[WILKinKC]

I got my first bow about a month ago now. It is a Bowtech Convergence. Currently set at 63# & 29.5 draw. I am running Black Eagle Rampage arrows w/ their halfouts, 3 blazer vanes, and Nockturnal nocks. I have come up with 494 grain total arrow weight (if using 100grain head); this total includes BH, halfout, shaft, vanes and nocks.

My question is am I making enough KE to use mechanicals, or should I be using fixed? I am not sure how many FPS my bow is shooting.

 

[t35henry]

I think you should be fine there with a two blade mech. You could take your bow in to a bow shop and chrono it as well and get their opinion. I have done well with a 550 grain weight at 65 shooting 30.5, all things considered should be pretty close. Brace height matters as well when looking at that. Mine is a 6 on that set up. So shorter = faster = more energy transfer to arrow but less forgiving.

 

[pd230soi]

I prefer fixed. Keep them sharp. practice a lot.

I used a mech once and never will again. I am not really sure what went wrong, but it was a terrible 48 hours trying to sort out how badly I had hurt that deer.

I can only assume I had made a poor shot. Would a fixed BH worked better. I don't know. I do know that I have not had the problem since. Maybe I take that extra second to aim better, maybe the fixed BH...

Since you are new I would look to eliminate any variables that might not work as expected.

 

[Spaceball]

You can shoot any mechanical with your set up.

I recommend a mechanical on a well tuned bow for a beginner. The most important thing is actually hitting where you intended to hit. This is more likely with a mechanical especially when new.

The tree stand is not like shooting on the ground and can be much more difficult to keep good form. With a mechanical this is not near as important.


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[Hunter5400]

Im thinking a fixed blade.

Being a beginner (and a human), you may make a bad shot and hit the shoulder blade.

If you do this with a mech, then it will probably not perform well. But, if you feel very confident in your shooting, go mechanical. Great heads as long you have good shot placement.

Fixed blades are reliable. Just because they don't usually fly perfect does not mean that you can't move the sight a couple nicks and tune it in a little. When you hit that shoulder blade (you don't want to, obviously) you want to be confident in the performance of your broadhead.

As far as KE, you have enough to shoot either fixed or mechs.

I personally like fixed heads. Good luck.

 

[Methodman]

Mechanicals are a crutch. Go fixed and dont look back

 

[Schleprock1]

Im thinking a fixed blade.

Being a beginner (and a human), you may make a bad shot and hit the shoulder blade.

If you do this with a mech, then it will probably not perform well. But, if you feel very confident in your shooting, go mechanical. Great heads as long you have good shot placement.

Fixed blades are reliable. Just because they don't usually fly perfect does not mean that you can't move the sight a couple nicks and tune it in a little. When you hit that shoulder blade (you don't want to, obviously) you want to be confident in the performance of your broadhead.

As far as KE, you have enough to shoot either fixed or mechs.

I personally like fixed heads. Good luck.

And I will say the exact opposite for kind of the same reasons, except one. A bad shot hitting a shoulder with an expandable is most likely survivable for the deer. A bad shot with a fixed to the guts is never survivable for the deer and will most likely never be found. A large cut mechanical to the guts has more potential to cause more damage and put the deer down sooner.

OP from what you posted it looks like you should be fine with a mechanical. I would recommend one with rear deploying blades (like a rage) over those that the back of the blades point forward and have to fold back on impact.

 

[eclark53520]

Mechanicals are a crutch. Go fixed and dont look back

This is a ridiculous statement. OP - Don't listen to this drivel.

You have enough power to shoot most mechanicals. I would stay away from the ones with ridiculous cutting diameters, but anything 2" and under will be fine.

 

[Hunter5400]

And I will say the exact opposite for kind of the same reasons, except one. A bad shot hitting a shoulder with an expandable is most likely survivable for the deer. A bad shot with a fixed to the guts is never survivable for the deer and will most likely never be found. A large cut mechanical to the guts has more potential to cause more damage and put the deer down sooner.

OP from what you posted it looks like you should be fine with a mechanical. I would recommend one with rear deploying blades (like a rage) over those that the back of the blades point forward and have to fold back on impact.

I agree. Honestly though, you will never have problems with either as long as you have good shot placement. Both are great.

 

[SDguy]

Mechanicals have there advantages and disadvantages. As long as you follow a few guidelines you do have adequate momentum & KE to get a lot of the mechanicals to work for you. Lot of life experiences out there & my experience is of one archery hunter. Your DL & DW along with total arrow weight allow me to not discourage using a quality mechanical BH.

• Stay back from the shoulder at least 1"
• Only accept square broadside shots or slightly quartering away *
• Stay away from hard quartering shots. Deflection will likely get you in trouble. *
• Know the anatomy of the thoracic cavity, along w the bone structure protecting it. *

Understand a double lung shot is hard to beat.

My DL is 30" DW 65 & I am switching away from mechanicals to allow a bit more in the way of shot angles. Shot Nap spitfire 125 gr 3 blade 1.5 did cut for a lot of years.

Wish you well.

 

[Methodman]

The ONLY mechanicals were ever invented is because guys couldnt get BH to shoot straight, and would not put in the time to get their gear and shooting right. CRUTCH!
1. todays BH market offers some pretty darn good flying heads
2. If you take the time to get your bow "right" its going to perform better al around
3. Moving parts invite failure. They DO fail....even if the failure rate is low.... you owe it to the animal to put a dependable solid head through the vitals.

I had this discussion with my elk hunting crew. They were big fans of the mechanical heads. Then they had to track a bull 5 miles on shot that should have snuffed him. Then pumped 4 arrows in him at close range - getting maybe 6 inches of penetration until he finally tipped over. Same crew lost 4 wounded elk on the previous trip. They started to realize hmmmm, maybe we need to get something different on the end of the arrow! Heres the thing... by using the crutch...they never really worried about good arrow flight. THAT can effect penetration and accuarcy as much as the head. Double whammy. They all started calling me- "What broadhead are you using???" They all made the switch.

Whitetails are NOT elk. Gadget heads USUALLY perform well on them. But why bother?

 

[NickS44088]

And I will say the exact opposite for kind of the same reasons, except one. A bad shot hitting a shoulder with an expandable is most likely survivable for the deer. A bad shot with a fixed to the guts is never survivable for the deer and will most likely never be found. A large cut mechanical to the guts has more potential to cause more damage and put the deer down sooner.

OP from what you posted it looks like you should be fine with a mechanical. I would recommend one with rear deploying blades (like a rage) over those that the back of the blades point forward and have to fold back on impact.

Definitely a Catch-22 scenario. I use fixed and hit a deer a little far back this year, never found it. If I had a larger cutting hole, I may have found it. Maybe I could have been more patient tracking, who knows. It was a learning experience. However, my dad shot one this year and the buck must've moved as he shot and he absolutely destroyed the entry front shoulder and got lodged in the other side. Bone was shredded and the buck barely made it 30 yards with its front leg flopping

I did end up shooting another buck and it ran only 45 yards. Slick tricks!

Just my preference is that there are enough variables working against the hunter, why add one more with something that has the potential to not deploy, so that is why I use fixed.

 

[SDguy]

What ever head you go with be sure it is Sharp sharp sharp

 

[Dbolick]

get your bow tuned and arrows flying perfectly straight with a fixed blade. there is nearly no circumstance i would choose a mechanical

 

[Skipop]

I've been doing this since the early/mid 90's. I've shot all sorts of heads. In the end what mattered 100% every time was shot placement, being able to hit my mark. If I screw up, things go wrong, and it doesn't matter what type of head I used. When I get it right, things go well, and it doesn't matter what type of head I used. It's really that simple.

I wouldn't dare advise you to use one or the other. What I would recommend is shoot some animals with both, keeping an open mind, and refraining from deflecting blame to the head if you are the one that messed up. In a short season or two you'll have your own knowledge that is absolute, and won't have to trust internet blowhards who might not know any more than you do right now. Sometimes things I read on this site baffle me, like blind leading the blind. Get your own experience. It's worth 1,000x what any advice here is worth.

 

[eclark53520]

3. Moving parts invite failure. They DO fail....even if the failure rate is low.... you owe it to the animal to put a dependable solid head through the vitals.

I take it you don't like bows because they have moving parts and will fail even if the failure rate is low?

You stick to the atlatl? Spear maybe?

 

[Sonny2020]

Mechanicals are a crutch. Go fixed and dont look back

Mechanicals are not a crutch. Nice try! 40 years of bowhunting and I don't need a crutch but use what I consider the most consistent devastating BH (Rage) that leaves consistently more blood on the ground. Will create more damage because of the cutting diameter. Will give you more room for error if your're off your mark by a few inches. Is more forgiving in wind. Is more forgiving if your form isn't perfect. You easily can go with a mechanical with your specs.

 

[Sonny2020]

I prefer fixed. Keep them sharp. practice a lot.

I used a mech once and never will again. I am not really sure what went wrong, but it was a terrible 48 hours trying to sort out how badly I had hurt that deer.

I can only assume I had made a poor shot. Would a fixed BH worked better. I don't know. I do know that I have not had the problem since. Maybe I take that extra second to aim better, maybe the fixed BH...

Since you are new I would look to eliminate any variables that might not work as expected.

Most likely it was user error and not the BH. So you use fixed all the time and the one time, one TIME you use a mechanical something goes wrong??????? And your're not sure what went wrong but blame the BH???????

 

[BigXX78]

You could choose either. Fixed will consistently give you more passthroughs. 2 holes are better than 1. Either way, learn now to pass on any shots at animals, if you can't shoot through both lungs. Don't rely on any broadhead to always give you massive, perfect blood trails. If you make good shots, and learn to track, you will always find your game.

 

[pd230soi]

Most likely it was user error and not the BH. So you use fixed all the time and the one time, one TIME you use a mechanical something goes wrong??????? And your're not sure what went wrong but blame the BH???????

Sonny,

The question was about mech vs fixed BH for a new user. I provided my experiences so the OP could make an informed decision.

Since I did not get my hands on the deer I could not be absolutely sure so I didn't want to speculate. But since you ask.....

I think either the blades deployed in flight due to user error setting up the collar, I hit a bramble before hitting the deer making the blades deploy prematurely, or I hit the shoulder bone and the arrow was unable to penetrate.

It appeared to hit the deer near the shoulder, he roared (sort of) and took off. I searched for more than two days looking for any sign of that deer and only found some very minor drops of blood.

So for a new hunter I recommend the fixed blade because it removes a few things that could go wrong. For a new hunter I think removing some of the variables is a good idea.