![]() ![]() Long, sweeping blades cut huge wound channels but also create drag, which can slow penetration. While the amount of energy needed to open mechanical heads varies according to design, a more significant factor in real-world penetration is the larger cut diameters of many mechanical heads. The rubber band slides off at impact, and without it, the blades open with less than a half-pound of pressure. The stretching of a rubber band that captures the back edge of the three blades is what required that much force. Tru-Fire's new Switch Blade required 1.8 pounds of force, and the G5 Outdoors Tekan's blades popped open with just 1.2 pounds of pressure.Ĭuriously, the Trophy Ridge Undertaker required 14.5 pounds of force to open the blades, but that's deceiving. For example, my digital scale showed that it took 3.2 pounds of pressure to deploy the blades on a Rage 2-blade broadhead. However, my test method worked very well on heads with rear-deploying blades. I just haven't devised a good way to measure the energy needed to deploy the blades. This isn't to say over-the-top mechanical broadheads are not deadly they are. ![]() I measured the force needed to deploy the Hypershock 100's blades at 4.5 pounds. This is a "tweener" design because it's over-the-top but designed to open after penetrating the skin. The only exception was Aftershock Archery's Hypershock head. At least not with pressure I could safely measure. I repeated the test using soft, tanned blue wildebeest hide with a hole in it and still could not deploy the blades with any of the over-the-top broadheads. Rather, the tips of the blades just penetrated the cardboard. Because cardboard has no give, as live fur and skin do, the blades would not deploy. There are a lot of tradeoffs if you can tell me where you are going to hit the deer, I can easily tell you which head is best.Admittedly, this is a very crude experiment, valid only for comparison, and even then it's rife with problems, one of which popped up when testing so-called "over-the-top" broadheads - those with forward-facing blades that scissor backward into the open position upon contact with an animal. They aren’t real big so they won’t cause as much damage as a GR or Rage on soft-tissue hits (lungs, liver, paunch) but they do penetrate better when they hit other tissue (bone, cartlage, muscle). I like the Steelheads because they stay closed, open fairly easy and are built of steel so the ferrule won’t bend or snap on a shoulder hit. So I tend to find something that is conservative. Not saying I have seen that with the Grim Reaper, but I have seen it with similar designs. That means they will also break when impacting shoulder (at least potentially). I have not had a Grim Reaper fail, but I have had other long ferrule mechanical heads break when impacting frozen ground. The longer ferrule (made of aluminum) also worried me. I have used Grim Reapers too and I always felt like the blades opened a bit hard, but they definitely stay closed in flight. Not sure if they have fixed that problem or not as I quit experimenting with them at that time. I have seen them open in flight (first hand) and that is defitely bad. The Rage heads are big – that can be good or bad depending on where you hit the deer. Todd,There are always pros and cons and tradeoffs to every style. Can you compare the Rage to Grim Reaper and Rocket Steelheads? was last modified: August 24th, 2011 by Gavin Koterba ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |