Accurate fixed blade broadheads

[JNDEER]

1” tooth of the arrow.
Wac’em 3 blade broadhead

Any smaller profile 1” type Broadheads will fly better for most average shooters in most conditions then a broadhead thats bigger than 1”.

 

[Beendare]

A Fixed BH not flying is Operator error.

In 4 decades of bowhunting, I've never found a fixed head that doesn't shoot with FP's.

1) I shoot a spine size higher,
2) I align my BH's- spin check on a straightener
3) I either bare shaft tune or shoot BH for groups against FP's at longer range to tune for perfect flight

Never had a problem with BH's after doing that.

 

[Smtn10pt]

Take it for what its worth and how it was tested, but the ballistics arrow study that was conducted this last year mentioned quite a few heads that grouped really well out of a shooting machine. I would start there and see what broadhead peaks your interest. I've always had good lucks with slick tricks and QAD Exodus.

The Arrow Ballistics Study Results

Explore the findings of our Arrow Ballistics Study and uncover the best vane shapes for optimal arrow flight.

westernhunter.net

Arrow ballistics study results....Only thing missing is the broadhead accuracy part, which is what matters the most.

 

[Wilderlife]

I recently re-tuned my compound bow for a new arrow recipe. I was shooting bulletholes through paper with fletched arrows and then my broadheads were a few inches to the right of my field points at 20m, so I ended up going somewhere around 40 clicks to the right total. It sounds like a lot but it's really not that much adjustment on a Hamskea Epsilon.

I shot a Terra Firma Gladius and Terra Firma Venator at 40 metres and hit within about a golf ball size, and my field points hit the same spot. I'll work on things a bit more as the rut comes clsoer as the chance of a slightly longer shot at a red stag is high, but for most of my hunting, shots are inside 35 metres (usually inside 30 metres) so I don't typically shoot my broadheads past about 40 metres anyway.

I'm keen to get one of the new Hoyts whenever I can be bothered to spend the money, because I like the idea of being able to do some broadhead tuning by moving the limbs a bit.

 

[5MilesBack]

When you say your nock tuning them the same that means your compressing them to find the weak side, and then orienting your nock so the weak side is leaving the bow the same way on every arrow right?

No. If I have arrows that don't group with the rest of them, in almost every case they're missing left or right. So I'll shoot every FP arrow at a verticle line. Those that don't hit the line I'll turn the arrow while it's on the string. With a 3-fletch arrow I'll have three options for arrow orientation, 4-fletch will be four options. I'll turn those arrows until they hit the line like the others. If they still won't hit the line, I'll change the nock and start over. If that doesn't work, those arrows go in a destruction bin. I'll use them for BH durability testing etc. But I rarely can't get an arrow to work.

I have never bare shaft tuned any arrows, but what are you doing for bh tuning after those two steps?

I have a few different BH's that I use for BH tuning. I'll shoot one at a spot at 60 yards and then shoot one of the FP arrows. I'll adjust as needed tuning-wise depending on where the two are hitting in relation to each other. But after BS tuning, especially at 40 yards any adjustments are very small.

Because, atleast with the muzzy’s, I’d randomly get arrows that at 60 yards would hit left or right 6 inches so I was stuck doing it with every arrow. Which is time consuming, and really chews up the target running that many bh’s through it each year.

Some of the earlier steps should help eliminate BH's hitting both left and right of FP's with different arrows. Also, make sure your BH's are spinning perfectly true on each arrow.

 

[Insomnia]

QAD, micro hades, evolution Jekyll, Iron Will, Cutthroat are all super accurate. The first two are the most budget.

 

[KevinClimbs]

I've practiced with way more heads than I've hunted with but here are a few that generally shot well (or tuned easily) for me: QAD Exodus, Iron Will Vented (both standard and wide), Slick trick standard.

 

[kcm2]

Ramcat Hydroshock with the pivoting blades flies and penetrates well. Just loctite in the tiny screws.

 

[jimh406]

I don't know if these will work for your arrows or not. Maybe you already use this approach.

I've used Bear Razorheads. Once it is screwed in, heat the insert to loosen the insert glue. Then, turn it to an indexed position. Then, rotate to make sure there isn't any wobble in it. Depending on the glue, you might have to pull the insert and/or replace the insert with a new one to accomplish this alignment.

Btw, I wound do this with any broadhead you switch to.

 

[Tilzbow]

I’m looking to switch my fixed blade broadheads, and wondering which ones you guys have found to fly most like your field tips without spending a bunch of time tuning each arrow?
I used muzzy 3 blades for a number of years, they work great if they hit their mark but don’t fly well and each arrow has to be tuned to each broadhead. I recently switched to shuttle t’s and they fly pretty good, but I don’t love them.
Ideally I’d like to find something I can screw into an insert, glue it into my arrows with the blades lined up with the vanes and know that it’s going to fly straight. Without having to shoot each individual arrow and broad head together.

Why are you trying to align the blades and vanes? It makes zero difference as far as accuracy. Absolutely zero.

It can help load a quiver and keep the vanes from touching if your quiver is pre-cut and broadheads can only be inserted one way. But as far as accuracy, no difference.

 

[Elkhntr08]

Pick a broadhead and tune your bow. Other than a slight difference in FOC that most shooters will never notice, a 100 field point and a 100 broadhead will fly the same. Again, from a tuned bow, not just a bullet hole through paper.

 

[Beendare]

Pick a broadhead and tune your bow. Other than a slight difference in FOC that most shooters will never notice, a 100 field point and a 100 broadhead will fly the same. Again, from a tuned bow, not just a bullet hole through paper.

Well said.
Are there still bowhunters still blaming the BH for not flying with their FP's? <Face palm>

There are many overlooked factors when going from FP's to BH's;

1) Are you shooting a super light and fast arrow that pushes your capability as a shooter?

2) Is the spine size borderline? [stiffer arrows make tuning a breeze in a modern compound]

3) A big one; Sloppy arrow assembly- Did you square the ends? Did you align the BH? if your BH is not perfectly aligned you will get larger groups at 50y plus

Those^ are the main ones. The guys wanting a BH that flies like their FP's are ignoring those factors. It's not just fixed, those same rules apply to mech heads- especially the long ones- though Mechs are usually more forgiving with less surface area

 

[Smtn10pt]

From the study referenced earlier in the thread the fixed blade heads average group size was 7" at 70 yards, thats with everything perfect and the bow being fired by a machine.

 

[fatlander]

From the study referenced earlier in the thread the fixed blade heads average group size was 7" at 70 yards, thats with everything perfect and the bow being fired by a machine.

The amount of people that won’t even acknowledge the inherent accuracy differences between mechanicals and fixed heads are the same people that stick their heads in the sand and say “I’m shooting nothing buck a 30 cal magnum rifle”.

The reality is, most grown men have the horse power in a modern compound bow to shoot a moderately sized and well designed mechanical like a grim reaper 1 3/8” on just about everything in North America


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[rkcdvm]

I shoot QAD, Grim Reaper, and Day Six fixed blades. All are good. Pretty much all of the heads recommended here are good. You shouldn't have to line your fletching up with the blades if your bow is tuned and your arrows are good. I haven't seen anyone do that in a long long time.

 

[Wilderlife]

Why are you trying to align the blades and vanes? It makes zero difference as far as accuracy. Absolutely zero.

It can help load a quiver and keep the vanes from touching if your quiver is pre-cut and broadheads can only be inserted one way. But as far as accuracy, no difference.

A bloke down here called Robbie (one of the owners of Terra Firma) put a video on either his personal instagram, or the Terra Firma instagram, of his bow shooting groups in a hooter shooter. When he shot the Gladius (3 blade) with the blades aligned with a three fletch configuration, ir shot tighter groups than with a 4 fletch configuration when the blades weren't lined up with the vanes.

It may not be the most scientific study but he's an exceptionally experienced bowhunter who tinkers with plenty of thinks so it was something I thought was worth considering. I've never lined my blades up with vanes before and I've only really shot 2 blade broadheads anyway, so when I fletched up some compound arrows recently and started getting organised to shoot the three blades, I aligned the fletches up with the blades. I use Easy Vanes so it was a fast job.

Not saying it will make a big difference, or even make a difference big enough that I'm capable of seeing with my shooting, but what could it hurt anyway?

The amount of people that won’t even acknowledge the inherent accuracy differences between mechanicals and fixed heads are the same people that stick their heads in the sand and say “I’m shooting nothing buck a 30 cal magnum rifle”.

The reality is, most grown men have the horse power in a modern compound bow to shoot a moderately sized and well designed mechanical like a grim reaper 1 3/8” on just about everything in North America


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True, but at the same time, most 'grown men' should be more than capable of spending a little bit of time tuning up their bow to make sure it shoots anything extremely well anyway.

Some of us have a few reasons why we don't choose to shoot mechanicals, and accuracy has nothing to do with it.

 

[Beendare]

A bloke down here called Robbie (one of the owners of Terra Firma) put a video on either his personal instagram, or the Terra Firma instagram, of his bow shooting groups in a hooter shooter. When he shot the Gladius (3 blade) with the blades aligned with a three fletch configuration, ir shot tighter groups than with a 4 fletch configuration when the blades weren't lined up with the vanes.

I believe that.
I know top shooters that do everything to get their arrows exactly the same. Guys that can shoot 3" groups at 60y and 6" groups at 120y. These guys are much better shoots than the rest of us and will typically take longer shots. These guys have shot ASA pro 3d competitions and they did the same with their equipment in those tourney's because 2 extra points matter.

These shooters clock their arrows and fine tune as 5 Miles mentioned earlier in the thread. Most bowhunters don't even number their arrows.

I know Randy Ulmer made every arrow exactly the same for a long time. Randy has said publicly that most guys cannot tell the difference in arrow variations of appx 20g or 25g but he could discern 1/2 of that. [I can't remember the exact quote but you get the gist] Different levels of shooter have different degrees of accuracy.

At some point, the inherent accuracy of the shooter matters on these arrow specs. Make a BH spin perfect is of course critical but Aligning the fins of the BH, making it exactly the same is not going to matter for 99.8% of us...but for the select few- it does.

Many guys don't tune for perfect arrow flight. If you cannot shoot a fixed head out of your bow to the same POI as an FP, your bow isn't tuned. Just slapping a mech head on there or using a low profile fixed head didn't magically tune your bow. What it does is partially hide that it's not tuned due to them being more forgiving of the errors.

I get it...and it's true, "Good enough" just might be fine for a lot of guys in the bowhunting woods shooting relatively short shots. One can argue that either way the animals is dead, whether you can shoot a golf ball or a volley ball every time.

 

[Wilderlife]

Absolutely, mate. Agree 100%.

Shooting fixed blade broadheads is useful just for making sure your bow is as well-tuned as possible. I'm far from an elite shooter but I do more than the average person and as a result, I think my bow is tuned very well and I can shoot it very well.

I say that and then still hunt inside 30 metres most of the time anyway, but it all adds to the confidence and familiarity.

And again, mechanical broadheads aren't really a good chocie for most of what I do.

 

[Trial153]

Broadheads do not all group as well, furthermore, even field point profile effects grouping , so you could say that not all field points even shoot as well of each other. If broadheads are shooting the same for you as field points that is because they are both within YOUR margin error. I'm including myself in this statement.. And our margin of error is not indicative to being the exact same point of impact between different broadhead, profiles, and designs.
test shoot different broad heads in groups from a shooting machine and without a doubt, you will see that different head designs have different amounts of drag and will group in different spread sizes , not only from a field but different broad head designs

 

[KyleR1985]

Broadheads do not all group as well, furthermore, even field point profile effects grouping , so you could say that not all field points even shoot as well of each other. If broadheads are shooting the same for you as field points that is because they are both within YOUR margin error. I'm including myself in this statement.. And our margin of error is not indicative to being the exact same point of impact between different broadhead, profiles, and designs.
test shoot different broadheads in groups from a shooting machine and without a doubt, you will see that different head designs have different amounts of drag and will group in different spread sizes , not only from a field l points but from each other.

My broadheads hit the same point of impact as my field points. Out to 80 yards. I no longer need to prove it to myself with hundreds of rounds, but I have done so in the past.

My groups with broadheads are larger than with field points.


Point of impact being the same is critical to killing, and the result of proper equipment setup.

Group size is also critical, and the final determinate of effective range.

But point of impact difference can absolutely be engineered out, leaving only me and the dispersion of the broadheads to blame for group size/effective range.