Well it was a great week at camp and I'll leave it to Ron to start the appropriate annual thread. I just wanted to start a seperate topic on the Kustom King Trailmaker Broadhead.
First, the disclosure. Tim Cosgrove of Kustom King is a camp member and a great friend. I don't want members to think in the least that this is a gratuitous thread by any means. I value the input from members here regarding products and that's what I'd like to pass along now.
First, after many years of using Easton Axis carbon shafts, I went back to using wood shafting this year. I think the Axis shaft is a superb shafting material, however after reading G. Fred Asbells article in TBM about wood arrows and looking at that last dozen Acme Premium shafting that I had, I've decided to use wood arrows for this years hunts. When I set up my arrows for the hunt, I only had the Magnus 2 blade 125 grain heads on hand. I've used these before and they're a good head. The first doe I shot at camp this year went about 150 yards, had complete penatration and was a tough track (exit hole was at about the bottom third of the body and shot was liver/lung slight quartering away). There was no blood to speak of for the first 40-50 yards and then spotty after that. Fortunately I was able to watch her flight during that time and marked the tree where I last saw her.
Doe number two was hit high with no exit hole and the Trailmaker head(offside shoulder stopped arrow). Typically with a high hit and no exit, there is little to no blood. I was also able to watch this deers flight path and at about 40 yards, her side was covered with blood already. There was blood on the ground at 20 yards and it was an easy track. I realize this is only two instances, but my past experiences would have had the blood trails exchanged.
Mounting analysis. Both heads are easily mounted and spin true (it helps that I had the taper's done on jig by the late John Grumley that put the finest tapers on a wood shaft that I've ever seen).
Sharpening analysis. The Magnus two blade is easily sharpend with a file and stones, just like the Zwickey two blade delta head I used for years. The Trailmaker head was sharpened with a file laid accross both blades and rotated for 15 strokes, 10 strokes, 5 strokes, 3 strokes and 1 stroke on each of the three sides. Tim had a couple of sharpening steels handy and I used those after I finished the file work. Each head took about 2 minutes and they were shaving hair off the back of my hand.
Arrow flight-both heads flew true to the mark and there is no planing with either (we had some nasty winds the first 3-4 days of camp). Again, I think that having true mounting is the key here, but I could see no difference in flight.
In summary, I was very impressed with the Trailmaker head. I've never seen blood on the side of an animal like that (it reminded me of Fred Bears description of his polar bear kill). I think this is a quality head at a very reasonable price and worth looking at if you're a three blade fan or looking to use a three blade head.
Topic: Back from Shrewhaven & props to Kustom King Trailmakers (Read 225 times)
