Mennoniteman
Well-Known Member
I want to talk about two of my favorite crossbow broadheads. Last winter I saw Cabela's had some Rage Hypodermic Crossbow 100 grain 2" 2-blade broadheads (old style with orange rings) on sale for $12.95 a pack to get rid of old stock to make room for the new model. Then I noticed that Rage had a $10 a pack rebate on top of this so I quickly bought 14 packs to try them out. The new model appears to have almost the same blade style, but without the plastic retainer ring, they now have a indent cam to hold the blades in flight.
The Rage broadheads shot well in target practice, they were pretty well on the same bullseye as 100 grain field tips, consistent enough that the crosshairs setting for the field tips was what we used to go hunting. Now this fall we finally got some really good opportunities to do some fair field testing, and to summarize, we were very impressed with the results, but a spoiler warning, the durability of their blades is very much a one shot and done deal.
As I won't take an untested broadhead out on a big buck hunt, we shot several antlerless deer early on to see what we had, and the results were very definitive, so we decided that we were ready to trust these Rage Hypodermics to go trophy hunting.
Using a 435 fps Ten Point crossbow, we shot two 200 lb 5 year old bucks and three large doe, all broadside double lung shots of varying angles, each one cutting at least 3 ribs, and most of them a total pass through. There were no unrecovered deer, and none of these deer went further than 100 yards, with one doe dropping on the spot. Each one of the blood trails was light to average, not exactly heavy, but heavy enough to easily track the deer.
What impressed me the most was the consistency of these broadheads, and I soon realized that I could trust them on every shot, which is a great confidence builder. Trusting your equipment is very important for a successful archery hunt, and a lot archery hunters struggle with selecting and shooting broadheads consistently at one time or other. Since in the past we've done more compound bow hunting, we've been looking for a really good crossbow broadhead, and these come close to being it.
However, the downside of these heads is the slim profile of the two cutting blades, there's just not enough steel to keep them from bending on a ribcage shot. In shooting these deer the blades never broke or bent significantly like some other expanders we've tried, but on every ribcage shot they bent just enough to make the heads unusable, and replacement blades are not cheap either, plus rather difficult to change. Hopefully the blades are more durable on the newer model, and once I run out of these I will absolutely will give them a try.
I guess maybe I'm too old-school, but in the past with a compound bow I've used the same broadhead to shoot three or four deer before they were unusable. At the current $40 to $70 price for three broadheads of any brand, plus $50 for three arrows, wow, that's $60 for each shot per deer if the arrow also gets broken.
So, if I'm trophy hunting with a crossbow and want a 100% reliable broadhead that flies like a field tip I'll use a Rage 2 blade 2" Hypodermic, but if I'm only looking to fill my freezer with venison as cheaply as possible I'll probably sooner use something like a Slick Trick 4 blade fixed blade, they might not group quite as good at 50 yards, but will do good out to 30, and they are way more durable, plus if a blade does get boogered up, the removable blades are super easy to change out with your leftover blades from last years broadheads.
The Rage broadheads shot well in target practice, they were pretty well on the same bullseye as 100 grain field tips, consistent enough that the crosshairs setting for the field tips was what we used to go hunting. Now this fall we finally got some really good opportunities to do some fair field testing, and to summarize, we were very impressed with the results, but a spoiler warning, the durability of their blades is very much a one shot and done deal.
As I won't take an untested broadhead out on a big buck hunt, we shot several antlerless deer early on to see what we had, and the results were very definitive, so we decided that we were ready to trust these Rage Hypodermics to go trophy hunting.
Using a 435 fps Ten Point crossbow, we shot two 200 lb 5 year old bucks and three large doe, all broadside double lung shots of varying angles, each one cutting at least 3 ribs, and most of them a total pass through. There were no unrecovered deer, and none of these deer went further than 100 yards, with one doe dropping on the spot. Each one of the blood trails was light to average, not exactly heavy, but heavy enough to easily track the deer.
What impressed me the most was the consistency of these broadheads, and I soon realized that I could trust them on every shot, which is a great confidence builder. Trusting your equipment is very important for a successful archery hunt, and a lot archery hunters struggle with selecting and shooting broadheads consistently at one time or other. Since in the past we've done more compound bow hunting, we've been looking for a really good crossbow broadhead, and these come close to being it.
However, the downside of these heads is the slim profile of the two cutting blades, there's just not enough steel to keep them from bending on a ribcage shot. In shooting these deer the blades never broke or bent significantly like some other expanders we've tried, but on every ribcage shot they bent just enough to make the heads unusable, and replacement blades are not cheap either, plus rather difficult to change. Hopefully the blades are more durable on the newer model, and once I run out of these I will absolutely will give them a try.
I guess maybe I'm too old-school, but in the past with a compound bow I've used the same broadhead to shoot three or four deer before they were unusable. At the current $40 to $70 price for three broadheads of any brand, plus $50 for three arrows, wow, that's $60 for each shot per deer if the arrow also gets broken.
So, if I'm trophy hunting with a crossbow and want a 100% reliable broadhead that flies like a field tip I'll use a Rage 2 blade 2" Hypodermic, but if I'm only looking to fill my freezer with venison as cheaply as possible I'll probably sooner use something like a Slick Trick 4 blade fixed blade, they might not group quite as good at 50 yards, but will do good out to 30, and they are way more durable, plus if a blade does get boogered up, the removable blades are super easy to change out with your leftover blades from last years broadheads.
