I went chasing "best broadheads" for awhile. Then, I realized it's mostly me and where I put the arrow. Almost every broadhead I've shot winds up damaged from our rocky soil anyway.
Yeah, I think many of us have went down most rabbit holes with archery, there are many to go through
I had a bit of an “ah ha” Moment a few years ago when I shot a bull that would have been my best, or at least very close.
The shot was 4 steps, slight quartering, no way I was in anything heavier than a rib. I was using a very highly regarded head and it folded up like a Walmart lawn chair on impact (had no idea at the time) I was able to watch that bull for a couple minutes through my binos (he didn’t know what happened) and I could see the entrance plain as day and was very excited, I was going to watch him tip over any second
Long story short, after watching him go down the ridge and cut over to the right about 150yds below me, I knew something wasn’t right, because he should have been dead by that point so I gave him 2 hrs
Went to go track, and about 30yds into it I found my arrow with my broadhead that failed catastrophically and my heart sank.
The same people that will readily pump up that particular head will also tell you that mechanical heads are terrible and have a high failure rate… there are several mechs i would shoot before I considered the failed head.
People blame broadheads for poor shooting, which doesn’t equate to data points
I have seen fragile looking mechanical heads make it through heavy bone and stay intact.
I appreciate a good head as much as anyone, and they all have their place, but aren’t necessary to be a vet successful archery hunter. I shot standard muzzy 3 blades for a long time, don’t think I ever got one back that I wanted to reuse, but also never had a failure.
I have on hand, iron will, Valkyrie, German kinetics, kudu, etc, but the only one of those that will be in my quiver are the GK’s, I shoot the xl, And is my favorite fixed head… they cut a big hole, stay sharp, are not loud in flight, and my favorite head dimension is a 1.5” 2 blade, if there were more options in that configuration, I probably wouldn’t buy GK’s, but my preference is very limited, so that’s what I shoot.
A person could buy QAD exodus and never have broadhead drama, and they aren’t a top shelf head
As for beasts, they don’t offer me anything, they aren’t easy to sharpen, and are expensive, and I don’t go out of my way to support Josh, but he has showcased that mechs can hold up to extreme abuse… I don’t care how they do on a YouTube broadhead test if they can kill a Cape buffalo handily, just shows how useless those YouTube broadhead tests are
I think you pretty much have to try to find a head that will have a failure rate greater than rarely. I have never killed anything with a mech, but this might be the year. I will have a couple GK’s, a couple reaper pro 1 3/8” and probably a lonely exodus