It is hunting season again and I was reviewing some of the broadheads I have used the past year or so and figured I should write it down. The four I am going to cover are listed below.
- G5 Montec
- G5 Montec Chinese clone
- Trocar HBX
- Rage Chinese clone
G5 Montec
So, I don’t have any more of these but I found the G5 Montec to be one of the best broadheads. It is fairly expensive, but it was a tank while being used. I bought three and lost them all none through failures of this head. I lost one as I shot a buck and the broadhead deflected at about 20 degrees off the entry rib and exiting the deer and made it sail over the hill after exiting. Another my shot was off and hit a doe in the front leg I think? The head embedded and the shaft snapped. The third my scope mount got bent without knowing and shot over one and missed making it unable to be found.
The broad head can be sharpened by just laying it flat on a sharpening stone. The edges of 2 blade line up to lay flat on the stone. This is a really nice feature to reuse and resharpen. I typically use the Lansky sharpener. I find this easier for broadheads, but would never use it on a knife.
- Plus
- Reusable
- strong
- sharpens good
- Negative
- Expensive
G5 Chinese clone
The idea for these was if the G5 Montec is such a good design if these are just close I should be happy with them. Well, I do not think the steel is a great quality even though the design is a direct copy. You can see them here on AliExpress and they cost $13.48 for 6 and I got out the door with shipping at $14.29. So they are cheap, but I think I will still be able to use them but will have to consider them disposable broadheads.
This above image was my test head for checking flight from my crossbow. I stuffed a beer box full of wood chips from a ground stump. The crossbow still shot through it and stuck in the ground. Every blade was dull and one chipped up rather badly. The metal folded over showing its softness. They came feeling dull and they sharpen, but never greatly. They are enough to kill, but I would like a better edge.
- Plus
- Affordable at less than $2.50 each
- Negative
- Weak edge
- Cheaper steel
- maybe disposable
Trocar HBX
I was a little put off my mechanicals from the Rage types as I will talk about below. I heard about them not opening or breaking and I like this one as it is a hybrid broadhead. There is two fixed blades and two mechanical blades. So even if the mechanical blades could fail, it is like using an old bear broadhead.
I got a three pack of these in the summer of 2018 for $20. I don’t remember how I got them that cheap. Now you can buy them for $31 on Amazon for a 3 pack.
You can see a bit of damage on the Mechanical blade but it is still very sharp.
This particular head has been shot into double beer boxes filled with mulch 4 or 5 times. Then it was sharpened and killed a doe this year and stuck in the dirt 12 inches. I brought it home and washed the arrow and head. I had to use a toothpick to clean the blood and dirt out of the mechanical blade slot.
To sharpen look at the top blade on the picture above and picture this. I fold top mech blade down and hold a pen or stick near the point on the leaver that pushes the blade out for the bottom blade. You have to push the blade out and hold it there to sharpen it. I run the Lansky sharpener down it a few times and it is way sharper than the G5 Chinese clone gets ever. This is in my quiver again going into the next deer I shoot. I am going to see how many it will last through deer and stuck into the ground.
- Plus
- Reusable
- Strong
- Resharpens easy
- Flies great
- Negative
- Not much
- Couldn’t find it for under $10 a head?
Rage Chinese Clone
These were being promoted on all the message boards 2 to 4 years back. I had to get me some and try them out. They fly good and the blades seem good and hardened. They sharpen well with the Lansky sharpener. I put 6 of the 18 I got though the paces. Three of them I still have and three I threw away. The three I kept are because they got shot once or twice and the O ring broke or got lost. The blades are fine and could be resharpened. The three I threw away had broken blades or The blades chipped enough to be too hard to sharpen. I was shooting them into double beer boxes of hardwood mulch.
Above shows a screenshot from my Amazon order page and I got 18 for $22 at the time. They take about 4 weeks or so to get these orders since they are shipped from China. You cannot find these on Amazon any more as I think Ginamart (Chinamart) was patent infringing on Rage broadheads and Amazon had to cut them off. You can still find there on AliExpress if you look for them.
- Plus
- Affordable at just over $1 each
- Blade quality is not bad
- Possibly reusable, but shaft is aluminum.
- Negative
- Most likely disposable, but at $1.25 each, I’m not that cheap.
Conclusions:
- G5 Montecs are nice, but expensive
- Trocar HBX are darn nice broadheads and American made and not terrible expensive. The mechanical blade and lay down after being deployed, say to exit the rib cage again.
- G5 Clones I probably wouldn’t buy again.
- Rage clones I would buy again, but might buy again.
- I am considering Swhacker‘s and Swhacker clones for a future comparison. I like the idea of swhacker’s opening inside the rib cage and not outside of it.
Enjoy and post a comment on your thoughts.
EDIT
So, just before Halloween I shot an 8 point with the Muzzy HBX broadhead again. He walked right at me and did not give any good bow, just head on and partial quartering to shots. That is until he got right under my stand and I spined him.
If you look closely the right expandable blade finally got bent from hard contact with his spine. It dropped that buck right were he stood. I am really starting to think this might be the only broadhead for me. It was still sharp and about asking when do we shoot deer number three. It still passes the spin test.
