bone splitting broadhead on normal hits? how do they do?

[deermaster1]

i dont have any experience with trailing trad killed deer.  all my deer were hit with high velocity 3 and 4 blade, wide cutting heads, and a 1.5 2 blade head.  pentatration was the last thing on my mind, bone hit or not, and all went down fast.  but now that i am using a trad bow, i am looking for a head that will break the shoulder should if hit it, but these heads like the grizzly, and the new alasken ashby heads, the zwicky's, and all these other narrow 2 blade heads kinda scare me in the blood trail department.  they'd be great for punching through bone, but are they really going to leave a decent blood trail, with a regular double lung hit?  what about those hits through the liver, or even a liver/gut hit?  will a 1" 2 blade "bone buster", really leave an decent trail to follow?  i know there are hits in the same spot will squirt one day, and go bone dry the next, on occasion. there are so many variables. but on average, will a 1-1 1/8" 2 blade head put down a big deer and leave a good trail to follow, assuming the hit is a pass through,on average?  thanks for any input.

[WidowEater]

all evidence points to yes

if done correctly hand sharpened broadheads are sharper than most all factory out of the package head, this leads to more blood loss faster.  the heavier arrows that are generally used with trad bows also help in the penetration department

[Mo. Huntin]

When Dan Fitzgerald was pushing muzzy's way back he was shooting like a 90 pound compound bow and said you will probably be ok if you were shooting over 70 pounds in a compound in the shoulder.  I just hope you are shooting a heavy bow.  Good luck I hope you don't have to find out.

[deermaster1]

maybe i wasnt clear in my question.  i am asking, not how the perform on bone, but how they perform on not bone hits.

[Mo. Huntin]

I missread your post.  You where just saying worst case scenario you hit the shoulder. Sorry.

[Mo. Huntin]

[Richie Nell]

NO PROBLEM with blood trails using grizzlys or Zwickeys with the average heart lung shot.  No problem at all.  The other thing is that the deer are less alarmed and less likely to tear out running due to "fight or flight" when a sharp two blade heavy arrow zips through the rib cage.  Less resistance than a four blade.  That usually means a less sensory overload with deer.

[Bill Carlsen]

All I can add is that my experience with two blade heads has been good and bad. They seem to kill the animals about as quickly but the four deer I killed with them left no blood trail to speak of. One of them was shot on snow and if I didn't have the snow I don't know if I'de have found the deer. I have used the wide two blade Mag I and the narrower Hunter's Head. I will give the single bevel heads a chance next season but in the meantime I prefer the four blade Phantom or the 3 blade Razorcap or Woodsman simply because they leave a lot more blood on the ground.

[tiur]

Load your arrow up with the 300 extreem from morrison archery, busted bone and large holes they make, check it out. Good luck
ASL

[Sharpster]

This is an age old argument and we're not gonna settle it anytime soon. Too many variables for a set in stone answer.

Shot placement trumps every other factor in game recovery. I think we can all agree on that much. heart/lung hits will always bleed better than gut shots. (gut shots don't produce much blood with any broadhead).

Most of the time we're only going to get one arrow into a deer and we need to do as much damage with that one arrow as possible, both to make a fast, humane kill and to get the best bloodtrail possible.

Logic would suggest that bigger heads and more blades will do the most damage and therefore would be the best choice... but the mutitude of variables can make a big difference between what seems logical and what happens in the real world.

The best bloodtrails are generally produced by complete pass through shots. That means we need to consider penetration. Two holes bleed better than one and the shaft should probably not stay in the animal either. I say probably because, sometimes the shaft will keep the wound open and other times it will plug it up. That's another "unknown".

Sharper blades will always leave better bloodtrails than not so sharp broadheads regardless of the size of the broadhead or its bladecount. Sorry to harp but, I'm gonna repeat that: Sharper blades will always leave better bloodtrails than not so sharp broadheads  regardless of the size of the broadhead or its bladecount!

I know you're asking about "normal shots" which I translate into "well placed shots" but the trouble is arrows frequently don't go exactly where we intended them to go and just a couple of inches one way or the other will quickly transform a "normal" shot into a liver shot or a scapula hit or or a gut shot or high hit. We need to plan for the best but prepare for the worst.

The short answer to your question is: Yes, a razor sharp, narrow two blade broadhead will leave a great bloodtrail on a "normal" shot just as a large multi-blade will, and the narrow two blade has a better chance of achieving the complete pass through on those not so normal shots.

Lots more to this story like bow weight, tuning, shot selection, total arrow weight, FOC, and on and on... When everything else is considered, just use the broadhead that groups the best for you  and  you can get the sharpest.

Ron

[trapperDave]

I had NO trouble tracking my buck this year, taken with a Zwickey No Mercy single bevel, took out the lungs. Plenty blood to follow, though the trail was short    (about 80 yds max)

[Dave2old]

Regarding single-bevel two-blades and soft-tissue hits, reports are coming in that they really do a lot of organ damage going through and leave a larger exit wound than double-bevel heads. Just as the twisting produced by the head helps to split rather than just punch through bone, the twisting through soft tissues greatly increases the effective "cut length." More organ damage should lead to more bleeding on any given shot, but whether that blood makes it outside the animal, as Sharpster and others suggest, depends on several factors, notably pass-through or not, and on elk at least, vertical location of the hit. Elk have such huge lungs that they're famous for pooling every drop of blood inside if the hit is mid to high. One good reason to aim lower on elk (plus the heart is low). The two elk I've killed using the Ashby formula both went down within a few yards, within sight, making blood trails superfluous. Although heavy arrows, single-bevel heads, etc. may not be necessary for the average small whitetail, there doesn't appear to be any downside to using them, and if you hit a shoulder blade, all the better. Dave

[Morning Star]

I think Sharpster gave a darn good explanation.

I shoot the Woodsman head because I feel it's a good compromise between 2 blade penetration and blood draining wounds.  I don't have much faith in the woodsman if I smack the heavy part of a shoulder blade, but that in my opinion is a crap shoot even with a two blade head.  
It's the compromise I make.  Overall my deer have been much easier to find with the 3 blade head and I've been pretty good at staying away from the shoulder armour.    

Like Sharpster said....you have to consider your setup in your choice also.
On whitetails it's very rare I don't get two holes with the woodsman,  625 grains MFX shafts with 53lbs pulled at 27".

[longbowjim]

It looks like I shot this one with a cannon.  It was a 160 grain Grizzly.
 http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll66/jdwhisperstik/DSC00636.jpg
Same setup.  It was -3 degrees and my string grabbed my hand muff and caused the arrow to go through the hip bone.  Less than a 75 yard recovery.  
 

[George D. Stout]

Most bad blood trails come from guys shooting from high angles in tree stands.  When I started hunting from the ground again, and getting side to side shots, the two blades worked very well and gave plenty of blood.  Shot placement is everything and ground level shots produce more double lung hits, and that equals death within a hundred yards.  I may try the Grizzly heads again this late season, they have worked well for decades.

[James Wrenn]

With a good hit you will have some blood most times with any broadhead.I believe however you will always have more with a bigger broadhead or multiblade head that just cuts more stuff to bleed on the same shot.I like two blade heads but shoot large ones.If shooting small narrow broadheads they are 3 or 4 blade heads.I have killed and recovered a few animals with the little stos head so small will work but will never soak the ground like a treeshark or 4 blade head will.jmo