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Best broadhead for low poundage bow

SaddleGuy615

New Member
Joined
Jun 24, 2019
Messages
23
My wife is about to take on her second season bow hunting, and I’m trying to put everything in her corner that I can. She is currently shooting a 25.5” 500 spine arrow and a 100 gr NAP thunderhead. The bow is probably just under 40lb but I keep increasing the weight as she shoots more and more. I want to do a heavy arrow build for her but I don’t want to spend the time and money with her changing her weight so much to get it paper tuned and all that. Any tips or suggestions? Especially on broadhead selection. I like the Magnus Stingers, almost went to them myself.


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I personally shoot the Iron Wills and I think they would be great for that, but obviously they aren't cheap. The magnus stingers look like a great option. Overall, I would say that any cut on contact broadhead is going to be the best choice. Shouldn't need to retune too much for her poundage increasing other than the fact that the string position might change slightly with poundage changes, so the nocking point might move a little bit. An over spined arrow in my opinion is not much of an issue and shouldn't effect flight.
 
My wife pulls 42 pounds on a Reign 6, I believe her dl is 27 1/2, it could be 28 though. She's shooting a 340 spine axis with 325 total upfront. The shafts are 26 1/4 BOP to nock throat, they bullet hole bare shaft. She's shooting a tusker 250 single bevel. She lost a buck her first season hunting with a very similar arrow set up your wife is using except with a 2 blade. Hit that deer and got maybe 4 inches of penetration at 8 yards. Jumped to heavy arrows and shes had no issues since. I set her up for failure with that first arrow setup, I wouldn't recommend doing that lol. The stinger is a great choice as well, just get the 2 blade.
 
John Dudley, who I greatly respect when it comes to anything bow-related, has his wife shooting Muzzy Trocars, and they seem quite pleased with that setup. I'm not a heavy arrow guy (though hoping to explore that soon), but I see the benefits of going heavy/extreme FOC the most on low-poundage bows.
 
My wife pulls 42 pounds on a Reign 6, I believe her dl is 27 1/2, it could be 28 though. She's shooting a 340 spine axis with 325 total upfront. The shafts are 26 1/4 BOP to nock throat, they bullet hole bare shaft. She's shooting a tusker 250 single bevel. She lost a buck her first season hunting with a very similar arrow set up your wife is using except with a 2 blade. Hit that deer and got maybe 4 inches of penetration at 8 yards. Jumped to heavy arrows and shes had no issues since. I set her up for failure with that first arrow setup, I wouldn't recommend doing that lol. The stinger is a great choice as well, just get the 2 blade.

We got a new bag target (trying to save some money) and she was barely sticking the arrow in that thing. Made me really nervous. I remember as a kid not getting a pass through on a couple deer and I had the experience killing a few with a rifle. She hasn’t killed one yet so I can see things not going perfectly. Like you said, I don’t want to set her up for failure.


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The bow will likely paper tune much easier than you think it will. In my limited experience lower speed setups tune very easily with arrows over 500 grains. If you want to try a cheap way to add weight, go to a hardware store and get 1/4 inch threaded rod. It is pretty close to the inside diameter of standard arrows and weighs 70 grains per inch. Knock your insert out and use hotmelt to put in a section of rod so you can take it out easily. You can try any weight arrow you want and still have enough rod left to build a dozen arrows for $5.
 
Her arrows are 602 grains total, just weighed them. I also agree that heavier arrows on lighter bows are pretty easy to tune. This setup needed a half twist and a slight nocking point adjustment. Her old arrows were 321 grains total... That was a bow shop setup that lost the ol buck
 
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One day I'll stop hearing about that buck:rolleyes:
No you won’t...12yrs later and I’m still hearing about the Worlds biggest spike horn that she lost.

There’s nothing wrong with Magnus Stingers and I shoot them out of my recurve. Put a heavy insert behind it and she’ll be fine. There is however a very fine line of what works and then trying to throw a brick with a low poundage bow. I can shoot pretty flat with a 575gr out of my 42lb recurve but that same arrow out of the wife’s bow at 42lbs and it’s like she’s tossing a boat anchor down range.

Call up Tuffhead broadheads and have him suggest a setup.
 
No you won’t...12yrs later and I’m still hearing about the Worlds biggest spike horn that she lost.

There’s nothing wrong with Magnus Stingers and I shoot them out of my recurve. Put a heavy insert behind it and she’ll be fine. There is however a very fine line of what works and then trying to throw a brick with a low poundage bow. I can shoot pretty flat with a 575gr out of my 42lb recurve but that same arrow out of the wife’s bow at 42lbs and it’s like she’s tossing a boat anchor down range.

Call up Tuffhead broadheads and have him suggest a setup.
She whiffed on a book deer last season, twice. So it doesn't get brought up as much haha. Tuffheads will never do you wrong with a lighter bow. That's a proven design.
 
For low poundage, you want a lower profile broadhead with a 3:1 ratio for the best mechanical advantage and more penetration with the lower energy delivered by a low poundage bow. These would be an excellent choice in my opinion.

 
I believe cut on contract for sure but I wouldn’t get to crazy on the heavy arrow weight as you will greatly reduce speed and that’s big part of the equation. Weight is nice but if you can’t push it it’s a disadvantage I believe. I say shoot something super sharp and stay out the shoulder.
 
I believe cut on contract for sure but I wouldn’t get to crazy on the heavy arrow weight as you will greatly reduce speed and that’s big part of the equation. Weight is nice but if you can’t push it it’s a disadvantage I believe. I say shoot something super sharp and stay out the shoulder.
What are you basing this off of? Lighter arrows lose speed at a much faster rate than heavier ones. Animals move faster than your bow can get an arrow there, plenty of footage to prove that. And if a whitetail scapula stops your arrow, you failed in your preparation. Speed is not a constant, mass is.
 
What are you basing this off of? Lighter arrows lose speed at a much faster rate than heavier ones. Animals move faster than your bow can get an arrow there, plenty of footage to prove that. And if a whitetail scapula stops your arrow, you failed in your preparation. Speed is not a constant, mass is.
With a 40 lb bow they ain’t exactly smoking arrows and I’m not disagreeing that a lighter arrow loses speed quicker cause it does. What I’m saying is don’t get to crazy on super heavy and put them in a position that they’re lobbing a log and make a bad shot cause the deer took a step forward or something. There’s gonna be a lot of deer lost because of shot placement still with a super heavy single bevel. People who push it won’t tell all of the failures. Does it work? Sure, but so does a a 400 grain arrow with a good broadhead in the vitals. And that’s what has started the whole heavy arrow trend is hitting deer and not getting penetration. Most of that I’d attribute to shot placement or shooting low poundage bows with big expandables not capable of enough energy to push it through. Back 2007 I dislocated my left elbow and could only pull 50 lbs. I shot beman ICS 400 with a wasp bullet 100. I killed my Ohio buck that year at 25 yds with a complete pass through. Wasn’t in the shoulder but it broke ribs on both sides. Ranch fairy has a lot of good content as well as Asby but he stresses vitals as well. We shoot a lot of pigs to here jn Florida as well and they’re tough but not armored by any means.
 
This is last years Buck at lasered 41 yards with a Swhacker and Easton Hexx arrow. 400 grain total weight. Complete pass through and broke offside shoulder. This is a very light set up by many people’s opinion. But it’s yet to not pass through. That was out of a Halon 32. I think sharpness is a big deal. Deer in pick was broad side not quartering.
 

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I would take a look at Ramcat Hydroshocks. They're not quite as durable as the solid heads but the penetration is amazing with the hydrofoil it creates. It also has much less resistance going through the animal than the thick heads. It's hard to determine the damage to the head from going through an animal as a lot of guys have them stick into the dirt after a pass through. I know from experience that the blades are extremely sharp as the first time I put them on my arrows I had cut myself but didn't notice until there was suddenly blood on my workbench and had to look for where it came from.

When you are building the arrows build it with a stiff spine. For compounds you really can't have too stiff of an arrow. That way you don't have to worry about the spine being stiff enough as the poundage increases.
 
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