I have fairly recently had the front part of some broadheads break completely off at the front of the ferrule and on a line perpendicular to the ferrule/shaft. I contacted the manufacturer and he will be determining the cause and will hopefully fix the problem. Because he is a TradGang member, is a super guy, is going to try to fix things up, and has taken ownership of the problem, I am not going to mention the brand of the broadhead or show pictures that would identify it, even though the pictures are pretty dramatic. The design is a good one, but it seems that the heat treatment (by a contractor, not the manufacturer) may have caused the problem. I was unhappy about the situation, but penetration was still surprisingly pretty good and did not result in the loss of any animals -- although the animals could have easily been lost under slightly different circumstances. If anyone thinks I am talking about the ABS Ashby broadheads, I'm not. They are excellent, although very expensive. The ones that broke were expensive too, but not as much as the Ashbys. The new 2 blade VPA heads and the new Tuffheads both look good, and I am eager to try some of each of them. Their designs, like the design of the Ashbys, does not appear to lend themselves to the kind of failure I have described, but I will know more later after some torture testing.
I have also had failures with the old Bear Razorheads, which I quit using as a result, and also quit shooting the replaceable blade broadheads when I started seeing some failures in them too. I like heavy, thick bladed broadheads for bigger game. Just about any decent broadhead of any design is adequate for the average deer. I shoot lighter poundage bows, lighter arrows and lighter broadheads when I am hunting deer and smaller animals. When I have heavy poundage bows, heavy arrows and heavy game, I want a super strong, heavy broadhead that won't fail me. With some animals, a broadhead failure could get me or someone else killed, and that would be REALLY bad!!
Cost of the broadhead is not a major consideration when lives are at stake or where the cost of the hunt dwarfs the equipment costs.
Allan