innerloc carnage broadhead

Innerloc Carnage Mechanical Broadheads | Greatness or Gimmick?

I have to hand it to Innerloc Broadheads. The Carnage mechanical head definitely a cool and innovative-looking head.

I had been wanting to test these for awhile to see if the innovation translated to stellar performance.

So, let’s take a closer look at these heads.

As always, in this testing, I used my Bowtech SR6 set at 72 pounds, 27-inch draw, and a 460-grain Bishop FOC King Arrow.

Innerloc Carnage Broadheads Up Close

Now, the interesting thing about these heads is the way the blades stay together in the closed position. They don’t use an O-ring (i.e. the Afflictor Hybrids). They don’t use a retention clip. So, how do they keep the blades closed until deployment?

They use a sticker.

What?

That’s right. A sticker.

I have to say, it’s creative and different. Not only that, but they have a variety of stickers to choose from. They even have a program on their website where you can design and personalize your own sticker.

innerloc carnage broadheads and sticker
The Innerloc Carnage expandable broadheads use stickers to hold the blades closed.

When it’s in the closed position, the Carnage has nothing exposed. That’s going to fly extremely well. I don’t test mechanical heads for flight because they all fly really well. But for this, I imagine it’s going to fly extremely well. I’d say that’s probably going to be its greatest super power is its flight, in addition to its cut size.

innerloc carnage expandable broadhead with sticker applied
If you’re feeling really patriotic then you can go with this one. And what you do is you just wrap it around the blades. I will say, it’s not super easy, but it’s not rocket science either. Now, you’re ready for the 4th of July.
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innerloc carnage in fully open position
Here, we get a good look at the Carnage in a fully open position. The cutting diameter is 1-½ inches, which makes a really nice cut for a 3-blade head. The blades themselves are 0.040 inch thick, so they are thicker than most mechanical blades.
cutting diameter of carnage broadhead
The Carnage has a 1-1/2″ cutting diameter, which is very good.
innerloc carnage in closed position
In the closed position, the blades tuck under like this. Then, with pressure on the tip, the blades are forced back.
innerloc carnage rear deploying
You can see how the blades come out from the back. And so, I would imagine they’re going to fully open upon impact, and you’re going to get that full 1-1/2″of cutting diameter. It’s going to stay that way all the way through, as long as there’s pressure on this little plunger tip.

Now, its durability and its penetration, I wasn’t really sure about. So, I was eager to put this head to the test and see how it performs.

Innerloc Carnage 100 Grain Expandable Broadhead for Crossbows
Innerloc Carnage 100 Grain Expandable Broadhead for Crossbows
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12/18/2024 01:34 am GMT
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Edge Retention Testing

In the edge retention test I push paper down on the blades of the broadhead after every two strokes of the edge of an Easton Hexx Shaft. This tests how well the blade holds its edge.

easton hexx shaft arrow on blade of innerloc carnage
I ran the shaft of an Easton Hexx shaft across the blade for two strokes and then test. I will do process up to five times.
cutting paper on blades of innerloc carnage
The Carnage was still able to cut paper after 10 strokes of the arrow.

Penetration testing

For the penetration test, I shout the Carnage head into ballistic gel that was fronted with a rubber mat and 1/2″ MDF board.

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Cardboard penetration test

In the cardboard penetration test, I shot the Carnage into layered cardboard to see how many layers it could penetrate.

innerloc carnage after cardboard penetration test
The Carnage penetrated through 40 layers. And I might add, you notice how the blades set way back so that point, it’s like a nail, actually is what penetrated through the last several layers. But it did penetrate through the 40th layer.
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Ballistic gel test

innerloc carnage penetrating ballistic gel
The Carnage penetrated 7 inches.
rubber mat entrance hole of carnage broadhead
Here, you can see the entrance cut into the rubber mat that fronted the MDF and ballistic gel. Man, it did really well. Those blades perfectly opened and fully deployed upon impact. And you can also see the sticker that came apart there as it impacted.
innerloc carnage broadhead after going through ballistic gel and mdf
Upon further investigation, the Carnage broadhead after going through ballistic gel and mdf was missing one of the blades. It’s rare that a broadhead loses a blade just in this one layer of MDF, but that is exactly what happened. There are only two blades. And it’s not in the gel. You can see the gel only has two blades cut into it. I found it behind the rubber mat layer. It broke off at the pin that holds the blade in place.

Because the Carnage lost a blade, I never even got to where I tested it by shooting it into MDF (up to 5 times).

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Final thoughts on the Innerloc Carnage

So, what do you think of the Innerloc Carnage?

I will say, I thought it was pretty gimmicky at first, but it definitely has some strengths, such as its super low profile in flight, which makes it forgiving, its large cut, and its easy-open rear deploying blades.

But, it also has some weaknesses.

I question how well it’s going to do on angled shots because it has such a wide flared tip without anything to really grab upon.

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But, the biggest weakness is its durability. You saw what it did in the 1/2-inch of MDF when it lost a blade. I did the test again, just to be sure… this time it lost two blades. There’s just an inherent flaw in that pin that holds the blades together. It just seems to be breaking in some way.

So, I know a number of people have used these heads and hey, more power to you if you really like them.

But, I’ll tell you this, the Carnage is not going to make it in my quiver. But, check out the scores below and see what you think and see how it did in the areas that matter most to you.

Best of luck in your hunting adventures!

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innerloc carnage testing scorecard
Here is the final score card for the Innerloc Carnage broadhead.
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