Broadhead – Wound Channels
but first... How to choose a Broadhead...?
What Aids Penetration?
When you are shooting a lower draw weight, or a shorter draw length, you need to pay attention to the small incremental wins that gives you better penetration on your shots, because of the lack of Kinetic Energy and more importantly, the carried momentum of your arrow.
1. Blade Angle
A sharper blade angle will penetrate easier and go deeper.
2. Fixed vs Mechanical
A certain amount of energy is lost in the proces of opening mechanical blades. Go fixed if your penetration is critical.
3. Thinner Shafts
A thinner shaft has reduced drag through skin and muscle materials as it follows the path of the broadhead.
4. FOC
This one is controversial, but smart people with math degrees claim that an arrow that is significantly more ballanced with weight forward (18-22% Front of Center, FOC) penetrates better.
Penetrating Momentum..
Consider that the KE and penetrating MOMENTUM, reduces over distance (along with arrow speed).
1. Heavier = More Penetration
A heavier arrow starts with more penetrating momentum than a lighter arrow, and carries it better over distance.
2. Fixed vs Mechanical
Under 0.450 slug-ft/s of momentum on 20yds is unlikely to achieve a passthru with a 3-blade, 2″ mechanical broadhead due to energy loss with opening the blades and simultaneous cutting surface.
3. Fixed vs Mechanical
The “Best Practices” adendum for the Conservation Act suggests to add 5% more KE to your minimum requirements to compensate for lost energy on a Mechanical broadhead vs a Fixed Blade broadhead.
2-,3- or more blades?
The more blades you have on a broadhead, the more cutting surface is there. This is great if you have enough energy because it makes you entry (and exit) wounds really large with good blood trails.
However, if your KE and Momentum is on the lower side, it means you may not have enough energy to complete the task
2-Blades
Pros: Good cut, good penetration and from mechanicals will require the least amount of energy to open.
Cons: Catch the angle wrong and the skin of the animal will cover the entry wound, drastically reducing the blood trail.
3-blades
Pros: Great for ensuring angular cuts through muscle and leaving wide wound channels.
Cons: Need more energy to open and will probably have to interact with bone or ribs because of the width of cutting diameter. potentially reducing penetration ability.
2-Blades + Bleeders
Best-of-Both Worlds solution.
Pros: Bleeders opens the wound channel but doesn’t need energy to deploy. The size and angle generally doesn’t reduce the penetrating ability by too much.
Cons: The fixed blade bleeders are esentially another set of wings, steering the front of the arrow, impacting accuracy.
Bowmar Archery has taken some of the ideas floating around in the archery world and combined them to make a very leathal series of broadheads under the BEAST label.
Below are some of their offerings:
G5 Outdoors makes a selection of broadheads, both mechanical and fixed blade, for both compound bows as well as high powered crossbows.
Below are some of their offerings:
Rage took the Broadhead industry by storm with their mechanical broadheads, in a time when fixed blade was the “only” way to go… Since then, many companies and designs have come and gone, but Rage is still a name everyone knows!
Below are some of their offerings:
The Rocket Broadheads is an old favourite. It is one of the original 3 blade broadheads with a piston action ensuring solid deployment. At some point they were rebranded as “Trophy Taker Meat Seekers” but they are back to the Rocket-brand.
Below are some of their offerings:
SEVR is a redesign of the amazing Ulmer Edge broadheads. Stronger, more options and more compact than the predecessor.
Below are some of their offerings:
SlickTrick is the tried and trusted Fixed Blade Broadheads for generations. they have recently started expanding into the mechanical broadhead market.
Below are some of their offerings:
The ULMER Edge was the orriginal Swivel Broadhead that the3 current SEVR series of Titanium Broadheads are based on. Those that shot them, loved them and could hardly be persuaded to try anything else!
Below are some of their offerings:
(Discontinued)
