I'm going to my first year hunting with a trad bow (Bear Grizzly #50). There are a lot of broadheads to choose from and its overwhelming :confused: . My bow is tuned with GT Trad 340s with a 100gr brass inserts and 150gr tips. Here are what I'm looking at so far:
-Zwickey (4 blade or two blade single bevel?)
-DRT Nap 150 gr
-Woodsman 150gr
-Muzzy Phantom
I'm liking the design of the Zwickeys, but i was wondering how these different heads compare in penetration and ease of sharpening. Are there any other heads i should be considered (that aren't prices at an arm and a leg)?
So far I like the:
Woodsman, because i like the simplicity of sharpening 3 blade heads, and have had good luck with G5 Montecs out of my compound.
Zwickey single Bevel no mercy because ive heard of sigle bevel two blade preforming well with trad equipment.
Any thoughts? Is there a massive advantage to Single vs Double bevel?
Thanks All
-Caleb
For deer sized animals, I don't see a big advantage in single bevel over double and for me double bevels are easier to sharpen. All the BH's you mentioned will work fine if sharp and aligned properly.
All will do the job just fine. If it we're me I'd go with the woodsman just cause they're easier for me to sharpen
X2 on the woodsman
I have had excellent results with both Pha toms and Woodsmans. My wife shot a mature black bear with a Phantom and got a pass thru and a short 30 yard reovery.
I have killed animals with the woodsman, zwickey 2 blade and muzzy phantom.
If I had to pick one I would choose the Zwickey or woodsman just for durability. Those 4 blade zwickey are very nice and I've taken a few animals with them as well but they are tough to sharpen, not impossible just take some learning.
I am sold on two blades. I saw a study years ago that implied they penetrated better than anything else.
Maybe designs have changed, but they have not let me down yet.
Single or especially double bevel are not that difficult to sharpen with a file - see Terry's tutorial here.
By the way, my wife shoots a recurve in the low 40's and has no trouble getting two holes with any razor sharp multi blade head. We use Razorcaps which are no longer made. I also think it important to pay attention to FOC on a hunting arrow.
I think it boils down to how many blades you want to sharpen .
If two go zwickeys
If three go woodsman
Both proven designs, both easy to sharpen.
Put them in the right spot and " it will kill" to coin a phrase.
First question is. Are you shooting 50# at your draw length? Is so I'd say from your list it would be a personal choice. My personal choice from your list would be the Woodsman. You could also throw into the mix 150 grain 4 blade Stingers.
I suggest the two blade Zwickey Eskimo. Flies well. Easy to sharpen. Penetrates well. Not very expensive. I have used the wider Zwickey Delta and killed quite a few critters with them. The Woodsman is a good choice and flies great but is a lot more difficult to sharpen. Your choice may be decided by how well you can sharpen broadheads.
In terms of overall cost, efficiency, ease of sharpening, and just absolute success - I'd pick the Woodsman if I could only use 1 head.
Also, I'm assuming you have a very long draw because the arrows you listed are pretty stiff for a #50 bow...at least in my experience. With that said, if you're pulling 50#'s (or more) you'll have no trouble blowing a 3 blade through the diaphragm of a whitetail.
Like J Cook said above the 340's may be too stiff for a 50# bow. I also shoot a bear Griz - 55#. I had it tuned last year w 400's w 250 up front. This year I tuned it to 500's w 210 up front. As far a BH I'm shooting the woodsmans.
Have ya bareshafted the 340's?
I don't think the head really matters. There's a lot of really good heads out there.
What matters to me is how sharp I can get them, and how easy it is to get them sharp. (also durability but that goes without saying).
I'm apparently 3 blade sharpslexic. I could never get my woodsmans sharp. Even though a lot of people claim its easy. So those are sitting In a tackle box somewhere.
Zwickey's, grizzly's and Kodiaks are awesome heads for the money (plus lots of elbow grease). I find that they take a bit longer to get sharp due to the having to aggressively redo the grind angles. And out of a pack of 6, there's a good chance one or two has a blade that isn't straight or flat. On some of the zwickey deltas I got the edge was sort of concave in the middle. And on some of the grizzlys/Kodiaks the rear end of the blade was rounded off to the point where its impossible to fix without extreme metal removal....which I find very frustrating when attempting to sharpen on a KME. Also in my mind the widest part of the blade needs to do the most work. When its rounded back like that and harder to sharpen its also frustrating to my engineering mind. I like a nice flat/straight edge. At least that's my experience with those heads. (we seriously need to start a gofundme for these company's and get them a $50 jig to hold a consistent edge during grinding. Its not hard to make a flat edge. That would gain them some more business from me. I don't want to have to spend 10-20 minutes per head getting the edge straight).
I really like the KME sharpening system, so I choose heads that work well with that method of sharpening. I have to sharpen the heads for 3 hunters so the amount of time and effort to sharpen a head is important. My dad is worthless at sharpening and would shoot a dull head and not care (and I don't want to spend 4+ hours of my life tracking a deer that should've been dead within sight), he also carries them in a fairly inefficient hybrid back/side quiver that dulls the crap out of the heads very quickly due to the haphazard way he throws them in (he no longer gets grizzlys). And my bro is just getting into bowhunting again...although he is starting to become sharpening inclined, so I may get him setup with a KME. The point is I don't really like having to sit around camp late at night for hours resharpening my dads heads after he shoots them into the dirt or at a squirrel or just due to the quiver dulling them.
From what I've found the easiest heads to get sharp are the magnus stingers and zephyr's (which are out of business). I also really liked the old magnus 1's and 2's.
I think i've gotten those zephyrs sharper then anything else. And sasquatch's leave a mean hole. I know some people express concerns over their welds being weak. So my quiver this year will contain cutthroats (pending inspection), zephyr tempests (I think), zephyr sasquatchs, with maybe a zwickey delta or grizzly on standby for hoggy areas.
Anyway, that's my ramble if its worth anything.
I'd prolly choose woodsman from what you listed. Always better to cut a hole rather than a slit. Some people cut the very tip off as it's prone to bending but it's very easy to sharpen
I shoot grizzly and zwickey.... both good heads. The zwickey will take more work to get shaving sharp... get either the much loved KME here or a work sharp. I use a work sharp... 80 grit to get a burr bothsides then skip right to 6000 griit to knock it off. MAYBE 2 minutes total per head and they will melt hair.
A file sharpened Zwickey Delta is the way to go if you want to cleanly kill deer and not spend a lot of money in the process. The trick is no trick. Get a new file, count the file strokes as you go making lighter and lighter file strokes. the file strokes need to be straight and machine like, avoid rounding strokes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCm2thbGoZI
All those heads will work fine. I like the phantoms the most out of those four since I can get them hair popping sharp with the KME and they really keep an edge even in rainy weather over several days. The woodsman and zwickeys will dull up faster with oxidation compared to the phantoms.
Zwickey Eskimo 2 blade with a 100 grain screw in broadhead adapter.
File sharpened.
It is ready to go.
Very simplistic.
Zwickeys: A simple $5 Rada wheelie sharpener and some denim will get them shaving sharp in no time flat. I have no hair on my left arm to prove it. I just sharpened 8 Deltas last weekend for the upcoming season. Its crazy easy with the Rada. Once they are "sharp" on the Rada, I finish them off on my blue jean denim pants leg. Super-sharp. Takes about 8-10 minutes per head.
For the ppl with the bow/DL questions, I'm pulling more like 54 or 55# at my 30ish" DL. My arrows are 32" long, and I did originally shoot a 400 spine, but kept getting weak spine issues. I switched to a 340 and got my arrows to fly just like my fieldtips. My 340 arrows are more stable and fly straighter, so I don't really care what is idealy the "correct" spine.
QuoteOriginally posted by CCBeltz:
For the ppl with the bow/DL questions, I'm pulling more like 54 or 55# at my 30ish" DL. My arrows are 32" long, and I did originally shoot a 400 spine, but kept getting weak spine issues. I switched to a 340 and got my arrows to fly just like my fieldtips. My 340 arrows are more stable and fly straighter, so I don't really care what is idealy the "correct" spine.
Agreed. I shoot a similar setup and they bareshaft just fine plus have small gaps. Experience is confirmed by 3-rivers calculator showing a near perfect match at around mid-50s in dynamic spine. Any arrow 32" long & loaded up front is going to be very bendy compared to a 28" or 29" arrow.
I can't speak to the terminal damage of the heads you mention but I've shot a few. Zwickeys are good but I'd stick to the double bevels -- even on the No Mercy heads. The extra layer of metal on the tip is fused over the side blades, creating an odd transition that is nearly impossible for me to get a good, smooth flat edge on the unbeveled side. You could opt to make the sides single bevel past the transition and keep the tip as a double bevel. But why complicate things?
I got frustrated with trying to regrind angles on my grizzly heads so I put those aside for this season & picked up some Zwickey Deltas. I could have just used the No Mercy heads I already have but I figured if I couldn't have a single bevel, I'd at least have a wider cutting diameter. Like any Zwickey, they sharpen with a file or whatever I have on me (pocket knife sharpener, car window, etc.). Plus they're cheap, easy to find & solid enough for anything I'm chasing. If I can get the grizzly angles set better, I may take them with me for my late season hunt. But I just didn't want to mess with them anymore this close to the season opener.
All shoot well if you do your part.