Bergy-Bowsmith
FNG
I have been shooting SEVR broadheads for 2 years now , with great results for the most part . However this year after two back to back experiences I decided to change. ( I'll detail these experiences later in this write up ).
I want to preface this by saying I have only just received these Evolution Outdoors heads and these are my initial thoughts and initial testing on the head . There will be more detailed information this spring when I get the chance to really shoot them and play around with them . ( also I have generally been a fixed blade guy ,up until the last few years dabbling in a mixture of both mechanical and fixed )
First, I want to talk about the SEVR . They are phenomenal heads , I've shot the 1.5, 1.75. And the 2.0 and harvested animals with all 3 . If I had to pick one of them out of all 3 sizes it would be the 1.5 hands down. However they are all good. My main concern with the SEVR is the one dimensional cut. You either get a horizontal or vertical cut or some variation of that. Which is fine for the most part. However I have found if you get a vertical entrance and exit the blood tends to be worse then a horizontal variation. Which makes sense as the skin can close up easier as the animal is running. None the less if I did my job all animals doed within 50 yards. But more often then not the blood trail was meh. Which I already struggle to track blood . ( most of these blood issues I've had have been from this 2023 season, I also has 1 - 2.0 fail to lock open, it still opened just never got to full lock , and did kill the animal quickly )
Secondly, replacing the blades on a SEVR while it is a very straight forward and rather simple process it is super annoying and frustrating to get that little bent washer in and lined up , after you do it a few times you get used to it but it's still annoying . On the flip side of that coin the ferrule on a SEVR is bar none one of my favorites , I've purposely hit super hard object just to find that the ferrule still spins true and is straight . Last year I shot the same ferrule through all 13 of my animals and this included 9 different bones of varying thicknesses and locations. That ferrule is still spinning true and flies great.
Third, the price point . There's plenty of heads on the market today , some are spendy , some are cheap , some lay in the middle . All of them will get the job done for the most part , and all of them can and will fail at some point regardless if you shoot mechanical or fixed. However the sevr price point falls into a nice happy medium of not to expensive but not dirt cheap . And the replacement blades follow in suit . I tend to like price points in this range due to if I do lose one or break one it doesn't hurt near as bad as something in a higher price point.
Overall, SEVR is a great option and I would still recommend them to someone interested.
Evolution Outdoors Jeykll and Hyde system caught my attention this year. Dale Perry over at Evolution is super knowledgeable and has done extensive testing on these heads . For starters his heads are 100% made in America, and offered in 3 weights ( in the screw in version and glue in version ) and touts that the Hyde is guaranteed to open. Also the ferrule is modular between the fixed blade and mechanical variations. I love this aspect.
First, the leading edge on both the fixed and hybrid versions if this head is 3/4" , with the main blade being 1" on the fixed variation , and 2" on the hybrid version. ( he also offers some wider ones if that's your thing ).
Now normally I'm not a huge fan of a over the top deploying head vs a rear deploying head for the simple fact that they typically have a smaller entry hole. However, with the Hyde the exposed part of the mechanical blades are sharpened (and yes they are very sharp ) so let's say that something went catastrophically wrong and the head just didn't open at all , that head would still give you a total of 1 1/8th cutting surface ( the same as the slick trick standard , cut throat 3 blade , etc etc ) now I wouldn't expect that to happen as throughout dales testing and after speaking to many many many people that also shoot the Hyde they have NEVER had one not open properly. But if it didn't it's still going to cut . And when it does open your at a 2 3/4" cut diameter. Pretty sweet and kinda fool proof . And with that leading edge you really open up that hole and theoretically should get more consistent blood trails. These hybrid version is also very easy to get in and out of a foam insert in your quiver hood .
Now onto the fixed version , being that this head is modular you can swap from fixed to mechanical on the ferrule in the matter of a min or so . The fixed blades are both .06 thick ( main blade and leading blade ) which is fairly stout compared to other on the market compared to the Hyde which is .060 leading blade and then two .030 blades for the mechanical , also rather stout for a broadhead of these design . Aswell the fixed design is pretty compact for the cutting surface you get out of this head at 1 3/4" .
Second thing with the evolution I wanna talk about is flight. Man do these things fly good. My bow is properly tuned and I can typically screw any head I want on and group out to 80 yards . But these heads fly phenomenal right out the gate with no adjustments necessary.
Third let's talk about the few things that might be a hindrance to you or a frustration point. On the hybrid style head the retention system is a little plastic / polymer pin that is inserted into the ferrule and the system works incredibly , however getting the pin out can be a challenge after it has been marred from opening the blades on the shot. But if you have ever changed blades on a SEVR it's really not any more time consuming then that in my opinion .
Secondly , you don't want to over tighten the set screw that holds the mechanical blades in either as this makes them harder to open , just hand snug will do . I don't know about you guys but I tend to like to really lock stuff down, don't do that. They come out of the case ready to hunt as long as you don't go opening the blades a ton of times. I would certainly recommend replacing the pin after each harvest . I also tend to carry a allen set with me so it's easy to close the blades back up once you find your arrow and lock that set screw in tight and shove it back in your quiver in a matter of seconds.
Lastly, the over the top design is inherently known for deflecting on a hard quartering shot . In my opinion this head kinda defeats that deflection based on how the blades open and it should be a non issue , also on a shot that is hard quartering and a shot I'm going to take the animal is probably sub 40 yards and I'll be using a fixed blade anyway in that situation.
Over all initial thoughts is that the modularity of this head is going to be a game changer for my set up as I like to carry both fixed and mechanicals in the field , and with the very limited effort it takes to tune the fixed blades it's a real winner in my book . I'll have more information on this head as I lay down some animals with it in the 2024 season.
I have attached some photos to see the evolution heads in both forms. ( not all of these photos are mine )
I want to preface this by saying I have only just received these Evolution Outdoors heads and these are my initial thoughts and initial testing on the head . There will be more detailed information this spring when I get the chance to really shoot them and play around with them . ( also I have generally been a fixed blade guy ,up until the last few years dabbling in a mixture of both mechanical and fixed )
First, I want to talk about the SEVR . They are phenomenal heads , I've shot the 1.5, 1.75. And the 2.0 and harvested animals with all 3 . If I had to pick one of them out of all 3 sizes it would be the 1.5 hands down. However they are all good. My main concern with the SEVR is the one dimensional cut. You either get a horizontal or vertical cut or some variation of that. Which is fine for the most part. However I have found if you get a vertical entrance and exit the blood tends to be worse then a horizontal variation. Which makes sense as the skin can close up easier as the animal is running. None the less if I did my job all animals doed within 50 yards. But more often then not the blood trail was meh. Which I already struggle to track blood . ( most of these blood issues I've had have been from this 2023 season, I also has 1 - 2.0 fail to lock open, it still opened just never got to full lock , and did kill the animal quickly )
Secondly, replacing the blades on a SEVR while it is a very straight forward and rather simple process it is super annoying and frustrating to get that little bent washer in and lined up , after you do it a few times you get used to it but it's still annoying . On the flip side of that coin the ferrule on a SEVR is bar none one of my favorites , I've purposely hit super hard object just to find that the ferrule still spins true and is straight . Last year I shot the same ferrule through all 13 of my animals and this included 9 different bones of varying thicknesses and locations. That ferrule is still spinning true and flies great.
Third, the price point . There's plenty of heads on the market today , some are spendy , some are cheap , some lay in the middle . All of them will get the job done for the most part , and all of them can and will fail at some point regardless if you shoot mechanical or fixed. However the sevr price point falls into a nice happy medium of not to expensive but not dirt cheap . And the replacement blades follow in suit . I tend to like price points in this range due to if I do lose one or break one it doesn't hurt near as bad as something in a higher price point.
Overall, SEVR is a great option and I would still recommend them to someone interested.
Evolution Outdoors Jeykll and Hyde system caught my attention this year. Dale Perry over at Evolution is super knowledgeable and has done extensive testing on these heads . For starters his heads are 100% made in America, and offered in 3 weights ( in the screw in version and glue in version ) and touts that the Hyde is guaranteed to open. Also the ferrule is modular between the fixed blade and mechanical variations. I love this aspect.
First, the leading edge on both the fixed and hybrid versions if this head is 3/4" , with the main blade being 1" on the fixed variation , and 2" on the hybrid version. ( he also offers some wider ones if that's your thing ).
Now normally I'm not a huge fan of a over the top deploying head vs a rear deploying head for the simple fact that they typically have a smaller entry hole. However, with the Hyde the exposed part of the mechanical blades are sharpened (and yes they are very sharp ) so let's say that something went catastrophically wrong and the head just didn't open at all , that head would still give you a total of 1 1/8th cutting surface ( the same as the slick trick standard , cut throat 3 blade , etc etc ) now I wouldn't expect that to happen as throughout dales testing and after speaking to many many many people that also shoot the Hyde they have NEVER had one not open properly. But if it didn't it's still going to cut . And when it does open your at a 2 3/4" cut diameter. Pretty sweet and kinda fool proof . And with that leading edge you really open up that hole and theoretically should get more consistent blood trails. These hybrid version is also very easy to get in and out of a foam insert in your quiver hood .
Now onto the fixed version , being that this head is modular you can swap from fixed to mechanical on the ferrule in the matter of a min or so . The fixed blades are both .06 thick ( main blade and leading blade ) which is fairly stout compared to other on the market compared to the Hyde which is .060 leading blade and then two .030 blades for the mechanical , also rather stout for a broadhead of these design . Aswell the fixed design is pretty compact for the cutting surface you get out of this head at 1 3/4" .
Second thing with the evolution I wanna talk about is flight. Man do these things fly good. My bow is properly tuned and I can typically screw any head I want on and group out to 80 yards . But these heads fly phenomenal right out the gate with no adjustments necessary.
Third let's talk about the few things that might be a hindrance to you or a frustration point. On the hybrid style head the retention system is a little plastic / polymer pin that is inserted into the ferrule and the system works incredibly , however getting the pin out can be a challenge after it has been marred from opening the blades on the shot. But if you have ever changed blades on a SEVR it's really not any more time consuming then that in my opinion .
Secondly , you don't want to over tighten the set screw that holds the mechanical blades in either as this makes them harder to open , just hand snug will do . I don't know about you guys but I tend to like to really lock stuff down, don't do that. They come out of the case ready to hunt as long as you don't go opening the blades a ton of times. I would certainly recommend replacing the pin after each harvest . I also tend to carry a allen set with me so it's easy to close the blades back up once you find your arrow and lock that set screw in tight and shove it back in your quiver in a matter of seconds.
Lastly, the over the top design is inherently known for deflecting on a hard quartering shot . In my opinion this head kinda defeats that deflection based on how the blades open and it should be a non issue , also on a shot that is hard quartering and a shot I'm going to take the animal is probably sub 40 yards and I'll be using a fixed blade anyway in that situation.
Over all initial thoughts is that the modularity of this head is going to be a game changer for my set up as I like to carry both fixed and mechanicals in the field , and with the very limited effort it takes to tune the fixed blades it's a real winner in my book . I'll have more information on this head as I lay down some animals with it in the 2024 season.
I have attached some photos to see the evolution heads in both forms. ( not all of these photos are mine )
