Your Top FIXED blade BH

[Sizthediz]

QAD exodus. They don't too far with only 3 wheels. But give some iron wills a shot

 

[Outdoorjoe318]

Been very happy with QADs, iron wills, and Kayuga Pilot cuts. Heads I’ve had bad experiences with include grizzly stick, Kayuga tri zot, and TOTA. Mixed results with slick trick, but mixed results = no go in my book.

 

[High Climber]

Slick trick viper trick got the nod this year. I really wanted to use the Exodus but they just didn’t fly well for whatever reason

 

[Dirtbag]

Slick trick mags and muzzy trocars are sweet, slick trick mags have left massive blood trails for me especially.

 

[HuntHarder]

Wac ems were by far my favorite. Flew like missiles out to 80 yards and flat out worked. Used to be a small company with good quality. After they were bought out, their quality went to shit

 

[mtntough]

Abowyer broadheads are top shelf
Also like the Ashbys from alaska bowhunting supply
Nothing has lived long from chest shots out of tradbows for me

 

[LostArra]

I'm very susceptible to recency bias and this was last month. Magnus Stinger Buzzcut .This guy took a step away right at the shot and I immediately thought I was in for a long night BUT he only took 1 step and went into a death spin. The arrow actually penetrated a few more inches than shown in photo then backed out during the spin. This is my second Buzzcut buck this year. My only complaint is the head is frequently one and done. I returned both heads to Magnus to try their lifetime warranty but I haven't heard anything yet.

I also have good results with Viper Tricks and two blade Killer Bees.

 

[LostArra]

Update: Magnus replaced all three heads (2 dead deer, one dead elk). No questions, no cost, free shipping.

 

[Okie101]

Still like the Red Feather Phoenix single bevel 3 blade.

 

[DWinVA]

My favorite is VPA 200 grain 3-blade out of my recurve.

God Bless.

 

[The Fat Coyote]

Kudu is by far the most accurate fixed blade that I have ever shot. I mean these things are field point accurate, and ive taken them to my block target out to 100 yards. theyre sharper than hell and tough as hell too.
Kudus get my vote 100% of the time.

 

[tim64]

Anything Magnus, I shoot the 125's. Great customer service and you can't beat the lifetime warranty!

 

[J23]

I recently got back into bowhunting last year.

This year, I arrowed a nice eight at eleven yards at a hard downward angle, slight quarter towards me. Slick Trick standard 100 grain. Complete pass through (and I'm only shooting 52# out of my Mathews Image).

Very little to no blood trail. He stopped and laid down about fifty yards distant for about ten minutes then got back up and walked off. Only blood was where he had been laying (and not much there) and a few drops afterwards. Searched for hours that night and again in the morning. Honestly thought I muscle hit him.

Found him two days later after smelling him from the house. Double lunged him. He ended up running about 100 yards as the crow flies. I was sick. There just wasn't enough blood to track. I'm not saying it was 100% the Slick Trick head, but I would have expected more blood.

To me, it doesn't seem as if these replaceable blade heads are as sharp as they used to be. Maybe it's a liability issue, I don't know. But when I was hitting it hard in the late 90's, early 2000's, I was almost afraid to swap blades in my Muzzy heads--they were like scalpels. I cut myself more than once.

Case in point, I just ordered a set of heads off of this company called "Exact Archery". I liked the blade design (sturdy, replaceable blades, cut on impact) so I thought I'd give them a shot. I can run my fingers up and down the blades without cutting myself. Rough machining marks on the blades. Pathetic. Tossed them in the trash.

I don't trust mechanicals because of the low poundage, and even they're not impressively sharp. Seen a set of Sevr heads my buddy bought--same thing. Not sharp at all.

Not sure what to try for next year.

 

[Halligan]

I will say that I've had good luck with the following:
- Muzzy Trocar
-VPA 3 blade
- Magnus Black Hornet
The last two have been immensely durable and easy to resharpen

 

[randy66]

Going to try slick trick ss3 this year after years and years of nap crossfire's (they haven't been made for a few years now and I've exhausted my inventory). Does anybody have feedback on this head? Shooting whitetail, 40 yard max, 29dl, 65 lb. Thank you!

 

[Muskykris]

Another happy IW customer here

 

[LostArra]

I recently got back into bowhunting last year.

This year, I arrowed a nice eight at eleven yards at a hard downward angle, slight quarter towards me. Slick Trick standard 100 grain. Complete pass through (and I'm only shooting 52# out of my Mathews Image).

Very little to no blood trail. He stopped and laid down about fifty yards distant for about ten minutes then got back up and walked off. Only blood was where he had been laying (and not much there) and a few drops afterwards. Searched for hours that night and again in the morning. Honestly thought I muscle hit him.

Found him two days later after smelling him from the house. Double lunged him. He ended up running about 100 yards as the crow flies. I was sick. There just wasn't enough blood to track. I'm not saying it was 100% the Slick Trick head, but I would have expected more blood.

To me, it doesn't seem as if these replaceable blade heads are as sharp as they used to be. Maybe it's a liability issue, I don't know. But when I was hitting it hard in the late 90's, early 2000's, I was almost afraid to swap blades in my Muzzy heads--they were like scalpels. I cut myself more than once.

Case in point, I just ordered a set of heads off of this company called "Exact Archery". I liked the blade design (sturdy, replaceable blades, cut on impact) so I thought I'd give them a shot. I can run my fingers up and down the blades without cutting myself. Rough machining marks on the blades. Pathetic. Tossed them in the trash.

I don't trust mechanicals because of the low poundage, and even they're not impressively sharp. Seen a set of Sevr heads my buddy bought--same thing. Not sharp a

If you like the way Slick Tricks fly just get a Stay Sharp guide to really sharpen the blades before hunting. Pretty simple and quick technique.

 

[Outdoorjoe318]

Kudu is by far the most accurate fixed blade that I have ever shot. I mean these things are field point accurate, and ive taken them to my block target out to 100 yards. theyre sharper than hell and tough as hell too.
Kudus get my vote 100% of the time.

In my experience kudus fly well but I’d say they’re not sharp at all compared to some others. I sent back nine of them to be factory re-sharpened and they all came back. I tested all of them and none of them were sharp enough for me to really want to use. Compared to QAD, IW, or megameats, they’re incredibly dull in my experience.

Again, fly good for me, but with a well tuned bow, I can get almost all high-quality fixed broadheads to hit with my field points til about 70 as well as I can shoot. Past that they start grouping a little bit lower than field points in my experience.

 

[nphunter]

I think there's just too many factors involved on a blood trail.


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.

Usually it seems an animal is on its feet with mobility for 20-40 seconds, sometimes on their feet longer but no gas to go anywhere.


Past 7-10 years I think I have lost one big game animal with a bow, it was a small cut on contact, hit a little further back than I would have liked. Had blood, but lost it, never did find it. Best I could tell it was liver, I can't help but think a bigger hole would have helped.


Even with mechanical heads, a fair number of animals I have been able to stick a second time after they do the wtf jump/dash.

Everyone has their experiences that takes over their beliefs.

I really believe it has more to do with the encounter than the hit that decides if an animal runs or stays. I switched solely to expandables when they became legal in Oregon. Since switching I have had much better blood trails, I’m color blind and that is the biggest reason for switching.

Out of the animals I’ve killed with expandables over 50% have just walked off or stood there. My bull this year looked around and walked up the hill following a cow while a river of blood ran out of him. The farthest an animal has only gone maybe 130 yards. I’ve watched 2 bulls and an antelope tip over not more than a couple dozen yards from where they were hit.

I’ve had similar experiences with COC fixed heads but with way less blood. I've had more animals run off with COC fixed heads than mechanicals.

Here's a speed goat staggering and dying 30 yards from where he was hit with a huge mechanical.

 

[nphunter]

I just killed my elk with a QAD exodus and while he died, I didn't like how long it took. Full pass through, right where it should have been placed. I won't use them again. Not much blood.
Not here to argue about QAD, just simply looking to get some ideas to try next.

I shoot from 60-90 a lot. Flight is important. No mechs.

80 bow/450 gr/306 FPS

TIA

Curious why no mechanicals? Some of the new mechanicals are awesome and I have had 3 different brands work very well on mature elk with less energy than you're shooting. I'm currently shooting an evolution hyde with a 440gr arrow going 290fps and it's bad medicine.

For fixed heads, I never found a single head that consistently left an acceptable blood trail for me. I'm color blind and have always struggled tracking, switching to mechanicals was one of the best things I've done for my hunting. I've never lost an animal with a questionable shot with a mechanical but have lost one to a shot square in the shoulder. I also lost a few animals over the years with questionable shots with fixed heads and also one that was shot square in the shoulder at under 20 yards with fixed head on a 453gr arrow going 288fps.