Buck Hollow Sporting Goods - click or touch to visit their website Midwest Habitat Company

Fixed Blades vs. Expandables?

There is a fomula used to calculate foot # at impact or something like that. I've been told you must have a minimum 55 foot # to use mechanicals on whitetail. I thought I would be able to use my setup(235 fps, 57# dw, 285gr carbon arrow, 28.5 draw) with 100 grain spitfire and was shocked to fined out that the combination of arrow speed and weight left me way short of the minimum to shoot the spitfires I'd already purchased. Although I had a great setup for turkey and minimum penetration. Check with your pro shop or maybe somebody with a little more knowledge could make more sense out of what I've tried to say.

ironwood
 
Ironwood,
What kind of arrow are you shooting? I was wondering because that sounds like an allfully light arrow. Are you including your tip? I ran your arrow on the calculator and according to that you dont meet the recomended foot #s for whitetail. If you add a 100 grain tip then you will be around 47 foot #s witch will then be over their reccomended foot #s. Im just trying to figure this out and make since of it.
 
I had to laugh a Bonecrushers story above!!! Last year the deer I shot with my Spitfire expandables had a shotgun slug lodged in his jaw. It must have been there for a while because I never saw, the taxidermist did.

The moral of the story is this: It doesn't matter if you're shooting expandable, fixed blade or a 12 gauge, if you don't put it where it needs to go, it's not the broadhead's fault.
 
last season i shot thunderheads out of two deer i got 1 pass threw. they aren't the most accurate things though. both of my shots were good 1 was at 25yards and the other was at 7yards. that had a lot to do with it i bet. this season for turkey i am going to shoot 125grain spitfire shooting a mathews fx at 62pounds hope they do as good as the thunderheads did.
 
Looks like alot of you like the Muzzy. My only experience with one was not good. But that's a whole other topic. Like alot are saying, shot placement is the most important part. I shoot 2216's at 8o lbs. with 125 gr. Bodkins. They are not the prettiest head around but they have been around a long time. They also fly the same as my field points at any yardage. Jay
 
Shovelbuck, I was just curious as too why your pulling so many pounds? I figure you hunt some other big game, or maybe you just like the extra power. Anyway just thinking out loud.
 
micah3553, Good question. I really don't know why I shoot that much. Sure don't need to for whitetails. I have allways harbored hope in the back of my mind though that someday I will make it to the dark continant to hunt cape buffalo. I would need that much and then some for those critters! As I get older though, I'm starting to relax the weight some.
 
I tried them one year but, went back to Thunderheads. I wasn't happy with the way they where penetrating. I shot two bucks and one bull elk with them and my bow alway put out a lot of KE. Last year I was shooting 70 lbs at 285 fps with a 365 gr carbow arrow tipped with a 85 gr Thunderhead = 66 KE. this year because of my shoulder my new bow is only 62 lbs, 266 fps,385 gr. carbon arrow with a 100 gr. Thunderhead = 60lbs of KE I'm from the old book and like to pull my arrow out of the ground after a pass through.
 
I used mechanical broadheads for 3 years that I used an overdraw. My complaint was no pass through so no blood trail. The 3rd deer I shot was late enough that I could not find it in the dark, so 1st light in the morning I went back and the coyotes had been there 1st. Anyway I shot 3 deer in 3 years with them and the only complaint was the lightweight overdraw arrows combined with the expandables did not have enough kinettic energy for a good pass through on any of them. Unfortunately, many people use expandables with overdraws for tuning reasons, however I went back to full length arrows and fixed broadheads. I'll try expandables or overdraw again, but never together!

IaCraig
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom