Switched to mechanical this year. In the past I have been lucky with watching them go down. I still trail for practice. Even on heart shots the blood trails with fixed blades left a lot to be desired. I forget who said it and what exactly was said but it was along the lines of with mechanical's there is a slight chance it will fail, but you are guaranteed to have *censored*ty blood trails with fixed blades. Out here Id think you would have more of a chance of not recovering an animal due to *censored*ty fixed blade blood trails/less cutting diameter than having a mechanical fail.