Broadhead Orientation effecting flight?

[DanielB89]

I am curious if any of you guys have a similar experience to mine. 

I have a scenario right now where the orientation of my broad head (simmons tree shark) effects the impact point of my arrow. 

If it's vertical, it's dead nuts middle. 

If I have the broad head is horizontal, it'll impact lower than my field tips, but still in line with my desired POI. 

I am assuming that there is a nocking point issue, but it is very easily fixed with the broad heads vertical orientation. 


Just curious if anyone else has experienced anything like this.

[GCook]

I would think it's more a matter of the eye seeing the wider profile of it horizontal where as when vertical it all but disappears except for seeing the point (tip).

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[pdk25]

Yep.  You can imagine that if the nocking point is off, that head will catch wind and begin to plane in a vertical direction.  I had the opposite problem with thentreesharks.  Flew great when horizontally oriented, but not vertically vertically when I was getting shelf contact causing lateral planing. Spine issues would cause the same lateral planing.

[blacktailbob]

What GCook said.
 If you have helical fletching it shouldn't matter what the angle of the head is.

[Pat B]

I never worried about the orientation of the head. I spin an arrow on my finger tip to feel if it wobbles and reset it so it doesn't wobble and the head is a bit different on each arrow. The arrow spins when shot so it goes through all orientations as it flies to the target.

[pdk25]

Well, I think it shows tuning/nock height issues.  If those are in order you may not have problems.  Otherwise, I promise that it can make an issue that you wouldn't notice with a different head.  Shelf contact causing the biggest problem.

[Pine]

My Bear Takedown did that. I raised my nock point about 1/8" and all was good. 

[Bisch]

From my experiences, if broadhead orientation is effecting POI, then there is a tuning issue that needs to be figured out.

Bisch


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[J. Cook]

Agree with most of the posts above.  At the relatively slow speeds we shoot - coupled with helical Fletch - broadhead planing shouldn't be an issue if everything is properly tuned.  I too shoot Tree Sharks out of multiple set ups. 

Now I do orient my broadheads in a specific manner, but it's 100% due to my "sight picture."

I'm not saying you aren't getting some planing effect as described, rather I'm saying that I agree with your assumption that there is a minor tweak in tune needed. 

[Sam McMichael]

As long as the point is aligned well, it has never made a difference for me.

[trad_bowhunter1965]

Back when I shot a Compound I would set my Buzzcuts vertically because they did impact low  but now I shoot my Grizzly set 1 and 7 fly prefect. I have also did some testing and they fly just as good horizontal. 

[hawkeye n pa]

Definitely made a difference in my compound days, but with stickbow I haven't noticed a difference.  Agree tuning or maybe borderline on arrow stiffness.

[bigbadjon]

Are you changing the broadhead position by rotating the nock? Ratating the nock on a carbon arrow can have a significant effect on arrow tune. I have measured up to 17# of deflection change by rotating the nock 90 degrees.

[Terry Green]

Vented heads do not plane....

 Orientated on any head should not matter unless you have a tuning issue or a terrible release....

[Terry Green]

Are you changing the broadhead position by rotating the nock? Ratating the nock on a carbon arrow can have a significant effect on arrow tune. I have measured up to 17# of deflection change by rotating the nock 90 degrees.

 Correct.... That's why I always use radial wrapped carbons.... That process completely  eliminates That issue....

[Badlands]

Many years ago I remember hearing that you should always lay them flat. The logic was that, with good tuning you can get rid of porpoising but you can't get rid of archers paradox, so by laying your broadhead flat it was less likely to catch air and veer off to the left or right.  I'm not sure if that is true or not, I never really tested it but it made sense to me so I've been laying them flat for 30+ years and haven't had any issues. 
I would guess that with carbon arrows and near center shot bows, there is far less archers paradox so it wouldn't matter much.

[pavan]

I have seen exceptions to the expectations when combined with other influences. i shot a wide solid head for three years straight out of a Super K, I had them vertically mounted on 2018s, all equal weight points matched target, field, blunt and the broad head, in a variety of modest conditions they flew perfect.  One day hunting near a steep bluff with a high gusty quartering wind coming in from behind me to the right, a nice buck came in range.  I have never seen a head side step that bad ever before. It must have have caught a swirling gust.  I missed the deer. A bit confused I test shot a Hill head of the same weight it flew perfect, shot another wide head it caught something in wind and side stepped something like the shot at the deer.  There is a limit, aerodynamically, as to how much one arrow can be influenced over another in obverse conditions.  Funky flight in good conditions, a tuning issue.  Funky flight in bad conditions, hard to predict. The 35 to 45 mph gusts we have been having here the past few days, even the best tuned set ups would be hard to predict, some days are simply not arrow shooting days. 

[bigbadjon]

Are you changing the broadhead position by rotating the nock? Ratating the nock on a carbon arrow can have a significant effect on arrow tune. I have measured up to 17# of deflection change by rotating the nock 90 degrees.

 Correct.... That's why I always use radial wrapped carbons.... That process completely  eliminates That issue....

Same here Terry. I had never considered it then I read an article by Rick Mckinney. Then I bought a spine tester and was shocked at the variance. I bring it up because most arrows are not woven construction and it does not seem to be common knowledge.

[pavan]

Back in the 60s and early 70s the same was true with fiberglass arrows.  We use to say orientate the cock feather to the stiff side.  One way to check was to hold the shaft flat on a table and bend it up, rotate a bit and bend again until you could feel the soft and strong sides.  A spine tester is much more accurate, especially when you double or triple the weight on the spine tester.  That of course, will not show you accurate spine, but it will show the deviation much easier.

[gordydog]

Interesting comment about rotating the nock can change the spine on carbon arrows. I did not know that. So do you spine all your carbon with the nock set,  rotate nock it in small increments to find consistent spine and then start fletching?