Single Bevel and Blood Trails

[RMcDonald7]

As many of you, i'm on the search for a new broadhead.

I currently have bounced around from Rage, spitfire's, walmart and amazon specials, and G5 montec's..... Spitfire's have been the most productive for me when it comes to blood. (Some good shots and some not so much..)

Single bevel seem to be catching on more and more, so I want in!

A few i'm looking at are of course Iron will's, Grizzly, day six, and cutthroat's. (anything else i'm missing)

Lets see some entry and exit wounds with blood trials and what broadhead you used.

 

[NMSbowhunter]

This buck got a Grizzly single bevel (650 grain arrow, 29% FOC 60# bow) through both shoulders at 12 yards. It cut the offside humorous in half. He never took another upright step and pushed himself on his nose with his back legs off into a creek. He made it about 25 yards.

The doe got the same setup at about 12 yards. Profuse blood trail leading 25 to 30 yards.

These broadheads were hair popping razor sharp.

 

[NMSbowhunter]

This doe got the same arrow setup in the neck shoulder junction and out the offside right behind the shoulder. She spun at the shot. She was keyed up and about to leave. The arrow went through her and stuck up in a tree. Note the L shaped cut in the picture below. Doe made it 30 yards.

 

[RMcDonald7]

This buck got a Grizzly single bevel (650 grain arrow, 29% FOC 60# bow) through both shoulders at 12 yards. It cut the offside humorous in half. He never took another upright step and pushed himself on his nose with tis back legs off into a creek. He made it about 25 yards.

The doe got the same setup at about 12 yards. Profuse blood trail leading 25 to 30 yards.

These broadheads were hair popping razor sharp.

Perfect! This is what i'm looking for! thanks for sharing!

 

[deerfly]

sharp is sharp single or double bevel, main purpose of single bevel is assisting penetration when the arrow rotation matches the bevel. The concept was formalized by Dr Ashby, if you're not familiar with his work you can google him up. Its foundation was to maximize penetration on dangerous African game animals and inspired to convince the African country game agencies to accept traditional bows as sufficiently lethal with empirical science. With deer and most American game animals the bh bevel is of little consequence and most setups are over powered already, especially compound bows. Just make sure the heads are shaving sharp and put them in the right place...

 

[NMSbowhunter]

I think blood loss has a lot to do with 1. Getting 2 holes in the animal. 2. Having a low exit wound. 3. A hair popping razor sharp broadhead that will stay sharp all the way through. Read the article below on the physiology of the blood clotting cascade.

Microsoft Word - Clotting Cascade Article.doc (squarespace.com)

 

[NMSbowhunter]

The main advantage of the single bevel is its ability to split heavy bone and keep penetrating. I learned this lesson the hard way when I had a light arrow setup with a mechanical broadhead stop cold on a big buck's shoulder. Whitetail deer don't have many heavy bones, but they do have some that will impede light weight sets from time to time. When things go right anything will work. When things go wrong, I want some insurance.

Here is a bone test I did with my 56# longbow on a fresh whitetail buck humorous bone. The arrow weighs 650 grains and is about 31% FOC. The bone was free swinging in front of a haybale. Shot was 12 yards. Arrow speed was about 160 feet per second.

 

[Hall17]

I like my Kudu heads. I only use single bevel while ground hunting. I use Rage while in a tree. I've killed deer with 3 different broadheads. Muzzy, Kudu and Rage. All have left good blood trails and poor blood trails.

Like mentioned above the broadhead has a part but its not the whole picture when it comes to blood trails. Two holes and a low exit are key. Also those two holes should be in the right spot of course. Two holes with a gut shot, not that great.

Single bevels have their advantages but I will say that they are not our saving grace for better blood trails and recovering more deer. Any hunter that has shot a lot of deer will tell you the same thing. Need good shot placement. SB heads can save you if the shot is into bone again having its advantage but they are not the cure all for better blood trails.

 

[deerfly]

The main advantage of the single bevel is its ability to split heavy bone and keep penetrating. I learned this lesson the hard way when I had a light arrow setup with a mechanical broadhead stop cold on a big buck's shoulder. Whitetail deer don't have many heavy bones, but they do have some that will impede light weight sets from time to time. When things go right anything will work. When things go wrong, I want some insurance.

Here is a bone test I did with my 56# longbow on a fresh whitetail buck humorous bone. The arrow weighs 650 grains and is about 31% FOC. The bone was free swinging in front of a haybale. Shot was 12 yards. Arrow speed was about 160 feet per second.

I agree, bone splitting is one of the benefits, but I think in your setup the main contributor is the 650gr arrow weight, which is almost 12gpp and one of Ashby's main tenets. At that yardage and gpp a double bevel bh would easily split that bone too.

Nothing wrong with going for every advantage in our setups, but shot placement, perfect arrow flight and a sharp bh are far more important than bh bevel.

 

[RMcDonald7]

Thanks for the info! You all have given me something to think about and desire to learn more about the arrow setup.

I've killed a fair amount of deer with my bow, and absolutely agree with shot placement! I'm just wanting to see some success pics with single bevel BH's.

 

[NMSbowhunter]

The opposing bevels force rotation as the broadhead penetrates. Push a double bevel broadhead through a potato and then push a single bevel through a like potato and see the difference. The single bevel will rotate and split the potato. The single bevel is a simple machine and works as a lever to split the material.

 

[Kurt]

Perfect arrow flight, perfect shot placement, sounds easy enough. All the static factors are easyish ie. tuned bow, sharp broadheads, plenty of as real world practice as possible, knowledge of anatomy, you get the drift. But when your hanging out of a tree by your ass, twisted up like a pretzel trying to shoot an animal that is .....not always looking like it's ready for a nap, those two things aren't always a given. Go ahead and ask me how I know. That's why I went to a heavy arrow and single bevel. I don't see a lot of deer each year so when they come into 20yds. I want to give that animal the maximum opportunity to become meat sizzling in a pan in the most humane way possible. I don't take bad shots but I've made some bad shots. That's where the insurance comes in.

 

[RMcDonald7]

Perfect arrow flight, perfect shot placement, sounds easy enough. All the static factors are easyish ie. tuned bow, sharp broadheads, plenty of as real world practice as possible, knowledge of anatomy, you get the drift. But when your hanging out of a tree by your ass, twisted up like a pretzel trying to shoot an animal that is .....not always looking like it's ready for a nap, those two things aren't always a given. Go ahead and ask me how I know. That's why I went to a heavy arrow and single bevel. I don't see a lot of deer each year so when they come into 20yds. I want to give that animal the maximum opportunity to become meat sizzling in a pan in the most humane way possible. I don't take bad shots but I've made some bad shots. That's where the insurance comes in.

well said.

what do you use ?

 

[NMSbowhunter]

This one I shot with a lighter weight setup. This was bout 550 grains with a Grizzly again, about 24% FOC. Shot was very close and steep downward angle. She walked right under the tree I was on. I was only about 12 feet up and I aimed for the exit. She went about 40 yards and piled up.

 

[Allegheny Tom]

I recently heard Ashby describe the thickness of a buffalo rib and he compared it to the humorous of a whitetail.
He contended that the deer humorous is actually harder to penetrate than the buffalo rib.

Another advantage to single bevel is the starburst wound pattern it can produce when shot thru intestines. Yeah I know, we try not to hit them back there but stuff happens, plus we may clip intestines on sharply quartering away angles.
A starburst wound produces little micro cuts that are inches away from the primary woubd channel. This is a result of the intestines wrapping around the single bevel as it rotates thru the intestines.
Ashby proved that by injecting dye into the intestines which showed several micro cuts that were remote from the main wound channel.

 

[Crawdaddy4]

Perfect arrow flight, perfect shot placement, sounds easy enough. All the static factors are easyish ie. tuned bow, sharp broadheads, plenty of as real world practice as possible, knowledge of anatomy, you get the drift. But when your hanging out of a tree by your ass, twisted up like a pretzel trying to shoot an animal that is .....not always looking like it's ready for a nap, those two things aren't always a given. Go ahead and ask me how I know. That's why I went to a heavy arrow and single bevel. I don't see a lot of deer each year so when they come into 20yds. I want to give that animal the maximum opportunity to become meat sizzling in a pan in the most humane way possible. I don't take bad shots but I've made some bad shots. That's where the insurance comes in.

"Plan B" arrows for the win!!

 

[Nosaj]

This is a deer shot from 10 yds from my saddle. He spun and twisted towards me at the shot to that it looks like I was shooting up at him below instead of above. I was aiming behind the shoulder however when he spun the arrow hit him in the knuckle of the shoulder. I see much greater jumping of the string at close range. I think it is like when you sneak up behind someone and tap their shoulder and they jump out of their skin because they do not realize someone is that close. I was shooting 250 spine Sirus Super Nova 2.0 shaft with a 200 gn cutthroat. Total arrow weight 610 gn draw length of 30" draw weight of 62


The arrow took a little divit out of the upper leg bone.

after deflecting off the upper leg bone the arrow passed between the skin and muscle of the neck until it entered the throat






exiting the throat under the chin


The blood trail did not start for 50 yards until the blood started coming out of its mouth, then it was significant. I found it 100 yds down hill from where I shot. When the deer ran off I though I had hit him behind the shoulder and the arrow had stopped in the off shoulder as I could see my lighted nock and the arrow in him up to the fletching. When he died he fell and rolled down a little embankment. I was surprised that my arrow was still intact. I was impressed with the penetration considering all the movement/gyrations that the deer went through at the shot. the cutthroat was hair popping sharp.

 

[Weldabeast]

This is a deer shot from 10 yds from my saddle. He spun and twisted towards me at the shot to that it looks like I was shooting up at him below instead of above. I was aiming behind the shoulder however when he spun the arrow hit him in the knuckle of the shoulder. I see much greater jumping of the string at close range. I think it is like when you sneak up behind someone and tap their shoulder and they jump out of their skin because they do not realize someone is that close. I was shooting 250 spine Sirus Apollo shaft with a 200 gn cutthroat. Total arrow weight 610 gn draw length of 30" draw weight of 62
View attachment 73677

The arrow took a little divit out of the upper leg bone.
View attachment 73678
after deflecting off the upper leg bone the arrow passed between the skin and muscle of the neck until it entered the throat

View attachment 73682

View attachment 73679

View attachment 73681
exiting the throat under the chin


The blood trail did not start for 50 yards until the blood started coming out of its mouth, then it was significant. I found it 100 yds down hill from where I shot. When the deer ran off I though I had hit him behind the shoulder and the arrow had stopped in the off shoulder as I could see my lighted nock and the arrow in him up to the fletching. When he died he fell and rolled down a little embankment. I was surprised that my arrow was still intact. I was impressed with the penetration considering all the movement/gyrations that the deer went through at the shot. the cutthroat was hair popping sharp.

I had similar experience except the broadside deer turned away 45 from me and the arrow entered right in front of the pelvis at the most extreme quartering away angle u can get...the arrow entered the passenger side of the deer at the pelvis, traveled down the passenger side and broke 3 ribs in a row on the passenger side missing the vitals all together, arrow hits the inside of the passenger side shoulder blade and deflects, arrow exits the driver side of the deer right where the neck and head meet....it ran 10 feet and fell over with high velocity blood spray up higher than my head on the trees....I did not document like I should...

 

[RMcDonald7]

Well, with picking a single bevel- I'm shooting a Bear Adapt 71 lbs - 29in draw - and currently shooting 100g montec G5. 300 spine (looking to get new arrows as well (reccomendations- camo fire has bloodsports on sale today)

If I wanted to bump up to a 125/150g grizzly (i'm assuming i'd need to sight in) what would I need to do?
sorry for all the questions and if i missed any threads already discussing this pin them for me please. I've read all day on here lol

 

[hokiehunter373]

Get yourself some single bevels and don't look back. Keep um sharp and put um where you're supposed to and you'll have dead deer.

I like shooting grizzlystiks but the overkills do not hold an edge will and easily damage on rock. They do great damage on animals but I'd spend up on the black version instead of getting the reds if I got them again. Love cutthroats but I suck at sharpening so I've veered away from.

Here's some grizzlystik damage on a few different does. No major bones were encountered. BHs were scary sharp and deer were dead all within sight:







This was a quartering to shot on a doe. Shot inside of her near shoulder and out the offside shoulder.





Here's from my buck with an Iron will. I will be buying more iron wills. It hurts to lose them but they are absolutely insanely sharp and very strong. I've got 0 concerns when I shoot them. I want to try day six broadheads as well but I have a tough time not just buying more iron wills.

Anyway, he was slightly quartered away. Entry in the vital v. Exit out the offside leg. Turned his left leg to mush. Couldn't find the broadhead but I'd bet it was 100% ok and fine to shoot again.