use them well this Doe I killed this past Monday ended up being a very piss pour shot and I can't explain how I hit her in the left hind quarter. She was quartering away so maybe jumped to the right and ass flew out to the left I don't know. But anyways the arrow cut through her down into her innards and came out just under the brisket. She pretty much was gutted as she left a trail of intestines as she went a couple hundred yards before expiring. I believe a fixed blade would have not made it that far into her with out stopping. The amount of blood that ended up down both legs was astounding. They did their job for sure. Here is a pick of the entrance hole. By the way the carbon broke in half but the head remained in tack with no problems. First pic after 200 yards +
I shoot the Rage 3 blades and they performed great this year. I shot a doe at 23 yards with a double lung hit, she went about 40 yards and the entry and exit holes were actually pretty astonishing to me. Here's a weird thing. When I recovered the arrow about 10 yards beyond where I shot her (I shot her from the ground sneaking through a corn field) The arrow barely had any blood on it. I am shooting 85 lbs at 31 inches so the arrow is hauling about 320 fps, but it seems that the Rage cuts such a massive hole and the arrow went through so fast it just wasn't totally smeared with blood. Interesting. The double lung hit left a double blood trail because of the blood pumping out both sides. The buck I shot went just over 20 yards (hit the heart) after traveling from the back left hip and lodging in his sternum. And, like peakrut mentioned his intestines were also hanging out because of the massive entry hole. This was a 67 yard shot (ranged and dialed with my PSE Slider Sight). I switched this year from the Boss Bullet that I used for years. This is a fixed 3 Blade (replaceable) that is tough and shoots wonderfully even at very high speeds. However, with all the very fast bows out there today, many of the fixed blade heads have cutting diameters of 1 to 1 3/16ths to help with accuracy. The Boss Bullet has a 1 inch cutting diameter. I shot 4 other bucks with this head. The last one I shot went 20 yards and then stood there for about 15 minutes before falling over. This was a double lung hit with a complete pass through. I couldn't think of anything else for this other than the small cutting diameter of the Boss Bullet. The Rage 3 Blade has a 1.5" cutting diameter. A good compromise between penetration and cutting diameter. As with all expandables, they can be a little tricky in the quiver. Here's a tip that might help. I purchased a new foam insert for my quiver and then torched one of the Rage 3 blade heads to get it super hot. I then inserted the head into the new foam and melted a perfect diameter hole for each of the 5 arrow slots on my quiver. The hole was about about 3/4 of an inch deep so the broadheads fit "into" the quiver without deploying the blades. This really helped to keep the blades "locked" into position. Bottom line, shot placement is always key and the Rage allows me to be very accurate with a very fast bow AND get very large entry and exit holes.
Hello Elkaholic, I, like yourself feel the Rage Broadhead is high maintenance and the o-ring is unreliable. I shot the two blade last year and can not argue with the cutting diameter or the way they flew, neither animal made it out of site and the entry hole was very impressive. On the flip side of that, neither arrow passed through completly (not sure why I shoot a Mathews Switchback at 72 lbs. and axis 340 arrows with 2" blazer vanes)both shots where quartering a way a little and both arrows were broken, I never had a problem with pass throughs with my fixed blades. On one occasions I had the o-ring brake on a broadhead in the field and luckily I taped the three extra o-rings they give you to the outside of my quiver, but it was still a pain in the a** to get that o-ring on!! On top of the fact that I can buy six fixed blade broadheads for five dollars less than three rage, I switched back this year to my ole faithful Thunderheads, and gave my rages to my old man. And my first buck this year was quartering a way and had a complete pass through! I don't mean to trash them, this is just my own opinion, if spending five to ten minutes to resight in my bow for fixed blades is my only real worry I can live with that!! The best of luck in which ever way you go and happy hunting! P.S. That Florida dude said that the o-rings don't hold the blades in place. Then please enlighten us and tell us what does, or better yet just take yours off!
Do the rage broadheads shoot just like field tips for you guys? I currently and use spitfires, but I'm looking for something that shoots exactly like my field tips. I don't know if that is possible, but I'm gonna try to find it.
I'm new to this forum, but I've got about 3000 hours of experience bowhunting in the field always trying to improve. Gave my self the name of BrokenLimbs as a joke, because my first BowTech exploded on me while target shooting in 2003.... TO ANSWER YOUR QUESTION.... Yep. They come with a blue locked / practice tip to prove it. Having first hand experience with these broadheads for two seasons, I joined this forum to respond to your question. I have never hunted with fixed blades. Never even shot one as far back as I can recall. This year, I'm also shooting the small blazer veins that work great, on the thin shaft carbon arrows at 80#! Used to use Rocky Mountain Revolutions until last year. They worked awesome with 80#'s of energy. (Can't get them anymore.) The discontinued them apparently because of opening problems in lesser # bows. (Pulling 80#, they always worked great for me.) Then I went to the 3-blade Rage expandables. (The ones you're asking about.) They definitely get the job done. They too fly identical to my practice tips. (No adjustments needed here either. Prove it to yourself and try the included practice blue tip.) I had also purchased a couple of packs of Trophy Ridge Undertakers last year but never used them until this year, when I ran out of the Rage. (Without testing them (I know it's not a smart thing to do) I got lucky...... Smoked a Coyote @ 30 yards and after that, a deer @ about 25 yards with Undertakers. (They used to call the undertakers something else last year, but Trophy Ridge bought them and put their name on the broadheads.) BUT HERE IS SOMETHING TO CONSIDER..... Every time I "hook up" (or pound the ground as the case may have been on one occasion this year) the three bottom sections between the blades (closest to the shaft) on the Rage 3-heads becomes slightly bent out on impact. Because of this, I don't re-use them, even though they would probably work fine. Bottom line... I think it's important to shoot the lowest profile blade you can. And when they open from the rear, they are less likely to catch things in flight. They also work better in steep angle entries, because the openers (unlike front opening blades) won't deflect the entire arrow on impact. Shoot what looks "aerodynamic" because it probably is. Just don't buy any mechanical blade broadheads thinking they are really "reusable" - regardless of whether they sell spare parts. Because who cares if the broadhead is damaged when you smoke your target. No matter what, the blades are no longer sharp anyways. One deer I shot at 35 yards this year with the Rage 3-head was a 60 degree quartered away shot. The Rage entered in through the back part of the deer, just in front of the hip, and came out the opposing front leg, just behind the front shoulder, and still stuck into the ground. The inside of that deer looked like Mexican Chili. Funny thing about that shot is that the deer barely bled, but it only made it 100 yards. Usually the Rage leaves the animal bleeding like a stuck pig. On a side note, my buddy uses the 2 blades. I like the three myself, but they both make a pretty big hole in whatever they hit. Oh yeah, and as for the o-ring and maintenance thing... You have to be careful to check that all blades are closed. I check my quiver once I'm set (hanging in my Trophyline harness ready to hunt,) and make sure all the blades are closed where they belong. I shoot a 2004 BowTech Justice 80# (LH) -IMHO a faster bow means flatter trajectory & less error. Whisker Biscuit via a single pin... -Cause **** happens fast, and in the field, simpler is better!
I just bought the 3 blade rage this past august and used them on a fall black bear hunt. I had absolutely no problems with their performance. I made a solid double lung shot at 20 yards with light poundage bow. The blades opened up perfectly on impact cutting a large hole he only ran 10 yards from the bait. I was nervous about trying expandables for the first time but will definitely continue using rage broadheads.
Elk Anon, What kind of quiver do you have? I've been using the Rage 2-blades and I've been very happy with them. I have an ArrowWeb T3 on my Drenalin, and I haven't had any issues with the blades coming undone in the quiver. They do seem to be lightly held in place, but I think that's part of the reason that they are so devastating, because they open easily on impact and don't loose much kinetic energy. I'm sticking with them but I can definitely see your frustration. Having said that, I did have bit of an issue with them. This past Sept, I was in my treestand and had a couple does coming in. I grabbed my bow off its hanger, and began to turn towards the biggest doe. As I turned, I bumped a branch and it unlocked one of the blades. I didn't realize that it came loose until I drew back. Luckily I was able to reach it, still at full draw, with my left index finger and push it back into place. 3 seconds later, THWACK!!! My first bow harvest ever. The Rage demolished her right lung, sliced the top off her heart and put a huge gash through her lower left lung before lodging in the ground. She went 30yrds and crashed leaving a crimson path that anyone could follow! That whole experience took maybe 15 seconds, but its burned, slow motion like, into my memory for ever! Like I said, I'll still be using them for years to come.
IMO broadheads are allot like bows. For every BH made some one out there says they are a great BH, and some one else has had a bad experience with them and thinks they're junk. I think the G5 Montecs are one of the best fix blades on the market, but some people don't like the idea of a blade that you resharpen and would rather have replaceable blades on a broadhead. For me even though these blades can do some serios damage there seems to be too many things that can go wrong with them. I read a post on HNI where a guy shot a deer with the rage and hit bone and the blade broke apart. Even though plenty of guys have had great experiences with them thats not a chance I want to take.
