Home › Forums › Bows and Equipment › Ideal Broadhead weight
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My ideal broadhead weight is whatever tunes the best for my setup. That being said, I can count on one finger the number of broadheads I’ve used over the years that didn’t weigh 125 grains.
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Thank you Mr Wesbrock. Your right, 125 grain broadhead is a nice weight. That is also the weight I was used to shooting until this EFOC appeared, now people are adding weight to their arrows by either shooting 200 to 300 grain broadheads or using brass inserts and or steel washers to increase front weight. I am curious to see how many have changed to this heavier broadhead system.
Thank you for posting 🙂
SB
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Im a beliver of the heavy broad head. i shoot about 300 gr and with a grizzly el grande single bevel and achieved total pentration of a bull elk (including the off side shoulder). heavy up front is the way to go. but you do need to have stiffer spine than you usally need.
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125 gr or 145 gr is what I have used over the years. I still use the 100 gr per pound of draw weight that has been the standard forever. For instance the arrows I launch from my 45 pound recurve weight about 450 gr and they fly straight. Of course the largest game I have hunted is whitetail deer. If I were going for heavier game I would use a heavier bow and would seriously consider the new heavier arrow setup. I do believe tailoring your gear to the game you plan to hunt is good practice.
Duncan -
That is interesting, even though there is this EFOC period where people are adding weight to the front of their arrows, there are still a number of people satisfied with using the traditional 125 grain tips.
Makes very good sense to me, a fine tuned arrow shot behind the shoulder of any animal is the right place to be.
Why is EFOC such a big thing today? An interesting question since we have two very distinctive school of thought;
A group that is satisfied using medium weight broadheads with finely tuned arrows shot in the boiler making room and the other group that use heavy EFOC arrows in case they hit a shoulder blade or hard surface.Interesting 🙂
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When Standing Bear started this thread I thought it was beating a dead horse…. But maybe not.
In my humble opinion, there are only 2 drawbacks to using an arrow with a lot of weight up front. They fly a little slower and they are harder to pull out of 3d targets.
On the other hand, if you already have arrows setup with less weight up front, and you don’t have any trouble with them, then why change? I’m sure nobody reading this ever makes a bad shot…
The problem with traditional archery is that evidence for effective setups is always anecdotal. It is hard to gather much data about any particular setup. If a guy says “my setup is great, I kill deer with it every year” It still doesn’t add up to much quantitatively.
For myself, I respect data that is unbiased, quantitatively meaningful, collected over a long time, and qualitatively valid. I think of myself as open minded. So I am going to give Ashby’s findings a go.
So this year, I am intentionally setting up some heavier arrows with about 300 grains up front counting the insert. The difference in speed is about 10 fps between my current 600 grain arrows and my new 750 grain arrows. Will this speed loss be critical to a miss? I guess we’ll see.
The main thing to remember is that there is more than 1 way to skin a cat 😆 The thing is, to find the way that works best for you!
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SteveMcD wrote: What J. Wesbrock said. Ditto. 8)
Yep. 145 gr. occasionally.
Jerry Gowins
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I do not believe it boils down to the ideal weight. I believe it is a FOC that you should be looking for. Yes, for accuracy the more FOC within reason to your deflection capabilty in your set up should be the goal! Read and study Dr. Ashbys findings! The man is as thorough and objective as it gets and does not prosper monetarily from his work which benefits us all as Bowhunters.:)
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Thank you for those informative posts Hiram. What I gather by the overall response to my question is this, whatever you shoot as bow/arrow/broadhead combinations, you must find the balance that best suits your desired outcome.
The question I now ask is, can we as informed archers achieve a balance with our set up and and then all of a sudden suddenly feel the need the need to change with the promotion of a new ideal broadhead?
SB
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Standing Bear:
My ideal broadhead weight appears to be 125-145 grain. If I get a proper draw with a heavy bow and arrow combination, that grain weight could go to 190, however, with the more steadfast style of shooting I do in the 40 – 50 pound bow weight class, the 125 – 145 grain broadhead does the job more consistently. At least, that is how it works for me with wood arrows and not concentrating on extreme weight forward of centre ratios.
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I think for most several different weights provides the options we may encounter according to our Bow weight and shafting requirements according to the size or toughness of the animal we intend to kill. Shafting material preference may be the determining factor of our broad head weight choices. I think that is why several weights are offered.
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I use a 190 Grizzly with a 100 steel adapter, and a 100 gr brass insert. For a total of 360 up front. Is this ideal? Who knows, but it seems to do the trick. Ive used 160 broadheads with no problems either.
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When I first started shooting, I started with a 125 gr. two-blade on a 2018 shaft. After a couple years of very erratic accuracy, I realized that I was not drawing properly…my elbow on my bow arm was always slightly bent and always had a little bit of slack to it. Once I solidified my elbow, I found my draw length grew nearly, if not a solid inch in length. This did something I didn’t like with my arrows…I now had an underspined shaft. The only way to stiffen the spine was to shorten the shaft…one problem…my broadhead/field tip was pretty much AT the shelf, which is not a good place for it to be. I like a couple inches of shaft out in front of my fingers to keep from getting cut one way or another. Haven’t gotten cut yet, knock on wood. Anyway…my next step was to move to a heavier shaft…the next step up that was readily available was a 2117. With a 125 gr. tip, I could shoot a completely UNcut shaft, and it flew very well…these were, I believe, 34″ shafts. The nock on my arrow was even with then of my bow…too long. So I ordered some 150 gr. Woodsman heads, and bought some 145 gr. field tips and started trimming my arrows until I got good flight. I now have, I believe, a 31 1/2″ shaft with a 145-150 gr. head and aluminum inserts. My overall weight is somewhere right around 585 grains, they fly great, and I’m very confident in them. However, since I won some of Standing Bear’s broadheads in one of his give-aways, I’m going to work toward more FOC, a single bevel two-blade head, and possibly move to a carbon shaft once I have some money to play with. I would like to be over 625 grains, total weight, when I’m done, and between 16 and 20 percent FOC. These are my plans.
Michael
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my ideal weight has be be 125-150. i dont know i just like the weight of those broadheads
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Not sure what my “ideal” weight is but I’ve been shooting Bear Razorheads with bleeders glued on cedar shafts for about 45 years and they weigh about 145 gr with the bleeders. Have only shot deer mainly with them and moderately light cedar shafts. Never remember an arrow not flying fairly good but I do spend alot of time getting the broadhead on true and the nock on true and shoot 3 full 5″ feathers from 45 to 50 # bows. When I miss, and I certainly do, it’s my fault and not my equipment. Never heard of FOC or EFOC or single bevel broadheads until recently and doubt I’ll start worrying about it now. I believe more animals have still been harvested with a bear razorhead then all the rest put together including elephants, buffalo and other thick skin big game. Never seemed to bother Fred Bear too much.
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For my lighter draw weight bows (45-60 lb) I generally use a 200 gr broadhead with a 100 gr insert. I choose an arrow shaft stiff enough to use this weight and then trim the shaft to tune the arrow flight. I like the 200 gr broadhead because I can readily find 200 gr field tips for practice. Anything over 60 lbs, I put more weight up front, but it’s attached to the insert. I stay with the 200 gr broadheads to keep things simple.
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