Choosing a Broadhead
If you don't like this regimented/form orientated shooting, you don't need to comment. DON'T DO IT BECAUSE I DO IT, DO IT BECAUSE IT MAKES SENSE TO YOU. All these form threads are no substitute for a coach. No matter how good any written word is, it can't point and say, “move this here”
If you've been following these threads, you know I'm not normal. I don't own an archery shop or anything like that, yet three times in my life I've purchased a thousand broadheads. They're almost all gone. Plus I've purchased three here and 12 there etc. Don't shoot the brands I purchased a thousand of, although I might if hunting a certain species with a certain setup.
Let me say that I'm not endorsing any broadhead. What good would that do, here. lol. This is strictly what I look for in a broadhead. Anything that can be added will be appreciated.
The first thing I look at is profile. I'll take a good profile over sharpness. If you have a good profile you can make it sharp even if you don't know how to sharpen. (see below) You take a broadhead like a Slick Trick, it can't penetrate better than a dull 3 to1 ratio. The blades are a 1 to 1 ratio, so they border on chopping rather than cutting. Not to mention it's not a cut on contact (COC) head.
Since I mention COC, I'd like to mention a video of Dale Karch of 3 Rivers doing a test of COC and a replaceable blade (it had a point like a 125 Thunderhead and might have been). He put an aluminum arrow with the nock on the floor and a piece of deer hide on a COC broadhead, then pushed the broadhead through the hide. It goes through without much resistance. Then he does the same thing with a replaceable blade and you can see a major bend in the arrow before it punctures the hide.
I'd love to have someone post that. In the back of my mind, I think he does something with a scale to compare the two? It's not even a close comparison. Like the difference between using a knife and a ball point pen.
Choice has a lot to do with what you're hunting. Take turkeys. They're very hard to penetrate, not to mention hard to kill with a very small kill zone. Lucky it's a close shot. If a LW topic comes up concerning broadheads for turkeys, a 160 grain Snuffer is mentioned 2 to 1. With good reason. First of all a 3 blade will cut a bone that a two blade could pass parallel to. Second, it's 1.5 inches wide, making a heck of a hole. And third, well there's no third compared to broken bones and heck of a hole.
Back to profile. The best profile is a 3 to 1 ratio. Pretty hard to argue that, because it's called a mechanical advantage. It's also pretty hard to find in a broadhead. Original Hill comes to mind and last week end some one gave me a head that has to be 3.5 inches long. Actually 3 1/2 X 1 1/16. Hills are 1 inch wide or 1 1/8.
I've never shot either head, but 1 inch wide is a little narrow for my liking. No matter what I'm hunting.
So how important is a 3 to 1 ratio? How much better will a Hill out penetrate a Slick Trick. On a whitetail and a broadside shot, both are going through. On a moose??? I found a Slick Trick in a moose that I shot with 5 inches of carbon attached. The shot was 30 yards and in the sweet spot with a compound the year before. My setup with only 50 pound longbow got 18-20 inches of penetration -60 yd blood trail. A moose is like shooting through 3+ whitetails.
Whitetails are tough, but easy to penetrate compared to a lot of animals, especially a turkey. I still want good penetration on the chance of a less than perfect shot. I'm more comfortable with a big or bigger hole. Bigger diameter is better.
Taking a look at number of blades, I used to say that 2 will always out penetrate 3. Since then I saw a test Rick Barbee did with a 3 vs a 2 and the three out penetrated the two. If I'm not mistaken it was a VPA vs a STOS. I'm not sure one test is enough to change my mind. It did influence me pretty much, I'd like to see another.
Glue on vs screw in. Simple choice here. Screw ins are the weight you buy. Glue on's can be made to weigh almost anything you want. (If you ever had to unglue a brass insert, you'll never use them again.)
Vented or non-vented. Let's just say I don't like vented, but one of the broadheads I shoot is vented. I found a replacement, but Big Jim quit making them. I almost got enough orders to have him make another run. That was the best whitetail broadhead ever made for my purposes.
Single or double bevel. I never shot anything with a single. I played with them and couldn't get them sharp enough for my liking. I don't doubt that they get better penetration, but at what cost? If you go to the 3 Rivers catalog and look at say a Steel Force or a Grizzley Stick head, you'll see a sharpened edge that's twice as wide as a double bevel. That maybe sharper, but it can't be sharper and stronger. In fact, if the sharpened area were equal, the double would be stronger. 'V' shape is stronger than a wedge shape. Now all that could be me justifying not shooting single, because I can't get them sharp, but I never saw a single beveled axe.
Sharpening. I can't sharpen worth a … With a three blade it's about as simple as it gets. Two options a flat stone/file or if you want a better angle an abrasive on a coffee can. Course followed by finer and finally a strop.
For two blades I need a bracket to hold the angle. There are many to choose from and I've tried a number of them. Now, I use a bracket that holds two chainsaw files side by side. I run the blades in between and then use a set of crock sticks held in a “V”. Followed by a strop.
If you try this and you'll thank me. Google 'Knives Plus' and look for their strop. It's green and costs about 25 bucks. I thank you Brian Halstad. Brian is my hunting partner. One day he pulled out that strop and asked to see one of my broadheads. I begrudgingly gave him one, thinking I don't want to insult him and I can resharpen it later. Don't worry, he knows what a jerk I am.
When he was done he gave me the arrow. I looked at the broadhead and was blown away. If my head wasn't so friggin' big, I could have seem my face in the blade. That's not an exaggeration!!! You may ask yourself, did I mean my head or the blade?
What do I shoot? Depends. Let me, AGAIN, mention the tuning bible, www.fenderarchery.com/blogs/archery-info/basic-tuning. That document was from a couple of different web sites. The broadhead tuning is at the end of the document. The original said in the beginning to find the biggest and baddest broadhead you can find and tune with it. Once tuned you can change to any broadhead you want and as long as it's the same weight it will be tuned. Later the author mentions he used a 160 Snuffer for tuning.
I thought at the time, if he tunes with a Snuffer, why not shoot a Snuffer? So for whitetails, that's what I've been shooting for years. Since it's a wide broadhead, I don't consider it best for larger game than a whitetail with the poundage I'm shooting. For elk, moose sized animals I take off the 160 Snuffer and put on a 160 STOS. And guess what I'm tuned.
So, all that said, the difference between the very best broadhead (I don't know what that is) and something just less than desirable, when shooting a whitetail broadside, is not much. I know two different hunters who, by mistake killed a whitetail with a field point. I don't believer that you can have one broadhead that is the most efficient broadhead for everything from turkeys to whitetails to moose. We have a lot of choices and that can be a double bevel, two edged sword, if a ST and mechanicals are involved.
To reference past subjects search by clicking on key word;
**Stance** **Grip** **Hook** **Body Posture** **Head Position** **KSL Sequence** **Set Position** **Set Up Position** **Anchor** **Transfer to Hold** **Release** **Release 2 (Back Tension) **Release and Aiming** **Rhythm Breathing** **Visualization** **Focus/Concentration-Mind/Mental C** **Focus and Concentration Pt 2** **Tuning** **Tuning PT 2** **Putting it Together** **Practice** **Practice Pt. 2** **Practice Pt. 3** **My Most Important Tip** **A Weak Shot** **String Alignment** **Cause of Target Panic**
