Fixed blades for elk

Mosster47

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Mar 7, 2020
Messages
132
I startes with Montecs and couldn't ever get them to tune properly. I switched to Stinger Buzzcuts or whatever they are called and they shoot extremely well like all chisel points. They have a great warranty as well. If you damage one at all they will replace it.
 

stonewall

WKR
Joined
Jul 29, 2016
Messages
731
Location
TX - Texas
I've killed 2 elk and 2 deer with slick trick magnums. both elk and 1 deer died in sight. 1 deer had to be trailed...fortunately that was the one with best blood trail. they seem to be effective heads and fly well for me, but the blood trails have been my only concern. and maybe I'm a bad sample...if the animal falls in sight, I don't do a lot of looking for blood (just sort of looked to see how the head did)
 

Beendare

WKR
Joined
May 6, 2014
Messages
8,999
Location
Corripe cervisiam
Lots of good options for reasonably priced heads with good steel. Mangus stinger and Buzzcut, VPAs, etc.

I'm not a fan of slick Tricks...shot then for years and have some pretty bad stories. This one pictured was recovered inside of my bull elk- pretty crummy steel eh?
BH mangled red.jpg
 

jhbaylor

FNG
Joined
Sep 4, 2016
Messages
46
Location
North Carolina Mountains
There are some great fixed blade options in single bevel and 2 blades when you are talking about elk.

Strickland Helix, Kudopoint, Magnus Stingers, Cutthroats, etc. all available in 125 grains.
 

WCB

WKR
Joined
Jun 12, 2019
Messages
3,631
I've shot the slick trick standards and the Viper Tricks...both to me were easy to tune and shot well out to 80 or 90 yards (i'm not good enough past that to tell). like Beendare shows above the blade edges look horrible if recovered. Always had great blood trails had more pass throughs with the Viper Trick. To me they are one time use heads I wouldn't plan on resharpening.

I moved to the RAD Rivals and love them so far.
 
Joined
Jan 7, 2019
Messages
323
Location
New Mexico
I’ve shot slicktrick standards for years now and they’ve always held up well and got the job done. I’ve also shot some viper and wicked tricks at target but always end up shooting the standards once season comes around. Both elk I’ve shot with the standards went less than 60 yards.
 
Joined
Jul 25, 2017
Messages
83
Location
Colorado
I shoot 125gr Montecs also. No complaints.

Just got a set of their BMP matchpoint field tips that should help with tuning.

Check em out.
 

MattB

WKR
Joined
Sep 29, 2012
Messages
5,743
Bone impact?

Ribs, I was really disappointed in the blade retention. I killed another moose with a VPA 3 blade with very similarly shot placement (hair, ribs, and vittles) and the head was basically pristine afterwards.
 

JDixon

FNG
Joined
Apr 8, 2020
Messages
29
QAD Exodus swept. No tune required , shot same as field points. Swept legal here. Have not tried the full blade yet
 

Beendare

WKR
Joined
May 6, 2014
Messages
8,999
Location
Corripe cervisiam
I have only killed on animal (moose) with them and was unimpressed with the performance. Edge retention was garbage.

Yeah, I've seen poor performance with those too...its the design.

My experience from seeing hundreds of animals die to a bunch of different BH's. [yeah, I'm bored ]

Personally, I think design matters....and those short chisel point heads all have the same thing in common; they compress the hide on impact and the short design puts a lot of the blade edge in contact with hair, hide and bone. I shot one elk with a perfect Broadside shot with a ST mag and that bull rolled around for 15 minutes until I could get another arrow in him to kill him. The Elk had been wallowing with a bunch of dried mud in his hide...that BH stopped in offside ribs.....it was so dull the wound didn't hardly bleed. IMO, that design is a bad choice for thick skinned game like hogs and elk.

Drag your skinning knife across a hide a couple times and see how that works on a blade edge- not good. Then add that most of these are made with thin cheap stamped steel blades. I've seen a bunch of similar rolled blades on this style of head.

The heads with more of a tapered design or very high grade thicker steel blades just don't do this. Remember the old thunderheads? I shot 80 animals with those back in the day...no rolled edges. No surprise, The head has more of a tapered design. The short heads came into vogue because guys struggle or want to shortcut the tuning of their bows.

Using the tapered COC heads that I do now....ZERO rolled edges...its by design. So you don't need super steel with this design...the taper puts less stress on the blade bevel.

_________
 

IdahoHntr

WKR
Joined
May 3, 2018
Messages
393
Location
Idaho Falls
In my experience most all of these fixed blade threads come down to the same few heads, if you are looking to be budget minded. The exodus, slick trick, and magnus heads are going to be your top vote getters. They get the top votes because they are all good heads, at a good price, that work consistently. Are they indestructible? No, but I don't think anybody who is looking to buy heads for $30-$40 should expect them to be. Choose one of the three you like the best and go for it with the confidence that a lot of people have used these heads and found a lot of success.

If you want personal experience, I've shot the slick trick standards for years and they are great. Always easy to tune and performance has always been good. They made it through the offside shoulder of my bull a couple years ago just fine, and can't think of a harder test than that in the species I hunt. They are a one time use head, but you can just buy new blades for them instead of resharpening.
 
Joined
Dec 16, 2014
Messages
593
I consider my broadheads like I do bullets, one time use on game. If I ever recover one after shooting something (haven't yet) I toss it. I do target shoot with them but not a lot and I'll replace blades or sharpen before hunting.
 
OP
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gibby97

FNG
Joined
Jan 14, 2020
Messages
80
Lots of good info on this topic. Much appreciated. So between exodus, slick trick and magnus which ones work better on whitetail or are they all pretty much equal? My objective is to choose a BH that will work for both since I mainly hunt whitetails, just got lucky enough that the wife let me go on an archery hunt this fall.
 

KineKilla

WKR
Joined
Apr 8, 2020
Messages
508
Location
Utah
Have you looked into the g5 Striker heads? I like being able to replace blades rather than sharpen.

Sent from my SM-N976U using Tapatalk
 

HDwild

WKR
Joined
Apr 2, 2020
Messages
520
Location
Central Washington
I know this is a repeat but want opinions.

Shooting a bowtech Invasion at 65 lbs with arrow weight at 450 gr so it’s fairly quick. Field tips are 125gr. Im leaning towards G5 Monec 125 gr or slick trick Vipertrick 125 gr. What do you all think? How hard are these choices to tune and will they fly fairly true out of the package? Can both be sharpened?

I know IW seems to be the choice of most but damn they are expensive. Am I missing the boat on something else?

Let’s hear it.

KUDUPOINTS! Check them out. They are killer.
 
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