Mechanical question

[Btaylor]

From time to time, I have seen post where it is mentioned folks carry a mechanical in case they need to take a long range shot or follow up shot. I am not sure I follow the thought process. Considering it takes more energy to drive a mechanical home at all distance vs. a COC why would the choice be to choose the heads in reverse order? The logical choice to me would be to use a low profile COC head as a long range shot or follow up shot head choice to ensure the highest down range performance. What am I missing?

 

[Upchurch_k]

I think it probably has to do more with the flight characteristics of the mechanical. A lot of times a mechanical flies better than a fixed blade, so maybe those guys that carry it for long range shots think it's going to fly better? I'm not entirely sure, I shoot mechanicals only so I may not be the best guy to answer the question, just my thoughts on it.

 

[fatlander]

Mechanicals are more forgiving to lapse of form and wind drift. Also, rear deploying heads leave huge holes on entry, so the thought is you’re to have more blood to follow after already zipping a tiny COC head through, even if you’re sacrificing some penetration.

There’s always going to be trade offs. Tiny heads penetrate better on heavy muscle and bone hits. They also don’t bleed nearly as well and will clog up quickly on gut/liver shots. Mechs don’t penetrate as well as small coc but leave better blood trails and are less likely to plug on a gut shot.

If you justify either one for the possible bad, you’re already setting yourself up for failure. The better alternative is to pick which one you think has more positive attributes, for your setup, on good shots and just make a good shot in the first place.


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[Billy Goat]

I carry both. Mainly use the fixed blade as a varmint head. Used to be a fixed blade was a lot cheaper. I could have cheap heads to fling at varmints. Now seems like they mostly all cost the same. But I'll still carry a few fixed blades for small game. They hold up better to being burried in the dirt.

I would say that the biggest reason for someone to shoot a mechanical at range is because of wind drift. I have mostly used mechanicals exclusively on big game so I can't say exactly why someone would use fixed at close range and mechanical at distance. I haven't had issue with penetration from a mechanical at distance on elk. So in my experience I wouldn't be worried about the penetration factor either way.

 

[Btaylor]

I have been pretty much exclusively a mechanical shooter with my compound for the last 12-15 years probably. No issues at all with them and have confidence my setup will perform well at any distance I would ever shoot at game. Wind drift makes sense as does rear deploy heads making a big entry for better blood trails. I guess I was thinking about it from the standpoint of if it is a follow up shot then odds are high that the shot angle may not be optimum and a fixed head would increase the odds of getting into vitals on say a texas heart shot or hard qtr away that entered through the back leg. On a deer that is not that big of a deal but on an elk it could be depending on the setup.

No biggie really, like I said I have seen that comment a ton of times over the years and was just curious about the thought process behind it.

 

[dkime]

The only justification I can offer as to why I would adhere to this mindset (And I'm not totally sure that I believe it myself) would be if I had already run an arrow through an animal with a fixed and the animal then presented itself again at a distance where the flight characteristics of that head wouldn't perform as a follow up shot. "More is better" type of mindset, in the sense of if I already have a hole in something I should probably get a few more in it if I'm given the option. I shoot a mixed bag of heads, mechanicals have their place in my quiver and I know the situation I described above is purely hypothetical and rarely will occur. Frankly I'm not bringing any head with me that I find incapable of performing at any distance, if I'm carrying it with me it's worth carrying.