Choosing The Right Mechanical Broadhead | Mechanical Broadhead Information


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Modern mechanical broadheads are extremely popular with today’s bowhunters. Field point accuracy and large cutting diameter make for a lethal combination.

The smaller in-flight size of a mechanical broadhead is what allows it to be more accurate than a traditional fixed-blade head.

Thousands of bucks just like this one are downed each fall by properly placed mechanical broadheads.

While a fixed-blade head such as this one can provide increased penetration, they are often more difficult to tune than mechanical broadheads.

A well placed shot from any broadhead, whether it is mechanical or fixed-blade, will allows have a happy ending.

Mechanical Broadheads

It’s always important to make sure that your mechanical broadhead is not deployed or partially open before shooting it, as your arrow’s flight can be drastically affected.

There is still debate in some circles about whether mechanical broadheads are effective or if they contribute to wounding loss. I have pretty much made up my mind on that subject after using them for much of the past 12 seasons. I consider myself conservative when it comes to equipment selection, a bit of a slow adopter, but I have never felt as uncomfortable about mechanical heads as some people are. In fact, I have my own way of looking at this; it is just my opinion based on my goals and experiences, but I feel very confident in the heads I use. Here’s why I like mechanical heads.

I have my opinions, so take this for what it is worth. I feel that accuracy is the most important goal of any shot – whether at a target or at game. That has to be priority number one. I have talked with many broadhead makers over the years and even those that didn’t make mechanical heads at that time stated that any decent broadhead will kill a deer-sized animal if you hit it in the right place.

So, hitting them in the right place is a big deal. There are many fixed-blade heads that fly nearly as well as field points under a wide range of conditions, but back in 1995 when I made the switch to mechanicals, there weren’t any. I fought to achieve good accuracy on shots past 25 yards with the fixed-blade heads of that day. My biggest problems occurred with bows that were a bit quirky (some of those bows were impossible to tune) and when shooting in the wind.

When I first began trying mechanical heads, taking them to the field to use on live game was a no-brainer. My accuracy was so much more consistent; my confidence surged. Over the past 12 years I am sure that I have shot at least 200 big game animals (I shoot does everywhere I hunt) with mechanical heads. My recovery rate has been very high. I can’t think of a single shot that I would take again with a different head. I have never had reason to question the effectiveness of the mechanical heads I have used. I’m sure there are situations where they are inferior to fixed-blade heads, but I have not encountered those situations personally.

So much for opinion, now let’s look at the physics. Anytime you put a wing at the front of a projectile, you have the potential for steering. That is exactly what you are doing when you attach a fixed-blade broadhead.

You work hard to figure out how best to control the bow and you tinker with the tuning until you think the bow controls the arrow. Now, the last thing you want is an arrow that decides on its own which way it will go once it leaves the bow. With a wing at the front, there is always that potential. The larger the wing, the larger the potential problem. I’m not saying a problem is guaranteed. When you have a well-tuned bow, a perfectly straight arrow, with a nock, insert and broadhead all in alignment and when you hold good shooting form through the shot, you will shoot any fixed-blade head accurately. But if any of those elements breaks down, you will have a wind-planing issue. And the faster it flies, the more it will wind-plane.

If you remove the wing from the front of the arrow, or reduce the size of the wing, you eliminate or reduce the possibility for a problem. That is not my opinion; that is aerodynamics 101.

The goal then becomes a combination of two tasks: make the wing as small as possible and get the bow, arrow and your shooting form as good as possible. The smallest wing is no wing, and that is the only reason I shoot mechanical broadheads.

Once again, I’ll give you my opinion. I want a small mechanical head that opens to roughly 1 1/4 to 1/2 inches. I can understand why you might want a bigger style and I have spoken with many die-hard super-serious bowhunters who use mechanicals that open to two-inches, or more. My arrows possess enough energy to shoot a mechanical that opens up like a pair of steak knives. That would be great on soft-tissue hits, but when I do have a slight bauble and hit the animal in the shoulder, I still need penetration. You get better penetration with smaller heads. I want to be able to kill a deer that I accidentally shoot in the shoulder. With a smaller head, I increase the odds of a clean kill.

When a mechanical head opens from the back forward, it acts more like a fixed-blade head on impact. Less of the arrow’s energy is needed to open the blades and more of it is available to penetrate the animal. If the blades open from the front back (the way most of them do) the shorter blades used in the smaller designs that I favor will rob much less energy.

Personally, if I had to choose between a conventional mechanical head (one that opens from the front backward) with short blades or one with long blades and the same cutting diameter, I would choose the short blades. That is because short blades don’t spread (and push outward) as much when they pivot open so they take less energy from the arrow. If they are sharp, the deployed cutting angle of the blade (they will be chopping more than slicing) will not hurt you. The head will still do a good job of cutting tissue.

I want to hit them in the boiler room – first and foremost. Mechanical heads give me the best chances for doing that. As long as there aren’t any downsides (or minimal downsides) associated with the style, you can bet I’ll be using them and I am. That is why I like mechanical broadheads – I hit what I’m aiming at.