Broadhead Expectations

[Swede]

I was reading some reviews on a broadhead I am interested. The broadhead is generally rated very high, but one complaint from a few reviewers puzzles me. The claim is that the broadhead is very sharp, accurate, one piece and flies great. Hunters get a lot of pass through kills, but some claim there is no blood trail. One writer said the animal bled out completely internally, even though he could not find the arrow that went through the deer.
I have to admit that is very common with tree stand kills regardless of the broadhead. It happened again with the elk I shot this year. If the broadhead slices all the way through the animal; is has done its job. What are the thoughts about this from others? Would you think of changing broadheads that preformed perfectly, but an animal did not leave a blood trail?

 

[bnsafe]

i shot a antelope with a 3 blade rage, complete pass thru, went 40 yds and fell, no blood trail.
i shot an elk with a 4 blade slick trick, hit off side shoulder blade an stopped, went about 125 yds and fell, no blood trail for bout 50 yds, then spotty. i dont think its the head. any SHARP head will do the job when hitting the proper spot. i think sometimes fat, hair, guts, etc plugs the hole, or the hole is high and the blood stays inside. now, i admit a lung hit animal should snort blood regardless and i cannot account for that.
regardless, i would not change heads based on a blood trail unless i saw a pattern and lost confidence. personally, i am much more interested in sharp heads that fly true.

 

[Don K]

If your getting a complete pass through with the arrow I don\'t see what the broadhead would change on the blood trail. If the shot placement was to be exactly the same and you shot through the animal I cant see what the difference would be. Maybe the only thing I can think of is the sharpness of the blades with the different heads.

 

[elky McElkerson]

the only animal i lost was an 8-pt whitetail. i watched that arrow bury into the hot zone and fall out the other side. i just sat for 30 minutes shaking. i did use my binoculars to peek at the bloody arrow. it was covered. never found that deer. i was crushed and my love for the beloved Slicktrick was tarnished.

i think crazy stuff happens. fat clots the wound letting the cells build up and scab.. i also watched a guy whiff a shot..hard to one side. Muzzy 3 blade. the arrow almost missed completely!! it nicked the rear leg and it looked like a garden hose of blood was exploded..the gusher was like a firehose. the deer laid down in a lake of blood. we were silenced..for a few minutes until my friend whispered, \"wow, not my best shot\".

 

[Ol' Arky]

I don\'t suggest ya trying it but it\'s a proven fact that a SHARP blade causes less blood loss that a duller blade... That\'s the reason doctor\'s use sharp blades when cutting on us instead of a duller blade...

My opinion is with the faster arrow flight now days (over 300 FPS) the sharp blade goes through so fast the entry and exit wound \"close back up\" so ya have less of or no blood trail... Also just my opinion I think it would be just as well if ya use duller blades or even serrated blades on broad heads use in the faster FPS bows most folks shoot nowadays...

Now ya\'ll can jump in and tell me how unethical shooting a dull broad heads is but is it also not ethical to loose the game because ya don\'t have a blood trail to follow???

Just food for thought..

 

[Swede]

Phil, That is interesting, so maybe hunters are complaining that their broadhead is too good.
I talked to a hunter this September, that had just killed a nice 6X6. The broadhead he used was still razor sharp. I liked the Montag G5 and was reading their reviews on Cabelas site. The only complaint was they did not leave a good blood trail. I think the biggest factor on blood loss is where they are hit.
The cow I shot had the exit hole plugged. Membrane was trying to get out even though it was not gut shot. If you look very carefully at the picture of the cow, you will see a rock in front of the belly of the cow. I placed it there to cover the protruding membrane. There was no blood to hide or wash off.

 

[Ol' Arky]

I know a lot of ya don\'t remember when the compound was just coming on the scene but there also was new advances in broad heads at that time also..
The savoy and satellite broad heads were making an appearance... Both were razor sharp with replaceable blades and neither provided a good blood trail...

I always shot the ol\' Bear Razorheads 145 gr without the bleeder insert back then with great results... When I finally got talked into a compound bow I swapped to the 125 gr satellite\'s and it didn\'t take long for me to go back to the ol\' Bear Razorheads... Don\'t get me wrong I kept the razorheads shaving sharp and Ray Charles could follow the blood trail left by critters hit good with them...

I ended up shootin\' Montec G5\'s but never had a chance to see what they would do...

If I ever (and I never will) started back bow huntin\' I still have both the G5\'s and a ol\' 12 pack of the Bear Razorheads... I figure I\'d use the ol\' Razorheads again... :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

 

[ORelksniper]

Best blood trails I\'ve ever had were the result of Bear Razorheads or Swickey Black Diamond heads shot out of my 64 lb stickbow. When I switched to a compound with the modern smaller profile broadheads the blood trails became considerably smaller to non existent. I\'ve tried many different one piece and replaceable blade heads and none of them have produced great blood trails, regardless of shot placement. I now use Slicktrick heads only because they fly great out of my set up.

I think the whole broadhead blood trail thing is a function of arrow speed, although, I can\'t prove it. It would be interesting to have some stickbow shooters chime in on this.

 

[bnsafe]

i agree with the above comments. when i started bowhunting 30 years ago i used rocky mnt razor 4 blades. they were big and heavy. i never get blood trails like i did with them. but, we were shooting out of very slow bows and they shot well. i tried them when i got back into bowhunting and found i could not get them to fly true out of the newer much much faster bows. so there is a trade off, slow bow with a bigger broadhead vs fast bow with less yardage guessing issues. i have no factual data for my conclusions, only real life experience.

 

[WW]

Razor sharp and shot placement. NUFF SAID!

 

[cnelk]

The 2 elk I shot this had completely different blood trail results with 100gr SlickTrick Magnums

The cow was quartering away, the arrow entered her last rib at center mass and went in toward the opposite shoulder.
As she ran away I could see 6 inches of arrow sticking out.
Blood Immediately and lots.
She went 50 yds

The bull was mostly broadside - shot was center mass - arrow entered lung area.
Arrow buried up to the fletching.
Little blood, not as much as I would like
He went 70 yds, bled out inside

Cole\'s bull went 70 -80 yds.
Same thing. Good hit, little blood heard him die.

Maybe a heart shot gives more blood than lungs?
Dr John any input?

 

[Deertick]

Doctors don\'t use sharp blades because they cause less bleeding. The opposite is true. If I\'m trying to avoid bleeding, I TEAR tissue ... if I use a scalpel, I can make a fingernail bleed (it seems).

To make a blood trail, there has to be a large vessel pumping blood out of the body and onto the ground. Sometimes you get lucky and sometimes you don\'t.

Blood doesn\'t clot so quickly as to prevent a blood trail from forming, so that\'s not a good answer.

There are some things that make blood trails more likely:

1. More blood, i.e. cut bigger vessels, get more blood.
2. More pressure, i.e. cut a major artery (high pressure) and you\'re more likely to see external blood than cutting a vein (low pressure).
3. Gravity helps, i.e. an exit hole on the bottom of the chest drains even low-pressure venous blood.
4. Size matters, i.e. big holes leak more than little ones.

There\'s a caveat for #2: If your animal loses pressure quickly (like Cole\'s bull), there\'s no pressure to push that blood through the hole, except maybe gravity.

To paraphrase Steve Hornady (of Hornady bullets): \"At which point in the death of the animal did the broadhead fail to do its job?\"

 

[Ol' Arky]

I\'m sure glad John didn\'t do my bypass surgery back in 2002... :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

I don\'t think I would have liked my chest to be tore open and the inside of my left leg tore open to harvest bypass material..

But who knows it might of been more fun if they did...

 

[Swede]

Tick, I find your answer especially helpful to me. It makes perfect sense. It still gets back to; shoot a good quality, sharp broadhead, that provides for good arrow flight.

 

[Bowfreak]

Doctors don\'t use sharp blades because they cause less bleeding. The opposite is true. If I\'m trying to avoid bleeding, I TEAR tissue ... if I use a scalpel, I can make a fingernail bleed (it seems).

To make a blood trail, there has to be a large vessel pumping blood out of the body and onto the ground. Sometimes you get lucky and sometimes you don\'t.

Blood doesn\'t clot so quickly as to prevent a blood trail from forming, so that\'s not a good answer.

There are some things that make blood trails more likely:

1. More blood, i.e. cut bigger vessels, get more blood.
2. More pressure, i.e. cut a major artery (high pressure) and you\'re more likely to see external blood than cutting a vein (low pressure).
3. Gravity helps, i.e. an exit hole on the bottom of the chest drains even low-pressure venous blood.
4. Size matters, i.e. big holes leak more than little ones.

There\'s a caveat for #2: If your animal loses pressure quickly (like Cole\'s bull), there\'s no pressure to push that blood through the hole, except maybe gravity.

To paraphrase Steve Hornady (of Hornady bullets): \"At which point in the death of the animal did the broadhead fail to do its job?\"

Deertick nailed it. I think many bowhunters get wrapped up in the blood trail a broadhead produces. Many overlook the fact that the single most important factor that yields a good blood trail is shot placement. If you hit an animal at the top of the heart or slightly above while taking out the lungs you will get a crazy bloodtrail regardless of what head you shoot (assuming it is sharp and sturdy). Obviously bigger heads mean bigger holes but you can hit them decent with bigger heads and get less than stellar blood trails. I will admit that I don\'t have any elk experience but I haven\'t seen an animal yet that can survive a pinwheel from a good sharp broadhead.

As far as the OP\'s question....I wouldn\'t hesitate to give the Montec a try. The only negative I can say about the Montec is that I find it harder to sharpen than many of the similar heads. The Snuffer SS is a great head and produced my nastiest blood trail. I like it over the Montec as it is a bit easier to sharpen and has a lifetime warranty. The VPA is the easiest to sharpen but is more expensive and doesn\'t have the unconditional warranty like the SS. You can\'t go wrong with any of these heads.

Here is the crime scene photo from the Snuffer SS kill I was talking about:

 

[cnelk]

Mark
Nice buck!
It looks like the arrow entered from above - treestand shot?

 

[iccyman001]

Nice buck!

 

[Bowfreak]

Yes. Treestand. I had never seen this buck and was hunting what I thought was a bullet proof wind. He came in downwind and stepped out into an old logging road and immediately caught wind of me. I was at full draw and as he turned to leave I shot. Arrow entered a couple of ribs back and exited at the base of the neck near the opposite shoulder. It was a crazy blood trail that I believe was simply a function of the location of the bit.

Sent from my XT1080 using Tapatalk