A few days ago, somebody was asking about whether "trad" broadheads will stand up to compound-level abuse, and I said that I'd pay money to see a trad rig that can wreck a Thunderhead 125...

Now, I just happen to have some around, so of course that got me to thinking....

A while back, Wild Bill sent me a whole box of arrows that he had accumulated, but a good number of them are stiffer than I really need, so... since I wasn't sure what else I might be able to do with it, I took a 28" BOP Legacy 2018 and footed it with 4" of a bent- up 2215 that I had around from my years of trying to make the wrong shafts work out of my #55 Howatt Hunter.

I've dubbed it The Leg-Breaker. According to Stu's calculator, when loaded with 145 up front, this puppy is 576 grains and spines about #104; I planted a garden stake in front of the block, and shockingly (to me, anyway,) my first shot with this out of the RER was only about 3/4" of of dead-center at 13 yards. Managed to tag the stake with my third shot.

So... A friend may be able to drop off a doe for me sometime this week. If he does, I'll let you know what this One Tough Mother of an arrow will do against whitetail leg bones when tipped with a T-125.

Has anybody else ever attempted a destructive test with a broadhead, using fresh bone as a testing medium? Should I gamble with the welfare of a Magnus 2-blade? What about a 4? (I think I know what I'll happen to the bleeders, but I'm wondering how the vented mains will hold up.)

I kept missing a little to the right, so I backed up to 17-18 yards and tried to sneak one past the garden stake and hit the golf ball... so you knew this was gonna happen...

A 28" 2018, with 145 tip is no where near 104# if I'm reading your reference right. I can shoot that out of my 52# Carroll's Gentleman Jim with a BCY-X string and drawn to 27 1/2"...and with perfect flight.

Must admit that it seemed high to me, but just reporting what I got out of the calculator....

That calculator is like cooking a carp on a cedar plank. Cook the carp then throw the carp away and eat the plank. It's easy enough to compute which arrow will get you in the ballpark without using a confusing piece of paper. Not a bone butt... And I once took an ash shaft with one of the original Grizzly heads attached. Shot this projectile out of a 63# longbow into a piece of granite. Head buried over halfway and split the granite in two.

Isn't a footing going to WEAKEN the spine? ...more weight up front?

And then you and Paul Bunyan sat down to a hot plate of blue Bull Fries??

SB, it do.

And how do you get a dynamic spine requirement of 64.1# out of a bow that is 55# @28",but is only drawn 26 1/2"? Something fishy here! I use the calculator a lot and get spot on results....but the proper information has to be entered. If something is off one decimal point it throws the whole thing out of whack. Side plate thickness and bow center shot measurements are the most critical.

"A few days ago, somebody was asking about whether "trad" broadheads will stand up to compound-level abuse,"

Seems like an odd question considering that the compound shooters I have heard of who went after, say, the big 5, used trad broadheads.

Normally adding weight to the front end will weaken the dynamic spine, but adding a 4" piece of footing effectively makes it a 24" arrow, significantly stiffening the arrow.

“And how do you get a dynamic spine requirement of 64.1# out of a bow that is 55# @28",but is only drawn 26 1/2"? ”

Centershot, I suspect...

I’m sure I’ll be corrected if I’m mistaken on this point, but pounds of spine is a way of converting an observation into a prediction, so if the standards were arrived at based on risers not cut to center, you would expect a past-center bow to require a substantially stiffer arrow, no?

FWIW, I would expect that the correction for footed arrows would be hard to predict, because there has to be an enormous difference between an aluminum footing (which ends where it ends) and spliced wood, where there is a taper involved.

“Seems like an odd question considering that the compound shooters I have heard of who went after, say, the big 5, used trad broadheads.”

Can’t argue the logic there, can you? I think the OP on the earlier thread was reasoning that the newer heads must’ve been engineered in anticipation of KE levels that are 2-3X what we get out of Trad rigs....

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