I’ve killed a deer with essentially a field point since the Rage did not open. Luckily it ran about 150 yards straight away and then turned and ran straight back to me and passed the stand about 30yds and died.
Everyone knows if you hit lungs/heart it’s a dead deer. Now how far it runs I believe is what happens before the shot. I’ve never understood or will ever understand why anyone would alert a deer that danger is around before releasing. I refuse to alert a deer. If I don’t have a shot, I don’t take it. Like I’ve said, we’ve watched all our deer fall within sight. Some deer had no idea they were even hit.
The issue with mechanicals vs fixed is not the heart/lung shots through ribs…it’s that shot through solid bone. Is that mechanical making it through that shoulder bone and taking out both lungs and exiting? Once it hits that shoulder bone are both blades still doing their job or is one broke or bent and no longer penetrating or changed its trajectory? Can’t say I’ve seen blades ever coming off or breaking on a fixed blade, but have seen it on mechanicals. If you can make that perfect shot every time then it’s not an issue. I’ve seen both the Montec and Exodus go in ribs and shatter leg bones or shoulder on the other side with complete passthroughs. Only seen one mechanical do that.
And I’ll say a lot has to do with the size of the deer as well. With mechanicals I’ve never NOT got a passthrough on a doe, but can’t say the same with bucks. The last pig I shot with a mechanical I almost had a complete passthrough, the fletching hung up on exit. I still watched that hog fall within sight.
Another thing I’ve always thought about was if an arrow doesn’t exit, a fixed head is still cutting as the critter runs. I don’t think a mechanical is with blades just flopping.