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

 

[5MilesBack]

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.

Something isn't adding up. If you're currently at 13/16" CS, your BH blades shouldn't be all that close to the riser as you indicated they were in your OP. My CS is 13/16 on the nose, my arrows are cut to just in front of my QAD rest (30" arrows/32.5"+ draw), and my Exodus blades have plenty of room to the riser, regardless of the blade orientation.

 

[wapitibob]

I want cut dia, to reach out and nick that artery. Total cut is basically a surface length measurement, you could have a 1/2" dia head with more total cut than a 1-1/8" cut dia head, both with the same number of blades.

 

[Erussell01]

Cant c

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

Thanks, but sadly Can't cut them much longer, I'm already bordeline on spine if I use any weight up front. 31 inch draw length and 75 lbs on this bow makes it a lot harder to get an arrow to fly well without stepping up to a telephone pole.

 

[Erussell01]

Something isn't adding up. If you're currently at 13/16" CS, your BH blades shouldn't be all that close to the riser as you indicated they were in your OP. My CS is 13/16 on the nose, my arrows are cut to just in front of my QAD rest (30" arrows/32.5"+ draw), and my Exodus blades have plenty of room to the riser, regardless of the blade orientation.

What bow are you shooting and where are your cams shimmed?

This is a hoyt ventum pro 33, and it's always run an arrow close to the riser for tuning. I got new limbs this year, and it seems to have made the issue slightly more pronounced. I'm unsure if archery country set it up differenty or what. I just confirmed, 13/16. When the broadhead is oriented with one blade up at 12 or down at 6, no issues. Only if the blade is pointed straight to 3 oclock give or take will it cause issue, but my fear is that in the heat of the moment with a follow up shot if I incorrectly nocked an arrow, I would make contact with the pad on my riser.

Having sent one broadhead tipped arrow off into the wide blue yonder because of contact, I don't want to have that happen in the field.

With the micro hades there is 0 issue of clearance, but them suckers are pretty hissy compared to the exodus heads.

 

[Erussell01]

Something isn't adding up. If you're currently at 13/16" CS, your BH blades shouldn't be all that close to the riser as you indicated they were in your OP. My CS is 13/16 on the nose, my arrows are cut to just in front of my QAD rest (30" arrows/32.5"+ draw), and my Exodus blades have plenty of room to the riser, regardless of the blade orientation.

You beautiful long draw gorilla, you might be the only guy with a longer draw than me

 

[Erussell01]

Something isn't adding up. If you're currently at 13/16" CS, your BH blades shouldn't be all that close to the riser as you indicated they were in your OP. My CS is 13/16 on the nose, my arrows are cut to just in front of my QAD rest (30" arrows/32.5"+ draw), and my Exodus blades have plenty of room to the riser, regardless of the blade orientation.

I just confirmed, I'm under 13/16 right now after moving my rest. I'm going to start over at 0 and see what happens.

I'd like to have a larger cut fixed blade in the quiver come fall, but I might just need to run grim reaper micros and not worry too much. 1 1/16 sure doesn't sound quite as big and bad as 1 1/4

 

[Erussell01]

After pulling the rest, resetting to 13/16 and then starting my tuning process over, I'm not hitting with my field point group to 60 with the exodus, and no issues with contact of the fletch or the blades. I did have to run all of the arrows the same orientation, but theyre flying now. I was chasing the land of the broadhead and got over my skis a bit

Thanks @5MilesBack you made me go double check myself.


Now back to the original question as it pertains to fixed blades....

4 blade 1 1/16 vs 3 blade 1 1/4.

Do we think there is an appreciable difference? If not, why do we not all shoot smaller more aerodynamic fixed blades that are easier to tune?

Just thinking about not ideal hits especially.

I shoot bigger mechanicals usually for the same reason, more bigger=more blood all else being equal in my head.

So do we think there is an actual difference between total cut and cutting diameter in terminal performance?

 

[wapitibob]

I was assuming same number of blades when comparing cut length (longer blades) to cut dia. I will always go for more blades.

 

[5MilesBack]

You beautiful long draw gorilla, you might be the only guy with a longer draw than me

Nah, there's lots of 32"+ guys around. One of my best friends has the same draw length as me, and we're both LH even. He actually borrowed one of my backup bows a few years ago when his string crapped out on him on a hunt.

As for BH's.......I prefer 3-blade heads to 4-blade heads regardless what the total length of cut is. At our draw lengths even over the top mechanicals shouldn't be an issue. I've used the Spitfires and GR Fatal Steel 1.5" cut 3-blade heads with great success.

 

[CJ_BG]

For the same total cut the broadhead that has the wider cutting diameter will make the wounds that I like more. The wider they are the harder it is for them to be completely blocked, and in my experience they're more likely to rip wider when the animal runs.

I shoot 1" tota 4 blades and all of the non hybrid sevr heads. The 2" sevr has the same total cut as the tota but I like the wounds that it makes more.

 

[wildwilderness]

Cant c

Thanks, but sadly Can't cut them much longer, I'm already bordeline on spine if I use any weight up front. 31 inch draw length and 75 lbs on this bow makes it a lot harder to get an arrow to fly well without stepping up to a telephone pole.

With your poundage and DL forget about anything extra up front, unless going for Giraffe/Hippo/Elephant!


My RX7 is set at 31” and 71# - I’ve given up all the tinkering and FOC etc and went for simple. 300 spine 5mm axis and factory HIT with 100gr tip. kills everything easily in North America as far as you can shoot! (I’m hitting bulls eyes at 80 without even spine tuning, twisting nocks etc) Super easy to find all the components, no extra costs, or labor intensive tinkering

The older I get the more I like KISS

(Now if you want to hunt BIG/Dangerous game in Africa that’s when you can shoot the telephone poles)