The woods are calm. No barking squirrels, no other hunters driving the roads, nothing but peace and quiet. The cold wind is making your fingers numb,  but you know this will be the morning you finally see that buck you’ve been hunting. After hours of sitting perfectly still and only moving your eyes, you finally see him. It takes what seems like ten minutes for you to stand up and draw your bow. Your heart is pounding in your ears and you can only focus on your goal, taking a trophy buck with your bow. In this moment do you feel confident that if you do everything right and make a perfect shot that your broadhead won’t fail you?

What is the best broadhead?

 When you draw your hunting bow on any animal, you need to feel confident that when your arrow reaches the animal your broadhead will do its job. The only broadheads I use when bow hunting are Rage’s two-blade chisel tip design. With a TWO INCH CUTTING diameter, the best accuracy on the market, a chisel tipped design, and at an affordable price, these are hands down the best option for hunting whitetail deer. 

I killed my first deer with a bow when I was 13 years old. I used a Bear compound bow and Bear broadheads with aluminum Easton arrows back then so I understand a deer can be taken with almost any set-up as long as you practice. But what can you do to make your equipment work better for you so you can have an easier hunt?

The absolute number one thing most hunters could do right now is switch to Rage mechanical broadheads. If you currently use ANYTHING ELSE I hope after reading this you will at least give them a try. They will improve your accuracy immediately, especially if you’re new to bow hunting or you’ve never been able to broadhead tune your bow perfectly. Let me be clear in saying the broadheads I recommend are the Rage two blade chisel tipped design.

The key to a good broadhead

Rage has quite a few different setups out now but the one I’ve had perfect results with are the one’s I mentioned. With their two-blade design you get a much simpler overall piece of equipment. There aren’t over complicated inner workings requiring more metal to be taken out of the broadheads body so you retain more strength. Your O-rings only have to hold two blades down putting less stress on them and I believe it’s a superior design. The chisel tip will help if you center punch a rib or hit any bone.

I’ve done a lot of research on broadhead design in the past. One thing I noticed was a lot of big game blades are sharpened on one side like a chisel. This may seem counter intuitive but that blade shape will cut through bone and retain more energy. So why not use the same technology on smaller game and reap the same benefits? The Rage design puts an actual 4 sided chisel on the very front. The diameter of the chisel is slightly bigger than most of the body of the broadhead to produce a channel for it to run through so you will get great penetration even if you made a slightly bad shot.

What do you get when you buy a pack of Rage broadheads?

When you buy a set of rage broadheads they typically come in a pack with 3 broadheads and 1 practice tip. The practice tip is designed almost exactly like the functional version except they do not have sharpened blades and they do not expand on impact. The practice tip is blue in color making it easier to differentiate from your red functional broadheads.

Why are mechanical broadheads considered more accurate?

Mechanical broadheads have less impact on the flight of your arrows.  If you currently use a fixed blade setup and you’ve ever shot a broadhead through your bow in practice, you know how much the flight of an arrow can be effected by the blades. When you sight in your bow using the included practice tip and field points of the same grain weight, you will see ZERO noticeable point of impact shifts. This is because the blades are tucked inside the body of the broadhead in flight. Mechanical broadheads require zero broadhead tuning. While it is possible to shoot very accurately with fixed blades, at longer distances you will see more drift, no matter how well your bow is tuned.

Are mechanical broadheads less reliable?

The simple answer is no. While the design in earlier mechanicals allowed the blades to be easily unseated from their folded position, the new rage design makes this almost impossible. Rubber o-rings are used to keep the blades secure and plastic retainers are also included. While not necessary, the plastic blade retainers can be used to give your broadhead blades more security during flight.

When the broadhead impacts your target the plastic retainers snap off and allow the blades to expand. Even with today’s fast shooting bows you will not have a problem with your blades deploying during flight. As long as you check your Rage when you nock your arrow in the stand. Last season I double lunged a nice buck and my blades cut through both rib cages and still produced a complete pass-through.

What other benefits are there?

While it may not seem like much of an improvement over some bigger fixed blade’s cutting length, the 2 inch Rage blades will make your blood trailing extremely easy. Every deer I’ve shot since switching to the chisel tip design I’ve been able to just walk along upright and see massive amounts of blood. The typical distance for all these deer from the shot to where I found them is about 30 yards. With more cutting length on your blades you will reach more vitals therefore making a more humane kill and an easier blood trailing time for yourself. Gone will be the days of crawling around on your hands and knees looking for small drops of blood. Especially if you make a good shot and have a pass-through, you will find your deer easier than before.

Some other tips for new users

If you use a quiver that only holds your arrow in one place on the shaft and then your tip inside the  covered top do not push your arrows in too deep. The way a Rage deploys is by the blades being forced down as it enters a deer. So if you shove your arrows into your quiver and deploy your blades you will have to reset them before shooting. While this is not a hard task and only takes about five seconds it’s not something you want to be doing in a tree stand while trying to be still. It’s definitely something you don’t want to notice at full draw on a deer. So either switch to a quiver design that secures your arrow shaft and keeps pressure off of your broadhead, or just be careful not to shove them in and deploy your blades. Since the chisel tip is pretty wide on these Rages it will give you more surface area and help prevent this but you still need to be aware of it.

How much do they cost?

Okay hopefully you will take my recommendation and you want to at least try them for a season. I’ve found the best prices for these online and you can follow THIS LINK to check current prices on Amazon. They are typically around 40$ for 3 broadheads and 1 practice tip. But prices can vary so click the link to see how much they’re currently selling for.