American Whitetail Inc.
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Home| My Thoughts on Broadhead Design
Recently I was asked to do a video on YouTube comparing Broadheads. Untill I get the time to do that I thought I would give my opinions on the website for anyone that would like to read it. I have bowhunted since the late 70's and have used about every type of broadhead available. Of all the topics in bowhunting, broadheads and broadhead design is one of the mostly hotly debated. There are alot of tests out there with broadheads being shot through barrels, boards, and other materials, and these tests do give you some idea as to the overall strength of the broadhead. However I draw from my experience from hunting and helping friends over the years recover animals. First there are two basic types of heads, fixed blade and mechanical. Then you have what I call subcatagories of replaceable blade heads or ones you sharpen your self. First I will say that regardless of the head you use it MUST be razor sharp. If you take a head out of the package and it wont shave hair then you need to sharpen it or get a different head. I will simply tell you what I prefer and why. I like a heavy bladed cut on contact head. I do not mind sharpening the blades, in fact it is almost a ritual I have to sharpen my heads the day before the hunt begins, if I am using that type of head. Many heads are available that meet this criteria that do not require sharpening. If you intend to use a mechanical head, I have a few thoughts on that. A mechanical has two advantages over a fixed blade head. They are easy to tune, in most cases if your field points are shooting well then your broadheads will. Second, and in my mind this is the reason to shoot a mechanical, they can provide a much larger cutting area, resulting in a much faster kill. I have used a 1 3/4 inch cutting area mechanical head in the past, and never had a deer get out of sight that I shot. I got good hits on them, but the wound was so massive that a arrow in the body cavity is devastating. However, that being said in my opinion you should be shooting a set up that is storing a min. of 60 foot pounds of Kinetic Energy. I personally would want 70 plus foot pounds. Over the years I have used, Muzzys, Thunderheads, Zwickies, Snuffers, Magnus Stingers, Razorcaps, Hellrazors, Wasp, Wasp Jak Hammers, Steelforce, Grim Reapers, and others. All of them did the job. My favorite head would be the Rodger Rotharaar Snuffer. Below you
can see a shoulder blade I took from a doe I shot in 1994. I shot this
deer early in the deer season in the creek bottoms of Tennyson,
Indiana. It was a 40 yard quartering away shot, hitting about the last rib, traveling across the deer, the point exiting the opposite side. This shoulder blade was on the far side of the deer. The bow was 70 pounds with a 2213 arrow. This bow was not nearly as powerful as the bows today. When I skinned the deer I found the head as you see it here. The point just through the skin. You can see the penetrating power of the Snuffer On todays faster bows I find it a bit more difficult to control, but still think it stands above the rest in design and function.. This year I am planning on Elk hunting in New Mexico, and intend to use a Steel Force Phat Head. This head for me, shoots like a field point and is extremely heavy duty. I would look for four things in a broadhead. I want a head this accurate, that has a cut on contact leading edge or a trocar point, is heavy duty to withstand contact with bone, and is RAZOR SHARP. It has always worked for me. Good Luck and Good Shooting!
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