Quote:
Originally Posted by Coiloil37
With the exception of total weight the exact same setup everyone should be using and most of these problems discussed above would go away.
A perfectly tuned bow shooting a perfectly tuned arrow. That’s priority #1. A properly tuned bow will shoot a fletched field tip, bare shaft and ANY straight spinning broadhead to the same poi at your max range. I’ve shot three arrows as described at 70m and had all three shafts touching. Tuning is the bedrock of penetration.
Then the arrow has to maintain structural integrity on any hit. If the insert slips, shaft breaks, broadhead bends the penetration is over. I torture test every type of arrow I want to hunt to ensure it will never break on any impact. And they survive but the entire system has to be tested until failure and that failure fixed until it’s integrity is 100%. Do me a favour, take your bow out, find a piece of stone or brick big enough it won’t move and won’t break and shoot it at 10m. If your arrow breaks you need to adjust your setup. If it doesn’t, move in until your shooting it at 3-4m straight on and at an angle and if it’s not breaking you’ve got that covered. Don’t bother with a cinder block, they’re to soft. If the target breaks find something harder to shoot. If your sitting there thinking “no way I’m wasting an arrow like that” you have some work to do because they can be built to take that abuse.
Then for heavy game, arrow mass plays a large part. Heavier arrows penetrate deeper. After that there are smaller changes that make a difference. Type of broadhead, FOC, bevel(s), broadhead tip type, mechanical advantage etc.
There is a ton of information on the web from hunters and guides using archery tackle on heavy game.
I still haven’t killed a buff. I had a trip to the gulf back in 2014 that went pear shaped. One of the guys in the group brought his five pig dogs. They all ate 1080 at a gas station just shy of the property and had to be shot. Matt was pretty torn up about losing his dogs and upset the land owner. The deal went from “come shoot everything you want for free” to “if you want a buff your paying $50k and pigs are $500 a piece.
I have another trip planned next October up in the same area of the Northern Territory. There are seven of us going for two weeks. Sleeping on a houseboat, we are taking three fishing boats, my bows and a few rifles. We have open slather again on a half million acres and I’ll attempt to get a couple buffalo with the bow. My setup last time was a footed .250 spine fmj dangerous game and a 250 grain vpa. This time I may go with a .200 kinetic and 250 grain vpa but that’s yet to be tested. If not I’ll take the fmj’s again.
While I haven’t shot a buff yet I killed over two doz elk in Alberta and a couple moose along with deer, bears and antelope. I had penetration issues at one point and decided that wasn’t good enough. I researched and tested until I could break any bone in an elks body. Prior to that I’ve seen broadheads skip on ribs, poor penetration and shoulders stop arrows as well as broken arrows and bent or broken broadheads. In the last fifteen years I haven’t had an arrow stop in an animal and haven’t so much as bent a broadhead. I’ve broken the humerus, shoulders, pelvics, spines, ribs. Shot lengthways through them and can tell you it’s possible to be amazed how deeply an arrow can penetrate if it’s setup and tuned properly. Most of my post mortem testing was on bears and I shot through them lengthways breaking legs on both ends.
I’ll share whatever I’ve learned but you’ve got to ask whatever your wondering about cause I can’t read minds.
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Wow fella, I tip my hat to you. Thanks for putting your knowledge out there for people to grasp. A young hunter can save a lot of heartache and futile attempts at blood trailing with your info.
I also joined the heavy hit club due to penetration issues. Shoot 80Lb limbs, 32" DL, 200 grain alien archery head(w half out) on a .150 spine full length Black Eagle Rampage. Right around 800 grain arrow. I found the same set up with a 4 blade BH TOTA sucked so went to 2 blade broadheads.
If anything I would switch to a VPA 2 blade RH bevel or a Cutthroat two blade RH bevel. About it tho. Alien is a great head. I have SV2 and SBT something something
For bears I used this setup this year, holy hell demolished a bear at 5 yds, he made it 15yds died in seconds. Also killed an elk with same set up this year, just blew right through him.