There have been a few debates raging amongst archery hunters over the last five years or so. Public vs. private. Saddles vs. stands vs. ground. Last but not least, fixed vs. mechanical vs. single-bevel broadheads. At its highest level, the debate comes down to lethality – which broadhead is best for killing whitetails effectively. Each broadhead boils down to a different school of thought, and as part of my pre-season preparation, my experience has shaped my broadhead strategy going into this year.
I’ll start with single-bevel since that is the one I know the least about. As I understand it, the single-bevel school of thought centers around penetration. The bevel is designed to essentially drill through any substance it encounters on a deer, including bone. I have never used one of these broadheads, though I am intrigued. The Hunting Public guys do a great job explaining the benefits of these broadheads and I encourage you to check out their stuff if you want to know more.
I’m going to focus on fixed blade vs. mechanical broadheads. I have used both and I have killed deer with both. I’ve also head negative experiences with both. I will do my best to accurately portray the pros and cons of both. When talking about theory, the school of thought around mechanical broadheads is a) cutting diameter and b) flying more closely to a field point (although I believe both fixed blade and mechanicals fly similarly). Conversely, a fixed-blade broadhead is more sturdy and have a higher likelihood of penetration and pass-through rate. Or so the theory goes.
As with any broadhead or arrow setup, I make sure that I am dialed in. I always practice shoot whatever I’m going to use in the field. Just make sure you have the correct broadhead archery target, as a field point bag with a broadhead can make a real mess. To reiterate, I’ve killed multiple deer with both fixed blade and mechanicals. I have three stories that jump out to my mind when it comes to the negative connotations I have with each.
Fixed Blade Double Lung
My first public land archery buck I killed was 5 parts luck and 1 part skill. It was a rainy afternoon in late October and I set up on a trail that I knew was frequented by deer. This was much earlier in my hunting career and I did not have the strategy that I do now; it was very much a Sit, Hope In Tree mindset. As I used my second-hand Lone Wolf Climber to scratch my way up a tree, I barely had time to pull my bow up and get it untied when an overzealous 8-point buck came crashing my way to inspect what all of the commotion was about.
I waited until he got to 25 yards and stopped broadside. Using my old Hoyt compound, I sent an arrow with a Muzzy fixed blade right into the boiler room. I had not been in the tree for more than five minutes. He took off into a pile of thick brush that led into a swamp. I backed out for a few hours and called a buddy to come help me track him. It was slated to rain that night again so I wanted to get a blood trail while we could.
I was confident I had put a good shot on him. I thought we’d find him piled up within 100 yards. Instead, it took us the better part of the night to twist our way through the labyrinth he led us down. The deer ran more than 250 yards. I figured my shot was not as good as I had thought. When I gutted him, however, I could see plain as day a Trocar-shaped slice in each of his lungs. You could not have asked for better placement, yet he went way further than I thought. This experience led me to switch to mechanicals.
Mechanical Roller Coaster
When I switched to mechanicals, I found the success I had been looking for. I killed multiple does and a couple of bucks with mechanical broadheads. I saw blood trails that looked like I was following a drunken sailor carrying a bucket of red paint. Most of these shots were within 30 yards, but I do have to include one 47 yard shot from the ground on a doe. Before the haters start hating, I ask you to remember that I was shooting a crossbow and was extremely confident out to that distance.
Then came a rut hunt in 2020. I set up one November morning in a historically good rut funnel downwind of doe bedding. It wasn’t long before I heard crashing in the bedding, with a hot doe sprinting away from the second-biggest buck I’ve ever seen in the woods while holding a weapon. The doe crossed through a 50-yard window and then took off away from me, and I knew the buck would do the same. 50 yards was the closest they were going to get. I was confident in my accuracy so I prepared for the shot with my crossbow.
Long story short, I hit him exactly where I wanted to. The problem was I could see the arrow protruding about 10 inches out of his side. Crossbow bolts are not as long as compound arrows, so I realized my penetration was not what it needed to be. I tracked that buck for multiple days and returned to the area multiple times looking for buzzards circling. Disclaimer: I am still disappointed in my shot decision. I felt better when I got the same buck on camera two weeks later looking no worse for the wear, but still, I realized I had pushed my gear’s limitations.
Never wanting to miss an opportunity to learn, I took a deep dive into why that arrow barely penetrated when a year before I had a clean pass through on a doe 47 yards away. The first realization I had is that a rutting buck is a different creature than a late-season doe. Testosterone flows through a rutting bucks veins like literal steroids. Additionally, the mechanical broadheads I had were designed to use the force of the arrow’s flight to open the blades on contact. While that was not a problem on deer that were smaller or closer to me, at that distance it took too much force away from penetration.
I realize that there is another option: don’t take shots at 50 yards. While I agree with that to a point and will probably not take a shot that far on a mature rutting buck without much more powerful gear, I know that I can take deer out to 50 because I had done it before. The main point of this I want to drive home is that I will never take that far of a shot with a mechanical again; the force drop is too great when compared to the cutting diameter. Combine this story with the story of The Track Job (also shot with a mechanical) and let’s just say I see the limitations of mechanicals in certain situations.
All of this culminates to a theory that I’ll be using this season. I have never lost a buck that I’ve shot with a fixed-blade. I’ve never lost a doe that I’ve shot with a mechanical. A rutted up buck is more likely to have more muscle and bone mass than a doe, thus I want something sturdy that I can trust. When I’m targeting a buck, I’ll be using fixed. Since the larger cutting diameter gives me a better shot at cutting more vital organs, I plan use mechanicals primarily on does at shorter ranges (under 40 yards).