Your Top FIXED blade BH

[Super 91]

I think some of the best blood trails have been either the Magus Stinger Buzzcuts or G5 Strikers. I've shot a bunch of animals with Strickland Helix 2 blade heads, and I've never lost an animal, but sometimes you get nearly zero blood depending on how the head went through the animal. My preferred head overall is the Buzzcuts, they just work.

 

[bowhuntercoop]

Vpa 3 blade 250 grain with the 250 single bevel in a close second.

 

[omegahunter]

All I've ever used is fixed and my favorites were the Muzzy Phantom MX (discontinued), Slick Trick Magnums, and Slick Trick Grizz Tricks. Can't complain about any of them except that you can't get the Phantom MX's anymore.

 

[mtnbound]

He didn’t go but 50 yards, given the placement of arrow and time he stood there-like 15 mins-I didn’t care for, along with very little blood.
I could tell he was hurting-and again I’m not crapping on the exodus, or this particular scenario, but concerned the next time I maybe have an elk run off with little blood trail.

Appreciate everyone’s input

It seems like your system did fine. As you mentioned, you got a pass-through, but you had no blood to speak of, and the animal stayed on its feet for a while. Was the exit high? Was the body cavity full of blood? Did your arrow hit both lungs?

 

[RiversideHunter]

There are so many variables to getting good blood. If you don’t hit a major vein or artery there may be minimal bleeding on a very lethal shot. You see it on all kinds of animals. I shot a nice buck this year quartering away. The arrow went through guts, liver and both lungs - it did not exit. He didn’t go 50 yards and not a drop of blood. Did the broadhead perform well? I would say it did.

 

[stickbow59]

Slick Trick Magnum 100 grain for compound, Zwickey Eskimo for traditional.

 

[doc holiday13]

Finally connected a deer with a IW wide. The wides will tell you how in tune your bow is. It is not a forgiving setup, but man I've never seen a deer go down that quick ever. Frontal shot through the neck and out liver. Skimmed the topof the heart. She fell over backwards because I think she was scared of the sound of my bow, and she never got up. Expired it seemed like sub 20 seconds

IW SB is a very forgiving broadhead. They zip through an animal quickly. Last deer I shot last year had a SB zip through and she ran 25/30 yards and turned around to see what happened. I saw the blood running down her coat. After 5 seconds of looking around she got wobbly and fell

Magnus Black hornet is a very accurate head too. It takes a little bit of time but if you can get a 1k grit grind on these with the innovative outdoorsman jig they hold their edge fairly well. The one I used last year is still very sharp after schwacking 2 deer with it.

 

[Morgan87]

VPA 3 blades for a few seasons now. Easy to sharpen and affordable enough to replace when I miss!!!

 

[iwearshorts]

G5 Montec. I’ve used slick tricks and muzzy in the past. As far as their effectiveness on whitetail, once they are properly sharpened I couldn’t tell the difference between any of them. I’ve gotten really good blood trails and other times had no blood at all.

 

[Ange86]

G5 Montec

 

[sclb745]

The Exodus is my favorite fixed head. You just have to realize that some shots/animals are going to produce more blood than others. The consistent thing is the Exodus and it’s always given me clean pass throughs when I put it where it’s supposed to be. I don’t even resharpen, I just buy replacement blades and keep on truckin.

 

[ScreamingPotato]

100gr Slick Trick magnum.

 

[MichigAndy]

A mechanical cutting a big hole, hitting them like a baseball bat and they run like their tail is on fire. They might be loosing 3 times as much blood per second as a small 2 blade, but when they are covering ground 8 times faster, blood trail is gonna seemingly suck.


I do agree the small efficient heads tend to cause the animal to not spook as bad, causing them to hang around, or only jump 20-30 yards then ponder what was happening.

This has been my exact experience going from a 2 blade 2” mechanical to QAD Exodus swept. Deer are just as dead but reaction to being shot is different.

 

[bowhuntercoop]

I’ve had dozens of deer take a vpa 250 grain 3 blade, 250 grain cut throat single, and a 100 grain Magnus stinger 2 blade and not even kick or react. Walk 5-10 yards look around and fall over. Huge fan of 1 1/8 fixed blades. Blood trials have been great, hit dependent imo.

 

[zacrob11]

Iron Will is always a good choice. I like the wides. I’m not a huge fan of the vented version though. They’re too noisy in my opinion.

 

[AkRyan]

You shot him with arguably the best fixed blade head there is. It wasn't the broadhead it was just a unique situation.

 

[aMurderOfCrows]

The Magnus Black Hornets do massive damage. Despite the size they fly really good. Long range shooting with 16% foc and 3 Black Sky vanes(ultra stiff Blazer) groups opened more than I like.

For all purpose the Wasp Drone is awesome. 3 Blade, 1-1/8” cut. Awesome flight as far as I can launch em and the Wasp chisel point is the best. I’ve got hundreds of shots on some of these and the point is sharper than most out of the pack.

 

[HandgunHTR]

I shoot 125 grain Tuffhead Evolutions without the bleeders (560 grain total weight, 268 fps). I went 2-for-2 on whitetail bucks this year. First one was a quartering to at 30 yards. Buck went 15 yards, stopped, then turned around and did the sideways walk, fall down thing. Second buck was hit a couple inches high and too far back with the first shot (stepped away from me at the shot), but got a complete pass through (exit center of ribs). He didn't even act like he was hit. Just trotted out of the plot, into the woods. Turned around and followed the does right back into the plot about a minute later. I could see him bleeding. Was able to put another shot directly into his on-side shoulder (lower shoulder exit), at which point he spun and did a 50-yard death run.

I will be using these heads for a while.

 

[jonesn3]

IW SB is a very forgiving broadhead. They zip through an animal quickly. Last deer I shot last year had a SB zip through and she ran 25/30 yards and turned around to see what happened. I saw the blood running down her coat. After 5 seconds of looking around she got wobbly and fell

Completely agree about the IW SB being extremely forgiving. It’s a great broadhead, seen a handful of elk killed and a buck with SB 125. It’s a relatively small projectile compared to others so they should fly well. On my Bowtech RevoltX, I was able to go straight from paper tuning at 6ft to broadheads grouping with field points no problem.

I’m actually switching to the Exodus for deer this late season. Maybe even for elk next year, too. Saw my dad kill his first archery elk with an Exodus at relatively low poundage (50lbs), and it worked out perfectly. Very good blood trail on his elk. I’m mostly switching for the cost per head. If you lose or damage an IW, it kinda hurts even though they can be touched up. If you miss, or even get a pass through, they penetrate like crazy and bury in the ground never to be seen again in my experience. I’m still invested in the IW lineup, with collars and several broadheads in my inventory, but the Exodus seems like a good alternative for the cost.

The Exodus took a little more work for me to tune. In the end it only took 1/4 to 3/8 of a turn on the deadlock cams to bring the broadheads into the field points (compared to the IWs).

 

[Wilderlife]

Here is a video I made about one of the broadheads I mentioned in this thread.