Any other thoughts on broadheads would be appreciated as well. Any type over rated?
This will be my first full season of bow hunting.
I'm shooting a 30/40 year old Bear Polar compound at #50.
Do yourself a favor - look no further than the RAGE broadhead or the NAP Spitfire -
Both are awesome heads and leave a wound channel(s) you can drive a truck through!
RC would have the best advise I suspect on a recurve bow at 50#
deadeye's Link
Pros with rage two blade are true flight and huge entrance wounds
Cons with rage two blade are they basically are a one kill per head blade and if you are only shooting 50 lbs there is not a good chance of a pass through. So if you hit a deer high even thought it will have a huge wound, most of the blood will be inside the cavity which could make tracking difficult.
Being a beginner it will be more likely that you have a high hit especially since you are going to be hunting from the ground so keep that in mind as well. "Aim low, go slow" is a good mantra to live by when hunting from the ground.
For turkey, I use mechanical with as blunt a tip as possible. I want to transfer as much energy into the bird as possible. IE waste energy on the bird.
When you shoot a compound - Do yourself a favor - look no further than the RAGE broadhead or the NAP Spitfire -
Both are awesome heads and leave a wound channel(s) you can drive a truck through!
RC would have the best advise I suspect on a recurve bow at 50#
^^^BAD advice. Since you are shooting a 40 year old 50# bow mechanicals are the last thing you should look at. Correction...you should not look at mechanicals.
Any solid, sharp, well made fixed head will work. My experience is that QAD Exodus, NAP HellRazors or even Thunderheads will not let you down. Find one that flys well from your bow. I am using Exodus again this year.
Read Dr. Ed Ashby's studies on single bevel...interesting.
Otherwise, lots of great choices out there.
Like RC stated, tuned well to the right arrow, and I stump shoot, and have been impressed with its toughness so far.......
I never understood the problems guys have had with bh's out of compounds,,,,, I have never shot anything, that would not fly, but others are better than some....
shot muzzys than went to a ST (not impressed), than went for a lot of years, with the Razor Cap, but needed feathers to get it to fly well..... Magnus were good heads etc,,,,,,, working for a camp, seen a lot of Rage fans,,,, saw a lot of poor penetration with them, but it was not the head, the shooter was using too light of an arrow in my opinion.....
now I shoot the Ram Cat 125 grains, out of the compound,,,, the damage it did to my ram, was a convincer, and that is going thru rear quarter, and out the left shoulder.......
speaking of Rage, last week at the Sportsman Sale at Midwest Guns, they had private vendor area,,,, I found 6 Rage heads, all new, in a Rage red arrow container, and the guy said they were purchased new in 2014, never used,,,,,, 40.00 I think that was a good buy
I would get a good arrow, and chronograph the speed, not to show the speed so much, but to emphasize the need for a cut on contact head with that set up....
I would also first take that bow, to a quality shop, and have it checked out, to make sure the cables etc, can take the stress of lots of shooting,,,,,
In bowhunting, it?s all about the broadhead. It must slice cleanly with little or no bruising or tearing of the tissue. In very simplified terms, when a razor-sharp blade slices living tissue (muscle and/or organs) without bruising or tearing the tissue it has sliced, the brain fails to initiate the process which causes blood coagulation, resulting in extreme hemorrhaging.
The faster the hemorrhaging, the faster the oxygen supply (which is carried in the blood) is deprived from the brain, rendering the animal unconscious. Most animals taken with bow and arrow fall to the ground unconscious before death actually occurs. So, for bowhunters, the object is to create massive hemorrhaging with a razor-sharp broadhead. The sharper the broadhead, the quicker the animal will be dispatched.
Now, back to that original question: How sharp is sharp enough? Simply put ? razor-shaving sharp! Anything less is irresponsible and unethical. A broadhead should shave hair cleanly and effortlessly. If your broadheads won?t do that, then sharpen them or throw them away.
This brings us to the crux of the matter: Most hunters don?t know how to put that true razor?s edge on a broadhead, or even a knife blade for that matter. They buy pre-sharpened broadheads and assume they are sharp enough. Regardless of what it says on the package, if the blade won?t melt hair cleanly off your arm, it isn?t sharp enough for hunting purposes.
Ragged Edge vs. Smooth Edge There is an ongoing argument among bowhunters about the best way to sharpen a broadhead. Some argue that a ragged edge kills quicker or better than a smooth razor?s edge. This argument can only exist where there is ignorance of what causes the greatest degree of hemorrhaging in the first place. The ragged edge proponents are simply wrong. A ragged edge creates minute tearing of tissue as it cuts, something like the teeth of a saw. That tearing actually helps initiate coagulation. A smooth razor?s edge does not.
If you have ever nicked yourself while shaving with a safety razor, you can attest to the difficulty of stopping the bleeding. This free flow of blood occurs because coagulation is not initiated, due to the fact that the tissue was not bruised or torn.
Compound that same principle by the lethal blades of a broadhead passing through internal organs and you begin to understand the massive hemorrhaging created by such a wound. The bottom line is this: The sharper your broadhead, the faster it dispatches the game through which it passes.
If I was hunting elk, I would never consider Rage heads. Most experienced elk hunters do not like Rages (but many Elk are killed by Rages).
For whitetails, Rages are probably fine.
