Been a while since a good thread on broadheads showed up. I guess its that time of the year.
I've shot most of my elk with 100g slick tricks (3). The good shots were mediocre blood trails, but they didn't go 50 yards, so that wasn't a major issue. The bad shots bled pretty well. On the bad shots, one hit a tree and was corkscrewing when it hit, had poor penetration, great blood, and the elk died in 500 yards and probably 3-4 hours. The other bad shot hit no-mans land (a little high), passed through, and the elk was back on camera 2 weeks later, with a little cross-hatch in this upper torso. Good luck with the slick tricks.
I'm currently using 250gr cutthroats, single bevel. I've hit two, recoverd 1, both were less-than-ideal hits. Blood trails on both were VERY minimal, and the one I lost was a pass through, but penetration has been EXCEPTIONAL. I think I'm operating near the max for my 300 spine arrows with weight, which creates issues. I put illuminated nocks on when Idaho legalized them, and practiced a little (not enough) and was pleased at the time. When I shot my bull the arrow corkscrewed and hit about 8" low and left at 45 yards. Arrow didn't have guts on it, but apparently didn't hit anything useful when it passed through. Bull was still on its feet 9 hours later. Blood trail stopped pretty early, felt lucky to find the bull. He looked pretty healthy when I saw him and walked uphill away from me and bleeding had stopped. The bull I recovered I hit a little far back and he was quarted to, the penetration was unreal, it blew through him (his body, not pass through), and broke his off-side femur after passing through his torso. This hit the femoral artery and killed him. Very lucky, and no other broadhead would have bailed that shot out.
So, airing all my dirty laundry here, I would say I had more accurate shots with the slick tricks, more of them landed on target, and when they did, elk died quickly. The heavier cutthroats don't leave a very good blood trail IMO and are harder to shoot accurately, and a little less forgiving, but when you do hit they are going to carry deep into the animal.
I've gone back and forth on going back to the slick tricks, but I'll probably try the cutthroats for one more season. I do genuinely feel that they would break through a front shoulder.
It is going to be easier to put a shot where you want it with a lighter weight and flatter-shooting setup, but it wont respond well if you nick a tree/bush, or hit bone. No way my slick trick breaks an off-side femur, but there's no good reason to be hitting there anyway...
