Pennsylvania Game News - April 2014 - 58

no damage to the tip. Cut-on-contact
tips do what their name implies and
don't have to punch through the hide.
They begin cutting immediately, and
penetrate deeply to the vitals, often
resulting in a complete pass-through
with a substantial blood trail.
To combat the bad rap on the
inconsistent flight characteristics of
a fixed-blade broadhead, manufacturers have made changes to its design.
One development is a shorter ferrule
paired with blades an inch or less in
length. Although the ferrules and
blades are shorter, they present a
large cutting diameter, usually
an inch or more, making
them deadly, durable
and accurate.
A current
trend in broadhead design
offers small ferrules with milled cutting tips. The blades on these heads
are held securely in the ferrule by specially designed blade-locking systems
that make them exceptionally strong.
These heads are particularly suited for
faster bows because their smaller blade
surfaces draft the wind over the blades
to prevent wind planning, while their
short length zips through game providing maximum penetration.
It's no secret the majority of whitetails taken in Pennsylvania every
year are shot by bowhunters in tree
stands. Shots from steep angles can be
tricky and many hits are higher than
the shooter expected, resulting in a
tension-filled tracking job. For a happy
ending, the broadhead must penetrate
well and cause massive bleeding to
create an easy-to-track blood trail.
Penetration is the key for making a
lethal bow kill, and it's essential the
58

broadhead and arrow combination
work in tandem to achieve the deepest
penetration possible. A broadhead with
a small cutting diameter will increase
penetration but the wound may not
bleed as well. With a wider blade head,
the wound channel will be increased
and the blood trail improved, but
penetration might not be as good. The
solution then is to choose a head that
penetrates well and creates a good blood
trail. Many of
the quality
broadheads
currently available offer a cutting
diameter from 1 1/8 to 1
3/16 inches and provide
excellent penetration and
blood trails. These heads
produce excellent results on deer even
when shot out of older, slower bows.
As bow efficiency improved and
arrow speeds increased, hunters found
mechanical broadheads solved many
of the problems associated with tuning
fixed blade broadheads. Mechanical
broadheads currently have a huge following among hunters and have taken
a larger share of the market in recent
years because many of the previous
problems involving blade deployment
and penetration have been solved.
In addition, I believe mechanical
heads have a major advantage over
fixed-blade heads because they require
very little tuning to attain tight groups.
The adjustments necessary to achieve
perfect arrow flight may be less needed
for a fixed-blade broadhead, but they
are still necessary.
Another reason mechanical broadheads remain popular with hunters is
because the blades fold into the ferrule,
reducing their aerodynamic profile.
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Pennsylvania Game News - April 2014

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