Broadheads for Traditional Bowhunters

By Brian Sorrells

            I’m constantly amazed by the ever-growing numbers of different kinds of broadheads available to the bowhunter today.  It seems like every time I open a catalog, there’s something “new and better”, designed to out penetrate and outperform everything else out there.  The latest craze seems to be the expandable broadhead which, if it works as advertised, allegedly opens up an enormous wound channel and causes hemorrhage unlike anything the bowhunting world has ever seen.

            For those of us who hunt with traditional bows, there is only one kind of broadhead that we should even consider.  That is a one piece, resharpenable, cut-on-contact broadhead in either a two, three, or four blade configuration.  These broadheads, like the Magnus, Zwickey, Grizzly, Wensel Woodsman, and Razorcap, are the most efficient broadheads on the market - period.

            I’m not saying that the replaceable blade broadheads are not good broadheads, or that they won’t cleanly kill game, because they are and they do.  They simply require more kinetic energy to provide adequate penetration than what most traditional bows impart to the arrow.  The reason for that are the broad-shouldered points on most of these broadheads.  Take the Muzzy, for instance, and its trocar tip.  To drive that broad point through hide and bone requires quite a bit of kinetic energy.  On the other hand you have a solid two blade Zwickey Eskimo that penetrates hide and gristle like a hot knife through butter.  With its thin, sharp, dagger style point, the Zwickey cuts through rather than

having to punch through.  To give you an idea of what I’m talking about, take a Zwickey broadhead and a Muzzy broadhead and push both through a piece of thin leather sometime and see which one goes through easier.

            Another interesting trend I’ve noticed is that as of late, several of these broadhead companies have started to advertise their broadhead points as “cut-on-contact” by simply sharpening the edges of the tips and aligning these sharpened edges with the broadhead blades.  That, my friend, does NOT constitute cut-on-contact.  The point still must punch through the hide before the blades start cutting tissue.

            Along with broadhead design, kinetic energy also determines how well the arrow will penetrate.  All things being equal (broadhead design and arrow speed), a heavy arrow will penetrate farther than a light arrow.  This is because the heavier arrow carries more mass and can absorb more of the energy imparted by the bow limbs.  Arrow speed can make up a bit for light arrow weight, which is why compound bows are so successful when shooting a combination of a heavy draw weight, light arrow and replaceable blade style broadhead.

            There are no traditional bows that I know of, however, that will launch an arrow 300 feet per second, so we must depend on a heavy, well-tuned shaft with a cut-on-contact broadhead to get the job done.  Notice I said well-tuned.  An arrow that corkscrews its way into the animal is shedding kinetic energy as it wallows around trying

to gain penetration.  However, an arrow that flies like a laser beam has all of the energy stacked up in a straight line, and drives itself straight through like a nail through a board.

            Your hunting arrows should be tuned to recover quickly from archer’s paradox and fly straight to the target with little or no porpoising or fishtailing.  They should also be heavy (I recommend at least nine grains of arrow weight per pound of draw weight).  Remember, a heavier arrow will absorb more of the bow’s stored energy.  An added advantage of heavier arrows is that they make the bow much quieter when shot than if a lighter arrow were used because much less of the energy is left in the limbs when the arrow is launched.

            Many who switch from compound bows to traditional tackle, and who shoot full length arrows, will attempt to use the same arrows with their stickbow that they used with their compounds.  Sometimes this is a case of not knowing, but sometimes it’s a case of trying to save money.  If you’re going to take up traditional archery, you owe it to yourself and, more importantly, to the game should you decide to bowhunt with your longbow or recurve.