Broadhead Debate

Fixed or Mechanical? Find what’s best for your setup and for the game you’re chasing.

In my own opinion I think the broadhead you shoot is arguable the most important piece of equipment an archer takes with him to the woods. After all it is the first thing that comes in contact with the animal. The dispute between fixed blade and mechanical broadheads is a debate that seams to never end with the majority of both sides standing firm in their beliefs. In my opinion, I don’t believe either side needs to be so polarizing in beliefs.

Fixed Blade

Pros: Fixed blades offer more strength, durability, and penetration than mechanicals. There really isn’t a comparison between fixed blades and mechanicals when it comes to strength. That isn’t to say that some mechanicals aren’t strong, but just not near the strength in which a fixed blade possesses. Similarly, fixed blades broadheads offer a lot more durability. Not only will you rarely see any blades from a fixed blade break off, but you can also re sharpen and use more than once. This offers a lot more return on investment for fixed blades. Even with more strength and durability than mechanicals the most important performance aspect that fixed blades have on mechanicals is penetration. Due to the higher strength and durability fixed blades have a much higher chance of staying true and traveling through the animal at the angle in which the arrow entered.

Cons: Cons of fixed blades are a smaller cutting diameter, extra tuning for correct flight/accuracy, and overall arrow speed. Due to the fixed blades stronger design they have a much smaller cutting diameter. This leads to smaller wound channels and potentially less blood trails depending on where your kill shot takes place. With fixed blades you also will have to do extra tuning to correct your flight and accuracy. This could be as simple as nock tuning or different vane configurations, but nonetheless will take some extra time before hitting the woods. The last thing I believe that some hunters see as a con to fixed blades is there performance at higher arrow speeds. Most fixed blade broadheads do not perform very well when arrow speeds climb above the 280-290 feet per second threshold.

Mechanical

Pros: Mechanical broadheads offer much less surface area on the front of your arrow that lead to better accuracy with less tuning needed, larger cutting diameters, and ability to shoot at higher speeds. For the most part, with mechanical broadheads blades being hidden and deploying on impact the accuracy is pretty similar to your field points. Also, the accuracy of mechanical broadheads when going past sixty yards and shooting long range is much greater than fixed blades. Of course I would always recommend shooting them before heading to the woods but for the most part you can bet they are going to hit close to where your field points do. Probably the most appealing thing about mechanical broadheads is the much larger cutting diameter. They can get up to 2” and sometimes more and that is something that fixed blade broadheads simply can’t offer. With the larger cutting diameter this leads to larger wound channels, bigger blood trails, and a greater margin of error on shots that don’t hit exactly where you want. Last but not least, mechanicals can allow you to shoot arrow speeds above the 280-290 feet per second threshold much more accurately than fixed blades can.

Cons: Mechanicals tend to not penetrate as well as fixed. This is seen most when that shot isn’t perfectly broadside, and the deployed blades don’t have a near perfect perpendicular angle going into the animal. A lot of hunters biggest issue with mechanicals is the blades deploying early. Most blades are only held in place by a small thin rubber band and have been known to break due to the pressure exerted from the high-powered compounds we shoot these days. Not only can they deploy in flight, but even with the slightest contact. With that, a lot of western hunters who hunt by spot and stalk and spend a lot of time carrying a nocked arrow on their bow stay away from mechanicals to avoid the possibility of blowing a stalk. Not only have people experienced the blades opening early, but also not opening at all. There are times when the arrow hits the animal in such a way that there’s a malfunction and the blades don’t deploy.

I have shot both mechanical and fixed blade broadheads through my life. Both when correctly tuned have performed extremely well for me. Currently I have settled in shooting the new SEVR Titanium Pivoting head mechanical broadhead. As a whitetail hunter from Missouri these have been the most lethal broadheads I have ever shot. I honestly couldn’t be happier with them, but with that if I was going out west to hunt big game in a spot and stalk element I would confidently switch to a fixed blade. This is just my opinion, but I would want all my focus to be on finding away into shooting range of my animal. I wouldn’t want to risk blowing a stalk by any malfunction, early deployment, or no deployment of the blades.

Sources

Fixed vs. Mechanical –(https://www.bowhunting.com/blog/2014/07/05/fixed-blade-vs-mechanicalblade-broadheads/)

Broadheads – (https://thehuntingpublic.com/broadheads-fixed-vs-mechanical/)

Fixed or Mechanical – (https://www.realtree.com/all/articles/the-broadhead-debate