Rage Broadhead??

[Mirage]

Do you think that the rage broadhead will work well on a Boar weighing 300plus pounds? Or would you recommend another broadhead. I cant get muzzy to fly like my feild points they shoot high and right. So i had good luck with the 2 blade rage last deer season and was wondering if it would work on a boar hunt im going on next weekend??

[ckrich]

A good friend of mine guides on hog hunts here in Oklahoma. He religiously shoots Rage's because of the damage they do to hogs. I can't vouche for the 300 lb mark, but from what I've seen them do I would shoot them and dang near anything. Good luck on your hunt

[redkneck]

Personally I would avoid them for anything that size, but really it's going to be more about shot placement no matter what you shoot. A boar of that weight is almost armored in the shoulder area, but a well-placed quartering away shot will get you in the bread basket. You'd be better putting a rage through the gut than on the shoulder area.

[Mirage]

thanks guys will keep in mind. I dont want to gut shoot him so i will wait for a quarting away shot

[Mirage]

SO I Shot the first pig about a 350 pound pig at 14 yards high in the shoulder angleling down toward the opposite shoulder, not a pass through but sticking out the other side and tha pig took off and never found him, tracked him from 7pm till 10:30pm through the palmetos with flashlighs never found him. Found where he layed downa couple times must have packed him hole with mud because i found where he rolled around in the mud. Found my arrow or at least part of it. So i was feeling pretty bad about that pig and was not feeling very good about shooting such a larg body animal with my bow. So the next night i passed on several pigs and decided I should shoot a smaller pig about 100 pound blue pig. Same thing but had a pass through and tracked him till there was no more blood. Now I am thinking maybe rage is not for pigs. I know if i hit them right they wouldnt have gone far at all. This was the first time EVER in my life I felt my bow just wasnt enough for big boars. I had a big boar come out the first night after I shot the 350 pounder and looked at my iceman and said I dont think this is enough. And my bow is fast but i looked at that pig as he was huffing at me and blowing and said I think Im going to have to pull out my back up pistol. And see what he thinks about that?But he took off as my guide pulled up on the site. Im going back but not sure if im going to take my bow. And what about rages gaurantee about getting your game or your money back has nayone tried to collect on that gaurantee. Im not sure thats fait to rage do you thin so?

[redkneck]

You can take hogs with a bow with no problems. A boar that size though is more than a challenge for any bow, even for many firearms. Hogs that size will have a thick layer of hard cartilage over the shoulder area that will make a pass-through all but impossible. You'd almost be safer putting that rage through the neck area than the shoulder. But a dead hog is always a good thing for most folks, recovered or not. I've shot Rage heads, but for a hog hunt I'd stick with fixed blades.

[Rhino]

Since your arrow was sticking out the other side the broadhead did all the damage it was going to do. Hard to imagine a 2" cut didn't leave more of a blood trail than that even with the arrow still in the 1st pig. Based on 2 hits with the Rage at least passing through the other side I'd sure question using them on pigs in the future too.

Personally, I've never used an expandable broadhead on pigs. We have a lot of them down here too. I use some of my old 125 grain fixed blade broadheads for pigs saving my Montec G5's for deer. I always keep 1 or 2 pig arrows in my quiver in MS. Killed pigs of all sizes during bowseason down here. There have been some I was not able to recover though. They are tuff critters and like John said...armor plated on the sides. Could be the blades broke before hitting the vitals, especially on that 1st bigun. You didn't mention if they had or not.

Just my personal opinion from dealing with pigs down here for many years. They are a BIG problem for us. They are very aggressive and will displace deer from an area if the deer even get wind of them. I have had deer run off like a rocket was shot out of the rears before from winding pigs only to have some 15 pound (or less) piglets appear several minutes later. They all smell the same to a deer. They also do severe damage to food plots, expecially after a rain. I hate them and will shoot them with any weapon I have when the opportunity is presented. I can always find someone to give the meat to if I don't want it for myself.

I know you'd rather bowhunt pigs but for what it's worth...there's 2 weapons I've shot pigs with and never lost a pig...yet. One is my 30-378 Wby mag. The other is my Uberti single shot rifle in 45-70. My personal best with the Uberti is killing 3 out of 4 pigs that appeared putting rounds between my fingers Quigley style. Believe it or not, on average the pigs I've shot with the 45-70 don't go as far the ones I've hit with the 30-378. Both left good blood trails on the few pigs I had to actually trail. Most dropped within site if not on the spot.

BTW...once I had to finish off a pig with a knife after I'd run out of ammo in my bow quiver. My buddy said I needed a bigger quiver.

On another occasion a friend of mine put 2 arrows in a pig. We let the pig lay over night. I won't go into the long story about it cuz it might cause forum members to spit their coffee all over their computer. Short version is the pig chased him at least part of the way after he first found him. I didn't know what to think seeing his flashlight beam dancing around through treetops while waiting at my cart fro him. That is until he ran up to my cart, caught his breath and told me what had happened. Next morning we found him...still alive. The only thing I had to finish him off with was a hatchet. It was all we had! Not pretty and not fun at all. They are tuff!!!

Edited June 28, 2010 by Rhino

[Leo]

Some broadhead tuning had a good chance of bringing those muzzies back to the point of impact you wanted. Just paper tuning and walk back tuning often isn't enough for fixed heads. The fine tuning effects of broadhead tuning will benefit the accuracy of all heads you shoot.

The major point of broadhead tuning is optimizing the draw weight of your bow for the spine of the arrow you are using.

I'd also suggest if you are using 100gr heads to step up to 125's. That extra 25% head weight will in many cases really improve penetration.

[redkneck]

That's funny Al! I buried a 300 Wby in a big boar's shoulder in a hard rain one day, and I have yet to find him. I also had to finish a 150 pounder with a knife, I can surely identify with you!

Best hog shot is between the eyes!

[Rhino]

That's funny Al! I buried a 300 Wby in a big boar's shoulder in a hard rain one day, and I have yet to find him. I also had to finish a 150 pounder with a knife, I can surely identify with you!

When he was telling me what happened, I laughed till my jaws hurt. I've lost some shooting them with other rifles just never with the 2 I mentioned...yet.

Best hog shot is between the eyes!

When there's more than 1 I'm for shooting them where they're biggest so I can go for the others without considering the 1st one again.

[Strut10]

No hogs up here to speak of.

But this sounds really fun.

[Rhino]

No hogs up here to speak of.

But this sounds really fun.

It sure can be, especially when they show up in a group (usually the case). No worrying about if it's mature and/or shooter size...they're all shooters.

[redkneck]

We went a few years ago in Alabama where the hogs are as thick as they can be. If you went on a 3 day hunt and didn't take a couple of hogs it was because you didn't want to. One of my friends shot a nice sized sow and she dropped in her tracks. Seconds later about 8 little ones came running out and started to suck on her! He almost got choked up, lol. The next year my cousin shot a big sow with temps in the teens. He went back to the camp and warmed up waiting for his buddy to get out so they could both go back and get her. When he walked up, he saw something moving, and found a big boar had rooted up around her backside and had topped her...... BOOM!

With hogs, it never ceases to amaze me what you'll find. The big one I shot with the 300 I watched in my scope as the rain turned into a mist as the shock of the impact rippled though her, but never found her. They're tough as nails, but you can also drop them in squirrel season with a .22 and a well placed shot. I've still never taken one with a bow though

[WIwhitetailhunter]

I've found if you shoot a 7mm bullet in the pigs earhole, it will go nowhere! Dropped 2 where they stood.

My brother-in-law shot one with a Rage broadhead. We tracked it for a while and never found it.

Seeing how much "armour" those pigs have when skinning them it's a wonder anyone can kill one with a bow!

[Mirage]

I gotta think maybe hunting them with a bow just is not a good idea. I killed a 150 pound red boar hog last year with my bow. No problem but seems like I gotta a problem now. I was shooting 125 grain fixed last year. I dont know why i switched. I think i will be taking the weatherby 300 win mag next time and give that pig a little something to think about. Thanks for the advice guys. I know if you hit them right they will go down but darn they are tuff animals. I dont know if the blades broke on the first big hog cause when i found my arrow it was broken and the end with the broadhead was missing. I shot that hog and it was like shooting a big block of solid meat. It just made tis strange sound like i was shooting the block target. I guess i was more amazed that my arrow didnt go through. I shoot a iceman and its about 300 fps sooo I was just shocked now that pig could have been bigger then i thought i know I had a couple 175 pounders out in front and when this one i shot came in he was much bigger and the other pigs high tailed it out of there when they saw him . Fat pig.

[redkneck]

I think i will be taking the weatherby 300 win mag next time

:jaw:

Which is it? Wby, or Win? Can't have both!

Don't give up on the bow, they're more than adequate to take down hogs, just shoot the good eatin ones, about 80-100lbs.

[Leo]

:jaw:

Which is it? Wby, or Win? Can't have both!

Don't give up on the bow, they're more than adequate to take down hogs, just shoot the good eatin ones, about 80-100lbs.

Sure you can. Weatherby makes rifles in 300 Win mag.

[AaronS]

SO I Shot the first pig about a 350 pound pig at 14 yards high in the shoulder angleling down toward the opposite shoulder, not a pass through but sticking out the other side and tha pig took off and never found him, tracked him from 7pm till 10:30pm through the palmetos with flashlighs never found him. Found where he layed downa couple times must have packed him hole with mud because i found where he rolled around in the mud. Found my arrow or at least part of it. So i was feeling pretty bad about that pig and was not feeling very good about shooting such a larg body animal with my bow. So the next night i passed on several pigs and decided I should shoot a smaller pig about 100 pound blue pig. Same thing but had a pass through and tracked him till there was no more blood. Now I am thinking maybe rage is not for pigs. I know if i hit them right they wouldnt have gone far at all. This was the first time EVER in my life I felt my bow just wasnt enough for big boars. I had a big boar come out the first night after I shot the 350 pounder and looked at my iceman and said I dont think this is enough. And my bow is fast but i looked at that pig as he was huffing at me and blowing and said I think Im going to have to pull out my back up pistol. And see what he thinks about that?But he took off as my guide pulled up on the site. Im going back but not sure if im going to take my bow. And what about rages gaurantee about getting your game or your money back has nayone tried to collect on that gaurantee. Im not sure thats fait to rage do you thin so?

I had the same thing happen to me on a deer last year that I shot with a Rage. Don't know if the blades didn't deploy properly or what, but I don't plan to use these heads again. I know a lot of people out there have had great luck with them and swear by them, but it just put a bad taste in my mouth.

[redkneck]

Sure you can. Weatherby makes rifles in 300 Win mag.

I don't know why that totally went over my head Leo, thanks for getting me straight!

[Mirage]

I was getting ready to take a picture of my gun....lol. You even made me think about what kind of gun it is...lol. I had good luck with deer using the rage but no luck with hogs sorry about your lost deer A

[redkneck]

Wally-World still has 300 Win Mag ammo at about $26/box. No such luck at finding Wby for that price.

[Mirage]

I know there about 75 dollars a box at gander.

[frickasaur]

That's funny Al! I buried a 300 Wby in a big boar's shoulder in a hard rain one day, and I have yet to find him. I also had to finish a 150 pounder with a knife, I can surely identify with you!

Best hog shot is between the eyes!

Trapped and killed 43 last year. All shot between the eyes with 45 Hollow Points. Two came back to life within 20 minutes, standing, snorting, brain matter running down their face. Tough devils is an understatement. I use only fixed blades. Any reasonable shot will result in death but not so positive with expandables. A bad shot can result in just a bad shot and an ugly surface wound. I hunt to kill.

[rad_112176]

If the first arrow went through the boar than it did all the damage it was gonna do and the arrow shaft was not gonna plug the hole. The thick skin of the boar is what makes the hole plug up. If he rolled in the mud than i am sure that did not help. The problem is the best shot you can take with a bow is a quartering away shot right into the pump station. Don't expect a pass through no matter what broadhead you are using because you are most likely to hit the opposite shoulder. The main issue is that 80% of the boars lungs and all the heart is located behind the shoulder blade. If you aim just behind the shoulder blade you have a spot about the size of a baseball to hit the top/back of the lungs. If the leg is back in its step then it is probably covering almost all the lungs. Unlike a deer, a hogs spine drops significantly from mid section of its body to the base of its neck and the animal only has a heart/lung cavity slightly larger than a human hand. I would personally keep using the rage but just pick a different shot angle. Good luck and hope you get one. Success with a bow feels so much better.

[mikebohio]

i bet the blades broke off the rage. i use them for deer and have never had a head reuseable.