Thorn Broadhead apology

[Zac]

This is a follow up to my wounded animal thread. My dad found the arrow I shot at the antelope I wounded last season. The broadhead was in very good condition. The Axis shaft with the HIT was also intact and everything spun true. I am sorry that I blamed that performance on the broadhead. I take total responsibility for wounding that animal. The Thorn is definitely a strange looking head, yet it performed as well as could be expected.

 

[Jimbob]

I'm pretty sure you said it was a pass-through correct? So just bad shot placement for the angle that the antelope was at?

 

[Reburn]

He deflected the arrow. No pentration.

Good on you @Zac. Shit happens. Its easier to blame the gear rather then yourself. Even though sometimes it maybe the gear.

Im still pretty convinced that a COC head wouldnt have made a different ending to your story.

 

[Zac]

I'm pretty sure you said it was a pass-through correct? So just bad shot placement for the angle that the antelope was at?

No it was not. There was a small hole high in the opposite side of him, however the arrow was hanging out as he ran by me. Got a pretty good look, he probably ran 20 feet in front of me after the shot. I think the head barely poked out the hide on the other side and came back out when he took off running. It's all theory really. Before I found the shaft I thought the small hole was broken carbon or something crazy like that.

 

[Spiral Horn]

Have to chime in here as I also experimented with Thorn Broadheads in 2019. Based on their pre-deployed configuration and all of the ads/ video reviews they looked to be a no-brainer for great arrow flight. In my experience that is absolutely true - they fly like darts out to as far as I care to shoot at game. However, I’ve found the performance and penetration on game abysmal.

My 450gr arrows, flying in the 290-300 fps range are almost always full passthroughs with most other heads. Not so with the Thorn - and the blood trails were less than other heads I’ve used. The worst experience was on a Sonora Mule Deer. Don‘t immediately recall the exact shot distance but it wasn’t far. Deer was relaxed and slightly quartered away - perfect angle. However, immediately after the shot I was stunned to see the deer running away with most of the shaft sticking out of his near side. It was early morning when I shot, so we gave it 5 hours before following up. Tracking was absurdly hard with a very faint blood trail. We tracked a very long way and the there was no sign of him laying down. Was about to back out and wait until morning, when we finally found him - expired. The arrow had only penetrated 8-9 inches with a very narrow entrance wound. As far as we could tell, outside of clipping a rib there was no explanation other than broadhead failure or design flaw. I’m convinced that if I were using my QAD Exodus or Rage Hypodermic the results would have been quite different. Used them extensively and virtually all passthroughs with good blood trails (unless I hit the off-side shoulder). I’m done with Thorn.

My 2 cents - Zac may have made a marginal shot but in my experience the Thorn Broadhead likely played a complicit role in the result.

 

[Zac]

Have to chime in here as I also experimented with Thorn Broadheads in 2019. Based on their pre-deployed configuration and all of the ads/ video reviews they looked to be a no-brainer for great arrow flight. In my experience that is absolutely true - they fly like darts out to as far as I care to shoot at game. However, I’ve found the performance and penetration on game abysmal.

My 450gr arrows, flying in the 290-300 fps range are almost always full passthroughs with most other heads. Not so with the Thorn - and the blood trails were less than other heads I’ve used. The worst experience was on a Sonora Mule Deer. Don‘t immediately recall the exact shot distance but it wasn’t far. Deer was relaxed and slightly quartered away - perfect angle. However, immediately after the shot I was stunned to see the deer running away with most of the shaft sticking out of his near side. It was early morning when I shot, so we gave it 5 hours before following up. Tracking was absurdly hard with a very faint blood trail. We tracked a very long way and the there was no sign of him laying down. Was about to back out and wait until morning, when we finally found him - expired. The arrow had only penetrated 8-9 inches with a very narrow entrance wound. As far as we could tell, outside of clipping a rib there was no explanation other than broadhead failure or design flaw. I’m convinced that if I were using my QAD Exodus or Rage Hypodermic the results would have been quite different. Used them extensively and virtually all passthroughs with good blood trails (unless I hit the off-side shoulder). I’m done with Thorn.

My 2 cents - Zac may have made a marginal shot but in my experience the Thorn Broadhead likely played a complicit role in the result.

Which model were you using?

 

[MattB]

What was your rationale for trying that design in the first place given there are so many other quality heads on the market?

The similarities to the Puckett heads (likely the worst MBH design ever conceived) made them a total non-starter for me.

 

[Zac]

What was your rationale for trying that design in the first place given there are so many other quality heads on the market?

The similarities to the Puckett heads (likely the worst MBH design ever conceived) made them a total non-starter for me.

Went down as tuning rabbit hole. Also happened to be listening to alot of Gillingham at the same time. Perfect storm. Although I truly believe it was a bad shot. I shot a mule deer through the scapula at 27 yards with the same head and he piled up in 30 yards.

 

[Spiral Horn]

Which model were you using?

I started with the 125gr 2-blade with a 1.75 inch cut (orange) Then they came out with the 125gr 2-blade with a 2.2 inch cut and titanium tip (black) and I bought a pack of those. Both flew like darts but neither performed well on game. The Sonora Muley disaster was with the orange 1.75 2-blade. Had similar, but not as dramatically bad results on whitetails. Poor penetration and blood trails. My fixed QAD Exodus fly very well and have been consistently devastating on game. Tried these due to picking up a very short lead time hunt and was crazy focused on perfect arrow flight at distance. Big mistake as I should have stuck with what I know works, and left the experiments for post-season break. That was my experience, but as with all things archery, your actual mileage may vary a bit.