The Prs and Cons of Fixed Blade Broadheads

The pros and cons of fixed blade broadheads. The good, the bad, and the ugly. So back when I started hunting in the early 1980s, there wasn't a gigantic selection of broadheads like there are now. In fact, we had the choice of either a fixed, a fixed, or a fixed blade broadhead. Now you had some two blades, three blades, four blades, an array of tip choices that you could have, of course, but at that time, you know, the big talk was, do I want a removable bleeder blade in my two blade broadhead? Do I want a chisel tip, a trocar tip? That was about it. And so once you pick that in the number of blades, you were good to go. It wasn't until the 90s that we started to see some mechanical broadheads coming on the scene strong. So what are some of the good and bad and ugly points of the fixed blade broadhead? So let's start with the good. Out of the gate, one of the things that sets a fixed blade broadhead apart from other broadhead types is durability. Fixed blade broadheads are inherently very durable, and they are that because typically, they are designed of one piece, or if they do have removable blades, those blades are thicker and usually a lot more durable than a mechanical or hybrid broadhead blade. Now there are some exceptions, but as a general rule, you can count on your fixed blade broadhead to be much more durable. Those thicker blades and often shorter blades take less stress, and they're very easy to use and very accurate. So when we look at another good point of this broadhead, we can talk about the financial side of fixed blade broadheads. So because of the fixed blade broadhead's durability, it also gives us a lot of dependability. So we have a broadhead that's a little bit tougher, it withstands high stress, it can be resharpened, and oftentimes, it'll out-penetrate a lot of the mechanicals or hybrids on the market, just because it's inherently designed to be a little bit smaller. Therefore, you have a little bit less resistance and can gain greater penetration. Now that isn't true across all platforms, but as a general rule, you can kind of rely on that. Because of this durability, you get another great aspect of the fixed blade broadhead, which is the fact that once you buy it, you can reuse it. It's not, as a lot of people like to say, a one-and-done broadhead. Now, some people are okay with a one-and-done broadhead, as long as it did its job the first time, they don't really care if they have to throw it away. Well, a lot of us are very conscious about our finances, and having a fixed blade is a great way to be able to reuse and resharpen that broadhead. So, if you look at the fixed blade as being another benefit as far as financially, you can get a lot more life out of your typical fixed blade than you can out of some mechanicals and hybrids. One of the biggest factors of the fixed blade that is a good benefit is the fact that it is a fixed blade with no moving parts, so it's dependable. There's no collars, there's no springs, there's no O-rings, there's nothing that can move. So, what's left to be blamed? Us, the hunter. We can't ever blame our broadhead, because the broadhead is definitely going to do its job. It's all about us getting it at the right place at the right time. So, the fixed blade offers superior durability and dependability when you look at it as being something that does not have any moving parts at all. Because most fixed blades are smaller in diameter than most mechanical blades, you do have tendency to get increased penetration. This is just inherently because there's not as much resistance on the broadhead. Therefore, without that resistance, your momentum carries through and you can see deeper penetration. So, another very good point to the fixed blade. So, let's talk about some of the bad. Is there really any bad? I don't think so. There's some inconveniences maybe, and one thing that is most often talked about when it comes to the bad part of fixed blade broadheads is that they are considered poor in flight. There is several tests, and you can see some of them on our website, that prove that the fixed blade broadhead flies like a dart out of well-tuned setups. If your arrow is tuned and your bow is tuned and they are tuned together, you should have no problem with any flight issues from your fixed blade broadhead. Now, the exception would be if you had a great, big, wide-cut fixed blade and you were shooting at long distances, it would certainly be susceptible to wind and some other factors that may throw it off course, especially after that 50-yard range. But generally speaking, accuracy should not be an issue with your fixed blade. Another point that often comes up with fixed blades, because so many of them are vented, is the fact that they are noisy and people fear that that noise is going to spook their game. So, when it comes to noise, there's some recent studies on fixed blades that proves that even if you put tape over the vented portions of the blades, there is no difference. The studies do show that it is the fletching that makes the most noise. So, I think we'll see a future video from Afflictor where we go ahead and do some testing and prove that out to see if it's the broadhead or the fletching. As far as other tests online, though, almost always the fletching is proven to make more noise than any broadhead that you're using. The one criticism that you can give the fixed blade broadhead, in my opinion, is possibly a decreased wound channel, but only when you're comparing that to certain hybrids or mechanical broadheads. So, you can say that a fixed blade and a mechanical blade both have the same lethality, but it is possible to get more blood out of a mechanical broadhead, and that is only because of the amount of surface area being cut. So, what I'm saying is, if you shoot this fixed blade broadhead in the same location that you shoot a big cut mechanical, because those blades are cutting more tissue, inherently they have the ability to go ahead and cut more vessels or artery, and then that way you achieve more blood. So, the only part that I see on the fixed blade broadheads that could be construed as a little bit negative would be the fact that in comparison to the mechanical, that you may see a little less blood. So, let's touch on the ugly really quick. So, the ugly when it comes to fixed blade broadheads is the availability to buy junk. You need to be very cautious about the fixed blade broadheads that you buy. You wanna make sure it's a reputable manufacturer, and maybe you've watched a bunch of YouTube videos that prove it out as being durable and flies really great, and those are helpful, but you want to be very cautious about bargain basement broadheads, especially in the fixed blade categories where you get into inferior steels, bad blades, thin blades, stuff that is just not gonna perform like you want. In fact, some ferrules aren't even manufactured correctly, and they're bent right out of the box. So, be very cautious about the ugly side where you can buy inferior product. In essence, you wanna buy a broadhead that somebody cared about making.