Initial impression of single bevel heads

[JohnV]

I have killed a lot of deer with 2 blade double bevel, 3 blade, and 2 blade single bevel. In general, penetration and blood trails are better with my single bevel Abowyer Wapiti broadheads. Are your broadheads shaving sharp? What about shot placement?

[GCook]

3 blade creates a hole, two blade a slit. The latter can be closed over by muscle tissue/skin from the movement of the deer.

Maybe but a three blade makes a little hole.  A wide cut two blade makes a gaping gash.

[Sam McMichael]

I readily admit that I do not understand the science behind the cutting ability of one broadhead as compared to another, but I have a pretty fair understanding of sharp. How is it that a head that is shaving sharp does not seem to cut as well as another head that is also shaving sharp? A slice is a slice, isn't it? Hopefully, somebody can explain why there seems to be a more effective cut from the double bevel than the single bevel. I have no experience with the single edge broadheads, so this thread fascinates me. I'll stay with my Magnus and Razorheads.

[JohnV]

Yes, I have an explanation. The broad heads did not hit in the same location. Both double and single bevel broadheads will perform well if they hit the heart -lung area.

[Doug in MN]

Have used Grizzly's off and on for a long time have had them leave profuse blood trails, have had them leave iffy blood trails, with good hits heart lung area.
I will only use them now if build some Hog arrows. I really like 3 blade BH's and am back to Snuffers they have never left anything other than, a crap don't slip in all that, kind of a blood trail for me. They are short blood trails as well, short blood trails are good blood trails sooner to the pan.

[Bisch]

Idk what causes it, but sometimes blood trail just suck for inexplicable reasons. I shot this doe:

last Sunday morning. The shot was a complete passthru with perfect placement. You can see the entrance hole in that pic. Exit hole was in the other side in exactly the same place. The broadhead was a 1.5” wide German Kinetic 2-blade(double bevel), and I never found a single drop of blood between where she was shot and where she piled up. She only went about 40yds, so was easy to find.

As far as single bevels go, I don’t care for them because I can’t sharpen them well. For that reason, I have no actual hunting experience with them.

Bisch

[SlowBowinMO]

I prefer single bevels on my two blades simply because I can get them sharper than anything else.  Blood trails have been slightly better than double bevel two blades from what I can remember.  I'd suspect the lack of blood trails experienced by some is simply due to dumb bad luck.  Some can't sharpen a single bevel either and shouldn't use one if they can't.

The single bevel advantage really doesn't come into play unless you are talking about heavy game or you intend to shoot whitetails in the shoulder.    I mostly shoot 3 blades at whitetails these days as a result.

[Overspined]

Get em scalpel sharp...pic is worth a 1000 words. I’ve never had a problem with blood trails once they’re correctly sharp. Not trying to start an argument but I’ve shot all my deer for 30 years with them. I usually don’t need to even track em. From my first deer at 15 years old with a 44# longbow at 1/2 draw to deer dressing 240# in Illinois.

[Overspined]

I readily admit that I do not understand the science behind the cutting ability of one broadhead as compared to another, but I have a pretty fair understanding of sharp. How is it that a head that is shaving sharp does not seem to cut as well as another head that is also shaving sharp? A slice is a slice, isn't it? Hopefully, somebody can explain why there seems to be a more effective cut from the double bevel than the single bevel. I have no experience with the single edge broadheads, so this thread fascinates me. I'll stay with my Magnus and Razorheads.

That’s a valid point. It’s basically a factor of a couple of things, but one of them is the acuity of the angle of sharpening. So a shaving sharp axe isn’t going to slice quite like a scalpel, but both are sharp.  And any deer shot in vital areas should die, I’ve shot so many deer with 3 blade, expanding heads, 2 blade, single bevel....the way the single bevel twist and cork screw through, in addition to the acuity of the sharpening angle, might help explain why there seems to be some difference...I don’t know if anything could really definitively test any of these theories on living animals, but Ashby’s penetration tests have been the most comprehensive testing we have to reference at this point to my knowledge.   I just have happened to have used the 2 blade Griz single bevels since I started with longbows in like ‘91 other than the ones I’ve killed with wheels... one other thing is that to keep durability of the angle and the head, the steel needs to be able to handle the highly acute sharpening angle without dulling or breaking. My personal experience is that everything got better after I read Ashby’s results and implemented his sharpening recommendations. 

[Horsehide]

Reading this post made me realize most of my bow kills were done with single-bevel heads. The others were brought down with 190gr Ribteks modified to have a Hill profile in the way Tom Mussatto showed me.
Not sure of the angle on these heads, but all were extremely sharp. Blood trails were seldom impressive, but most game either dropped in sight or only went under a hundred yard. My limited experience does not point to single-bevel being much better, as long as I do my part with proper shot placement.

[buckeyebowhunter]

I've been thinking about this a lot since I posted and have concluded that maybe you should play the odds based on the type of shot you most frequently make on deer.

For example if you are an excellent shot and maybe tend to hit a little forwards maybe a smaller single bevel would be your choice.

On the other hand if you're somewhat of an average shot and tend to hit a little farther back maybe a 3 blade or wide 2 blade would be a better choice.

And perhaps maybe a middle ground between the two would be a durable 3 blade like a VPA.

I myself am somewhat of an average shooter. I've made good shots and plenty of bad ones too. And I get the dudes that say "well if you'd just make a good shot none of this matters".
None of us are trying to make "bad" shots, which was what I said in my original post that I thought the shots my father and I had made this year were good or at least decent and the outcomes were bad so I think it's natural to put some blame on the head we were using whether that's fair or not.

I really enjoyed everyone's responses.

[Joeabowhunter]

It's all too common to hear how great the broadhead is when successful and how bad the broadhead is when unsuccessful.  You can read thread after thread on this topic here and on other archery sites.  I have had great blood trails with every head you've mentioned and I've also had poor blood trails with the same heads.  A perfect double lung with a low exit will leave you a great blood trail every time.  Unfortunately, it's impossible to be perfect every time.  Choose the broadhead that you are confident in, make it sharp and go hunting.

[dragonheart]

I went back to VPA 3 blade broadheads and I have encountered the great results I got in the past.  I cannot sharpen the single bevel broadhead to a satisfaction level I like, that is the key to any broadhead.  I shoot glue on VPA with an adaptor, no screw in for me.  Shoot thru's and great-great trails.
I never got that with single bevel broadheads, but I was also shooting wood arrows and got less penetration due to the arrow shaft breaking in the animal with single bevels.  Get them sharp no matter what design...and avoid anything mechanical.     

[tracker12]

Really had to blame/judge the  performance of a BH on a deer that was not recovered.  Only fair on recoveries where the hit is documented and internal damage can be determined.

[GCook]

Really had to blame/judge the  performance of a BH on a deer that was not recovered.  Only fair on recoveries where the hit is documented and internal damage can be determined.

I'd say there were plenty of replies about recovered animals with poor blood trails as well. 
There are also plenty of pics and stories every season where well shot animals not only survived but were shot and killed the second time a hunter got the opportunity.  So just because an animal wasn't recovered doesn't necessarily mean a bad shot.

[hessian]

Take heed that I’ve only shot one animal with a single bevel Grizzly and that was yesterday...but for what it’s worth, it was a double lung (from the ground) arrow penetrated to the fletching and broke as he ran. Minimal blood trail but he died in about 40-50 yards.

[Overspined]

I don’t know how everyone else is doing it, but I’ve resorted to using a Paper sharpening wheel Which also comes with The strop wheel. I basically practiced on an old head or two until I get the hang of it, now when I’m done sharpening those heads they’re devastatingly sharp, and my blood trails show it. I used to use the file techniques and never had even close to the same results. I have hit high double lung where the blood trail was hard to follow because it was like a sprinkler out both sides, It would get confusing on which way the deer was actually going there was so much blood. A few years ago I hit one high in the loin and had no trouble tracking it almost half mile, it just took a bit to pick up the initial blood trail And I ended up catching up to it and seeing it was not going to die from that wound so far as I could tell. The first many deer I shot with grizzlies had poor blood trails but they were also not nearly as sharp as I get them now. I shot a deer with a four blade stinger the other day double bevel right through the heart and it was not an easy blood trail to follow, not really easy and not really hard. So I don’t know I think sharpness is the biggest factor, and I’ve had such great luck with grizzlies I just keep using them unless I need some thing where a grizzly won’t fit the weight or whatever exactly I’m looking for at the time or I don’t have any sharp ones laying around.

[Overspined]

All that being said, when somebody is either new or not experienced in sharpening, I always get them into stingers or replaceable blade broadheads of some sort and I don’t even bring up the fact that they exist LOL I think they take a lot of time to get right and I’d rather see people use sharp heads than get frustrated

[GCook]

The wheels do an awesome job.

[David Phillips]

I’ve been on many blood trails two, three and four blades the number one defining difference in blood on the ground was sharpness not number of blades. I think everyone has a different interpretation of sharp or scary sharp. Kinda like when your buddy  says his bow is whisper quiet and when you watch him shoot it sounds like someone slammed a car door? A lot of people get their broadheads sharp enough to shave a little and call it good some take it to the next level with a strop etc. Some start with a sharp head but fail to maintain the edge through the season. I shot this doe this evening with a Grizzly file sharpened then wet stoned then a leather strop. Sharp enough to make you pay attention when you handle it. And I check and retouch the edges frequently.
    The blood trail pics are about average this doe went 50 yards had blood like this every few feet all the way to her.