types of broadhead failure

[ozy clint]

have many people have experinced the failure of the shank or thread of the head or adapter? just wondering if it is a common failure or not compared to other types of failure?

reason i ask is that BH makers here in australia seem to have moved towards one piece machined screw on head. not many offer glue on heads. this limits the choice of weights and designs greatly.
if one was seeking the best in structural integrity for say a water buff arrow then a glue on mounted on a glue in/glue on adapter seems to be a logical choice since it eliminates the shank, be it from a screw in head or a glue on mounted onto an adapter.

[D.Sheppard]

That unseen sapling has damaged a few of my heads !

[Keith Zimmerman]

Ive never had a failure in an animal.  But after the pass thru on a rock or something, yes.

[Tim Finley]

I had two failures this spring on hogs one went thru and then unscrewed and was lost it was tightened extremely tight because I had a sting tracker tied on the threaded portion of the broadhead. I think the threads were machined too small.  The other I found inside the hog and the threaded part had broke off in the carbon arrow adaptor. These were a one piece machined broadhead of a very popular and new design. The one found inside the hog was also as dull as a butter knife, when it left my string it was razor sharp !

[cch]

I have only ever had failures with aluminum ferrules. I have not had a problem with steel inserts or one piece heads.

[Shadowhnter]

I shoot Grizzlys, and the worst thing thats happened to me is the glue let go after passing through, and I lost the head. I guess thats a glue failure, and not broadhead  but it still sucks. Ive went to a much better head glue since then, and no more probs

[Doug_K]

This is the only broadhead failure I've experienced, beyond broken bleeders or bent tips after hitting something hard.

 

This is the position it was in when I found it inside the deer.

I've had glue fail on adapters at the target, but not on animals yet. If I was worried about it i'd rough it up real good and use something like JB weld to join the adapter to the broadhead.

I have had one broadhead fail on me. I missed a pig from a treestand, and the arrow buried a few inches in the dirt. When I pulled it out the broadhead adapter had snapped in two at the end of the insert.

I have also bent a few blades over the years, but don't necissarily count that as a "failure".

Bisch

[SuperK]

I've only had two "failures" since the 70's.  On both of them the broadhead and aluminum insert was bent.  One of them was years ago when I was shooting a Woodsman with a needle tip.  I shot over the doe I was aiming at and hit another doe at the base of her ear.  The Woodsman bent in a "U" shape and exited her throat.  The other one was last year.  I hit a nice 8 pointer right in the sweet spot behind the shoulder with a Magnus II.  When he wheeled around , I saw the arrow fall out the same side I shot him on.  After cleaning the buck I noticed the broadhead and aluminum insert were bent.  I suspect that the arrow stuck in the off-side shoulder and when he wheeled around that is when the broadhead and insert got bent.  I don't doubt that a one piece broadhead is stronger but for a whitetail deer the aluminum inserts have worked fine for me.

[Kevin Dill]

I've busted open ferrules on Zwickey and Magnus heads that were glued on. I've distorted ferrules on Eclipse heads. I've experienced head breakage on older Snuffers. I've bent and messed up tips on most heads including Abowyers. I can find a way to screw up about anything.

I think aluminum adapters and inserts are weak. I've had carbon shafts break open at the insert. I've also had plenty of wood shafts bust right at the broadhead after impact. If I can shoot it, I can generally figure on breaking it somehow.

I don't think there is a foolproof system or this fool would use it. I recommend going strong and shooting straight. If things break, bend, come apart or fail....that's just part of the fine print a bowhunter knows will apply sooner or later.

[FlintNSteel]

I've only had one head failure in 40 years.  It was in the early 80's with a bear razorhead.  Arrow hit shoulder on other side and the main blades separated from the ferrule.  The shaft actually came flying back out the entry hole.  The blades were buried in the shoulder.  The whitetail buck only went about 30 yards, so the head was still effective, just not usable again.

I've never had a failure at the shank or threads.

[ozy clint]

So it seems that a failure of the shank or thread is not a very common failure. Certainly not as common as failures of the blades.

[screamin]

I shot a bunch of heads into fresh cow shoulder blades a couple years ago. I had blades break, blades bend, edges roll over, tips curl, welds break, but not one ferrule failed and some were aluminum. No arrows busted either, inserts were brass. Over the years on animals I have had one tip curl.

[hybridbow hunter]

I had flexed shank of standard steel adaptator and eclipse broadhead on a big pig pelvic bone shot o a steep quartering angle resulting in bad penetration but enough to recover the pig and put a back up arrow, but with a long dog tracking.
I had several ferrule or blade breakage with original German kinetics (3) and Magnus stinger(1) but dead animals.
I lost bleeders with all the broadheads made with bleeders.
I had significant flexed BH with zwickey, Magnus classic and ACE but most probably hitting stone after exit although I can't be sure it wasn't inside the critter.

[LongbowArchitect]

I had a Zwickey Delta fail when I hit a very large bull elk in the scapula from approx 20 yards with my 78# longbow. Curled the tip so badly that it wouldn't penetrate and just bounced almost all of the way back to me. Also the 2 halves of the Zwickey separated a bit. Since then I've had great success with 2 blade single bevel broadheads with tanto tips such as the new Cutthroat.