Best Long Range Fixed Blade Broadhead?

[jmez]

Flight is more of a function of bow tune and shooter form, not the broadhead. That being said, assuming all things perfect and equal, the best flying fixed head will always be the smallest one with the least amount of surface area.

Take your pick of quality compact heads out there today, and spend your time worrying more about your practice and fitness rather than the name on the package of broadheads. JMHO.

Agree with this. If your bow is well tuned it doesn't really matter.

 

[squeekieslayer]

This thread is going as predicted... everyone pretty much loves what they shoot, or they wouldn't be shooting it. Most important is perfect tune, perfect form, and proper spine/FOC to get the job done.

I have done very well with slick trick mags, but have seen shuttle t's strip fletchings at 80+ yards as well.

PS... a hooter shooter will only tell you what works best for the bow, and specifics tested. Even if all on the same bow and same arrow, broad heads can often respond to different nock travel differently. For this reason, the bow would have to be tuned to each broadhead before putting in the hooter shooter. My guess is that there are very few high end fixed blades that wouldn't stack them with a properly tuned bow in a hooter.

Different designs will respond to errors in form and wind conditions differently as well... so i give the hooter shooter results very little consideration.

Joe

 

[tipsntails7]

QaD exodus is the best broadhead I've shot. I can get pretty much any broadhead to fly with FP's as long as they spin true. Trophy takers were excellent, thunderheads as well.
I really liked strikers. They were scary sharp and flew excellent. Only thing I didn't like about them was the brass ring. Once the head was used it got dents in the brass collar. And if you didn't line it up correcty it had a slight wobble. It's actually the reason I switched to the exodus it has the exact design just a much thicker steel ring.

 

[littlebuf]

I shoot 125 shuttle T's. They hit like.my field points and tune easy. Shot my bull at 68 yards last year. Double lung right behind the 4th rib,full pass through . I'd say decent long range performance

 

[5MilesBack]

I really liked strikers. They were scary sharp and flew excellent. Only thing I didn't like about them was the brass ring. Once the head was used it got dents in the brass collar. And if you didn't line it up correcty it had a slight wobble.

When Strikers first came out, I called G5 and asked them about this. They said that they designed them that way so the brass would give a little on hard hits and not break blades. Well, I didn't care for that so I just added a steel washer between the blades and the brass washer and they held up and flew just fine. Now, I did break a blade on a Striker Magnum using this method, but haven't broken any blades on the regular 125's. I do like the Strikers as well.

 

[Tilzbow]

Thanks for the input so far.

Bow tune, fitness and shooting are a given and there's no reason to "worry" about them. This is simply going through all options and finding what's best for me in all aspects of equipment for what will likely be the most important shot and most expensive hunt of my life.

Just looking for a few more options on FBBH's that are more forgiving of form errors, windy conditions and long range shots. I shoot a lot in the wind and I know for a fact a perfectly shot arrow out of a perfectly tuned bow is impacted much more by wind when a FBBH is added to the mix. I've changed to super skinny Black Eagle Deep Impact shafts to help with shooting in the wind and I'm now looking at the next item.

I've already got a bunch of 125 grain VPAs and Silver Flames but was looking for options of some of the smaller profile heads. Slick Tricks were already on the list since I've shot them in 100 gr. Magnums and have lots extra blades. If I go with them it'll be the smaller profile Standard in 125 gr. The Wac 'Em wasn't on my radar so that's some great input.

That being said I'll likely have a couple Ulmer Edge SS 125 gr in my quiver for any shot past 60 yards or shots in the wind. I've never been a huge fan of mechanicals but sheep aren't that tough either.

 

[Nick Muche]

I've already got a bunch of 125 grain VPAs and Silver Flames but was looking for options of some of the smaller profile heads.

How do the Silver Flames do at longer range in terms of accuracy?

 

[tipsntails7]

When Strikers first came out, I called G5 and asked them about this. They said that they designed them that way so the brass would give a little on hard hits and not break blades. Well, I didn't care for that so I just added a steel washer between the blades and the brass washer and they held up and flew just fine. Now, I did break a blade on a Striker Magnum using this method, but haven't broken any blades on the regular 125's. I do like the Strikers as well.

The striker mags are mean. i used them on turkeys with great sucess. they were a pain to get in my quiver though.

 

[Screaming Bulls]

Im going to try the anarchy broadheads this yr they are based in Southern Oregon i have heard from alot of people and review that they fly awesome at long range and photos i have seen they cause some unreal trauma and bloodtrails they have some great photos on there facebook pg

 

[Tilzbow]

How do the Silver Flames do at longer range in terms of accuracy?

Last I shot the 125 grain Silver Flames was in 2007 during a NM elk hunt. Made a short 30 yard shot and the bull only traveled 20 yards before falling over. The bow wasn't perfectly tuned and I wasn't shooting long ranges back then so I can't vouch for the 125 grain version for that application. That said I was shooting 100 gr. Silver Flames quite a bit the past two years at 300+ FPS and they fly as good or better than VPA and Slick Trick Magnums. For sheep penetration is of little concern so I want something that'll make as big of a hole as possible yet still maintain good and forgiving flight characteristics for long range shots.

 

[Bughalli]

I tuned my bow as much as I could. I tested about 5-6 fixed blade heads - Montec, Muzzy, Razorbacks and some others. I don't recall. All of them shot the same inside 40 yards. Groups opened up a bit from 40-60yrds, but not by much. I ended up going with slick tricks. Roughly speaking they were about 2 inches off my field points at 60yrds, where the others were more like 4 or 5 inches. They have a short blade. So they have the same cutting diameter as the others, but I think the shorter blade means there's less "rudder" or "vane" on the front of the arrow.

Never tried Wac'em, but were highly recommended. I just got tired of spending the $$ to test a broad head. A 2 inch difference was close enough.

P.s. I'll still take a rage two blade over all of them any day. I only use fixed when I'm in a state that requires it.

 

[SDHNTR]

For what it's worth, I started out in archery shooting Muzzys. For me, they were difficult to tune and hard to get to spin true sometimes. I never had confidence in their flight. So I went to Wac'ems. My experience with the Wac'em was excellent flight, but somewhat fragile blades. The vent design has very little metal support at the back of the blade against the ferrule, where most of the shearing force is applied. I lost or broke blades on a few animals. So I went to Montecs but was never quite happy with the sharpness of them. And I broke one on a small deer. The head snapped off at the insert. I thought it was a freak thing at first and didn't fault G5. I then started shooting Strikers as they were very sharp and had a similar design as Wac'em but thicker, stronger blades. The problem was, the ferrule was weak on them too. I came to find out that G5's were cast, pot metal. So even worse than the blades breaking, the whole damn ferrule was brittle and snapped off at the insert. I suppose if you could take the machined stainless steel ferrule of the Wac'em and put the thicker blades of the Striker in them, you'd have a hell of a combo. I also didn't like the brass collar on the Strikers. Then I shot Slick Tricks and had great results. I still think it's the best replaceable blade head I've ever tried. But I eventually got tired of replacing blades. And I like sharpening stuff so I went looking for a one piece head again and found VPA. I'm now completely content. It has all I personally want in a broadhead.

 

[Evan Williams]

RAMCATS
Slick trick magnum
Terminal T lock
Shuttle T lock
Solid s30V

 

[Travis Bertrand]

I'm going with standard slick tricks this year. We will see. They have yet to be tested

 

[Tilzbow]

I'm going with the Slick Trick standard in 125 grain for this hunt as the primary head. I remembered I have a bunch of ST magnum blades so I can use those for things like speed goats and white tails in the future on the same ferrule to make a bigger hole. Might even use the bigger blades on the sheep hunt depending on what I see from a flight perspective.

I'll be carrying 3 - 4 of the ST standards I'm my quiver for most shots along with 1 - 2 Ulmer Edge SS 125 grain for shots over 60 yds, shots in windy conditions or long follow up shots.

At least this is my plan right now. As I shoot over the summer and add Silver Flames and the new vented VPA in 125 grain (based on the non-vented150 grain) into practice sessions plans could change based on the head I develop the most confidence in.

They all seem to fly equally well when conditions are good and I'm shooting good but I've seen different heads fly better in breezy and windy conditions and be a bit more forgiving of form errors.

 

[boom]

This thread is going as predicted... everyone pretty much loves what they shoot, or they wouldn't be shooting it. Most important is perfect tune, perfect form, and proper spine/FOC to get the job done.

Joe

not me.

i shoot montecs, slicktrick mag 100's and grim reapers..fine.

but every AZ hunter i came across in the back country, had ramcats. they all said they they fly waaaaaayyyy out there. never tried them, but they have gotten on my radar.

 

[horseshoe]

I used to have small bow shop and had this question asked often. At the time I sold a ton of the old 3 bld Rocky Mt Blitz. It had off-set blades and always flew and impacted to the same point as the field point. It maintained this flite out to as far as you could shoot. You can be skeptical about that claim, but I was so confident selling it, that I offered a money back guarantee! I NEVER had anyone come back, except to buy more. Then Rocky Mt. got bought out.

I see that Muzzy may have re-introduced that design. They are selling it as the Trocar. It is available in 100 gr and have a 125 gr in the xbow model. I would try it.

BTW, I usually tuned their bows, but customers still had form issues. This head seemed to compensate for those errors. I believe it was due to the blades not being perpendicular to the shaft. Interestingly NAP came out with a similar design...with the opposite off-set. I did not get the same results with that head.

For what it's worth, I see in the latest Extreme Elk mag that Cam Hanes used this head on Australian water buffalo.

 

[armyjoe]

I had great luck with the Shuttle It's and ramcats. The ramcats bend up to many blades when shooting so don't use anymore.
I'm really thinking I might get a pack of the Wac'ems and see how they fly. I have a ton of the Ulmer Edge and love them so it will take a lot for me to go back to fixed

 

[Trr15]

No first hand experience, but I've heard and read a lot of good things about the silver flame 125s. I'm going to be giving them a try this fall...not excited about the price tag though

 

[5MilesBack]

No first hand experience, but I've heard and read a lot of good things about the silver flame 125s. I'm going to be giving them a try this fall...not excited about the price tag though

Don't get the ABS ones, make sure they are the German Kinetics. I tried the ABS ones after Markus sold to them and they aren't even close to the GK's in terms of sharpness and ability to re-sharpen them. But the original GK Silverflames are as sharp as sharp can get, can re-sharpen to close to original, and fly amazingly well at long range.