Howard Hill Broadhead Test Results :)

[Trad Man 25]

OK so I’m going to South Africa and Namibia this summer,, ill be there for 2 months in total,,  god willing I’m planning on using my Howard Hill Cheetah,, Longbow,, its 70”  65lds @ 28”,, for the main part of the trip I’m planning on using Woodsman’s,, and or Zwickys,, but If the opportunity presented its self I thought it would be nice to try and take some Game with a Hill BH,, so I   got 6 Howard Hill Broad heads from 3 rivers archery

[Trad Man 25]

So when I got them,,  I had seen pictures of them,, and had a good idea of what they would look like,, but when I saw them In the flesh,, they were BIG,, but what I noticed about them is that the metal blade is very thick,, and the edge that has been ground on to it is at a very steep angle,, and as a result, if  I were just to  sharpen at that angle,, they would  not get very sharp,,that’s what I thought  so I just put them to one side,, and left them,, but today I decided to give them a try out,,

[Trad Man 25]

So I decided that if I wanted to get them sharp I would have to put a bit of extra effort in to them,, and work a lot ( may be a few mm, so not a lot,, but you now what I mean, )  of the blade away, to make the angle a lot less,, to get them sharper,, ( well this is what I figured, )  so I don’t have any power tools ect,, my little daramel tool and the little grinder end would have been really nice,, but hay,, I just had to put a bit of time in to this and do it the hard way,  

[Trad Man 25]

OK,, so i just clamped the Arrow on to my Desk,, and got my tool,, i call it a dimond sharpener,, but i have no idea what they are called,, but there great,, this is all i had in the way of sharpening tools,, there is a fine and corse side,,  so i just started working on each edge at a time,, trying to keep it all at the same angle,, and i was trying to make the cuting edge biger with a lower angle,, and hoping by doing this would create a sharper edge,

[Trad Man 25]

so this was the " set up "    

 

[Orion]

The diamond sharpener is to put a finish edge on the blade.  If you want to change the bevel angle a little, you'll need to start with a file.  Good luck.

[Trad Man 25]

OK,, it took me about 10-15 minutest to work each cutting edge,, luckerly i was only doing one    

so by the time i was finished,, this is what the head looked like,, and it is sat next to one that i have not worked on,, ( hope youll be able to tell witch one is witch )    

 


 


it did not come out two well on the pictures,,, but i hope you can see the edge on the one ive worked on wider,, ( showing i have lowered the angle, )  

 


 

its not amasing picturs,, but i think you can see from this one that the metal is quite thick,,

and showing the steep angle
 

[Trad Man 25]

Orion,, yes thats what i usually use it for on my knives,, but it seemed to the job,, on the heads,, but just took a long time,,  

[Trad Man 25]

I figure,, im going to have a lot of time sat in the hides,,  

[LEOPARD]

Looking good James! How sharp did you manage to get them? Good enough to hunt big African game with?
The pics are fine mate. We can easily tell which is which!        

[d. ward]

Hey Trad Man now I don't want to be a party pooper...nor do I want to get sued,nor do I want to insult anyone in anyway...OK..Now I will most likely never set foot on African soil myself.And believe me that is one trip I would just about do anything to go on...but just not in the cards for the old bowdoc right now....However the same thoughts crossed my mind in my dreams.Please look at the pics of some HH's I was testing out on some plywood(not in my dream but for real).They worked super and will.. with out a dout kill any critter we would choose to shoot with one...But when used at a somewhat of quatering angle...you know maybe the critter is just about the perfect angle...The ferrule broke on impact..please see pic.They broke at the shoulder.please keep me posted and again I don't want to discourage you in anyway.Just thought it may help.bowdoc

[Trad Man 25]

ok so now that i have sharpend the Head,, i wanted to test it,,
This was just my first Attempt,, and if i was going to use this head to shoot at a Game animal,, i would spend about 2x as long making sure every thing is perfect and as good as can be,,

so,, i decided to shoot 3 sets ,, of 2 arrows,, one arrow being the one i just sharpened and the other a head with the same agle,, as when purchased,,

So my Target is a Really big,, Foam Mattress, ( with out any springs in it    its been roled up and tied up,, so its 3 layers thick,, of mattres,, ,, hope you under stand,,

so thats the target,, and i figured that foam,, would be quite a good material to shoot in to because hope fully the sharp broardhead would slice thought it  like a hot knife thought butter and the blund head would just push and rip its way thoguht,, and hope fully show clear results,, that was the theory any way,,

[Trad Man 25]

Thanks Nige,,, Man,, ill be Happy enoght just being sat in the hide with you and Andy,,and the rest of the Crew,,,  im sure well be lagthing so much,, we wont see a Single animal,,      

BowDoc,, Thanks for the post,, REally interesting,, But i just realised the time,, and i got to run to my lectures,, ( Small-Scale Forest Goods and Services in South Africa, ) hum,, Interesting, ,,

ok soo ill finnish my Report and Results and yes ,,, Pics,, when i get back,, sorry for stoping halth way though,, but as my mum says,, Playing with Bows and arrows wont pay the morgage,       lectures come fisrt,  :(  

Back Soon

Thanks for showing an interst

James

[aromakr]

bowdoc:
I think the next time I go hunting for Wild Plywood I'll use a different head!!!!!!!! Thanks for the insight.
Bob

[d. ward]

Hey Bob it's considered dangerous game in my hood.But my thought process was lets say a cape at 8 yards and that head breaks...yikes...bowdoc

[trapperDave]

thats the one time I would be hoping to hear a very loud BOOM  :D

[Dr. Ed Ashby]

Don, that's the exact break I was describing in the Update; it breaks where the ferrule retaining pin passes through, and then just snaps. It's not an uncommon occurrence on any heavy-bone angular impact - and on bone not nearly as thick as a buffalo rib.

Ed
TGMM Family of the Bow

[jrchambers]

those hill heads have an aluminum ferulle dont they,  quite a bummer if you ask me.   thats a dmt sharpener your using,  even though that blue grit will work just fine it does take about three times as long as if you had just bought a cheap 12" file.

[Trad Man 25]

Ok,,, So now to the testing,,,

There is nothing scientific,, here and im not trying to say any thing about the head weather its good or bad,, i was just curious about this head,, and thought i would see how it performs,, and thought that there may be some one esle that would be interested,,, so i may as well shair my findings,,even though there far from conclusive,, just a bit of fun,,


OK so iv described the target,, and i should really tell you what my bow set up is so you can have a greater understanding ,,    

So at the moment im shooting my cheetah,, 70",, takedown sleve, and its 65lds @ 28,,

the arrow im shooting is a  Carbon Express Heritage 250,, the shaft is 29" long,, with a standard insurt you get with the Arrows,, and the standard Nock that came with the,, and im using a long Adaptor, thats 42 grains, and obviosuly a 160g Hill Head,,, so the total lenght of the arrow is 32.5"  i dont have scales,, so i dont now the weight of the shaft,, ect,, but hay,, the most important thing is that the arrow flyes Perfect,,
I havent tested to see exactly the poundage that i have when at full Draw,,

So this is how the set up looks,
 

Im standing about 10  Yards from the target,, I guess you could say its a nice short shot from a hide    

ok So the first shots,, with both Heads,,
and this is the result,,

 

 

 

the ruler is not there to measure any thing imberticular,, just to give the picture scale,

 

[Trad Man 25]

Ow i forgot to mention,, im using 5 Inch Nanners,,    these are my practice arrows and have been shot Thousand's of times and so the fletch is at little worse for where,,