Does anyone know of a company that currently makes 3 blade broadheads with 1 1/2" cutting diameter? I've been shooting the VPA and I wanted to get 1 1/2" and they're sold out. I contacted them and they told me they're not planning on making any more right now. I've had poor blood trails with the 1 1/8"

JMO, if you’re not happy with the blood trails you’re getting from a 1 1/8” 3-blade, it’s not the broadhead causing the issue.

Frankly, I didn’t realize anyone even made anything that wide…. Haven’t seen anything like that since the Thunderhead 125 Magnum some 30-plus years ago. They were kinda short and wide to penetrate well.

Just as a point of Reference…. Most “trad” broadheads are about 2:1 length:width; Howard Hill endorsed 3:1. A 1 1/2” wide head would have to be between 3” and 4 1/2” long to get into that range. The Ace Super Express is a MONSTER of a head, and close to 3”:1 1/2”, but it’s not hugely popular because it takes a lot of bow to drive a head that big….

Maybe the problem is either your shot placement or just your expectations?? If you’re expecting one of those slasher-movie blood trails that the compound guys sometimes get from big mechanicals, you might need to recalibrate a bit??

I doubt that that little difference in width effected your blood trails!

Bob

I've got 6 of the 200gr 1 1/4 3 blade I'd sell you. 5 of them are like new and one I turned into a practice head.

RavenRidge are those VPAs? If so I'll take them.

The big question. Are you getting a hole on the far side. A 1 1/8 3 blade has 1/3 more cutting edge than the 1 1/8 2 blade a lot of folks are using. The problem most likely is penetration,sharpness,or placement. We don't know much about those three. >>>----> Ken

Where did you see them sold out? They seem available on VPAs site, and they're available on there EBAY site as well

VPA only has 300 grain in 1 1/2"

completely passthrough rib cage and lost blood after 75 yards and had to grid search to find the deer. sharp heads too my dad had a similar outcome as well

I'm thinking the 1 1/4" might be a happy medium

How many grns ? Screw or glue ons ? .....

I've been using the 175gr 1-1/8" VPA 3-blade for years. Never had a bad blood trail (yet).

Rick

screw on, 200 grain broadhead with 100 grain brass insert. no issues at all with penetration. just not the greatest blood trail in my opinon. I'm thinking a little wider cut and bigger hole will help with that

The blood trail is directly related to where the broadhead hits. And an 1/8" of additional width will probably make no discernible difference.

This is one of the driving thoughts that enabled there to be 5000 known broadheads.

I still want to know how much blood on the ground is “enough”, given that most things intended to put more blood on the ground seem to make an animal run harder, faster & farther….

well in the two examples I mentioned the shots were both passthrough shots through the rib cage and in both cases the blood was so sparse that we needed to grid search to find the deer. Anyone on here follow Jason Samoviak on youtube (Samko Tradbow) He has a great video and a great argument for wider cut broadheads.

Also, anyone happen to have VPA 3 blade 150 grain NOT vented 1 1/4" broadheads they would sell? Looking for my dad and all I can find are the vented ones and we prefer non-vented (quieter in flight). I tried posting an ad in classifieds but it wouldn't let me for some reason

I understand the 2:1 and 3:1 ratio advantages and I've studied Dr Ashby's tests. My arrows are 575 grains and have an FOC of 24% so penetration is not my problem. I don't need gallons of blood - just enough to find the deer without needing to grid search. I think there's a happy medium where you can get a bigger hole / wound channel and still not sacrifice penetration.

A bigger hole doesn't mean more blood on the ground. The hole has to be in a place on the body that moves a lot of blood. A shot through the rib cage (depending on where in the rib cage it passes) doesn't have a high probability of doing that.

What did the shots hit?

Well Roger Rothaar did love the BIG snuffer for a reason, and plenty of BIG bucks to show for it ,, just sayin ,, and his son Ryan also ……

Blaine — thanks for hanging in there with this; I’m sure it’d be easy to get your back up with the feedback that you’re getting— especially from some of the Ashby skeptics, myself included… You’re a Good Egg.

To Frank’s question of what (specifically!) was hit, I would just add “how hard did they run?”

Generally speaking, if you don’t open up a high-pressure circuit, you won’t get the Hollywood Gusher blood trail, but what you do get shouldn’t reduce you to grid- searching. Just seems that you’re seeing something unexpected, so there must be an explanation, and (me bein’ me) I would love to understand it…..

Yeah I didn't necessarily mean to start such a debate lol... but it's all good. The shot was back of the lungs and some liver. Clean passthrough. The deer went about 150 yards but I had a hard time finding blood on a dry oak leaf forrest floor after about 75 yards. In my dad's case he double lunged his buck and for some reason still didn't have a great blood trail. Deer didn't go too far but the last bit he had to resort to a grid search because there just wasn't any blood. Maybe these two instances are just kind of a fluke, but it made me think about trying a little wider head. I definitely went down the rabbit hole of the Ashby studies a few years ago and bareshaft tuned and build some fairly heavy arrows with 300 grains up front and high FOC, so I'm not having any trouble with penetration.

Yeah I didn't necessarily mean to start such a debate lol... but it's all good. The shot was back of the lungs and some liver. Clean passthrough. The deer went about 150 yards but I had a hard time finding blood on a dry oak leaf forrest floor after about 75 yards. In my dad's case he double lunged his buck and for some reason still didn't have a great blood trail. Deer didn't go too far but the last bit he had to resort to a grid search because there just wasn't any blood. Maybe these two instances are just kind of a fluke, but it made me think about trying a little wider head. I definitely went down the rabbit hole of the Ashby studies a few years ago and bareshaft tuned and build some fairly heavy arrows with 300 grains up front and high FOC, so I'm not having any trouble with penetration.

I noticed a big difference on hogs shot with grizzly broadheads compared to hogs shot with a three or four blade heads. I found the perfect solution for me in the simmons broadheads for boar hogs with a shield. The simmons leaves a big cut so blood can make it past the hide and fat to the ground or brush. For deer I use the Palme extreme cut broadhead since I have no problem getting passthoughs. They are 1 7/6 wide and the bleeders are 1 inch wide.

Blaine, I'm late to the conversation.. As usual. I don't know where to find them anymoe, but I found "new" old stock of the Barrie Rocky Mountain Supreme. It's a 1.5" cut 3 blade and weighs 150 grains, screw in. I will agree with the thoughts that lack of blood may be more to do with exact shot placement, but I also cannot argue the fact that a bigger hole lets out more. Shoot a muzzle loader with a .32 calber ball and then a .54. That 54 leaves a LOT more on the ground. I shot a few deer land hogs with the Supreme last season and penetration nor blood was an issue. Occassionally I will find those heds on Ebay, and tend to buy a few more packs as they coe available.

-Bones

Thanks Bones, I'm going to go with the VPA 1 1/4" for now. And I agree with you about your MZ reference. It's like comparing a 12 gauge slug to a rifle hole.

I use a 1" wide two blade and either see them crash or hear them crash. Placement, angles and knowing the vitals placement is what kills deer quick.

The answr to your problem is not havig that wide a braidhead. Many heads of lesser wdith work just fine. And the answer to getting a better blood trail is not shot placement . What you and many others fail to do is put a serration on your head as Howard Hill prescribed. This micro serration will not cut or slice a hole . It tears a hole wide open. You wouldnt want to shave with it either as it will bite you bad. You only need a 2 blade hea dfor this setup too. Not 3 ,4 5 or 10. IF you stabbed someone with a one blade steak knife in the chest ...well you get what I mean. So, ow to do it. A 6 inch mill file . Every day you touch up the head by strokign from back to oint along the bevel to resharpen and clean up the surface . 4-5 strokes on each side. Theb you take the narrow part of the file and just using the corner of that narrow part you rake across the top of the edge of the blade once only from back to point. You will hear a low grinding sound. IF you tilt your blade in the sunlight lookign at the edge you will see micro serrations. Good for just that days hunt. Got it. I learned this straight from John Shultz And I do know first hand that it works very well.

If properly shot, deer blow lots of blood out their mouth for the 4 seconds or so a properly arrowed deer runs.

Well, I doubt that it makes a huge difference on deer, but the argument that a larger hole doesn't put more blood on the ground in general is a little silly, IMO. I will say, that on hogs, I have noticed better blood trails consistently when I used 1 1/4" vpa 3 blades rather than 1 1/8". Sample size is probably over 100 killed with the 1 1/8", and maybe 30-40 with the 1 1/4". That being said, I am not sure that I ever didn't recover a hog as a result, and have used a bunch of other broadheads as well, but overall really like using the vpa broadheads on hogs. I would assume, like others have said, it was more of an issue with shot placement, since penetration wasn't the issue. Good luck with what ever you decide.

They really work well in the snow, lol.

https://youtu.be/2wQNJfFakqk?feature=shared

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