Thunderhead to the head
Whitetail Deer
I've cut antlers off of enough deer antlers to believe that there had to be penetration into the cranial cavity. Surprised there wasn't enough intracranial hemorrhage, let alone brain trauma, to kill.
Deer may look delicate and fragile, but they are some T O U G H critters!
That's one of those weird deaths where the thing then goes to rub a thick oak and happens to push the head in that extra 1/8" and dies in the middle of the bush somewhere.
At least it opened all the way and the blades stayed on!
Thats why I just switched from thunderheads to rages lol
Must have been an old deer, nobody has shot Thunderheads since the '80s.
I still shoot Thunderheads been shooting them since the 1980's. I shoot them from my compounds and my recurves. Just shot a mature bore hog with my recurve and the Thunderhead 125. good penetration and quick recovery. They sale enough of the Thunderhead to still be making them. Excellent head in my opinion.
I too still shoot Thunderheads. I use them in my compound and recurve bows, good broadhead. Don't know the exact number but I know I've dumped a few score animals with them. They work well, if it ain't broke, why fix it?
Shot my first deer with a thunderhead some 14 years ago now I guess.
I have shot thunderheads from Alaska to Canada and back,great head.I killed a javelina in Jan.with one,why look any further?
The thunderhead has been around so long I think they were probably used at the battle of Little Bighorn.
Thunderheads heads exclusively; all across lower 48, several Canadian provinces as well as South Africa & Namibia. They have never ever let me down - Moose, Eland, Caribou, WT deer, etc. - a great super sharp head.
Shot my first and many more deer after that with a Thunder head 100G!
I shot a nice 8pt years ago. When we were taking pictures I ran my hand up along the nose to to clean up some blood and cut the palm of my hand. Checked it out and there was a sharp pointy thing sticking out almost between his eyes. We cut out the skull cap and found 2"s of an aluminium arrow attached to a muzzy head with trocar tip. It entered from the back of his head just left of his right ear and lodged in the nasal cavity. After looking home over the only thing we could tell easily he was blind in his right eye. It was all white and kind of mushy. It had to happen at least a year before as it was all encapsulated and healed over. Shawn
Killed the Colorado Big Eight big game species with the 125 Thunderhead. While they shot a little low and to the left of my FT arrows, I just adjusted the sight prior to season. Have tried others recently and now use VPA.
Really common to see deer hit in the head. People get excited when they see antlers and just fixate on them. The arrow ends up going where you are looking. It's a fairly common thing especially on bigger bucks. I killed a 207" nontypical in 2010 that had a Rage head and 2" of arrow stuck into his head.
Just like a golf shot......ball goes where you are concentrating.
Went back to Thunders a few years ago. Use them in the compound and recurve.
Shot this during archery a few years back. Found this when I cleaned him up.
Looks like a G5 expandable blade
I also still shoot Thunderhead 125's. Toughest head ever in my summer practice sessions and BH tournaments. Never lost a blade. Broke very few. disassembled easily for sharpening and resharpening. Shot extremely well.
Shot one smallish buck in a hurry once from the ground as I was walking in to my evening stand and he surprised me coming down the same trail. Hurried the shot too much and the string hit my sleeve and threw the shot back, hitting him in the hip. I felt terrible about it, but as I watched him leave, he just trotted slowly, ten slowed to a walk, and stopped and laid down only fifty yards away. I waited a minute or so, watching him through my binoculars, until his head went down and I could see no movement of his rib cage. After another minute, I walked slowly over to him, still not believing I could have killed him with that shot , but he was dead all right!
When I processed him at home, I found that the head had completely penetrated the heaviest part of the pelvic bone on the entry side, and penetrated to within an eighth of an inch of burying to the back edge of the blades in the far side, severing the femoral artery in the process. best penetration on bone I ever saw. I was shooting 70# and my 2219 arrows weighed 585 grains total, so that certainly helped. But that old TH put that power and weight to the best use and survived to hunt again. I kept it for a while embedded as I found it, but finally cut it free and re-used it with just a resharpening of the blades the next fall.
I expect there are some others now that are as good or very nearly as good, but I'd still put the original TH's at the top of my list.
There wee a few issues that set some guys off with them. I made it a habit to check them for blade tightness before every hunting day, just to make sure none had worked loose. A few had loosened enough to need to be snugged up, butt I never came close to losing one, but I can see how someone who didn't make it a regular habit to check them might end up with a failure eventually. Same with the assembly, as long as I was always careful to MAKE SURE the blades were seated properly in the ferrules before being snugged up, never a problem. Prior to hat, had one that I caught almost ready to be free of the ferrule. Caught that one in practice, but lesson learned, paid extra attention to assembly thereafter.
The quality and temper of the blade steel always seemed perfect. Took a pretty good beating to nick them seriously enough to relegate them to the practice-only box, and sharpened well, with some elbow grease, to hunt again. Only destroyed a half-dozen of the little tips in all my years of shooting them, and that was always on a direct hit with a buried rock,or in one case with a mostly buried coke bottle I mistook for a dark dirt clod when the urge to shoot a practice shot overcame me on the way back to the truck.
I think I have enough spares now to last me the rest of my hunting years, and I've got some Spitfires I'll use if I go after turkeys with the bow again, because I do see the advantage in larger cut area when there's a need to anchor the game quickly and penetration is not likely to be a problem. But for everything else, my old reliable TH's will be my quiver.
I've killed most of my animals with Thunderheads and Muzzys, but know for a fact that VPAs penetrate better than both of them based on what I've seen from all 3.
That wound is at least 3-4 weeks old and probably 4-6 weeks old if not 1 year plus.
Based on my limited experience, it makes perfect sense that a Thunderhead would get that kind of penetration and stop. There's better heads out there that will go a little deeper. I'm not advocating head shots.
You can see about 1/8" inside of the skull. It was a bit puffy and some puss. We initially thought it must have been poked fighting and found that.
"I still shoot Thunderheads been shooting them since the 1980's. I shoot them from my compounds and my recurves. Just shot a mature bore hog with my recurve and the Thunderhead 125. good penetration and quick recovery. They sale enough of the Thunderhead to still be making them. Excellent head in my opinion."
Same here...mostly shoot Zwickeys, but also shoot Thunderheads...best replaceable blade head on the market in my opinion. Have never had one fail yet!
This hit was deflected off a small limb, and although she didn't drop right away, she didn't go far... Broadhead is a full size Snuffer "Biscuit Cutter"...
That'll ring your bell and rattle a few teeth.
The Snuffer Biscuit Cutter was made from Pearson Deadheads.
The tip of that Snuffer still looks near perfect......Wow!
Yeah IQO, could have been hunted with again, no damage to it at all, I didn't touch up the tip or anything, only repainted it for display...
Back in the early 90's I was dinking around with a string tracker and shot a doe in the head. JTV, not intentional. My arrow deflected off something and hit her in the head. She dropped right there and my tracking string just floated to the ground.
Long time reader. Rare poster. And more verbiage than needed to get to the point. :) I debated whether I should even post the pic or not, but here we go. It was Halloween and I asked my 2.5 year old if he wanted to get dressed up and go get candy or go deer hunting. Well he chose deer hunting so off we went to sit the last 1.5 hours of legal light. (Carrying him, blind, a couple chairs, bow, and a pack of snacks and goodies was a feat!) well we got to where I wanted to set up and his quietness lasted about 10 minutes. Into the snacks we went until a fawn walked by and he settled down for a few minutes. Just before sunset a doe appeared from the cattails and was standing at 30 yards giving the blind a stare down. As she walked off I asked my son if I should shoot her and he replied yes. Unfortunately he couldn’t see and I asked him to stay quiet and motionless as I gave a few fawn bleats. The doe’s curiosity got the best of her as she circled back to investigate the sound. She was broadside at 30 yards, but my shooting window was a gap through some branches was 8” high and 20” wide. I thought I had the arrow flight down, but knicked the bottom branch as the arrow passed through and the doe dropped in her tracks. It happened so quick I wasn’t sure I saw it right so tossed the blind over and headed out to verify. My son tried his best to keep up, but kept falling and replying “I’ll be right there dad”. That muzzy was bad to the bone! Pic coming... We started packing up as my dad who was hunting further in game walking by and my son couldn’t wait to show him we got one. After field dressing and skinning we cut the back straps out to grill that night and when my son tried some his first response were. Was that from the deer we got? And after a reply of yes, he asked if we could get some more! I think I’ve got him hooked! Any ways, here is my poor shot that ended with a fair amount of penetration.
Sounds like a great evening with your son, walleye hunter. Sometimes I think the Lord blesses us with dumb animals when we’re with our kids just so he can see the smiles and excitement in little hearts :)
I had a spike duck the shot a couple years ago and the two blade Zwickey tipped aluminum stuck out the back of his head as he ran off, bleeding profusely. I never recovered him after hours and hours of looking. He had to have died. Never found a skull after a couple years.
Thanks guys. Definitely not gonna let an opportunity pass anytime he wants to join.
I know a guy who shot a cow elk in the skull with a Thunderhead from a 90# compound (forgot which bow, but it was 20 years ago.) I have held the skull in my hands and it penetrated the brain cavity. Put her down almost instantly. Wouldn't believe it I hadn't seen the skull myself.
Your know your a geezer when Thunderheads are considered traditional archery.
I'm still a fan of Satellite Aeros
