expandables with light weight

[bobbyo]

Is vortex and Mar Den or Mar Dan the same company or am I just confused with similar names.

Bob

[mjmhunter]

Craig, My wife shoots just about the same set up. She shoots a Hoyt Razortec at 26 inches and set at 52#'s shooting Carbon Express CX 200's with 85 grain Thunderheads. I believe her arrow speed is right around 245 fps. With this set up she has shot several critters from elk to hogs in Texas without a single lost animal. I say that because two years ago in Texas she thought she would try mechanicals on hogs. With the mechanicals she lost two hogs back to back and quickly went back to her fixed blades. Her shots were where they needed to be but lacked the pentration. Now I know hogs are a little tuffer critters than coues deer but with your wife's set up, mechanicals should and probably would work on deer. However the words "Should and probably" is whats makes my wife continue to shoot a fixed blade.

 

My $.02 is to set her up with a fixed blade and eliminate the concern all together. At her arrow speeds it doesn't take much to get a fixed blade fly true.

 

Manny

[Coues 'n' Sheep]

Well put, Manny. That is good advice.

 

Manny's wife is one of the toughest and best bowhunting wives I have ever met! She has enough experience to make up her own mind about here equipment. Oh, and did I mention that she just had their second child last week??? A baby GIRL!!!! Congrats, Manny and Tiana!!!!

[wardsoutfitters]

Its Mar-Den

[mjmhunter]

Manny's wife is one of the toughest and best bowhunting wives I have ever met! She has enough experience to make up her own mind about here equipment. Oh, and did I mention that she just had their second child last week??? A baby GIRL!!!! Congrats, Manny and Tiana!!!!

 

Thanks Gino, We are looking forward to raising a girl

[crazy4COUES]

I will tell you from experience that she will be fine for coues deer sized game out to 40 yards. I know this because My wife has harvested numerious animals with vortex heads with a 42# hoyt saphire with a 35/55 gold tip. she was shooting the vortex mini-max 75 gr 2" cut.

 

 

( I would also use an exapandable that opens before entry like a RAGE or a Snyper or MAYBE the new piston point.... )

 

I WOULD NOT RECOMEND USEING ANY OF THE HEADS MENTIONED ABOVE , DUE TO THE FACT THAT YOU DO NOT WANT THE BROADHEAD TO COMPLETELY DEPLOY UNTILL IT IS PAST ALL THE HARD BONE. THE THOUGHT PROCESS BEHIND THOSE HEADS IS WAY OFF COURSE.

 

Iwill say that the vortex heads are far superior to any head I have used I have harvested over 100 big game animals with vortex heads without failure. I must tell you that My fauther owns vortex heads. but if you need proof I will send pictures of animals my wife has harvested with vortex heads, if you are infact going to shoot expandable heads make surt the blades cut their wey into the animal and they dont punch their way in, meaning the blades are sharpened completly to the tips of the blades. If you have anymore questions feel free to give me a call I will try to answer any questions you have concerning vortex heads. on my web site you can look at a picture of a bear my wife shot with the same set up i talked about above.

Steven

 

I have seen damage the VORTEX can produce, the first word that comes to mind is DEVASTATING! They Wards are good people with products that really work.

 

Also, IMO there is no need to go with a heavier head. You want a head that will help "tune" your arrow. Use the correct FOC, 8-12% of total arrow weight is the goal. Use this to compliment your total arrow package. With the 35-55 you should be fine in the 75-85 grain broadhead.

[BowNut]

I guess I will ad my 2 cents. For what its worth. I would not recommend ANY mechanical broad head to some one shooting to little KE. Even if she was using a 350gr arrow(I don't think she is shooting that heavy) at 230 fps she is at 41# of KE. Maybe on the perfect broadside shot and perfect shot placement that would be enough but we all know how often we get that shot.

I think its the action of the blades folding back on impact that kills the speed KE and will cause the poor penetration on the not so perfect shot.

I have shot a lot of heads in the past. Vortex was one I used for years it is a great head and even better since the lengthened the front of it so more of the tip is in the animal before the blades start to open. But the blades still need to fold over while entering and passing through the animal as most of these heads do. And that will stop a slow light arrow in its tracks on a not so perfect shot.

With low KE I think a cut on contact head is the only way to go.

[crazy4COUES]

I prefer fixed blades as well as cut on contact broadheads. I just need to ask one question? If the opening of the blades is so much a loss of energy then why do they open? The cutting action obviously has more drag than the opening of the blades. If not the blades would continue to cut while closed. The increased drag is from the increased cutting diameter that mechanicals are built for, make sense? So if the cutting diameter is the same on a mechanical as a fixed blade it will require the same amount of KE to penetrate. The benefit is to have less of a flying mass on the front that will create drag through the air in flight. Therefore allowing more KE downrange for deeper penetration, right? So where are your gains and where are your losses as far as KE is concerned?

[Huntn coues]

I am not sure if this is the right spot for this post but here it goes anyway.

 

What do you guy's prefer mechanical or fixed.

 

 

[Huntn coues]

Gamehauler made me do it I swear ...

[azpackhorse]

I think that at lower KE you are more susceptible to glancing or deflection with an expandable then with a fixed blade, fixed blades are more rigid and are less likely to give on glancing or angled impacts, particularly bones.

 

I shoot both, fixed for elk (which I don't have to worry about too much) and I like shooting expandables for Javies and deer and whatever else. I've heard good things about the Stinger broadheads.

[bobbyo]

The blades craig's wife is planning on using are cut on impact expandables. They were designed to eliminate all the problems (imagined and real ) that people state about regular expandables. I have tested these broadheads and believe me, penetration will not be a problem, even with low KE. I shoot fixed blade now, but when I used expandables(almost every kind imaginable) I never had one fail as been so often described. When I have had a problem it was due to my poor shooting. In those circumstances I sure wish I could of blamed something other than myself, but the simple truth is, that it was me and not the broadheads.

 

Craig I told you this was going to get started.

Bob

[mattys281]

I've heard a hundred different people talk about target tests w/ expandables vs. fixed blades for penetration, etc. The problem I have with this is that an animal of thick hide, covered with hair, & muscle tissue underneath standing at a quartering away angle is going to cause much different deflection than shooting at a soft, impressionable foam target that is perpindicular to the arrows flight. My bow makes plenty of KE & I still won't touch expandables. I'm not saying they don't work, I know lots of folks who are real happy with them. I just like to plan for the worst case scenario. My javi I hit this year was standing at such a sharp quartering angle that my arrows entrance wound was an inch tall by about 4 inches long. That fixed blade head (NAP Nitron 100) filleted him on the way in like no expandable could do while still trying to open its blades. Again, just my .02.

 

 

[azpackhorse]

EXACTLY!

[bowhuntinmaniac]

wow, no pass thru with a fixed blade on a stink pig?????