A Little Broadhead Testing

[Ryan]

In preparation for an upcoming Namibia hunt that will include eland I decided to see what broadhead gave the best penetration.
My set up has plenty of oomph shooting a 500.5 grain Easton Axis FMJ 340 at 267 fps but eland are no small animal and I like both an entrance and exit with multiple blades.
For testing I made a target of 12 inch by 12 inch boxes to 30 inches in length filled with four layers of 3-inch camping mat foam as the internal organs and muscle, with 1/4 inch birch plywood as bone on two sides and another layer of cardboard glued on the outside of that as skin to mimic an animal overall. It's not perfect, but it is good and more importantly, it's consistent. All shots were from 20 yards, a typical shot out of a blind. Of the tests I've seen recently most seem to be just one shot of a few head into a media. That doesn't take into account any variations. so for each head had three shots and an average of those was taken.

The broadheads were mostly cut on contact, the DRT broadheads in both single and double bevel, and the Solid Legend, along with my tried and true Slick Tricks Magnum chisel point head and the G5 Montec to include a 3 bladed cut on contact out of curiousity. All are 125 grain. I paid for them all, and while I have a preference for the Slick Tricks because they work well on average sized animals and they are built like a tank, I don't (or didn't) think they are the best at penetration.
RESULTS
All performed well, breaking through both boards, all intact. Again, this is an average of three shots.

Slick Trick Magnum- 75.37 cm. Yes, I'm just as surprised as you. almost 7 cm (almost 3 inches) over the DRT's is significant.

DRT -BOTH-68.7 cm. The single bevel was deeper two of the three shots, but overall no difference. The single bevel did spin through the target with different blade angles from the entrance to exit but I'm skeptical whether it assists through bone as Dr. Ashby claims. It also beat the Slick Trick once having 81 cm of penetration, but only once. Their weight collar had a small lip that seemed to cause some drag that may have slowed it.

Solid Legend- 65.65 cm, a little wider than the DRT and that added up to some friction I'm guessing.

G5 Montec-63.73 cm. This is consistent with Dr. Ashby's findings concerning 3-bladed heads.

CONCLUSION.
honestly you won't go wrong with any of them. I'm sticking with Slick Ticks, though they may have company in the quiver.

 

[BRICKBURN]

Good effort.
At least you know what you have coming out of your bow.

Thanks for sharing your test.

 

[billc]

That sounds like a good test you did. I myself have never found a head better then a slick trick. They fly great and are just sharp period. I shoot my on the same arrow and would use them on eland. If I find the bull this year i will be taking a chance on a eland with my bow also.

 

[firehuntfish]

Ryan,

Interesting test..... Not surprised at the performance of the Slick Tricks...

I would like to see you do the same test with a couple of the most popular expandable heads. I already know what the results would be, but I would like to see it posted.

 

[G Skinner]

Cool test ! Hear is the rusty barrel test .

Glen

 

[jeff]

The Paul Korn bow hunting channel has some good broadhead tests on both mechanicals and fixed blades you can watch on you tube.

 

[Synergy]

Nice, thanks for sharing your test

 

[Diamondhitch]

Cool test ! Hear is the rusty barrel test .

Glen

Thanks for posting.
Great durability test but I wouldn't bet the farm on the penetration results, the arrow would need to be in a firm medium the entire way to measure that.

 

[Ryan]

Thanks everyone.
I'd like to test a couple popular expandables but I don't feel like spending the money on them right now since I'm very unlikely to use them afterwards. I agree this isn't a perfect testing media. Honestly I'd prefer ballistics gelatin. But a box that size has over 14 gallons of area in it. The recipes I've seen are 1 pound per gallon and it's $8-10+ a pound in bulk. That adds up and this is all on my dime. Perhaps a sheet or two of cardboards in between each sheet of foam and maybe a little thicker wood. Who knows. But it did work in general for what I wanted. A hard bone like substance hit both going in and going out of a central softer substance like an animal is built. All the materials are accesible to me and you and it's repeatable.
Thanks again. Good hunting everyone.

 

[jeff]

Broadheads also vary considerably in sharpness which affects penetration. Bowhunting mag ran a test on sharpness by using a device for checking sharpness that is from the medical surgical field, it was an eye opener.

 

[Ryan]

Yep, another reason I had multiple shots per head and while they all still shaved after thefirst shot, I resharpened all of them on my stones between the second and third round.

 

[Ryan]

Since I had some leftover materials I did a little more testing. I made the same target with two difference. I glued another sheet of 1/4" plywood to the plywood on the front, with the usual cardboard over that. And I put a sheet of cardboard between each sheet of foam for a little more resistance in the middle. Basically would anything pass through a medium to heavy bone on one side and still be have the energy to exit the other. I shot the top two contenders into it, the Slick Trick and a DRT single bevel.
Well, I only took one shot because both got through the first but both were stopped at the second and prying broadhead out of wood isn't fun. The Slick Trick point stuck out the outside slightly more than the DRT. In this case it just proves both do the job equally well.

 

[G Skinner]

These kind of tests show real world results over sponsored tests........ Thanks Ryan ! Not all will agree with your results but I'm going to take a serious look at Slick Trick Magnums ...even though at this point I'm shooting G5 Montecs that are 140 grn and have never had an issue with .
Thanks Glen

 

[Ryan]

Thanks Glen
Nothing wrong with those Montecs. The magnum version of the Slick Trick is actually the original size, 1 1/8" wide. They went to 1" for basic Slick Tricks and just changed names. Disagreement is what gets us to do tests like this. I'm just posting what I found and how I got it. That's science.

 

[Synergy]

Last weekend I tried DRTs and Slick Tricks (both 125 grains) with my bow. Both fly well, but the DRT was a little better (same POI as field points)

 

[kathy]

Thanks for showing your test results.
I would up my arrow weight to 600 plus grains for a eland. JMO.
I shoot VPA 175 grain 3 blade solid broadheads , they are as tuff as they come, had 1 broadhead I killed 13 animals with before I lost it, another head 7 animals before lost. Forrest

 

[Lee M]

Agree with the last post and I also strongly recommend VPA broad heads. I shot 4 animals in 2014 in SA with my reliable 70 lb. 2007 diamond black ice bow. A nice shooting and quiet bow with only avg speed. Two (warthog & Impala) with 100 grain slick tricks and 29" 340 FMJ arrows, both complete pass throughs. The other two were a Nyala and Zebra taken with 150 grain 3 blade unvented VPA's on 29" gold tip hunter carbon arrow. Again full pass throughs. On the Zebra the arrow went thru over 4 feet of animal due to the quartering angle. Both setups shot the same from my bow as the overall arrow combo weight was similar. I would recommend both. Take a look at the unvented 150 grain VPA. A very simple and very solid design that I would choose for the bigger plains game like eland. That is a big animal. It's Also easy to sharpen on your own.

I'm heading back in 6 months with Paw Print Safaris and will shoot the same arrow combos but with a new bow!

 

[Ryan]

So many good broadheads....
I greatly appreciate reports of other broadhead's performance. It's good for all to use. I've seen and heard of the VPA's, they look good. I may have some Muzzy MX-3's I can get for a reasonable price heading for the test target soon for comparison. I'd like to throw in an expandable but the choices vary so much you can't just say 'expandable' and call it fair. And again, they aren't free. So if I can find some cheap I'll add it to the tests.

 

[Lrntolive]

Ryan,

Thanks for all the testing. Let us know how your hunt goes. There's nothing like the "real" thing to show how broadheads perform. I also have a trip to Namibia booked, but for 2017, so I have time to make changes if necessary. Right now, I'm shooting G5 Montecs and G5 Strikers in 125gr. I've not had any problems with these as long as my shot was good. And that was with my old, slow bow. I can't wait to see what happens with my new bow.

lrntolive

 

[Ryan Wilson]

Im shocked at the performance of the Solid head. I use these heads and have never had any issues with penetration and flight. Thanks for sharing with everyone.