Thinking about the upcoming archery hunt and how I need to be getting prepared for that hunt.  I’ve pretty much decided on they arrow I’m going to use and the feather (fletching) shape and mounting I am going to have on that arrow.  Now it is time to decide on what broad head to put on the front end of that arrow.  There are SOOOO many different kinds, shapes and designs and I’m sure everyone of them will put down a deer or elk if the hit is proper.

With my traditional bow, I will have to be quite close to that animal in order to even think about drawing back and shooting (20 yards max).  And with that I want to make sure my shot goes where I want it to go and do the damage necessary to bring that animal to its death quickly.  In my study of broad heads it was brought up several years ago by a traditional archer I know that the use of a “Single Bevel” broad head is something to consider.

These are just one type of this design, but they look like they are “tough” enough to break some bones should they hit one.

Again in my search, I have found that even Ice Augers have a single bevel to the blades.  The action of the blade cutting ice causes the auger to actually want to embed itself into the ice.  That is how the thing works.  The cutting effect of the single bevel causes the blade to want to cut away from the bevel.  Let’s look at a pocket knife that is sharpened on one side and the other side is flat.  If that bevel that causes it to be sharp is on the left side as you are holding it, the tendency of the blade will be to cut in a counter clockwise direction when you slide it into something, say a block of cheese or a chunk of meat.  If it is sharpened on the other side it will want to turn clockwise.

Single bevel broad heads do the same thing.  So, the two edges of the blade are sharpened on only one side and when they hit an animal they twist as they travel forward.  In fact, they twist hard enough and with enough force to cause bones to break!  Most mechanical and/or two to four blade fixed broad heads won’t do that, in fact when they hit a bone they generally will either break or they will just stick into the bone and stay there.

So a single bevel broad head is becoming more and more intriguing to me.  Give the fact that the kill zone of a deer/elk or what have you, is only SO big and there are leg bones and shoulder bones in that general area as well, what if my shot takes the arrow into one of those bones?  I think I would be giving myself a better chance of a “recoverable” kill if I was using one of these types of broad heads.

Anyway, my buddy Darin Gardner, turned me on to this video a few years back to help me understand how these bad boys work.  Check it out for yourself.

There is a lot of information in this and the good Doctor Ashby goes into a lot of depth explaining the damage that this type of broad head does.  It was especially interesting when he said he had never lost an animal to a gut shot with one of these and that his recovery was quicker than a normal gut shot would have been (if it was ever recovered at all).

Anyway, what are your thoughts on this?

Bears Butt

February 12, 2016