Total cut vs cutting diameter

[Erussell01]

Tinkering away and broadhead tuning this weekend and I found myself in a bit of a bind. Where my new rest tuned out perfectly, my qad exodus broadheads were close close to my riser. I mean like cat whisker close. Too close for comfort, so I started playing and I have a little fudge factor where I can have my spine alingment marker in the 11 oclock to 1 oclock position and still get perfect broadhead flight, but then if I'm not careful I'll be at risk of either fletching contact with cables (aae hybrid hp) or my broadhead blade coming into contact with either my riser or the arrow holder on the shelf. I was able to correct the issue by actually taking my 12 hunting arrows and fletching them all cock vane on the indicator, then reinstalling the 50 grain easton stainless half out so the broadhead aligns perfectly when cinched down tight. This solved the problem and I got my broadheads drilling with my field points to 80 yards.

Happy with the performance, but this got me thinking.

I threw on an old faithful micro hades 4 blade and I had 0 worries about fletching or blade orientation and I found that they were forgiving enough due to their small size to make no difference where I had the spine alignment positioned.

Then I started looking at holes in the target from broadheads and it made me start to wonder more-

Do you guys find better performance on game from a larger cut diameter, or with more blades and a larger total cut?

Basically since I have to be cautious with the exodus heads, it makes me wonder if the potential blood letting and wound opening properties of a broadhead work more from the circumference or the linear measurement of each blade combined.

I typically use mechanicals on whitetails, but I always broadhead tune my bow every season and make sure I can shoot the fixed blades I could hunt with so I always have options. In this case, I always gravitate towards larger fixed blades but the micro hades just fly too good too ignore. Even though they're really loud, I have had good luck with them in the past, but never honestly killed much with them due to always using bigger heads.


So- what is your take on this?

If a head has 4 blades, and a 1 1/16 total cut, for a grand total of 2.13 inches of total cut according to Grim reaper, would that technically leave as much of a hole (and therefore potential blood letting) as a 3 blade 1 1/4 like the exodus?

 

[Billy Goat]

Personally, I think 3 blades offer some benefits that 2 blades don't, for cutting area. However the little gain of 4 over 3 doesn't seem to make as big of a difference.


With a fixed blade I prefer 3 or a 2 with bleeders out 3/4" or so.

For mechanical I prefer 3 blades to a 2 blade slice.


If the Exodus is that tight to the riser, can you shim the cams out and then bump out your CS?
They aren't a particularly large fixed head.

 

[Erussell01]

Sa

Personally, I think 3 blades offer some benefits that 2 blades don't, for cutting area. However the little gain of 4 over 3 doesn't seem to make as big of a difference.


With a fixed blade I prefer 3 or a 2 with bleeders out 3/4" or so.

For mechanical I prefer 3 blades to a 2 blade slice.


If the Exodus is that tight to the riser, can you shim the cams out and then bump out your CS?
They aren't a particularly large fixed head.

Sadly I can't, my local pro shop is a couple hours away and I don't have a bow press yet.

It bullet holed through paper, and specs out at 13/16 so its on par with where it should be, but I think with rubber pad on the shelf and the blades oriented thay way, plus my arrows being cut short it's just tight.

I guess I consider exodus to be a larger diameter fixed head at 1 1/4, squatty little buggers have a pretty big cut for how short they are. I know back in the day I could shoot Grizz Tricks or G5 striker magnums but it seems like bows back then had more room on the shelf, but my last couple newer hoyts have seemed to be getting smaller there.

Do you see much difference in overall performance at a certain size of head?

I have always shot the biggest fixed heads I could to increase the potential for blood letting. But I have seen plenty of great blood trails from slick trick standards and they're only 1inch

 

[Billy Goat]

Sa

Sadly I can't, my local pro shop is a couple hours away and I don't have a bow press yet.

It bullet holed through paper, and specs out at 13/16 so its on par with where it should be, but I think with rubber pad on the shelf and the blades oriented thay way, plus my arrows being cut short it's just tight.

I guess I consider exodus to be a larger diameter fixed head at 1 1/4, squatty little buggers have a pretty big cut for how short they are. I know back in the day I could shoot Grizz Tricks or G5 striker magnums but it seems like bows back then had more room on the shelf, but my last couple newer hoyts have seemed to be getting smaller there.

Do you see much difference in overall performance at a certain size of head?

I have always shot the biggest fixed heads I could to increase the potential for blood letting. But I have seen plenty of great blood trails from slick trick standards and they're only 1inch

I think blood trails are #1 product of placement, then factors like hole size and sharpness of the blades come in.


A difference I notice is a mechanical can tend to make things run where a good sharp fixed heads sometimes they show little reaction. Time to incapacitated is similar, but distance traveled is way different. The best blood trail I have ever seen was from a 3 blade mech, right through the lungs. It painted tree trunks 6 feet high out both sides, it also ran like 400 yards.


I think overall its not too much difference in a 1" cut 3 blade versus a 1 1/4" cut 3 blade, or even similar sized 2 blades with bleeders. A shot through the upper lungs is gonna take longer to start bleeding out, a low chest shot through the aorta is gonna create a pretty immediate blood trail. Not really any difference in the effectiveness.

 

[wildwilderness]

Over thinking for sure. Shoot the micro hades. Next time cut your arrows longer