Deerbuster.com

In the 80's when I first started bow hunting, I was a total, obsessed, speed demon, hi tech turbo nut. Fast, fast, fast. I didn't care how loud the bow popped. Don't get me wrong. I still shoot compounds, use a peep and a release sometimes. I've lived and learned some though, and I've moved back to the middle ground, were sanity lies.

Back then, I experimented with mechanical heads for a year or so. I had been a Muzzy and Zwickey devotee before and since, but I had the itch for something new. I found an early version of todays "insert" type carbons that both Beaman and Gold Tip currently market. They were called "nitro stingers" and were wrapped carbon that were tapered (narrower at the nock end) They flew like a dream. I found them at a shop in Rutland Vermont, and have never seen them since. Now days they help hold my wife's tomato plants up straight, but that's another story.

I had experiences with carbon and mechanicals and today I shoot aluminum and fixed heads. My ordeals with mechanical heads and ultra light arrows wasn't all bad, just mostly bad.

I was at my friend Jerry's again, this time with Ed. At 3:30 a spike buck walked past and gave every indication that he would not come within range. I used my grunt call and he changed his tune and his direction. He had previously been moving with extreme caution, but became at ease when he thought more deer were in the area. He also paid my deer decoy little mind as he headed right to my stand from the up wind side. The spike was very close to being directly under me when I shot. The arrow seemed to glance off his right shoulder blade and never enter the thorax. The vortex head opened up on one side only and rode down his rib cage. As he egressed, I could see a large wound right below his shoulder and hoped I nicked a lung. His hide flopped around like a man with an open jacket, blowing in the breeze. He favored his foreleg and I saw him or parts of him for over fifteen minutes.

An hour after the hit I got down from the Staghorn tree stand and went to where the deer had been standing for so long. I ascertained that he wasn't bleeding as much as I'd expect considering the size of his wound. I also figured that the lung was uninjured. Jerry and I tracked blood for 3/4 of a mile the next day. We lost the trail, then discovered a blob of blood in some pines, about 300 yards from the last sign. We gave up after a large grid search yielded no deer and no further sign. I believe that deer was still alive as we searched, but may have become easy pickings for predators. The straight down shot should be a safe one to try if your bow has enough kinetic energy (greater than 55 foot/.pounds). I think mechanical heads may need even more.

On the Thursday before the annual Vermont trip, I chose to sit in the Striker stand, in Easton. The evening was comfortable and nothing was doing for all but the last few minutes of the hunt. Light was fading and I thought I could hear a deer moving through the crunchy leaves. I finally picked up some movement to the north. The deer was cross wind from me and moving at a tangent, into the wind. His path would take him no closer to me, so I tried a grunt. It was surprising, how hard I had to blow the grunt tube to get his attention. Finally, he stopped and stared in my direction for a minute, then changed course and headed directly to me. He was a spike or a three pointer, young but big in the body. When he arrived at the opening in the stone wall, he seemed perplexed.

"Where is the deer I heard?" he seemed to be thinking. I threw a soft grunt over my shoulder and the buck responded by jumping the wall and heading towards the field where he presumed the other deer to be. As he passed my stand, ten yards distant, I drew the bow, still not sure I if wanted to shoot him. If he gave me a perfect shot opportunity, he would make up my mind for me. At fifteen yards he paused with his head behind a tree and his chest wide open in a quartering away position. As I write this, I'm not sure, but as I recall, I think he even lifted his near foreleg up a little, as if to say "shoot me!".

So I did. Perfect hit, pass through, he trotted fifteen yards. Looking back at the spot where he heard that weird noise, he lasted only seconds. The back legs gave out and that was it. If I never had any other experiences with mechanical heads than that, I'd swear by them.

My conclusions.........
#1
Mechanical heads that have flared blades to catch on the hide to make them open are downright dangerous on anything but a perfect broadside or quartering away shot. If the leading edge of a blade makes significant contact before the ferrule tip, the arrow can be deflected in a non lethal direction. At the very least, it will retard the penetration of the shaft.

#2
Mechanical head = less penetration. Less penetration = less blood to follow. Less blood = higher chance of unrecovered deer. Unrecovered deer = unacceptable risk to the deer, the hunter, the resource, hunting in general. Lost deer = fuel for the anti's.

#3
So you shoot a fast shaft and you "need" mechanical heads because fixed blade heads won't tune well at 280 fps, right? Mechanical heads, if you must use them, require more kinetic energy to be acceptably lethal. To get the most kinetic energy, you need to crank the poundage or you must increase your bow's efficiency. The best way to increase the bow's efficiency is to start shooting a heavier arrow, which will be slower. Once the heavier, slower and more efficient shaft is chosen, it may tune fine without the mechanical disadvantages.

For example, recent tests with my Mathews Signature showed a difference in kinetic energy of 47 foot pounds with carbon 330 grain arrows as compared with 54 foot pounds with 550 grain aluminum shafts.

BOW: SIGNATURE
SHAFT: Easton 2116 / 55 Gold Tip
Grain: 550gr. /
FPS: 210fps /
Kinetic energy: 54 foot pounds /
Draw weight: 60 lbs / 60 lbs.
Broadhead: Muzzy 135 gr. / Thunderhead 100

E mail us if you disagree or agree and have some experience to back it up. My mind is open and my arrowhead is sharp. Sharp like a Zwickey, that is.