The Great Broadhead Debate: Expendable's vs Fixed Blades
Let’s Fight!!
Archery season is about to open in Montana, and more broadheads get sold in these three weeks than the rest of the year combined. Seemed like a good time for a good, solid argument over which design is best.
Alright, I don’t actually want to fight. There’s enough of that already. This is just an honest look from a guy who has been in it and understands both sides of the aisle.
Before Aspinwall came out of our garage in 2014, I spent about five years managing an archery shop, 2009 to 2014. That’s where I learned the most. Not from catalogs. From hunters walking in every day telling me what worked and what didn’t.
Bowhunting draws egos like flies. If you didn’t shoot the same arrow or head as the guy next to you, you were a second-rate hunter. Hunter numbers are already sliding. We don’t need more Lord of the Woods. We need people who can hit what they’re aiming at and embrace a culture of teaching the youth and green horns.
This is my opinion. Nobody is paying me to say it. And I’m talking elk, deer around here still get the boomstick in November.
Fixed Blade: Fixed blade broadheads are heads that leave the bow and travel in a fixed position. No moving parts. It flies in the same shape it hits with.
Mechanical / Expandable: This head has some sort of mechanical expandable feature and design so it flies through the air looking more like a field point then opens or deploys on impact.
Fixed Blade Pros:
Strength. No rubber bands or opening in the quiver. No mechanical failure on impact. Peace of mind. That’s why a lot of elk hunters shoot them. The thinking is simple: a mechanical might not handle an elk rib or a shoulder blade. Fixed blade = stronger = sleep at night.
Fixed Blade Cons:
They don’t always fly like field points. Companies love to print “field point flight.” If that were true across the board, mechanicals wouldn’t exist. I’ve heard too many guys who were confident to 60, screw on a fixed blade, and suddenly they’re 6 inches off at 30.
I have paper tuned, checked spine, baptized arrows, changed fletching, bare-shaft tuned, the whole circus. Only a couple times did a fixed blade match field points at distance and do it consistently. Most of the time you have to move your sights. Newer bows are faster, with smaller vanes, which makes that worse.
The one fixed blade I’ll stand behind for flying close to field points is Slick Trick. I'm sure there are others but these ones are great! Sharp, and historically close if the bow is tuned. I have many great elk hunting friends that shoot these, and working in a pro-shop I can tell you these broad heads are stone cold killers.
Another downside: you need a broad head specific target. Dig a fixed blade out of a bag target once and you’ll hate your life.
If the goal is a quick, ethical kill, which it should be, I wonder how many elk get wounded because the head didn’t fly like the field point the hunter practiced with all summer.
Mechanical Pros:
Field point flight. That’s the whole pitch, and it’s a good one. No last-minute sight changes at camp. No extra target. No “was that me or the arrow?” Zero yips from the head.
Two I’d point people toward: the Beast, which I haven’t shot myself, but the design makes sense and the reviews are loud, and the 1.5” Swhacker, which I have seen work. Honorable mention to the Rage two-blade.
Mechanical Cons:
'Is this thing going to turn to dust when it hits the elk?' More can go wrong and what can go wrong eventually will. Blades that don’t open, open late, or shear. I don’t think any broadhead loves an elk shoulder, but this is where a solid fixed blade still has the edge. The actual strength and stamina to get past the ribs and hide and into the vitals.
What I shoot and why
I’m an expandable guy. Yes, even for elk. I have a hard time not wetting myself when a bull is coming in. Those jitters are what keep us elk hunters coming back! However, I know I don't make my most accurate shots on an animal compared to standing still at camp and punching paper. I don’t need any extra arrow-flight drama on top of buck fever. I shoot the 1.5” Swhacker. That’s taboo in some camps. It’s also killed multiple elk for me and people I trust. I’m a shot-placement guy. I’d rather double-lung an elk with something that flies like my field points than miss the mark with a “tougher” head. If I miss my target, I know its me and not my equipment.
If you’ve got a fixed blade that hits with your field points, don’t change. If you haven’t shot your hunting heads at a target yet, do that before you come to full draw on an animal.
Shoot the rig you’re confident with. Use it. Practice with it. Listen to guys who keep dragging elk out.
Happy hunting this fall. May all your blood trails be short.
Derek Aspinwall
Aspinwall is owned 100% by Derek and Lucy Aspinwall. 4th generation Montanans and avid bowhunters.