Now that we have them legal in Idaho (regardless of how we got here).I’ve been doing my research has anyone one had success with sevr 1.5 , grim reaper pro or g5 dead meat. Or I would take other recommendations of successful hunters. Just to head of the naysayers, I get the drawback’s and know there limitations. I’m shooting 70 plus pound 30 inch inline 5 total arrow weight will be over 475 to 550 depending on arrow choice. I figure I’ll have enough behind the arrow to be successful on well placed shot’s.
I have shot a pile of deer with both mechanicals and fixed, including the sevr 2.0, and the G5 dead meat. Only ever shot turkeys with grim reapers mechanicals so far (whitetail special) but I like them all a lot for different reasons. I chose to move away from The g5 for deer when I had one that one of the blades did not open. Recovered the deer in 40 yards, but I was not excited to see that. They flew amazing and were durable enough but I think on the angle I made the shot the one blade did not grab hide and the hole opened up in just the right way to not allow it to open. I had 7 great experiences with that head, but that one was enough for me to adjust.
The grim reaper whitetail special was awesome on turkeys, but the aluminum ferrule will bend on hard impact and after killing a few turkeys with them and having them come back bent I chose to not use that specific head on deer, not that it wouldn't work I just don't love longer aluminum ferrules personally. I want to love their mechanicals but just can't get past the aluminum ferrule of some of their models. The fatal steel really interests me, but I'd like a bigger cut if I'm going to shoot a mechanical.
Personally the Sevr is the mechanical broadhead I trust most in the world. I have shot rage classics, extremes, trypans and hypos, swhackers, G5 t3, dead meat and megameat with varying successes and failures (not all failures result in lost animals) and I have come to the conclusion that SEVR is the one I would pick for just about anything. In one year, I shot a bear, 3 deer and a turkey with the same head and between the turkey and the bear only needed to sharpen the blades, changed them out for the deer. Still have that head, and it's my first up in the quiver after it took 2 more deer last year and saved my bacon on my biggest buck of my life when my arrow landed 4 inches off the mark.
I'm lucky to have 31 inch draw, 74 pounds 520 grain arrow so I have never had an issue with penetration (other than once with a swhacker that I took a poor shot angle as a young bold hunter and the ferrule bent 90 degrees, and once with a hypo that lost both blades and made it through the shoulder of a buck but left a pin prick on the off side and required a second shot to put him down in his bed, turns out you can kill them with a field tip but man it aint right)
This fall my quiver will have grim reaper micro hades 4 blades for elk with 2 sevr 1.5s as backup in case something really wild happens, and for deer and antelope it will be sevr 2.0s and a couple bigger fixed blades for stand hunting whitetails
Not that my opinion matters, and plenty of guys tip over more critters than I do every year but this is what I have found to be the most reliable based on my experience. I'm a tinkering fool and will shoot them all testing for flight, durability but come season I just grab the SEVRs. Got my dad on them, as well as my brother and 3 of my hunting buddies.
Keep in mind, I haven't killed an elk with anything so my opinion could be just about invalid when it comes to that... but hey its the internet and I'm at work thinking about elk hunting.