Long Range Fixed Blade Field Point Accuracy

[Coues Archer]

Hello CouesWhitetail Members,

I hope everyone has been doing well during these tough times. I've been practicing a lot of 3-D archery shooting lately and I have built up a setup to effectively shoot out to 120 yards and hitting vitals on demand. I have been able to achieve this type of accuracy thorugh paper tuning my bow and ensuring my arrows are perfectly tuned. Given that my bow/arrows/field points are dialed in using these two conventional methods "paper tuning" and "arrow tuning" i.e. squaring arrow/nock, spin testing etc. I've been testing to see which current fixed broadheads on the market actually fly and are accurate identical to a field point. So far I have bought/tested the QAD EXODUS, Ramcat hydroshock, ramcat diamondback, Trophy Taker ATAC, Trophy Taker Shuttle T, G5 Montec M3, Tooth of the Arrow. All in all the best performer by far which shot closest to the field point was the Trophy Taker ATAC but its not sharp which was a huge bummer. It was virtually identical to field point as far as windage but shot little low in elevation. I did adjust my rest to compensate for this drop and proceeded to shoot with extreme accuracy; I understand that this is a good thing but remember I'm looking for something that will I simply swap my field point with and will hit the target on demand. The Ramcat Diamondback finished second but required much tuning. Once dialed in I was able to get extreme accuracy as well. The Exodus came in third place but required much more tuning to get the head to fly correctly; once dialed in it could reliably hit vitals out to 80 then it started to be more inconsistent at 90 yards. The same could be said for the rest of the arrows in the list but all required to be tuned a little different. So my question to you guys is have you found a broadhead on the market that will literally give you field point flight/accuracy with a tuned setup no matter what distance. I have found expandable broadheads to achieve this but I have yet to achieve this with a fixed broadhead. Please note that I'm aware that form is a tremendous factor when it comes to shooting fixed broadheads and I know that.... Please don't bring this aspect into the conversation lol. Soon to test broadheads will be Slick Trick Standards, Strickland Helix and well any suggestions that you folks have from experience.

Sincerely,

Coues Archer

[Bill@roofer]

Grimm reaper whitetails

[bigorange]

Slick Trick and Whac Em are the 2 that have done best for me. T-loc (not the shuttle) were pretty good too. All seemed to need some tuning though and not perfect. 

[WHT_MTNMAN]

Laws of physics do not allow a fixed head to fly the same as fieldtip at extended ranges. In my experience 70 and 80 yards is where you start to see fixed heads fly a bit low. According to some research on the hooter shooter even mechanicals will not fly a 100% the same at long distances.  That being said you can counteract all of this with changing tune slightly. (Move rest) or add a few grains to back of fieldtip to counteract drag/wind and longer ferule etc..

 

The best ones ive found are those with the shortest ferrule and smallest cutting diameter

[WHALE]

I hunt archery a fair amount and can tell you with my set up I have to shoot each broadhead to verify what's going on down range. Like stated above don't think a fixed  will ever fly exact as field point over 80 but you can get em close. 

As season gets close I shoot only broadheads

I like wac em and boss by wasp

[Coues Archer]

3 hours ago, WHT_MTNMAN said:

Laws of physics do not allow a fixed head to fly the same as fieldtip at extended ranges. In my experience 70 and 80 yards is where you start to see fixed heads fly a bit low. According to some research on the hooter shooter even mechanicals will not fly a 100% the same at long distances.  That being said you can counteract all of this with changing tune slightly. (Move rest) or add a few grains to back of fieldtip to counteract drag/wind and longer ferule etc..

 

The best ones ive found are those with the shortest ferrule and smallest cutting diameter

Understood WHT_MTNMAN but examples of broadheads that fit your description would be much appreciated.... Given from what you explained here which makes sense but doesn't help me with the situation because you didn't suggest a broadhead lol... The forces of gravity acting upon both broadheads and field tips are the same; IFFFF in fact they're both exactly the same weight. Where they differ is in the friction coefficients. As you're aware the "field tip" and "broadhead" are much different when traveling through air; more drag acting on the broadhead rather than the field tip which doesn't necessarily mean that your broadhead will always shoot low... It can shoot high, low, left and right at those distances all depends on what the arrow is doing in flight through the medium, in this case "air" acting on the broadhead. I do however appreciate you explaining how to counteract this by changing tune slighty... I did however know of this and have done it but its changing my arrow/bow setup lol trying to see if there really is a broadhead aerodynamic enough to do just that.. What do you shoot? As for mechanical's I have two in my inventory that will hit on the money out to 120 without me tampering my sight/rest at all or adding weight in the back to stabilize. 

[thegunsmith2506]

4 hours ago, Coues Archer said:

Understood WHT_MTNMAN but examples of broadheads that fit your description would be much appreciated.... Given from what you explained here which makes sense but doesn't help me with the situation because you didn't suggest a broadhead lol... The forces of gravity acting upon both broadheads and field tips are the same; IFFFF in fact they're both exactly the same weight. Where they differ is in the friction coefficients. As you're aware the "field tip" and "broadhead" are much different when traveling through air; more drag acting on the broadhead rather than the field tip which doesn't necessarily mean that your broadhead will always shoot low... It can shoot high, low, left and right at those distances all depends on what the arrow is doing in flight through the medium, in this case "air" acting on the broadhead. I do however appreciate you explaining how to counteract this by changing tune slighty... I did however know of this and have done it but its changing my arrow/bow setup lol trying to see if there really is a broadhead aerodynamic enough to do just that.. What do you shoot? As for mechanical's I have two in my inventory that will hit on the money out to 120 without me tampering my sight/rest at all or adding weight in the back to stabilize. 

Rocket Ultimate steel is a pretty compact broadhead. They have always worked well for me but I have never shot them over 60yds and I don't tune my arrows. I heard a podcast a while back with John Dudley and he said the NAP Killzone was the best broadhead he had ever shot, but its not a fixed blade.

[creed_az_88]

Consistent long range accuracy=streamline mechanical broadhead.

[forepaw]

2 hours ago, thegunsmith2506 said:

Rocket Ultimate steel is a pretty compact broadhead. They have always worked well for me but I have never shot them over 60yds and I don't tune my arrows. I heard a podcast a while back with John Dudley and he said the NAP Killzone was the best broadhead he had ever shot, but its not a fixed blade.

+1 on Rocket Steelheads, at least the old ones.  I printed a long article on penetration testing (independent, not a rep. or mfg.) from a few years ago, and these were rated the best of both fixed and mechanicals - at least for that round of testing.  No experience with them on bigger animals, but hopefully anyone who has used them on elk will weigh in and tell us how they performed.

 

[creed_az_88]

1 minute ago, forepaw said:

+1 on Rocket Steelheads, at least the old ones.  I printed a long article on penetration testing (independent, not a rep. or mfg.) from a few years ago, and these were rated the best of both fixed and mechanicals - at least for that round of testing.  No experience with them on bigger animals, but hopefully anyone who has used them on elk will weigh in and tell us how they performed.

 

I killed my last elk with one. I killed my last elk before that with a cut on contact slick trick razor trick and penetration on both was the same. Stopped at the hide on the offside on both elk. Dead in 100 yards or so on both. 

[thegunsmith2506]

22 minutes ago, forepaw said:

+1 on Rocket Steelheads, at least the old ones.  I printed a long article on penetration testing (independent, not a rep. or mfg.) from a few years ago, and these were rated the best of both fixed and mechanicals - at least for that round of testing.  No experience with them on bigger animals, but hopefully anyone who has used them on elk will weigh in and tell us how they performed.

 

I have killed 3 elk with them 2 cows and a bull. On both of the cows I hit the shoulder blade and still got a pass through. Both shots were under 30yds. The bull was 54yds and a frontal shot. All 3 died within 25yds

[Coues Archer]

4 hours ago, thegunsmith2506 said:

Rocket Ultimate steel is a pretty compact broadhead. They have always worked well for me but I have never shot them over 60yds and I don't tune my arrows. I heard a podcast a while back with John Dudley and he said the NAP Killzone was the best broadhead he had ever shot, but its not a fixed blade.

Awesome. I'll have to give those a try.

[Coues Archer]

1 hour ago, forepaw said:

+1 on Rocket Steelheads, at least the old ones.  I printed a long article on penetration testing (independent, not a rep. or mfg.) from a few years ago, and these were rated the best of both fixed and mechanicals - at least for that round of testing.  No experience with them on bigger animals, but hopefully anyone who has used them on elk will weigh in and tell us how they performed.

 

Nice Forepaw! I will definitely be giving those heads a try. Thank you.

[Coues Archer]

2 hours ago, creed_az_88 said:

Consistent long range accuracy=streamline mechanical broadhead.

Hey Creed_AZ_88,

Just cuz its streamline mechanical doesnt mean it will shoot lol.. I have shot a handful of mechanicals that are in the same boat as the fixed blade for poor accuracy. What's a broadhead that you have had good success with as far as mechanicals for long range accuracy?

[CatfishKev]

 Looks like you are spending considerable time on this.  I was surprised slick trick wasn't included in your first round of testing.  

If I'm understanding this correctly the smaller the cutting diameter of the blades makes them fly better? I used rockets like 10 years ago with good results. Now using slick trick magnums.

Interesting thread, I'll be following