Tuned my arrows to shoot 160-165 grain heads. Cool! Ordered up some Zwickey Eskimo 160 grain broadheads.

Just for grins, and because I already had my digital scale on my bench, I "zeroed" the scale and weighed one. Weighs 173 grains.

Interesting, no?

What's the rest of them weigh?

Foxbo, Good question. I'll get back out there and check 'em.

Three-pack of "160-grain" broadheads.

172.6, 172.8, 169 grains.

If you sharpen them with a file, you'll take some weight off. They're close enough to your targeted weight to work, if you ask me.

An Eskimo glue-on normally weighs about 130 grains. So to get to 160-65 grains they need about a 30-35 grain adaptor.

Regardless, though Eskimos come with a ground edge, they really should be resharpened with a file/stone and hone. Pretty easy to take off 10 grains or so in the sharpening. Then, you're right where you want to be.

Till you sharpen them. The metal removed will lower the weight.

If I hadn't had that scale sitting there it's likely I would never have weighed them. I would have been blissfully ignorant instead of just my normal ignorant.

I often wonder - because I've never checked - how much a broadhead weighs after a lot of sharpening events?

I have some 165-grain No Mercy heads coming my way soon. I'm going to weigh them. Might even weigh some others. I'm on a mission!

Man I'm totally out of the loop,,, I saw this thread on Zwickey 160 grain heads and thought....Zwickeys making 160s now,,,yah, I've only used glue ons. Anyhow, be nice if they did,,,,I wouldn't have to add lead to make 'weight'. :)

Yeah bud, they need a file put to 'em... you'll get 'em there.

Been weighing broadheads for a long time. 5-10 grain variance, even a bit more, on cut on contact sharpenable heads is fairly common. I'd say it's more the norm than being right on the stated weight.

It's not a difference worth worrying about. Very few folks I know could tell/shoot the difference.

Ya , they weigh heavy. May be they figure once you sharpen them they will be close to 160.

Agree Orion, couldn't tell much years ago using that old Martin spring scale,,the new digitals opened up a more technical ball game eh? ;)

they are always heavy. file them up and drop some weight. but i wouldnt be able to tell a difference if a point was +- 10gr. when shooting them. actually a little extra on a bh may have some benefits in hunting situation, just a thought

I weighed some other heads for something to do on a dark Interior Alaska winter day.

Zwickey 130 grain Eskalite screw-in heads came in around 143.

Ace 125- grain screw-in heads were right there.

So were the 165-grain Ace glue on heads. And the Ace glue on heads needed very little touch-up sharpening.

I'm liking these Ace heads and gluing them on a brass adapter is no big deal.

It's going to be a long winter. Hope I don't end up going around the house and shop weighing everything.

Shoot them it won’t matter.

I use Zwickey Eskimo’s at 125 gr A long aluminum adapter 43 gr For a total of 168 gr plus a little hot melt glue usually brings it a little over 170 grains. No complaints here as I practice with 170 gr field points.

Basically all Zwickeys I've ever had were on the wee-bit heavy side when new. I like it that way because when I sharpen them, the weight drops closer to where I want them to be instead of become lighter than what I wanted. And I can resharpen several times without concerns of them getting well below weight I want.

The different in weight could be the thickness of the material coming from the mill. Can variy 10% in thickness if they hold it to .001 the price of material will go up and most manufacters won't pay the higher price.

if you've ever loaded rifle shells you know a few curnels of powder will move a grain scale ...so even more epoxy from one head to another will have variance of a few grains. if your that particular I'd suggest buying the components individualy. heads-adaptors-inserts & go from there. personally I shoot several different heads within 150 to 160 grains & I'm not good enough to notice a difference within practical hunting distances

Zwickey told me they tend to come in heavier because of the copper brazing and grind variance. Makes sense.

Thanks for all of the input.

I use the Zwickey eskimo and short alum adapter. It hits right at 160 on my grain scale.

You know I tried the 160 grain screw in Zwickey's this fall also. Mine came in about where yours did 8 to 12 grains heavy. I am not sure what's up there but frankly I was dissapointed in the overall quality of the product. The only thing positive I can really say was the steel is soft enough that they are easy to sharpen.

I'd rather they come in a little heavy than lite. You'll definitely lose weight when sharpening. Will not affect performance. Great head with a long history.

The most consistent and closest to the claimed weight I've seen were Ace 145s. Six were all in the 144 to 146 range.

Is that with screw inn adapters???

Flint Knapper, I don't know if you were asking me, but no, they were 145 glue ons.

Flint Knapper,

The Zwickeys I was referring to are screw-in broadheads.

Just took some time to do some sharpening on a Zwickey 130-grain Eskalite screw-in broadhead.

Before sharpening the new 130-grain head weighed 149.4 grains.

After sharpening the 130-grain head weighed 148.4 grains.

Interesting.

You take off a lot less weight than I do when sharpening. Just beveling the front third, where it's triple thickness, to match the rest of the blade usually takes 5-10 grains off for me.

If they came in right on weight they wouldn't last long when you consider you lose weight every time you sharpen them or even touch em up. None of the old heads are purty as machined heads but they've proven themselves to be effective and strong since before most all of us were born.

My Zwickey heads were heavy even after sharpening.

I like the overall concept of Zwickey and think it is good to have them and Ace as the few still affordable, tough broadheads around but the problem with Zwick has always been they were a thicker head than the discontinued Magnus and harder to sharpen. I always preferred Magnus because they were a little wider and a tiny bit thinner which made them much easier to sharpen. Aside from the Eskimo, Eskilite, and Delta the last two "new products" Zwickey has released have been kinda duds. The Cliff head is basically a barbed head and illegal in many places and then the No Mercy was a skinny Delta. I don't see for a need any of them.

They should have filled in the void of where Magnus left off and used their exact same production and facilities and equipment and make a slightly wider head. I know lots and lots of animals have and will fall to the narrow Zwickey and Ace heads but I'm in the market for slightly wider heads, problem is that for a few 1/8s of an inch I'm paying alot more and both Zwickey and Ace could increase their sales if they covered that market that Magnus left of a quality tough affordable 125-135 grain 2 blade with bleeder option that is at least 1 1/4" wide versus the super narrow 1 1/16". I know 3/16" isn't much but something I'm in the market for.

My New Year resolution is to finally conquer the sharpening of broadheads to a shaving edge. I can get them sharp enough to catch or grab on a fingernail, but I can't get them shaving sharp...yet.

Perhaps my Zwickey heads will lose more weight in the process.

But one must admit how strange it seems to have to ask the manufacturer how much a particular head weighs compared to their advertised weight. I now view their advertised offerings with a suspicious eye.

In the meantime, I shall just shoot them, sharpen them, and shoot them some more.

Thanks!

Nothing wrong with being blissfully ignorant since it doesn't influence your broadhead selection, and typically you won't notice any difference. It's like bow you shoot for 20 years and suddenly find it's not as fast as you thought it was. It doesn't suddenly become a bad bow or one you should replace. Me and blissful ignorance get along quite well. Anyway the guys are right....you do need to sharpen them and then it will be close enough to keep you from abandoning a perfectly good broadhead.

No 1 shrpening won't make them the exact weight but a few sharpenings will amd then the next few will take them slightly under the weight. Its a happy medium that allows them to be used for years and years, slightly over, on the money, and slightly under. If your tune is so bad that a few grains effects your accuracy you might wanna learn to tune before you try hunting.

GLF,

I spent a good deal of time and effort tuning arrows to my bow, adjusting up and down with 5-grain washers if needed. The bare shafts eventually flew straight and hit my point of aim with 160 or even 165 grains at 20 yards. For the first time, I really enjoyed doing this tuning. And I then felt it necessary to get my hunting arrows as close to the tune weight as possible. I've only shot the ACE 165-grain glue on broadhead so far, but they fly wonderfully and hit just as my field points do. I certainly can't shoot groups with them or else I'd be repairing or replacing arrows regularly. No complaints from me.

I don't doubt the heavier Zwickeys will shoot just as nicely. Actually, when I first got this new bow I shot 32-inch 2317 and 2216 fletched shafts into tight groups at 20-yards, and then I tried some 31-inch GT 400 fletched carbon shafts and I was having to repair arrows because they grouped so tightly. Some bows, or maybe all bows, can handle a varied diet, thanks to 5-inch fletching.

I'm going to work with the Zwickey broadheads over the coming months.

But you have to admit, purchasing a 174- grain 160 -grain broadhead is cause for some head shaking.

All coc heads change weight as you sharpen them. If you want heads exactly the advertised weight every year the only way is punch point replaceable blade heads. Lol, my spell check wanted to replace coc with cocaine

Yeah 14 gns is a little much.

Anybody that can tell the difference in 14 grains is a much better shot than I am. Probably most other folks too.

Well, I put the KME sharpener to a few of the Zwickey Eskimo broadheads this afternoon. Kind of like me on the treadmill each morning, they lose a little weight each time. But they do come new with a lot of sharpening required. These sure did, and could likely use some more time on the stones. So I'm going to stay with the Zwickey heads.

Long time till moose season again so I'll have plenty of time to monkey around with them.

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