Any suggestions on a broadhead for a crossbow? I had been using Grim Reapers, but they haven’t been good about opening all the way. I have also not been shooting through the screen on my pop up blind not knowing if that would effect accuracy. Any thoughts? I’d like to start shooting through the screen without fear of losing accuracy.

Shoot through the screen go with fixed blade broadheads, Slick Tricks work for lots of people for that.

I haven’t shot them through screens, but Excalibur Bolt Cutters and G5 Stryker’s are excellent fixed blade broadheads.

I shoot 125 grain Muzzy Phantoms, and have been very impressed with them.

anything heavy...

My favorite broadheads ate the QAD Exodus

G5 Montecs, 125gr.

I’m a slick trick fan.

yhat is what I have used most of the time. 125 Rage hypodermic has worked also.

Slick Tricks are good but my brother and I have recently switched to Sevr mechanicals and they are great. Hogs are the true test for us on our place and the Sevr's are a no contest compared to the slick tricks on blood trails. My brother shoots the 150's and I am still shooting the 100's.

Wasp jackhammers.

And don’t shoot thrus the screen…there is no need to.

I’ve shot 30 animals with a bow from a pop up and never felt like I needed a screen

Used the G5 MegatMeats last couple of years huge entry and exit holes great blood trails both bucks died within sight

Im an experienced hunter but new to bow hunting. Ive only hunted with a crossbow and only a couple years. I like to keep things simple and certainly as few moving parts as possible. For that reason I assumed I would want fixed blade but I kept getting told with a crossbow to go with expandable. I use Rage Hypodermic because the bow shop recommended. They have worked fine but I have a small sample size.
I may start a separate thread on fixed vs expandable for xbow.

At crossbow speeds you can get planing issues with fixed blades, especially at distance.

The rage Hypodermic is a good broadhead but for archery I personally recommend a 3 or 4 blade head vs. a 2 blade.


I was not impressed with the Trypan whatsoever

Yes, accuracy issues with fixed blade at xbow speeds is what Ive been told.

I'll take it a step further for every newbie asking about a broadheads for archery equipment (Disclaimer, these are my opinions based on experience, but I would say it holds true for all forms of archery)


You have three types of Broadheads; Fixed, Mechanical and Hybrids, with Fixed and Mechanicals being the most common so we will stick with those.

Fixed blades are the original broadheads and the two blade was the original design. There are two types of Two blades, Single and Double Bevel, meaning the single is sharpened on one side of the blade and the double is sharpened on both sides of the blade. Examples of Single Bevels are Kudu Points, Simmons Landsharks, Tuff Heads, Rocky Mountain Cuththroat, etc. Double Bevel are more common and examples of those are Magnus Stinger, Zwicky, Bear Razorheads, etc. These broadheads were originally designed for Traditonal archery which shot a fairly heavy arrow at what is now considered a slow speed, using momentum to drive the broadhead thru the target animal. The experts claim that a single bevel has some rotational twist when it hits a target and is better for splitting bone than a double bevel when encountering shoulder blades, heavy ribs, etc. Somewhere along the way they invented 3 and 4 blade heads to increase the cutting surface to increase hemorrhaging (bleeding) as the broadhead passed thru the animal, but like most everything in life, there is a trade off, and that tradeoff is reduced penetration compared to two blades. When compounds came along, you also saw the advent of more modular style heads like the Muzzy and NAP Thunderheads that featured Trocar/Chisel tips for encounters with bone, changes in blade angles and shortening of the broadheads. A Slick Trick is a good example of a modular 4 blade style head with a chisel tip, and a G5 Montec is a good example of a 1 piece 3 blade cut on contact ( where the cutting surface runs the full length of the blade)

There were early prototypes of mechanicals from way back in the 50's or 60's but they really didn't come into play until the 90s....the NAP spitfire is the one that was most people's introduction to mechanicals. The main advantage at the time of creation was the field point like accuracy and sidestepping any potential tuning issues, they were (and still are) basically a plug and play design.... screw one on and go hunting, no broadhead tuning required. As they evolved, blades got thicker, cutting diameter got wider, blades were added, etc. The Rage broadhead is the one that really set the world on fire about 10-12 years ago with their rear-deploying slip cam design, which took very little kinetic energy to deploy as opposed to over the top heads like a Rocket Sidewinder or a Spitfire. Some, like the Sidewinder or Jackhammer, have their blades held in place by a rubber O-Ring. Others, like a Grim Reaper or a Spitfire, use no o-ring and have an internal locking device to keep blades from deploying prematurely.


Pro's and cons of fixed blades look something like this: What you see is what you get. Fixed design with no moving parts...no chance of failure. Everything else being equal, you will get more penetration from a Two-Blade fixed head than any other type of broadhead design. This is important when shooting big, heavy animals, when using lighter gear, trad bows, etc. The more blades you add the more penetration is reduced but you get more cutting surface. There are some wider two blade heads being made, but by and large you are looking at a 1" to 1 1/8th" wide cut with a fixed blade on broadheads in the 100 to 125 grain weights. A 1" slick trick for example, will give you a hole that is a little bit bigger than a quarter. Cons to fixed blades, which is mostly limited to two blades, is that blood trails can be sparse (there's that trade off again). You're dealing with a slit rather than a hole that can clog up, close, etc. and drop very little blood. This type of broadhead also causes the lease amount of internal damage due to design, so shot placement is especially paramount. Biggest complaint folks have with 3 and 4 blade heads, especially with faster flying arrows, is they can be harder to tune, and have a tendency to "plane" at distance, which is a way of saying they don't hit where you are aiming the further you get away from the target.


Now on to the mechanicals......as the name suggests, they are a machined article with working parts. Moving parts mean there is a chance something will go wrong with them. The most common issue with mechanicals is a failure to deploy, which means the blades don't open up. I've personally seen this happen with a Grim Reaper. By design, an over-the-top head with a 0-Ring retention system will eliminate this as long as the blades are not clogged up, as will most slip cam designs which deploy from the rear. Blades tend to be a little flimsier and can bend/break inside the animal, on that note pretty much consider every mechanical shot into an animal a "one and done" as majority of them will be trashed from the impact. Like a fixed, you have a choice between a 2 and 3 blade design and I'm sure there is a 4 blade head out there. They can range from very simple heads (a rocket Steelhead or a Wasp Jackhammer are two of the simplest designs) to more intricate heads like a Meat Seeker. The big benefits of mechanical heads are this; Aside from the field point like accuracy and complete lack of tuning issues, when they hit something, they are very destructive. I've cleaned animals that were hit broadside in the ribs with a Wasp Jackhammer you would think were shot with a rifle....the lungs were straight jelly. You just won't get the same type of damage from a fixed head as you will from a mechanical. At its widest, a Jackhammer has a cut diameter about the size of a silver dollar. This also translates into a certain margin of error for those less-than-ideal shots, although shot placement is still paramount. They often, but not always, lead to much shorter tracking jobs. The trade-off here is it takes Kinetic Energy or "K.E" to open them, and it takes a fairly stout rig to employ them reliably. You also want to avoid strongly quartering angles with a mechanical as they can "skip" if the angle is great, as well as wanting to avoid shoulder shots with them.


So, to summarize:

If you are hunting whitetail or similar size game using a light to average weight rig, a good 3-4 blade fixed head is probably right for you. I'm a big fan of Slick Tricks. You can't go wrong with a Muzzy and can use a Cut on Contact head like a Magnus Snuffer or G5 Montec for a little more penetration. There has recently been a resurgence in using heavy single bevel two blade heads in compound bows, but in my own experience and others I talk to, the blood trails just are not there. I cannot in good faith recommend them when Imo there are much better heads out there for killing deer sized game with a compound bow

If you are shooting a heavier poundage rig with a 400-500 grain arrow at 280+ fps....I would give serious thought to using a mechanical for game up to and including Elk. "Less penetration than a fixed blade" does not translate into no penetration and I've had zero issues getting pass thru's with a 433 grain arrow at 280 fps using a 3 blade 100 grain Jackhammer. I had no issues getting passthrus using a 390 grain arrow at 265 fps for that matter. For me, the advantages of the cutting diameter and internal devastation negate the potential issues commonly associated with mechanicals, which imo are typically brought on by using too light of a setup.


The truth is, there is no perfect broadhead/arrow setup and you have to weigh the advantages and disadvantages to each style of head in relation to the type of game you are hunting. My personal choices are a 3 Blade Jackhammer and a 3 Blade Rage Chisel tip ( I'm not crazy about 2 blade mechanicals ) when shooting my compound, I've had great success with them.

I’ve got about 40 archery deer under my belt. Hunted the last 9 years on an archery only lease so I’ve got to see a lot of broadheads in action. The largest holes have always been Rage 2 blades and it’s not even close.




Both of these were Rage. Next biggest were 2” Grim Reapers. Never seen one not open but they do snap back closed after passing through an animal often. We had tons of pigs so I needed to find a head that I could shoot multiple times at animals so I wouldn’t go broke feeding them mechanicals. I settled on the NAP Hellrazor. Easy to resharpen and tough as nails. Blood trails were minimal with these fixed heads but if you hit your mark you would find your animal. Just not much margin of error.

Some good info. On reuse of broadheads, the only ones I have reused have been 2 blade fixed like the old Bear and a Magnus Stinger. 3 Blade I switched to G5 Montech and shot it for years including on the crossbow and got good accuracy to 70 yards and ran a Montech through the lungs of a 125lb sow at 73 -74 yards from the crossbow. That setup would average under 3 inch groups at 70 yards, penetration even at that distance was pass through breaking rib on entry and exit. That head total went through a doe, 4 hogs and a rattle snake before I retired it. There were several nicks in it and a lot of them after hitting rocks/sand after the rattler.

Mechanicals I have used Rage 2 blade and 3 blade NAP spitfire actually believe I prefer the spitfire.

If everything is tune good on the bow or crossbow with the arrow or bolt generally wind plane is not much of an issue IMO.

Some good information in this thread

Some more mechanical damage

TxTro, when you said "Ill take it a step further" you didnt quite prepare us for that much info. Great stuff. Im not experienced enough to critique any of the info, but you sure came across like you knew what you were talking about.

ChrisB, or others, when you say "Rage 2 blade" is that the specific name, or are you saying any Rage with 2 blades? Mechanical? You got to dumb it down for some of us new to archery.

The pics I posted came from this broadhead.
https://www.feradyne.com/x-treme-nc-cut-on-contact/
I've also used the hypodermic rage with good results.

Like hitten’em with a hatchet

Experienced hunter but new to bow hunting so don’t put too much into my opinions. The Rage Hypodermic is what I use, simply cause a few recommended it. I’ve only killed a buck and 3 doe with my xbow. I was taught to not go for passthru but catch them slightly turned away and/or with near leg forward and try to hit the offside leg. So far so good but I really would like the blood trail on passthru.
Entry then exit.




Entry then exit on another.

You gotta lean not to ruin those shoulders.

Move to the GR micro hades 3 blade fixed. All Problems solved