Tuesday morning ended my buck season in PA. A young 8 pt. Not the monster buck we all dream about, but a fine animal. No broken points and a even rack. Kinda rare for the area I hunt. This deer was shot in the spine(oops). I shot him again while on the ground. Both expandible broadheads were ruined.This are 4 blade, 60gr., 1 1/4 in. cut Rockets. Both had bent main bodies and the one that hit the spine was also missing 2 blades along with the two screws that held the 2 blades on. Was not impressed at all with the design of these broadheads as to toughness. Think I'll try another brand next year. Good Hunting.

LongRifle,
If I might suggest Muzzy's as a VERY solid broadhead.

The only ones I have damaged have been as a result of a misshot into a tree and then removing the head from said tree.( a little tough and I can't say I didn't damage the broadhead removing it !) Obviously blades were replaced after a shot like this.

They fly great and as they say they are "Bad to the Bone"

Congratulations on your Deer as well! Any photos?

[ 10-16-2002, 18:53: Message edited by: amosgreg ]

I have a friend that swears by the damn things! He has taken his share of deer and things, even a bear, but.............. He did have one arrow cartwheel off a a buck. The shot was at a severe angle, but????
We were in Africa a a few weeks ago and he took two impala, a bushbuck and a blesbok and they did well, but they are all smaller than a white tail. Luckily, his 500 pound wildebeest was found several days later. One lung was hit and lasted two or three days, and travelled 2 miles.
I have been using a Satelite Titan, a cut on touch with bleeder blades for years and have had great luck, but....... I will be going back to my Muzzy's after my safari. I was not happy with the way they broke up on three of my critters.

I made the Expandng mistake befor too. I now have gone back Muzzzzzzzzy and will not change. Live and learn and relearn. I do think the new Muz have a sharper tip but I may be wrong.
Congrats on the Buck!
Turtle

i have killed 4 deer with these rockets you have to have ke behind the arrow to make these heads open up, none of the 4 deer has run over 80yds 3 have expired within 20, one of the three took a direct shoulder hit not much pentration but went down at the shot followed up quickly with a killing shot, you may want to look at your setup, and shot placement before you knock these heads they flat out work, muzzys will not work with a bad shot

BBTURTLE,
You know you can sharpen the Muzzy tips to a razor edge on a stone or hone. I do this to ALL my Muzzy tips and it helps penetration.

Fats,
A poor shot is a poor shot and I my Opinion, worse for an expandable than a fixed blade broadhead since the energy loss on opening takes away from penetration and this is what seperates the wheat from the chaff on poor shots.

fats - I have used expanding and non-expanding broadheads over the years and both have their pros and cons. In my opinion, all broadheads should stay together when contacting bone and not fall to pieces.While disassembling the used Rockets, it was quite obvious why the tiny pins(.041 in.dia.) did not hold the blades in the body of the broadhead. Some of this is my fault for using such a lightweight head in order to achieve speed and a flat trajectory. Rocket had to cut the fat somewhere and strength was forfeited. Also,the screwhead pins only thread into the body about one turn before bottoming. Thats not near enough for the forces a broadhead is subject to. Its possible some of their heavier heads are made stronger. At $22.00 for three in a archery pro shop, I expected a little more. Just trying to keep the brothers infomed.

Good job on your success LongRifle .
I have been on the Gator and Rocket types to compare to Fix blades. I am staying with the Muzzy 125gr for the reason that I NEVER had one fail. Five years ago I had a error in placement and ended up Blowing through both shoulders of a 275lb buck and the head was still good ( it went down in side of 12 yards ) . I have been in the field ( this year ) and watched the owner of one of the sport shops here fire a Rocket at foam. The blades fell off and screws were gone and everyone had a big laugh at his expense. I have the thought that if I get rid of problems my success goes up.
Again nice job. "Any deer with a bow is a good deer".

Greg -
I too sharpen mine but I do it because I tend to get board in the stand. Maybe this is why I don't see as many deer as my buddy does .
DOA

Yes DOA those twitchy things just above the eyes that swivel around all the time are called Ears! They serve the warn the deer of any noises(like a broadhead tip being scraped with a file) that are unnatural in the woods. These ears then tell the deer to SNEAK the other way

Good Luck!

Thanks for the info on the ear thing. I thought it must be something I was doing wrong. Maybe I'll get one now that I have this secret. By the way .... Keep this rain to your self at least keep it there on my weekends.
DOA

But I thought is was nice to share......

Well I just checked and the rain is going to start Saterday afternoon. This should make the morning very good because the deer will be running from the flood zones again..
Wish it was snow.
DOA

Back to Muzzy. Have you had your tips rust on you?

Turtle it was Rockets but I understand. The tips will rust but not like an old Ford truck used too.
Try some three in one and you smile all the way to the butcher.
DOA

I very lightly oil them(wipe with an oily rag) after sharpening. If they get wet they will rust but by paying attention to this I havn't had them get so bad as to be unusable.
Treat them like a firearm after a wet day afield and you shouldn't have any problems.

Oil them and cook to a golden brown. Works for me.
I get rid of my boardem by singing. I don't see many deer but I get the woods to my self .
Good luck.
Turtle

I've heard you sing and you had the whole state of Delaware to your self .
Good luck is better than skill.
DOA

LA LA LAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!
Dowah Dowap!!
LA LA lALALALALALALAL!!!

Sounds great huh?

Turtle

ROTFLMAO!

Wasp Hammer SST!

Longrifle,
I had the same problem with the expandable heads being somewhat "disposable". Between TN and KY, I get to shoot close to 20 deer a year, and with heads costing as much as they do, I need a head that will last. When I changed bows and started shooting graphite arrows, my arrow speed surpassed 310 fps. I couldn't get non-expandable heads to group, so I started trying out expandables. They killed good, but were destroyed by bone, or the ground on pass-throughs. Either way, I was getting one shot per head. Then I tried the little Rocket Steelhead. I have shot more than 50 deer with these little things and have yet to loose a deer that I have hit. I also have not broke or bent the body of a single head by shooting hitting shoulder blades, hips, trees, or anything else (I havn't shot a rock yet). Now I have broke a few blades and bent several, but that is what they are designed to do. They penetrate better than any other head I have shot because the blades DO bend and break. I know this sounds crazy at first, but let me explain. --When a broadhead hits the edge of a bone, if that blade lays down (which it's able to do on the steelhead because it is mounted at an angle), the arrow is allowed to penetrate deeper on to the vital organs with the other blades intact. You don't have to have all the blades intact to kill--- however, you do have to hit the vital organs or get lucky and hit a big artery. Broadheads don't kill animals by breaking a bone. When is the last time you broke a deer's leg and recovered it? Never I'm sure. If a fixed blade head hits next to a bone and the blade won't collapse, much of the energy is wasted cutting the bone--which does not kill. I don't mind loosing a few blades as long as the animal doesn't get away. Anyway, try some steelheads---you won't be sorry and you won't bend or break one. And REMEMBER -- make sure the screws are tight so the blades don't fall out like that one guy said happened (operator error). You can get replacement blades for about $2 per head, and the blades that don't get bent, which is most of them, can be resharpened with a few strokes on a wetstone. One last thing- I went into an Archery shop in Loudon, TN, and they had shot about 20 different broadheads through several layers of plywood -- the arrows were still in place, labeled and all, the Steelhead 100 penetrated the most.

Steve - Thanks for that detailed info on the SteelHead. I will check them out.