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The Archery Project
The Ultimate Guide to Broadhead Selection | FRIDAY KILL NOTES
Choosing the right broadhead might be the most crucial gear decision you'll make as a bowhunter, yet countless hunters struggle with this selection. With North Carolina's archery season opening tomorrow, host Zakk Plocica tackles the confusing world of broadhead selection with clarity and practical advice based on scientific testing.
Recent ballistic testing by James Yates and Easton reveals what many experienced archers have long suspected: mechanical broadheads fly significantly truer than fixed blades for most hunters. At 70 yards, mechanicals grouped at 4 inches compared to fixed blades' 7-inch groups in controlled testing. This difference becomes even more critical when you factor in the pressure and adrenaline of an actual hunting situation.
Zakk makes a compelling case that most hunters especially those who don't shoot year-round or lack advanced tuning knowledge should choose mechanical broadheads. Popular options like Sevr, G5 Mega Meat, Grim Reaper Whitetail Special, and Schwacker consistently demonstrate field-point accuracy while creating devastating wound channels. The common fear of mechanical failure is largely overblown, especially when weighed against the accuracy advantages they provide.
For those committed to fixed blade broadheads, Zakk emphasizes the importance of proper bow tuning, extensive practice, and thorough testing. The Evolution Jackal and Iron Will 100 performed best among fixed blades in testing, but still require more technical knowledge to shoot effectively. Additional considerations like noise (vented versus solid heads), vane configuration, and blood trail production should factor into your decision based on your hunting environment.
The most critical takeaway? You must test before you hunt. Sacrifice one broadhead from your pack to thoroughly understand how it performs with your setup ideally weeks before opening day, not days. Your confidence in the woods directly correlates with your familiarity with your equipment's performance. Simplicity and reliability trump marketing claims every time.
What broadhead are you running this season, and what led you to that choice? Share your experiences and join the conversation about this crucial piece of bowhunting equipment!
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All right, ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode of the Archery Project. I'm your host, zach Placica, and the time is here. So some states have already opened up, but for us here in North Carolina, opening day for archery is tomorrow, saturday, so everybody's super excited I know all of us here are. We're looking forward to getting back out in the woods. We're looking forward to getting back out in the woods and getting on some white-tailed deer. But with that, one of the things that I've noticed, or that we've had a lot of question on, is broadhead selection. So that's kind of what I wanted to talk about and hit on today is broadhead selection. Right, it's a massive, it's a big decision, but I think it's a personal decision. It really comes down to the individual behind the bow. What are you comfortable with, what are your goals, what is your shooting capability and what kind of species, what animal are you hunting, and those are all things you need to consider whenever it goes to making a broadhead choice. But one of the problems I see right now in particular is again I'll reference, it's a lot of new shooters, but also some veteran bow hunters that you know kind of struggle with this. That we've seen, and that's the broadhead selection side of things. Right, we're one day from the season opening and I've got guys that are coming in the day before, two or three days before, a week before, and you know they're like, what broadheads did I shoot and I'm like man. You should probably have been a little bit more ahead on this, right? Um, because it involves testing. You've got to test for yourself. Uh, and I think that stands true for most archery equipment, and that's one thing we're big on here is you've got to do your own testing. That comes from the bows you shoot. That's why we encourage you to test any bow before you buy it, and we carry all the brands so you can test them to make an informed decision. Your arrows and then, even more so, the broadheads that you put on the front of those arrows. Right, there's a lot that goes into it and there's a lot of confusing, or a lot of confusion, when it comes to broadhead selection. Right, there's a lot of marketing out there. Everybody has the best broadhead on the market. If you're going to look at anything on Instagram or any of the advertisements out there. Right, everybody has the best broadhead. But a few months ago, james Yates and the crew out at Easton did a ballistic arrow study and it really brought to light some things I think most of your people who've been in the archery industry for a long time have already known. But it was really great to see hard data put on paper for everybody to see to really help make a decision when it comes to broadheads and broadhead selection and arrow selection and vein configuration and all of that. So it was a really good study. They did a really good job and I think it's opened some eyes to things.
Zakk Plocica:Right, because we see a lot of people that want to get into bow hunting and they want to. They gravitate right towards a fixed blade broadhead, which is fine, right, but a fixed blade broadhead typically is a little bit less forgiving of a broadhead. You have to have a basic understanding of how to tune a bow, how to broadhead tune, and you need to have a. In my opinion, your technique and form behind the bow needs to be pretty dialed in. So when they did these tests, I'll pull up some of the results right here. They shot these arrows and all of these heads out to 70 yards. Right, your field heads, or your field points, had an average group at 70 yards of two to three inches, or an average group of, excuse me, two and a half inches. Your mechanical broadheads had an average group of four inches, not far off of your field points. And then, when we look at the fixed blade broadheads, you had an average group of seven inches, which is pretty big difference. You had an average group of seven inches, which is pretty big difference, right? So that's something you really need to consider.
Zakk Plocica:Right, because the whole goal is for your broadhead to hit behind where your field point is hitting, and if it's not, you have got to be able to do the broadhead tuning side of things in order to close that gap. Right, because you don't just adjust your sight to a broad, to a broadhead. I see that all the time right, we get guys. They're like oh, do I need to just cite this into my broadhead, because my broadhead's hitting differently than what my field point is. It's like no, you need to make sure that broadhead is hitting where your field point is hitting. We don't just move our sights to accommodate that broadhead is hitting where your field point is hitting. We don't just move our sights to accommodate that broadhead. That's where broadhead tuning comes into play, and that's why I think for most new archers and most new bow hunters, a mechanical broadhead is the number one choice. It's a superior choice for them or for you, looking at it.
Zakk Plocica:So the most accurate groups when it came to mechanicals at 70 yards were there were the schwackers, there were the sever 1.5, the sever 2.0, the thorn riff 2.2. They shot almost like field points, which is exactly what you want. It's going to save you a lot of heartache and a lot of headache. They had an average group of two to three inches at 70 yards shooting out of this machine. That eliminated any human error, right. So your groups were much tighter and there was no induced human error into this. Your fixed blade broadheads had an average group of five and a half to six inches, with your best performing head being the Evolution J jackal, which had a three inch group. So the evolution jackal and then the iron wheel. The 100 were pretty accurate as far as fixed blade go.
Zakk Plocica:But at the end of the day, forgiveness is key when it comes to being in the woods right, especially for, again, new shooters, people who don't spend a lot of time behind their boat, or even guys who hunted for years, who haven't, who take a lot of time off. There's no reason, I think, to put yourself in a position to where you have an opportunity to shoot an animal and you've got a head on there, a broad head, that is difficult for you to shoot because one your form is off or you haven't tuned that bow or that um, done any broad head tuning, you haven't gone out and tested for yourself. So I think it makes a lot of sense.
Zakk Plocica:I would say I'll go out on a limb here and say most people should probably shoot a mechanical broadhead and I think one of the fears that I see with people is it comes down to performance. Is failure, right? Everyone's like oh man, a mechanical broadhead, it could fail, anything could fail. It could technically right, but when you look at most of your broadheads you've still got an inch to an inch and a quarter cutting diameter without the broadhead even deploying. So failure. I just don't see, as I don't see that being much of a problem for most people.
Zakk Plocica:I mean, typically, whenever there's a um, you are unable to recover an animal or it's a failure, it's typically I would say majority of the time is shooter induced, right, because any of these guys that I've talked to um one. They haven't spent as much time behind the bow as they should. So the form technique breakdown and that's amplified. Whenever you're under stress, right, or under that pressure, that opportunity walks out and all those hormones dump and you're those nerves hit and you know you have a bad input into that bow. Whatever you do, you don't execute your shot like you should. So that error or issue is amplified at flight with a big head on there.
Zakk Plocica:So I think the best thing that most people can do is start with a mechanical broadhead. And if you decide you want to go the fixed blade route which there's nothing wrong with that you need to be somebody that spends time behind the equipment and understands the fundamentals of tuning and setting up a bow and broadhead testing. The number one thing you can do when it comes to broadhead selection is test right. You have got to test yourself because everybody shoots a little bit different. Everybody's bow setup is a little bit different. What works for me may not necessarily work for you, but, based off this study as a whole, most people need a forgiving setup, and a forgiving setup is a mechanical broadhead, a mechanical broadhead with a little bit taller vein profile in order to correct that aeroflight.
Zakk Plocica:Again, testing is the only way for you to know what is going to be best for you, and that is not in my opinion. I know some of these broadheads come with a ballistic head that supposedly matches your broadhead, but that's not entirely true. There's nothing better than shooting the actual head itself. That is going to simulate what actually happens downrange during a hunt. I personally believe you need to sacrifice one of your broadheads in order to know exactly how it performs. So when you buy a pack of broadheads, realize that one should be sacrificed and tested. You can tell.
Zakk Plocica:You need to go back, you need to shoot distance with it, you need to shoot angles with it and see how it performs and see, you know if it's the right broadhead for you, or see if there's any corrections that need to be made within your bow. Right, that's a big thing. Is there if? If there's a massive issue with the flight of your broadhead? When you put a broadhead on there, there's typically some kind of tuning issue within your bow that you need to consider whether it's a timing issue, a center shot issue or a technique issue. And that's one thing a good shop can do. You can go to the shop, you can shoot the bow through paper and see what kind of tear you're getting through paper. And if you're getting a little bit of a tear, that tear is going to be amplified with a broadhead. So you need to correct the tune of that bow.
Zakk Plocica:Then put your broadhead head back on there and go out and test it, and I don't think there's any problem with running a fixed blade broadhead. I'm not anti fixed blade broadhead, but I am anti people who don't shoot a lot running a fixed blade broadhead or who don't have a basic understanding of broadhead tuning it. Just again, I'll say it, it goes. It'll lead to a lot of headache and a lot of heartache just because you don't have a basic understanding of all the inputs that go into that in order for you to have a good flying arrow with the head on it. The bigger head you put on the front of that arrow, the more deviation you're going to get if you don't know how to correct that with broadhead tuning and then again the proper vein configurations on the back of that arrow. You need something that's going to steer it and steer it well.
Zakk Plocica:So again, that's where broadhead or testing comes into play. You've got to be willing to go out and test, and that doesn't mean three days before the season. That's typically why you should be testing much earlier in the year so that when the season comes you are comfortable and confident with the equipment that you're taking in the woods. And that's the same thing with the mechanical broadhead. We know that there's broadheads out there that are very reliable and pretty much shoot true to a field point, and that's what I think most people should shoot. We see it with the mega meets, the G5 mega meets, the dead meets, the grim reaper, whitetail specials, especially the sever one and a half, 2.0s, the new hybrids, the thorn riffs, the Sever 1.5s, 2.0s, the new hybrids, the Thorn Rifts, the Schwacker 261s All of those, especially within a 40-yard shot, shoot pretty dang true to what your field point shoots.
Zakk Plocica:So if you're new to archery or you're a new bow hunter, I would highly encourage you go the mechanical broadhead route and whenever you have time and you get a little bit more experience behind your bow or that riser that you're shooting, then you can start to experiment with other broadheads that, yeah, maybe get a little bit more penetration, which again look at archery and bow hunting as a whole. Shot placement is key but yes, mistakes happen, things, things happen. You may end up in a shoulder or something. So you want something that's got a little bit more um on the front of that, on the front of that arrow to punch through bone, and that's where a good single bevel and iron will something like that, the evolution jackal um, come into play. Uh, but I think for for most people, if you are not the one, if you are not somebody that tinkers and tests, a mechanical broadhead is absolutely the move I know personally, for me I stick to a mechanical broadhead Um.
Zakk Plocica:I've shot fixed blades in the in the past and you know I have had no issues with flight. I shot this Strickland. One of my favorite broadheads that I've ever shot was a Strickland Helix Um. It was a really great broadhead. It was a single bevel broadhead and um, as far as flight goes, it was phenomenal. It flew very, very true. I did have to do a little bit of broadhead tuning with it minimal uh, because my bow was tuned uh and tuned very well, shot really well Um, but my, my issue with it was it didn't have bleeders on it. I didn't get very good blood Like I wanted um, which isn't a problem If you've got somewhere where you can see animals.
Zakk Plocica:You know you can see a long ways, but here in Eastern North Carolina it's very thick, the vegetation is very green. You need blood and that wound channel it was a pastor went right through the shoulder, dead, through the heart, out the um, the opposite side of the animal, uh, buried in the ground. So penetration was not an issue, but there was minimal blood. Like I had to get on my hands and knees and look for specks of blood on that, which wouldn't have been a problem if I could have glassed and watch that animal run off it. She only ran off 35 or 40 yards, but it was very hard to track her because it was so thick. So that's another thing to keep in mind. I think, especially here in Eastern North Carolina, you need a lot of blood to track animals and a good wide-cutting mechanical broadhead is going to do that. A 1.5 to 2-inch broadhead is going to open it up really good, give you a lot of blood, make your tracking a little bit easier.
Zakk Plocica:The other thing too is when it comes to broadhead selection. Uh, james May, james Yates made a really good point about this. Is the noise right and that's from your veins and your broadhead. So if you do go the fixed blade broadhead route, um, and you look at going with a vented broadhead, those are loud, like they're extremely loud. You can hear them whistling down whenever you shoot, and so he's a firm believer in something that's quiet and makes less noise in flight and that's going to be a solid, solid one piece, um, or just a solid non-vented broadhead. And that same thing with your mechanicals too.
Zakk Plocica:You need to look at the size of the broadhead, and one of the things that was interesting to me is, right, like, the sever 2.0 was one of the most accurate broadheads that they tested, but it is a long broadhead. It had more drag, but more drag did not necessarily mean less accuracy, so I thought that was interesting, um, but yeah, when it comes to selection, you need to. Those are a handful of things you need to look at uh, the size of the head, the, whether it's vented or non-vented. I would honestly, personally, myself, I would go with a non-vented broadhead just to keep the noise down. Um, and typically, like you're a little bit larger surface area, broadheads are going to be louder. So a streamlined mechanical and some solid one piece are going to be quieter broadheads.
Zakk Plocica:You know what James Yates hints to is the hiss of the arrow coming towards the animal, and that's what causes once that bow goes off. It's not so much the bow. The bow puts them on edge, it's a, it's a one and done right that noise. But the hiss of the arrow coming to the animal is what keeps them on edge and that's when they tend to duck the arrow. So if you can have a quieter arrow, an arrow set up.
Zakk Plocica:Other thing that goes hand in hand with your broadheads is your vein configurations, and I think this can really this can really be overthought as well. We get a lot of guys that come in and really think the entire overthink, the entire arrow setup right From. They're like, oh, I need you know this shaft and this vein configuration and this broadhead. And, yes, it's good to do your research and if you have time ahead of time to do your testing, it's fantastic. But if you're a day or two before the season or a week before the season coming in and doing all this experimenting, it's going to be overwhelming.
Zakk Plocica:So for me, one thing I've noticed is when I should run a mechanical broadhead, I can typically shoot the stock vein configuration on an arrow, like, for example, the, the mega meets that I've shot, the grim reapers that I've shot, um, the rages that I've shot and the severs, the one and a half 1.75. And I shot the two inches last year. I can run the stock blazer veins which I've run on axis five mils I can run. Which I like even better now that they're doing is their match grade series from Easton. The stock AAE hybrid veins, which are a little bit longer profile, steer those broads heads extremely well. Um, and I have no issues.
Zakk Plocica:So I don't got to go through and play with fletching configurations or whatnot because, I'll be honest, it's not my favorite thing to do. I like to get something that's set up that's very. I like a very simple setup, very easy, very reliable. It doesn't take a lot of effort for, or you go to the match grade uh arrows like the AAE hybrid, or, if I do reflect them, I run an AAE max stealth um steers those mechanical broadheads very, very well, I will say um, whenever I ran the fixed blades that I did in the past, I did run a four fletch which seemed to steer the broadheads a little bit better. But you've got to consider vein profile, the height of the vein, too when it comes to your broadhead selection, and typically whenever the broadheads are a little bit taller, they're a little bit louder, you get a little bit more drag, which increases the lift and the steering of the broadhead. So those are all things to consider and again, it's very easy easy to become overwhelmed.
Zakk Plocica:So I think for most people, it's better to simplify and your goal, at the end of the day, is to harvest an animal. That's that's the goal. Go out, get on an animal, shoot and kill an animal, take it home, fill the freezer, or whether you're a trophy hunter, whatever you're looking for, the goal is is should be simplicity and not having to overthink this. But you do need something that's reliable, and this study again shows those reliable heads, those reliable broad heads and, at the end of the day, the study showed most you're, you should have a forgiving, a very forgiving setup, and and the mechanical broadheads were the answer for and I think are the answer for most people. You need something that is simplistic, especially if you're somebody that does not shoot a lot, and if you haven't looked at the study, I highly encourage you to look at it. It really does open your eyes and you can really simplify this.
Zakk Plocica:You can go get a broadhead. That is tried and true. Again, mega Meats by G5, the Sever Series, some of the Grim Reapers, the Rages they perform fantastic and they fly very, very true. It comes down to the individual behind the bow at that point. So I encourage you, spend time, shoot your bow, get familiar with your bow, shoot your bow at different angles and shoot your bow with the broadhead of choice that you are going to run. You need to sacrifice one. It is the best thing you can do for your confidence when you go into the woods, because when your confidence is high you are going to perform much better. So I highly encourage you make sure, when you brought your broad heads, be willing to sacrifice one. The ballistic head is great, but it is not true to what your actual broad head is. And that's one of the cool features about the severs. I mean, you can lock the blades and test it for as much as you want and then you can unlock the broad, the actual blades, with the set, screw and take it out and still shoot it on an animal, uh, and that thing will work perfectly fine. So that's my two cents.
Zakk Plocica:Um, I'd be curious to hear back from you guys. You know what your your thoughts are. Why do you run the broadhead that you do? Uh, and what's your broadhead of choice and what led you to that broadhead? Um, because, again, there's a lot of people that really struggle with broadhead selection and I get it, it's an overwhelming. There's an overwhelming amount of information out there. But, again, james Yates' study did it really really well.
Zakk Plocica:But when it comes to it, you need to make sure priority one is having that bow tuned. You need to go to your shop, you need to do your paper tuning, you need to do your walkback tuning, and then you need to do your broadhead tuning, and and then you need to do your broadhead tuning. And I would encourage you when you do that, whenever you get your broadheads, you need to shoot them out to, I would say, double the distance you plan to hunt. So if you realistically, for most people here in Eastern North Carolina, you're shooting 30 yards and in, I would shoot those broadheads out to 60 yards and see how they perform, see if there is any point of impact shift or if they're very loud, based off your configuration, and then, at the end of the day, simplify, simplify, simplify If you can make things simpler for yourself. It's only going to, I think, be less headache in the woods and build your confidence.
Zakk Plocica:And while shooting that broadhead, practicing with it, your confidence will be much higher when you know exactly how it performs, because some of the broadheads you'll notice the trajectory based off the drag of that arrow. At X amount of yards maybe it's 50 yards, maybe it's 60 yards that arrow starts to drop a little bit quicker Still very accurate, but your sight tape may be off a little bit. So those are all things you need to do and things you need to consider when it comes to selecting the right broadhead for you. And again, I'll say it again, confidence is king and the best way to be confident with your gear is to go out and test it, put it through, put it through the works, make sure it is performing up to your standard and if it's not, don't be afraid to change. Or don't be afraid to take your bow into a shop and make sure it's still in time or in tune, because we do know some of these more inexpensive bows tend to come out of time or tune a little bit easier.
Zakk Plocica:So that, again, if you're shooting a mid price point bow and maybe you have stock strings on it. I would highly encourage you to go for that more forgiving setup. And that's going to be all day, every day, a mechanical broadhead. So check it out, check out the James Yates study, let me know what your thoughts are on it and pick a broadhead that you are comfortable with and make sure you test it and test it thoroughly. So, as always, guys, I appreciate you guys listening. Good luck to everybody on opening day tomorrow, that's here in North Carolina, and good luck to all those who you know if you haven't made out in the woods yet in your state and your state's open, and hopefully you get to make it out this weekend and put something on the ground. But give us your feedback, let us know your thoughts. What's your broad head of choice? And I will see you guys in the next episode of the archery project.