Off to the ATA

[RadSav]

old bag o dirt 

Funny thing is when I use that term she gets mad at you instead of me.  As soon as she reads this...You're going to be in sooo much trouble!!!

[RadSav]

Best part of the show?....

Eating at the "417 Union café"   Heck Yeah! 

I had Alaskan smoked salmon hash for breakfast twice.  Home styled hash browns fried up with sweet onions, green & red peppers and about 1/2 pound of smoked salmon.  Topped with three over medium eggs and served with home made rye bread toast.   My stomach is still happy and my taste buds are still smiling!  No question the best breakfast I've ever thrown down my throat.  It was so dang yummy I'll be dreaming about it for months!!!

[DoubleJ]

old bag o dirt 

Funny thing is when I use that term she gets mad at you instead of me.  As soon as she reads this...You're going to be in sooo much trouble!!!

LOL

[RadSav]

Fun Fact:

First shipping day after the show we sent out 10,600 peep sights and 10' shy of one mile in tubing!  Been a busy day, but short of last year!

[demontang]

Thats good I move a lot of your peeps in my shop and its the only peep on my bows

[D-Rock425]

Thats good I move a lot of your peeps in my shop and its the only peep on my bows

what shop?

[demontang]

Should I dare say it out loud...cabelas  its hard for people to take it serious but I strive to increase my knowledge very chance I get.

[Smossy]

Great work Rad. Cant wait to find more of your products out there on the shelves.

[Smossy]

Great work Rad. Cant wait to find more of your products out there on the shelves. Thanks for the report.
I didnt see this thread untill just now and boy oh boy those new heads are hott. Specially those Tri-Con 100's.

[lokidog]

Hey Rad,

A couple of questions:  What is the advantage of the long nose on the first one you showed the picture of?  And, why do companies make broadheads with such a small cutting diameter as 1 inch?  I can see if it is an 85 gr head but for a 100 gr head with a 1 1/4 inch diameter you get 25% more cut.

Thanks.  They are definitely pretty BHs.   

[RadSav]

A couple of questions:  What is the advantage of the long nose on the first one you showed the picture of?  And, why do companies make broadheads with such a small cutting diameter as 1 inch?  I can see if it is an 85 gr head but for a 100 gr head with a 1 1/4 inch diameter you get 25% more cut.

Great questions Lokidog!  Though I do have to start off answering them with a question of my own.

Who decided that 1" diameter was "Small"? 


A 20 gauge shotgun barrel has a bore diameter of 0.615", 16 gauge has a bore diameter of 0.663", 12 gauge bore is 0.729" and the 10 gauge bore diameter is 0.775".  To hit Washington states minimum bore diameter in a broadhead one would have to look to the rare 7 gauge.  The 1" diameter broadhead would be equivalent to a "B" gauge shotgun bore.  So when did we start looking down the barrel of a 12 gauge shotgun and decide it was just too dang small to kill anything effectively?  Probably about the time some writer who never killed anything with a bow decided to start putting words to paper.

When Duke Savora made his first trip to Africa to work with the Rhodesian government on the Chapinda Pools project he took a variety of broadheads with him.  They ranged from 3/4" diameter to 1-1/4" diameter.  When a cape buffalo stepped on a land mine officials decided it was a good idea to have Savora put it out of it's misery with a bow.  A test subject they would never have allowed him to harvest otherwise.  He laid all his broadheads out on a bench and asked the native hunters which head he should use on the buffalo.  Every one having never read the advise of an outdoor writer chose the 3/4" model.  Savora ended up using the 1-1/8" model that would later become the Savora flag ship Swept-Wing.  With one shot from a 72# recurve and a 2219 aluminum arrow it performed flawlessly.  The Swept-Wing broadhead became such a huge success worldwide 1-1/8" became an industry standard that still holds true today.

While 1" diameter seems a lot smaller than 1-1/8" you must realize that's only 0.0625" (1/16") smaller from each side of the broadheads axis.  In reality that's a pretty insignificant 9%!  The benefits of that 1" diameter combined with the short blade length is exceptional flight in windy conditions.  With todays increasingly fast arrows that's quite an advantage over the 20% larger 1-1/4" broadhead with almost a 60% increase in turbulent surfaces.

But in a nut shell I've taken a whole slough of animals with both 1" and 1.5" broadheads and the end results have been unnoticeable.  Blade quality and sharpness have come much more into play than diameter.

[RadSav]

Now to answer the point length question;

The DelMastro and VanDyke heads were designed in a collaboration between myself, my hunting partner Larry Van Dyke and world renowned bowhunter Anthony "Del" DelMastro.  Besides wanting an arrowhead that put animals on the ground as fast as possible both agreed upon the two things they really wanted to see in a head that was to bare their names - incredible accuracy and heavy blood trails.  Generally speaking those two things are oil and water.  It's difficult to get one to mix with the other.

Small blades are important to achieve great accuracy in all weather conditions found in the field.  While large entrance holes in hide are needed to get good external bleeding.  To achieve both with a single head we combine steep blade angles and a reasonable point diameter that is longer in length.  The point slightly stretches the hide creating an angle where the blade tips or back of blade edge contact the hide first.  The result is almost always a hole in the hide much larger than the diameter of the cutting surface.

As important as it is to design what you want in a broadhead it is equally as important to design what you don't want out of a broadhead.  This is the area where most designers fail when taking a good idea and putting it into a solid foundation for successful repeatability.  While most everyone wants a broadhead that flies well, cuts well and penetrates well no one ever wants to see a broadhead skip across an animals ribs leaving it wounded and unrecovered.  Short blades with steep blade angles are skipping Houdinis'.  They can make an impossible escape a frustrating disappearing act when blade tips catch before the tip of the ferrule begins penetration.  The early Rocky Mountain version of the new Muzzy Trocar and the slick little American Broadhead were notorious for doing just that.  And if there is anything that frustrates Slick Trick shooters it's that occasional hard quartering shot that just doesn't end up penetrating where you thought it was going to.

To reduce the skipping risk when taking those hard quartering shots it's important the point contacts the target first before the blades.  When taking advantage of the superior external ballistics of these short steep blades it's then increasingly important to have them following a longer tip/point.  So what you get as a dependable and repeatable design model are heads that look a lot like a Muzzy MX, WASP or these new Savora/RAD heads.  The longer point has no real world effect on penetration while the additional security of proper arrow/target alignment becomes an important feature with real world results.

I hope that reads clearly enough and answers your question Lokidog.  If not, let me know and I can try to clarify in a different way.  Thank you for those questions.  They are both often over looked and important to get answered when bowhunters are trying to decide between the vast choices in broadheads these days.

[HUNTINCOUPLE]

Thanks for that info RAD! Sounds like the new broad head you guys developed will be very productive!

[lokidog]

Thanks Radsav, that was clear, though I still don't think I'll be shooting any 1" or smaller diameter heads.     I shoot the Myzzy MX3 and have a bunch since my moosehunt, but I would consider trying yours some time.

[RadSav]

Thanks Radsav, that was clear, though I still don't think I'll be shooting any 1" or smaller diameter heads.     I shoot the Myzzy MX3 and have a bunch since my moosehunt, but I would consider trying yours some time.

The DelMastro HPV blade is 1-3/16.  So the same as the Muzzy MX just short like the MX 75 grain.  That's available in all three Super-Short ferrules (Titanium Signature, Triple Sec., and Madman)  We will have a 125 grain version next year too.  And the blades...WAY sharper than Muzzy!!! .030" thick instead of .025" too.

Two of the fastest elk kills I've ever witnessed were both taken by my hunting partner Larry Van Dyke using a 7/8" cutting diameter head back in the late eighties.  So don't let outdoor writers scare you on size!  If a 7 gauge shotgun bore is more than enough B or 4 gauge should be simple overkill (That's 100 caliber on our smallest head!!!).  Only time I worry about cutting diameter is hunting those dang stinking turkeys   And even then all five of my birds this year were taken with 1.125".  Next season I will probably be using Del's HP head for those stankers though.