Thunderhead broadheads

[LongStick64]

Anyone use Thunderheads with traditional gear. I have a friend that swears by them with his recurve. And in truth I took my first deer with them twenty years ago.

[bfrbmj]

I have used them and had a double lung pass thru on a nice doe a couple of years ago.  I also used them during my dark years with a wheelie-never a problem, fly great.  I use woodsmans now because they are easy to resharpen,  and more of a cut on impact style head(I leave the needlepoint).  I would not have a problem using them on deer but would use something different on larger/ tougher boned critters.  Brian

[Red Tailed Hawk]

Ive used them with my wheelie bow when I first started hunting. Never had any issues with them.

Since switching to trad I only used stingers and now zwickey.

I am one of the "sharpening challenged" guys. I used Thumderheads for years off my stick bows and killed a lot of critters with them. My attitude was that it was better to use a chisel tipped BH with razor sharp blades than to use a cut-on-impact blade that was not near sharp enough. Now I have a KME and all is good. I still suck at sharpening and irt takes me forever to sharpen my GK heads but I get it done and they are scary sharp.

Bisch

[mrjsl]

I'm going to use the 125's this year. I have a bunch left over from years ago when I shot a compound.

I've killed a lot of deer with Thunderheads, and they will do the job. My bows are upper 50's in weight, and that is more than enough. This is just the first year I've ever tuned up an arrow for my recurve that will shoot 125 grain heads.

The guys at the local bow shop think that Thunderheads are "trad" because everyone shoots mechanical broadheads these days. The old thunderheads have dust on the packages cause nobody loves them.

[ron w]

A lot of guys still use them....if your going with that style.....it's one of the best!

When looking at them I see no problems, if you have the power. however, I found an arrow years, a full length 2419 with a ball of deer hair on the end and most of one plastic vane missing. Under that dry ball of hair was a blood soaked wad of hair that completely covered the broadhead.  The Thunderhead under it seemed sharp. There was no blood trail that I could find.  Several hundred yards up the same trail I found a doe, dead for several days, with that missing part of the vane from the arrow run into the hair at the entry. Looking at wound, it was almost impossible to see the blade cuts, the doe merely had a hole punched through her.

[agross1]

I am glad to see this thread.  I am looking to get my first deer this year with traditional gear.  Because of some health issues it has been put on hold for a couple weeks.   I spent a while before the season trying to figure out what broadheads I should use .  Then it hit me .  I still have 2 boxes of my dad's 125 grain thunderheads.  He was killed in a car accident several years ago.   What better way to take my first traditional deer than with the last heads my father used to hunt with.

[SlowBowinMO]

Originally posted by Bisch:
I am one of the "sharpening challenged" guys. I used Thumderheads for years off my stick bows and killed a lot of critters with them. My attitude was that it was better to use a chisel tipped BH with razor sharp blades than to use a cut-on-impact blade that was not near sharp enough. Now I have a KME and all is good. I still suck at sharpening and irt takes me forever to sharpen my GK heads but I get it done and they are scary sharp.

Bisch

I could not agree more with this statement.     If sharpening eludes you the Thunderheads remain a great choice for deer sized game.

[Terry Green]

I shot thunderheads back in my compound days....then someone showed me the light...and I shot Zwickies off my compounds then continued when I went to Trad....

Take a scrap piece of carpet and set one end of it in a solid chair and step on it....hold the other end tight with your weak hand.....take the arrow point down and try to push the arrow through the carpet with one finger on the nock.

Try this with the thunderhead.....then try it with a sharp cut on contact, one without a blunt tippy tip.  That will show you how much energy you are loosing at impact.

This same test will also show you the same thing with too much tanto.

[JamesKerr]

I would recommend them if you are sharpening challenged. But most people if they try hard enough can get a bh sharp enough to hunt with.

[elkken]

I am one of those sharpen challenged guys and I shot them for many years with great results. I liked the the flight and ease of changing to fresh razor sharp blades. I shot the 125grn 3 blades and 160 2 blades. I never had a bad result with them and I was shooting bows mostly in the 55# range. I only hunted deer with them but my hunting partner killed a small bull moose with them on a hunt we did together.

Now I'm retired and have all day to try and sharpen my broadheads so I am shooting Simmons heads, but I always have some thunderheads in my gear box.

[Pat B.]

I couldn't agree more, Terry..

Too much tanto tip hinders penetration, IMO..

[Walt Francis]

They arer an excellent broadhead, but as mentioned by others, you should use a heavier bow: I'd recommend 55#'s or heavier.

Before switching to magnus broadheads (mainly because they were by far the easiest for me to sharpen) I used then successfully from 58-68# recurves & longbows on black bear, elk, whitetail, muledeer, and mountain goat.

[Oliverstacy]

I have several boxes of 150gr 2-blades and 2 boxes of 160 grain 3-blades...even found a box of 180 grain 3-blade.  I like collecting broadheads and that was the reason for buying what I have.

That said I wouldn't hesitate using the 150's on my current set-up's and usually have 2 in my quiver at all times.

Thunderheads are great heads...I'm shooting Razorcaps and they fly great and sharpen easy.

Josh