Sorry if my response came across as a "wiseguy" response, but, quite honestly, I agree that comments of "noisy broadheads", noisy vanes, etc. is a bit on the excessive side when considering a "real world" hunting scenario.
Here's my "personal" feelings on the matter of broadhead noise ...
First ... Yes ... both the 2 and 3-blade BR's make noise in flight—with the 3-blade being the slightly "noisier" of the two in my experience. It's not what I would describe as a "buzzing" noise, though ... more of a hissing sound if I had to try and pinpoint/label it.*
I'm personally not sure why broadhead noise gets so much attention to be honest?*
I see people mention it from time to time ... yet, in 20 years of bowhunting, I've yet to experience firsthand—nor see/hear within videos, articles, etc.—anything that leads me to believe a deer or animal "dodged an arrow" due to hearing the arrow/broadhead in flight ...?
Consider this ... with ALL the other sounds within a wilderness/natural setting at any given moment, is it really likely that an animal is going to be able to pick out the slight sound an arrow/broadhead is making in flight? Above birds chirping, wind whistling through limbs, grass, etc.? Over the sound of leaves rattling in the wind, squirrels barking, other animals, themselves chomping/chewing on food, etc., etc., etc.?*
Is a buzzing and/or hissing sound even "foreign" to a wild animal if they did/could happen to hear it?
Do they not hear other "critters" that make all sorts of various "sounds" in the wild pretty much 24/7? Including bugs that buzz/hiss as they fly?*
I'm sorry, short of a broadhead actually "whistling", beeping, honking and/or sounding like a foghorn going off—I don't buy that an animal can locate, distinguish, recognize as "danger" ... and then react/evade the path of an arrow in flight. I've never personally seen it, nor seen any visual proof or convincing account of such an experience in over 20 years of bowhunting to be quite honest.*
Now, what I have experienced personally—and seen several times—are deer that jump the string "at the shot"! Even at that, I'm pretty sure we've all seen deer that have "flinched/reacted" at the shot—yet due to the the "close-in" range and/or the speed of the arrow—the animal still took a fatal hit (as well as bad hits, unfortunately) before it could get fully out of the way of the arrow.*
My personal opinion—to reiterate SkijinGears point—is that if you reasonably consider all the other variables in a natural/"outdoor" setting—a deer or any other animal is going to have an extremely hard time even distinguishing such a sound—much less suddenly reacting to it in time to "dodge" an arrow.*
Consider this—a bow shooting 275fps (which is apparently slow these days, ha) is going to send an arrow 92 YARDS in a matter of one full second!*
The more "typical"/average 25-30 yard shot (for whitetails at least)—out of that same 275fps bow—is going to deliver the arrow on-target in 1/3 of a second or LESS ... !
That's likely why we don't see video of deer suddenly reacting to and/or ducking an arrow when it's within 10 yards from impact. What we have all witnessed are deer jumping the string/reacting "at the shot"—and even then—they don't always react quickly enough to get clear of the path of the arrow.*
I find it hard to believe even the quickest of animals could locate such a slight sound, among all the other sounds within it's natural setting, and then still react to it—in literally fractions of a second.
At the end of the day, there have been a lot of animals—of all sizes, at a variety of distances, terrain settings, etc.—successfully taken with both the 2 and 3-blade Bloodrunner's. Many have been shot on video. I don't know of a single report from the field of an animal suddenly reacting to the "arrow" in flight.*
I have one Field Staff member, that between himself, his father-in-law and a third "hunting buddy"—took 19 animals in 2009 with the 3-blade Bloodrunner. Those 19 shots ranged from 10-50+ yards, on a variety of animals ... and not one of them jumped the string ... much less suddenly bailed out "after the shot" due to any sounds of the arrow/head in flight ...*
Anyway, I'll be doing some broadhead tuning—hopefully tomorrow—so I'll try to get some video of the BR's in flight—compared to a few other models—see if that will give you a bit of an idea of what to expect.
