Next question folks:

Have you experimented with ways of preventing or slowing down pass-thru's with broadheads on small game? I'm thinking a tight-fitting rubber washer, or something else on the shaft. Ideas?

I have never had a problem using my regular big game setup on small stuff. A Zwickey Delta is bad news for about anything. Most smaller animals are low enough to the ground that a pass-thru doesn't go far or doesn't happen. Hard to double lung a squirrel.

I am testing out the VPA SGT's this year though. So far I like what I see.

Rob

Maybe something like this?

http://www.3riversarchery.com/product.asp?i=5796

a washer behind a bh or field point will work well too.

I've been using a blunted snuffer with a Scorpio on the shaft behind it. Incredible to me that it generally keeps an arrow inside snowshoe hares with a 60# bow.

Field point with an adder behind it.

Unfortunately, the above products say "Do not use with wood arrows".

Can you make a blunt out a 45 casing on it? Drill a hole through it and drive a nail through it and use JB wield to hold in secure. Then cut it off with about 3/8 sticking out of both sides.You could put another nail in perpendicular from the other.

A rock might destroy it, but it will destroy any skwerl, bunny or bird.  Make your own from older three blade WW's or Snuffers


ChuckC

I never did get a good head for tree rats...but for bunnies and birds a 357 case with a large rubber blunt over it is devastating!   a regular rubber blunt and the birds atleast can and fly...add a steel blunt or 357 case and it changes things all together!

QuoteOriginally posted by ChuckC:
A rock might destroy it, but it will destroy any skwerl, bunny or bird.  Make your own from older three blade WW's or Snuffers
 

ChuckC

Great idea.

So you are using wooden arrows?

So nothing associated with screw in points will work?

QuoteOriginally posted by ChuckC:
A rock might destroy it, but it will destroy any skwerl, bunny or bird.  Make your own from older three blade WW's or Snuffers
 

ChuckC

That looks like a great option!

QuoteOriginally posted by WidowEater:
So you are using wooden arrows?

So nothing associated with screw in points will work?

Right. I'm thinking of trying a washer of some type.

ChuckC, that is a neat idea. However I do want some meat left! But your idea might offer a good starting point to get creative with.

AKDan, I've found blunts to let too many critters go. Same is true with modified blunts, Judo's, Hex blunts, and just about anything without a good cutting blade. I shoot light bows for my small game hunting, so that may explain why. I've been refining my gear over the years and have settled on ~35lb bows and sitka spruce arrows, as they hold up best, considering all the rocks we have here. I also shoot grouse out of trees with flu-flu's in steep rugged terrain. Lighter arrows just don't carry so far. I tend to get them all back now.

What I use on squirrels are field points and I grind the tip flat enough so that it will not stick into the tree and they normally will not pass all the way through a squirrel.  I use my normal fletchings.

Actually, using nutters, I have had only one skwerl get away.  They don't kill em,  just knock em out.  That's what I carry that lil Shrew hawk for. . .  skwerl bopping.  

Nutters are about as cheap and expendable as they get.
ChuckC

http://www.3riversarchery.com/ace+hex+blunts++screw%2din+small+game+heads_i4924X_baseitem.html
1. Good price
2. Fly like field point
3. deathly
4. One day i will buy again doz(12)

Paul...add a 357 case (or steel blunt though its extremely heavy!!!), grind the extractor rim off the casing and slide over the large htm/barta  rubber blunt and thump a grouse, he wont go, first one I shot never flinched....we call them "the wrecking ball".   I know without it you're exactly right, they will go, birds anyways! Judo's are for stumping and I'd put straight rubber blunts in that catagory also, however on Hares a straight rubber blunt to the head is all thats needed.  I dont hunt them anymore (hares) dont know how to cookem...maybe I'll have to give them a go again this winter as I've come upon another recipe I'd like to give a try, hare dumplings.    In years past we did well on bunnies and its just down right good fun even at -40  :D !

Until being shown the wrecking ball from a couple good buddies of mine, I was at a loss for grouse arrows. The best I had was either straight field points or field points with scorpios though I dont think they were needed.  It wasnt perfect, but like rubber blunts, hex's would bounce off and risk flying away...there really was no good answer.  We had run everything from field points to broadheads, steel blunts, judos, hex and magnus blunts game nabbers, and a host of other interesting contraptions.   Miss a grouse in a tree and watch that wrecking ball destroy a spruce....its down right devstating!  Most of the grouse we shoot just fold up like they were shot with the old double!  


It's been a LONG time since I seriously hunted grays/fox squirrels....back than I could shoot alright but they were what I grew up hunting and to this day get excited to the point I cant connect, its hillarious! Though the opportunity is pretty rare...the wood atleast for now is as good or better than it ever was!  Well I think so anyways,  and now the woods is literally full of black grays!  I'm tempted to take the ole 10/22 along to bring a few home one of these years if I ever get home again.  I still have part of my first black squirell tail on a backquiver from 20 or so years ago.   I'll have to try that Knapper.  I was opting for full out broadheads and waiting for them to come down.  I have heads I've saved over the years that for whatever reason i wont use on big game, but work fine for small game.  

I will say if you're into birds, and you happen on one in a tree...DO NOT shoot a bh up at it!   sounds dumb thinking about it but we did it.  bird came down and so did that arrow, kinda gives ya the heebie jeebies!   If you can believe it my first 5 or so years here I spent most of it chasing grouse and hares...not sheep caribou moose or bears!   small game has always been my passion though I rarely go as often as i used too.

I picked up several dozen 100/125 gr Snuffer seconds several years ago.  I grind the needle point off, about 1/8" or so, and have had great luck on squirrels with them.  Also got some Bodkins that I did the same thing with.  I shoot wood probably 95% of the time.  You might try some of those screw in adapters for gluing on the end of wood arrows and use screw-in points.  If you want heavy blunts, get some rifle cartridges (the right caliber/inside diameter so they are snug on the shaft) and cut them off right at the shoulder-you can get blunts that weight as much as 250 grains, cheap.

PERUN, In my earlier post I'd mentioned that Hex's (and other blunt derivations) just don't always kill quickly enough -Skewered grouse that bolt off over steep rocky canyons are gone. Maybe dead, but lost to us. Thus I've gone to blades.

AkDan, I've heard of the blunt over casing idea and have what's needed, but I can't help but be skeptical. I can't imagine how adding 30 grains to a blunt could matter that much, esp on my 425gr small game arrows. Now, going up to my big game bows so I could shoot my 650gr arrows I can see adding some serious wallop.

Right now I'm using BH's for ground shots (Rib-Tek's) and Magnus bladed blunts for tree shots.