Mr. Fixit

The thing about affixing mechanical broadheads on your hunting arrows is that your projectiles are not only more aerodynamic and fly truer but they become manifestly deadlier.  Upon impact large razor-sharp blades deploy leaving a three-inch wide wound channel.  A well-placed shot will result in massive blood loss and a quick kill.

A number of years ago I dropped a black bear using a Rage broadhead and it fell dead having traveled less than thirty paces from the point of impact.  Same for whitetail deer.  I've been a devotee of Rage mechanical broadheads ever since.

The downside to these arrowheads is that they're expensive.  The hunter is trading a quick and efficient death (and less tracking) for a few more greenbacks.  Magnifying the larger cost issue is these devices a prone to a single use.  The retention collars that hold the blades in their place until impact are always single use and have to be replaced.  They're not so expensive.  Nevertheless, the moving parts (the blades) bend and break so a weekend of hunting can also mean returning to the tackle box and replacing busted parts.

Of course, the tackle box also holds replacement blades for my three-blade fixed broadheads.  As I think about it they were prone to maintenance issues regularly as well.

Either way you slice it (pun intended) it beat knapping an arrowhead from a chunk of flint or obsidian.

Rage Mechanical Broadheads

Short blog post on the ever debatable topic of hunting technology.

Several years ago I switched from fixed-blade broadheads to mechanical broadheads.  For the uninitiated a fixed-blade broadhead has no moving parts.  The 'tip of the spear' (so to speak) consists of two to four razor-sharp blades affixed to a chisel-point arrowhead.  Deadly efficient but the aerodynamics of the blades can from time-to-time be problematic in their accuracy.  This is remedied by means of time-consuming tuning of the bow on a paper target.  And keeping it paper-tuned.

Mechanical heads fly with the accuracy of a field point (an arrowhead without extruding blades and thus no aerodynamic issues) but deploy their blades on impact with deadly results.  Braumeister and I both have adopted Rage two blade devices.

Sure, I know that some hunters haven't adopted this technology on the premise that anything mechanical will eventually fail.  And while I suppose that is a possibility that's not been my experience.  The two-inch wound channel of the Rage makes for a quick kill.  For me - case closed.

Just like the death-dealing parts of a fixed blade the components of a mechanical broadhead are reusable and can be resharpened after use.  And just like fixed blades you better have some spare parts because sometimes they get beat-up beyond normal repair.

Like this one - which happens to be a crossbow device:

click on image to enlarge

Having struck some bone the blade on this Rage is going to have to be replaced as no amount of work is going to straighten and sharper it to its previous condition.

Here's a high speed video the two-blade mechanical: