Equipment & Gear > Archery Gear
Heavy Single Bevel is the ONLY way
Stein:
I'm not sure where I stand on the topic although I currently shoot Magnus Stingers.
For the shot you took, the argument for mechanicals would be that the femur shot didn't kill the animal and a wider cut all the way through until the femur would have led to a quicker death and easier track.
I can see both sides of the argument, I guess I'm in the "sufficient penetration and then as much cutting diameter as you can get" camp.
Congrats on the elk!
IFunk:
+1 for Cutthroat broadheads. I don't have any experience with them on game(yet). That's a whole different topic. 8) But I can vouch for their sharpness.
Tom Clum is my archery coach and his shop in Wheatridge, CO makes them. You won't find a nicer guy on the planet and their family run shop and archery range there is second to none. I've taken a tour of the backroom where they grind and polish the broadheads and it's impressive. They have a tight tolerance and group the heads together based on grain weight.
They are carbon tool steel and need to be well lubricated before being taken out to the field. I made the mistake of not protecting them before elk hunting once in a day long downpour and found out the hard way. Tom brought them back to new. I now dip them in vaseline before shoving them into my quiver.
With my 41# recurve and 650 grain aluminum arrows, I can shoot them through my 10" thick foam target and bury them up the fletching.
blackveltbowhunter:
--- Quote from: luvmystang67 on November 04, 2024, 12:45:44 PM ---I DID just watch one of the new Stuck n the Rut videos where they shot a mechanical at a bull last year, hit him RIGHT in the bread basket and got maybe 10" of penetration.
I feel pretty confident saying that if you're running mechanicals, especially on elk, I believe you should reconsider. Can it work? Sure. Do I trust it? Not at all. You can kill an elk with a .223, but it doesn't mean its the best choice. IMO mechanicals are the .223 of elk hunting.
--- End quote ---
And boom there it is. Debate open.... :chuckle:
One could argue based on your story, where you state you were not confident in your equipment going into the season, and an elk recovery rate of 30 percent since using the new heads, that YOU should reconsider.
The stuck in the rut video leaves ALOT open to interpretation..... we have no reference for his past success with the head? what head? How well his equipment was setup and tuned, his maximum range, or any other edits. We also have no idea if the head actually failed, broken blades, deployment failures etc only that it "deflected" it also hit where we assumed he aimed, left plenty of blood for them to follow and caused enough trauma to keg the bull up. The shot looks placed well, but it also looks like the bull may have been slightly quartered to as well, tough to see exact body position at moment of impact and again we are relying on complete transparency on their end. In the end maybe it was a failure or deficiency with the BH, or it may have been they were bailed out by a larger wound channel on a misread angle, deflection, or animal movment, without more info it's impossible to call. It wasn't super clean, but IMO it was a recovered animal without a difficult track and an animal unable to get up at the end of it.
NO broadhead is perfect. All have strengths and weaknesses. An archers confidence should come, not from believing they have made a "perfect" choice in setup or equipment. But from understanding the limitations of what they are choosing to use and catering to the strengths, and doing everything possible to minimize the weaknesses.
luvmystang67:
--- Quote from: blackveltbowhunter on November 04, 2024, 09:17:41 PM ---
--- Quote from: luvmystang67 on November 04, 2024, 12:45:44 PM ---I DID just watch one of the new Stuck n the Rut videos where they shot a mechanical at a bull last year, hit him RIGHT in the bread basket and got maybe 10" of penetration.
I feel pretty confident saying that if you're running mechanicals, especially on elk, I believe you should reconsider. Can it work? Sure. Do I trust it? Not at all. You can kill an elk with a .223, but it doesn't mean its the best choice. IMO mechanicals are the .223 of elk hunting.
--- End quote ---
And boom there it is. Debate open.... :chuckle:
One could argue based on your story, where you state you were not confident in your equipment going into the season, and an elk recovery rate of 30 percent since using the new heads, that YOU should reconsider.
The stuck in the rut video leaves ALOT open to interpretation..... we have no reference for his past success with the head? what head? How well his equipment was setup and tuned, his maximum range, or any other edits. We also have no idea if the head actually failed, broken blades, deployment failures etc only that it "deflected" it also hit where we assumed he aimed, left plenty of blood for them to follow and caused enough trauma to keg the bull up. The shot looks placed well, but it also looks like the bull may have been slightly quartered to as well, tough to see exact body position at moment of impact and again we are relying on complete transparency on their end. In the end maybe it was a failure or deficiency with the BH, or it may have been they were bailed out by a larger wound channel on a misread angle, deflection, or animal movment, without more info it's impossible to call. It wasn't super clean, but IMO it was a recovered animal without a difficult track and an animal unable to get up at the end of it.
NO broadhead is perfect. All have strengths and weaknesses. An archers confidence should come, not from believing they have made a "perfect" choice in setup or equipment. But from understanding the limitations of what they are choosing to use and catering to the strengths, and doing everything possible to minimize the weaknesses.
--- End quote ---
Touche
My biggest surprise on my heads is that this one didn't pass through... which I was outraged by, given that it was the entire point. But, hitting the femur simmered my rage a little. All of our other non-recoverys have been pass throughs, so its doing that right at least.
I have not been impressed with any of the blood trails.
The ideal broadhead and shot combination cuts as wide of a channel as possible and just barely breaks out the opposite side of the elk. Ideally, you'd be able to change this mid-flight depending on where your trajectory is going, but clearly that is impossible. I would feel reasonable saying that if every broadside shot flys right through the animal, you could probably look at trying to get a larger cutting diameter. However if you've NEVER had a passthrough on a good broadside shot, I'd say you'd want to consider a smaller cutting diamater.
To me, at a minimum, you want a passthrough on a good broadside shot, at say 30-40 yards. If a mechanical does that regularly, I guess I don't see an inherent problem with them, but I haven't seen a ton of examples of that on elk. Maybe I haven't looked hard enough.
huntindoc:
Love this debate! 10 years ago I wandered down the rabbit hole of single cut to blade brought heads. I looked at all the Ashby information, started building arrows. I was chasing Cape Buffalo in Tanzania (didn't get a shot at buff, but did shoot a hartebeest at 76 yrds). I built arrows for the Buffalo that was almost 1200 grains. I could hit a paper plate at 80 yards consistently. That season, I shot a white tail with it. It was quartering too- 45 yards and the exit wound through the off hip look like a 300 magnum. It was amazing.
I built and shot various other arrows and finally settled on 580 grain area with a lot of weight forward. I would love how this arrow shoots. Excellent penetration and cut. I know we all have our opinions and our own experiences but I will never shoot a mechanical Broadhead particularly at elk. Regardless what you shoot, the placement is the most important factor!
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