Issue with new SEVR heads?

[Buffalomtn]

One problem with the Sevr’s is that if they impact something hard like center punching a rib it can cause the blades to close and lock closed. Videos on YouTube showing exactly that. Even John Lusk admits that after each shot through the MDF in his tests he has to pry the blades back open. Another potential issue is that with the blades so close to the tip they can deflect or plane along a rib. A few years back I used them on a few hogs and they worked great. Decided to use them on deer and had one that closed up going through a rib and another on a broadside shot hit a rib about 1/3 up and basically rode up the rib and exited the back, never entering the chest cavity. Both deer were ultimately recovered and a careful post mortem showed what was described above. The first case had a large entry on the hide and very small cut through the lungs and small exit hole and the blades were locked shut laying in grass. The second deer was shot a couple of weeks later.
In both cases it would be unlikely to replicate these results which explains why they are loved by so many.

 

[Pramo]

My experiences are similar, some arrow paths I didn't expect or want through an animal that would not happen with normal non pivoting blades. I'm not an anti-expandable guy I have used a bunch of shwackers, hypodermics, rocket/nap 3 blades with great predictable results. Sevr's are a good head and like the materials and blades just don't like the pivoting and potential of failure. Worst case with a hypodermic style head or shwacker is a 1 inch cut

 

[Tupp]

I’ve been using them for the last year and a half, initially I liked them, and was all about them.

They fly great and I’d say they’re field point accuracy as advertised. Killed a few hogs and a couple deers with them.

Last season I shot a doe from 32 from a tree stand. Arrow went in the top of the back of the shoulder, which should have been a double lung pass through, but I guess hit a rib and deflected to coming out of the rear opposite leg. Deer ran off close to 100 yards before I found it.

Buck before that I shot broadside from a ground blind at 26 yards, double lung pass through, but the arrow barely made it out the other side and both blades were bent.

Having said all that, I’ve switched back to fixed and keep a single 1.75 at the end of my quiver in the case I need to take a further follow up shot, but that’s it.

At the time I was shooting a 435g arrow at 70lbs.

 

[mod-it]

I have only shot one animal with a Sevr, an elk at 27 yards with a 1.5".
It went in between two ribs, through lungs, and notched a rib on the way out. Full pass through with a 425 grain arrow doing around 270 fps.
Entry was the full cut, exit was around 1" from one blade pivoting away from the rib it hit on the way out. Elk ran 60 yards and was down. Blood trail wasn't fabulous but it was a mid lung shot and it only went 60 yards, so that didn't really surprise me.
Being from Idaho, that was my first ever animal with a mechanical. What surprised me most was the amount of bloodshot around the entry and exit on the ribcage, easily double the size from what I normally see with a fixed head.
I would use a Sevr again, seemed to work fine.
I will say I find them to be not near as sharp as I like right out of the package, like many heads these days, and I always sharpen them before they go into the quiver.