Anyone ever witness this affecting arrow flight? I've been shooting rage expandables, but think I might switch to fixed blades after my experience this weekend. On Friday I had a perfect 27 yard, broadside shot at what would have been my biggest buck to date and missed... Feels pretty bad because I've never missed an animal within 50 yards, and I don't get to hunt again until New Year's Day.

This was also my first time to use the shoot through mesh that comes with most pop-up tent blinds. I usually take it off, but this was my cousin's spot (which I had full permission to hunt in) and he likes to leave it on. After searching for 2 hours for blood, my arrow, and the deer, none of which were found, I retreated back to the blind to start from square 1 and recreate the shot from my chair. On examining the hole in the mesh, it was pretty obvious that 2 of the blades had expanded upon contact with the mesh. How badly will this cause an arrow to be off course?

I don't think your suppose shoot mechanical through mesh, just fixed. But again I wouldn't shoot through mesh at all, wouldn't take a chance of something going wrong.

Yeah that mesh just gets in the way those pop ups are made to use the shadow to hide you. But there is no tellings were the arrow went. Was shooting with a buddy one day and he said man these new rages don't fly worth a flip... he shot one and I herd a swwiiiiiiiiiiiisssshhhhhh.... wth... I guess he didn't realize you had to set them and was shooitng them with the blades out lol.. arrow was going all over the place

Ha! My blades were definitely set to begin with. I guess I'm going to switch over to fixed blades...

May try NAP expendables they have a lot stouter set and I dout the mesh would open them. Not 100% though

I wouldn't recommend shooting through the mesh at all. If you must, use a fixed head. I leave the window that I will be shooting out of open. I messed up once and shot a turkey through the actual pop up once but it was with a slick trick.

THIS

x2, the people that invented the shoot through mesh should be jailed...

Nothing to blame but you. As a bowhunter myself, I would never try something that I had not practiced for first.
I see these kinds of threads all the time. It confuses me to death why people do not do a practice shot out of these blinds using the mesh.
What you should have done was open the window or move the mesh off to one side, giving you an opening to shoot thru.
I don't mean to bust your balls on this, but you owe it to the animal your after for a clean, fast kill shot.
What about your cousin? Has he practiced out of his blind?

I know from removing the screens on my own blinds that they are an extreme pain to put back on, and while I agree that this wasn't the ideal situation to attempt my first shot through the mesh, that was the situation I was presented with. My cousin has killed many deer in his stands using the mesh, but he uses fixed blades.

Slick Tricks Magnums will solve all your problems.

The "traditional" theory is no you don't shoot expandables through mesh... I've only seen it done once and it tore a very strange hole in the mesh, not symmetrical so yes I think it did expand at least one side and made it fly funny....

We use slick tricks and I have seen no noticeable amount of change in flight... I Love the stuff. You can get away with way more in the blind. Don't take them down if they have been up, the change will set the does off bad. they don't like it...

Have tried it with G5 Montec broad heads and out to 30 yards could not tell any difference in shooting through mesh and not shooting through mesh. The mechanical broad heads i tried through the mesh opened at least one blade and threw the arrow off by 6 inches or more.

I would stay from Mechanical heads if shooting through mesh.

Stay away from L shaped mechanicals. I use montecs or slick tricks w/ no issue out to 40 yards. But as already stated, you need to practice w/ a target before trying on live game. Have tried rage mechanicals w/ good results as well.

As a general rule dont shoot a mechanical through mesh. I would go a step further and say dont shoot them at all. We have added a new bowhunting policy at our ranch after this year. We will no longer allow any mechanical broadheads to be shot. in fishing there is a saying that some lures are made to catch fishermen and only a few are made to catch fish. I think the same about mechanicals. they are made to catch archers.

NAP spitfire will shoot through no problem.

I hunt on a bowhunting only lease with some very good bow hunters and fortunately we know better. There can be some great advantages to shooting mechanicals in the right set up at the right time. I have seen way more deer lost with small fixed heads than I have with large cutting mechanicals.

I disagree ChrisB. I hunt on a bow only lease as well. A sharp head will kill if put in the right place. It's human error that causes most deer to go unfound. Reshot heads that weren't resharpened. Poor shot angle. Poor shot timing or choices. Cheapest mechanical heads they could buy. Lack of blood trailing skills. The list goes on. I shoot exclusively fixed heads. Very, very sharp fixed heads. I practice regularly. I shoot only within my comfort range no matter how big the deer is. Only one of the deer I've shot this year were shot over 20 yards and 23 yards is well within my range. My problem with the mechanical heads is to much can go wrong and when it does it's often for the individuals who shoot them so they don't have to tune their bow well or can't group well and hope a wide cut will make up for poor shooting.

But as for the OP, yeah, no. Mech heads and shoot through mesh don't work too well together.

I didn't see one thing really in your statement that we disagree on. But if you can get a 50 to 100% larger cut out of a head that will genarally fly better out of most bows, wouldn't that give you a better margin of error for when things don't go perfect? Modern mechanicals have come a long ways. All I am saying is don't be so quick to dismiss them. I personally shoot both grim reaper mechanicals and hell razor fixed and both have things they do better. Unfortunately things dont always go perfect in the field no matter how much we practice.

I will say I know that some of the guys put some hellacious holes in the deer with Rage heads. And a high hit with a G5 Montec can leave a spotty blood trail even though the deer is dead at the end of it. But a fixed head removes one variable. I prefer to control what I can.

I put in way too much time to leave anything up to chance (usually a 3+ years between buck kills), so for me I will not shoot through any kind of material or have any chance of a mechanical not opening. I do not shoot mechanicals but I have seen what they have done and it's impressive, but even if it has a 1 in 200 chance of not opening and I don't get a hit on a deer that I have been hunting for years, I won't chance it. Just like mesh if it affects only 1 in 100 shots arrow flight, that's too much for me. But that's just me, I have a way bigger problem shooting through mesh than I do with mechanical broadheads, even if your mechanical does not open you will kill the deer if you shoot it through the lungs or heart. There is no way of telling how much mesh can effect the flight of an arrow, it varies on the type of mesh, size of broadhead, size of fletching's, how tight the mesh is stretched, too many variables for me to chance.

As for shooting through mesh, it just makes me uncomfortable. there are enough variable bowhunting as it is. Mesh introduces ^^^ the items concerning the way it is stretched, or not, mesh size etc. I wouldn't take a shot through the bushes, same idea as shooting through mesh. I know lots have had success at it but sitting back in a pop up without mesh over the windows, drawing inside it and then aiming I have yet to get busted.

I've killed several deer shooting thru mesh. Shot slick tricks spitfire and grim reaper hades. Hasn't affected them at all.

I have had a misshap with non fixed through mess as well, I am with most of you go fixed!

Lmao!