Help! My broadheads keep gettin’ eat’n!

[TRich]

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!

[Bowsey Wails]

Push the shaft through the bale, heat and remove the head, pull the shaft back out.

[TRich]

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.

[dnovo]

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.

[Ryan Rothhaar]

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

[MnFn]

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.

[Gordon Jabben]

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.

[LookMomNoSights]

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 ....

[UrsusNil]

A bag or two of mulch will stop a broadhead.

[stillhunter]

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.

[TRich]

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?

[MnFn]

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.

[Trenton G.]

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.

[Tim Finley]

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.

[Doug Treat]

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.

[durp]

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.

[TRich]

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 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.