I bought a bow today and will be elk hunting in september. Scheels asked if I wanted 4,5 or 6mm arrows and I have no idea where to begin. Also, with elk, are fixed blade or mechanical broad heads preferred? Lastly, what is the your preferred release?

lots of good arrows out there. 4mm is great but not necessary if you are a beginner. a great all-around arrow is the RIP TKO from Victory Achery. if for elk, I would suggest you target +/- 500 grain total arrow weight. you can add weight up front with inserts and impact collars (I recommend Iron Will). Many outfitters won't let you in camp with a mechanical. Iron Will fix blade single bevel is hard to beat. With a stout broadhead and a 500grain arrow, you can punch through a scapula if you make something less than a perfect shot.

as for releases, do you prefer thumb of finger? spot hogg wiseguy is a super popular finger release. several good thumb releases too. I shoot a Carter 4 finger grip.

hope that helps. lots of good gear on the market and you can find success with alot of different options..

Thank you. That helps a lot. Of course I am doing my own research as well but always nice to get input from other members as well. I know I want a finger release at least.

I'm not an elk hunter, so understand my experience is with deer and pigs (some of them pigs are pretty big and tough though). I prefer fixed broadheads for everything. Montec g5's are tough, resharpenable (is that a word?), and fly to the same point of impact as my field tips. As for arrows, I like golt tip xt hunters, simply because thats what the bow shop set me up with 25 years ago when I bought my first bow, and they've done everything I've ever asked of them.

I like a 5mm arrow myself. I did shoot micros for a few seasons and liked them as well but 5mm are fine.

For elk, the 500 grain weight is fine. I shoot 433 grain arrows myself. You didn’t say what weight your shooting or your arrow speed, so it’s hard to make a recommendation on broadheads.

A good 3 blade like a muzzy or G5 is fine….if your bow is turned and will shoot them. I like a slick trick myself for fixed. But whats accurate at 25 yards may plane off at 60. And a 60 yard shot on a elk is not uncommon

I shoot a heavier bow and prefer mechanicals like a 3 blade rage or grim reaper. I have no issues shooting animals with them. I am not a fan of single bevels; while they do penetrate, they leave poor blood trails.

As for releases, whatever you like. I shoot a cheap true fire caliper release. It’s what I like and what I’m comfortable with.

Gold tip hunter is all you need in the arrow department. You can spend more money but it won’t make the critters any more dead.

I’d probably go with a magnus stinger for a fixed blade, or something like the sevr 1.5” for a mechanical.

If you do decide to use a fixed blade, I would recommend NOT chasing speed—it’s a whole lot easier to tune a 260fps bow than a 300fps bow.

I shoot the Victory RIPs with 60 grain stainless outserts. I like the NAP Hellrazors for fixed broadheads.

5MM shafts offer the best of all worlds. The best components are all 5mm. I have had good luck with 4mm Easton Axis match grades with Easton titanium half outs, and I picked them for the lighter GPI and increased wind resistance. Realistically, the 5mm is probably a better and stronger shaft and again, the best components are 5mm. Regarldess of brand, I think 5mm is best.

As far as heads go, I think it is pretty hard to beat the QAD Exodus. But I have had good luck with the 125 grain Slick Trick Shift SB single bevel. If you are looking at a mechanical, I’d look at the Grim Reaper fatal steel in a smaller diameter of cut like 1 1/4”.

Sevr, Rage, G5, etc. all have a great following. I would not take anything from any of them, I just haven’t had real world experience with them.

A lot of people don’t like mech heads for bigger animals or lighter bows, but I happen to know a girl shooting something like 36 pounds out of a slower bow (Elite Ember) that has killed a lot of whitetails with a Rage Hypodermic and 400 grains total arrow weight. She has killed a crapload more animals than me and has 4 nice bucks on the wall, all killed with a no collar Rage Hypodermic. I would bet it would work on a elk at 60-70 pounds no problem.

Arrow diameter really doesn’t mean much in a large chunk of elk woods.

But let’s answer a few questions first. Can you tune a bow? How far can you shoot? And how what’s your group size at 40 yards?

****Actually never mind, I just actually read into it more.

Can’t go wrong with Axis 5mm and since you probably arent a tuning fanatic I would go with either Hyde broadheads from Evolution or Sevr 1.5 or Tihybrid. I’ve killed elk with both sevr 1.5 and Hyde. Sevr is a little more robust but evolution is little sharper.

Release - I use spothog wise guy(pro tip buy two, regardless have an extra release(even if cheap) in your pack).

There is no magic pill:
1) practice shooting from weird positions(on knees, crouched, etc).
2)Elk cover ground quick 30yard can turn in to 15 yards quick and 15 to 30 quick, so understand pin gap
3)equipment doesn’t kill elk, accuracy and good arrow flight kills elk

I shot axis 5mm for years but switched to RIP TKOs and really like them. Using stainless halfouts and fletching with Q2i Fusion X-II I'm right around 440gr TAW. For release I'm using a Carter Like Mike 2 and really like it. Very adjustable release. Looking at getting a thumb button like the UV or Stan Onnex for off-season practice.

Axis for me most of the time since I have a few dozen still in the box plus a dozen or so that still shoot good.

Release Trufire 4 finger thumb release or an old 3 finger thumb release built in Rockwall TX in late 70s or very early 80s and still works great.

The iron will broadheads are really good heads, but two things they are not a stainless steel and require moisture maintenance, also they aren’t a huge cutting diameter so if you don’t get a pass through blood trails can be minimal. They are a bear to reshapen(good and bad), little harder to tune, but they are a great reusable head. Just know there are down sides.


This is a bull I killed with Iron will, no pass through, no blood trail as arrow plugged hole. Shots a touch high but double lung and bull went 100 yards uphill from this picture. You can see arrow in him, he was qtr to me a little when I shot, so you can see a little blood to the left of fletching as is tilted right. I should have put another arrow, but this is 1 minute after I shot and I thought he was going down right there, I was wrong. Any way with fixed heads you give up hole size, and are a little more finicky on tuning. I’ve killed bulls with a lot of different heads, for a newer archer that’s not a sharpening, tuning or maintenance guy, and you are dead set on fixed, go with Hades micro 3 blade pro from grim reaper. Easier to tune, stainless blades(and replaceable), scary sharp.

I’ve missed two elk seasons in 20 years, and I only hunt bulls with a bow, if you have any questions PM me. Archery Elk is my thing,

Definitely go with a fixed blade. I have seen and experienced enough mechanical failures to trust them anymore.

As for arrow weight, it depends on your expected shooting distance. Heavier arrows will conserve energy better inside the animal. Lighter arrows have better trajectory. If I'm hunting Texas white-tails over a feeder, I'll shoot a heavier arrow. If I'm hunting desert mule deer where shots are 40+ yards, I'll lighten it up a bit. But, in my opinion, an all around arrow is somewhere between 440 and 500. My desert arrows are 430 and my pig arrows are 505. I will switch out yardage tapes if I switch arrows but that's all the tuning I usually need to do on the bow.

Tell us about these failures?

what have you seen?

Probably hit a shoulder on an elk and it didn’t go through, or had one open inflight a decade ago.

I don’t think there is a bad mainstream brand broad head(mechanical or fixed), there are some junk Amazon ones. I’ve never lost an animal to good shot placement but lost on bad with mechanicals and fixed.

I haven't heard of a legitimate mechanical failure in a long, long time. I did have a buddy have a grim reaper fail to open (this was back in 08') on an early head but he killed the animal with no issue, it just ran a little further. A 3 blade rage head that doesn't deploy still has a larger cutting diameter than most fixed blades.

The ones that I heard issues with being legit failures were the NAP spitfires back in the late 90's and early 2000's The original rages would have issues opening up too easy but they fixed that issue with the collar....that said, a head like a Wasp or a Rocket that used a band to retain the blades didn't have these issues of in-flight openings.


I have 100% confidence in Wasp, Rage or Grim Reaper heads

That shock collar 2 blade rage can still open up in flight. I have experimented with them fairly extensively. Some of them you can’t put the collar on and screw it all the way in without crushing it. I bought several packages this way. So you have to leave it fairly loose or shim it. I will say that in my experience that they still fly ok inside 20 yards or so already opened if your bow is tuned. The problem is if it only opens on one side, if it has one blade come out in flight then your accuracy is completely gone.

I shoot the 3 blade rages but the two blade hypodermics I used for a season gave me no issues.

They lock in tight, you don’t leave them loose. You have to make sure the blade is on the breakaway tab.

No issues with a property installed collar opening up in flight. Never had to or even heard of using shims.

Me and two other buddies shoot them and we all have had zero issues with them.

I've never had a mechanical broadhead fail. But I have had an outsert break. Back when the Victory RIPs were first released they came with aluminum outserts. Shot at what would have been my biggest buck with them with a fixed broadhead and the arrow got no penetration. When I recovered the arrow the broadhead had broke off the end of the arrow. Victory did replace those arrows and I believe they come with stainless now.

The outserts on micro arrows have long been bad news, fortunately now most have come out with extremely robust systems

I shot gold tip pierce for a few years and thought pretty highly of their collar system.

I shoot rampage now and their half out system is ok but I think the collar outsert is tougher.

It’s a well documented issue with the shock collars on the standard 2-blade Rage. I might not have put one through a animal but when I say I experimented extensively, I am talking about a couple of dozen heads bought in-store. Yep I blew that money. If only one blade deploys in flight, that arrow goes crazy. The no collar heads don’t have that issue, and I think that is why they came out with the standard no-collar head this year.

I had a plano stowaway plum full of Rages, blades, and collars. I gave them away to a fellow that came into the pro shop looking for standard Rage heads. He’s a Rage guy, Rage guys shoot Rage heads. Most people I know around here trust Rage. I am just putting my experience out here shooting a whole lot of Rage heads and spending a couple hundred bucks.

I will admit I shoot a lot of weight and a very fast bow. But the heads i put the thin shim on never opened in flight 🤷‍♂️. I kept the no-collar heads.

I can’t help with the Elk part but I shoot a 3 blade Wenzel Woodsman for pigs. It’s super easy to sharpen and is death on a stick. The angles on the edges are such that you just lay it flat on a stone for 10 strokes, rotate it and repeat strokes, rotate it once more and you’ve sharpened all three blades. Some people grind the tip back so it doesn’t bend over when it hits bone but I’ve not had that happen. There’s a thousand configurations out there so get lots of input from hunters.