This is a serious question...
I'm trying to get a serious set of woodies for this season. I've not done a season using wood shafts yet. For small game and practice I usually shoot bottles and trash on a hill, and my broadheads stay duller than my big toe and beat up. Which is fine for a squirrel or groundhog. I keep trying to find a way to practice and develop confidence with this set of arrows but my haybale keeps eating my broadheads. Lost two and I'm done with that. I hate beating them up on dirt as well.
What do most guys do to practice how they hunt? Is there a trick to pulling out of a bale that I'm missing?
Is shooting in the dirt and sharpening often a viable option? I've had a heck of a time getting an edge on them even when they're factory clean!
Push the shaft through the bale, heat and remove the head, pull the shaft back out.
I'm ashamed I didn't think of that.
Well one was eaten by a round bale... not much to do about that. I see guys on YouTube just plucking them out like darts, I don't understand why mine seem to be impossibly stuck almost every shot.
You need some kind of foam to shoot broadheads into. They will tear a target up pretty quick though. I shoot mine enough to make sure they are flying good, then sharpen them and save them for hunting. I then shoot matching arrow with field points or blunts/judo for practice,
Round bales will eat your arrows. If you shoot them from the end your arrows will disappear and if you shoot from the side you can pull a broadhead tippee arrow back out.
Best target for broadheads is a nice clean sand pile. Just beware if there are neighborhood stray cats. To them it's a big litter box. You should just commit a few (3-4) broadheads for practice heads. The sand wears off the paint and dulls them but doesn't bend or break them.
R
I shoot broadheads into a foam cube/octagon just enough to check arrow flight, and then sharpen them. I have used 160 grain STOS Broadheads for that and then shoot 160 grain target tips into regular targets.
Never had a broadhead pull off.
Judo heads are great for small game or stumping. You can melt lead shot into the head to boost weight up.
Sand piles do work, although I have completely buried a broadhead tipped arrow shooting into them.
I shoot mine into the sides of dry creekbanks. We actually do a broadhead competition between a friend and I shooting leaves and such on the creekbanks. Great practice. Just sharpen the broadheads before hunting season.
What are you using for glue?
Kimsha hot melt or Big Jim's hot melt, they aren't coming off in a bale I'll say that ....
A bag or two of mulch will stop a broadhead.
If you shoot one in a bale you better be pushing them through. I buy a few bags of contractors tube sand each year for driveway ice and then just pour them on my pile in the spring. You should not need a huge pile. Mine will freeze too hard in the winter so I will shoot field points and bales. Just a side note for us wildlife lovers the birds I feed get their grit from my sand pile in the winter so I bust it up some if the snow is deep. A lot of people who feed don't provide grit an essential in the winter.
If only I had asked tradgang a long time ago. I love the sand idea, but I'm sure the farm cats will love it more. I guess I'll have to come up with some type of cover...
As for hot melt, I have no clue, nor did I know there was anything other than hot melt glue from any hobby store... I will say I've broke an arrow before trying to get a head out of a root from a tree. They're pretty well in there. I guess the hay is like mud and boots.
I guess a side bar but related topic, when you all sharpen your broadheads, do you leave them on the arrow? Or take them off and put on a small piece of arrow to be able to have more control?
Look up Sunsethilllongbowsand leather
It's a blog that Nate Steen does. He has a very good and simple video on sharpening two blade broadheads.
But yes, I sharpen my broadheads on the the arrow shaft.
I use foam for broadheads. They pull out just fine and have never given me problems. It's also a lot less work to get a broadhead back to shaving sharp after shooting into foam as opposed to shooting into sand.
Clean your heads before glueing .I use a tapered wire brush in my drill for the Ferrell three rivers has them, then I clean with acetone and use Big Jims hot melt they wont come off.
I saw an interesting video the other day where a guy filled up a bucket with rubber mulch for BH practice. He cut a cardboard lid to shoot through and hold the mulch in, laid the bucket on its side and shot into it. Looked like it worked ok but I haven't tried it. I might when my foam target finally dies.
With hay bails I cut the twine then rety as tight as I can get them by hand...they are tight enough to stop my arrows but not so tight that I can't easily push the arrow through and not ruin the fletch.
Quote from: MnFn on September 04, 2025, 09:24:29 AMLook up Sunsethilllongbowsand leather
It's a blog that Nate Steen does. He has a very good and simple video on sharpening two blade broadheads.
But yes, I sharpen my broadheads on the the arrow shaft.
I watched that video and got some of your old broadheads sharper than any previous attempt. Not even close. I'm pretty good at getting an edge on a knife, but I had been having a time getting control of the broadhead and making consistent strokes. Thank you for that. Simple and smooth I like it.