Pro Picks! The Rage Broadhead

However, it’s now more than a decade later and not all hunters have been sold on the idea.

Some are still very happy with the consistent, deadly performance of the cut-on-contact or three-blade replaceable heads they grew up shooting. Others have been slow to change because of the many horror stories that resulted from some mechanicals.

I would fall into that latter category. Although I bagged more than a dozen deer with expandables in the late 1990s (see my article "Expandable Broadheads: Tough Enough for Deer?" in the August 2000 issue of D&DH), I was not completely sold on them. My main concern back then was that although expandables killed deer, they were not consistent from package to package and the blades on them did more tearing than cutting. If a broadhead is not razor sharp, you will be in for a long trailing effort.

My overall opinion on mechanicals changed quite drastically this past
weekend when I — for the first time in nearly a decade — shot a deer with an expandable. I was using the Rage, a newer two-blade mechanical featuring blades that slide backward (as opposed to flipping backward).

In flight, the Rage flies like a field point. Upon impact, the blade shoulders catch and the SlipCam design forces them backward. They slide backward … they are not kicked backward like traditional expandables. This deployment greatly reduces drag and eliminates "kick-out" problems that plagued expandables for years.

On my recent hunt, I shot a mature doe. At the shot, I flinched badly, and the arrow smacked the deer in the center of the stomach cavity. That’s usually bad news. At least a very bad trailing effort, anyway. Astonishingly, this deer expired (I witnessed the whole ordeal) in minutes. Try that with a three-blade fixed-position head. The key to the Rage, however, is that I had honed its blades to a razor-sharp edge before I went to the woods that day.

The entrance and exit wounds were absolutely devastating — more than 2.5 inches each way. I have seen similar results on mature bucks shot in recent years by D&DH Publisher Brad Rucks and former Group Publisher Hugh McAloon.

Both of them are sold on this design.

I will definitely give this broadhead some more attention as the season
progresses. I’ve only bagged one deer with it so far, so I cannot give it
more than a tentative thumbs-up at this time. However, from what I’ve seen so far, this product seems to be living up to its high-standard billing.

From: Field Logic   www.ragebroadheads.com

Retail Price:  $39.95 for three. Replacement blades available.