Black Hornet broadheads
Connecticut
Anyone shoot them? If so, what's your opinion. My son will hunt elk in MT. this fall and is considering this head. Thanks
They are very good cut on contact BH’s. What is his arrow set up...spine, length, head weight, insert, vanes, nock, wrap? And did he get a guaranteed tag? The draw isn’t up until about May 1st.
Wishing him much success if he draws a tag.
Blood , I believe he has a tag and plans are being made . I don't live near him but do know he shoots 65# Mathews no cam , FMJ, 100gr Montec,2'' vanes. Sorry, my info is sketchy ;but he wants to move up to a 125gr head and the Black Hornet has been great for me. Thank you for the response.
Setup looks ok. I would definitely move up to the 125gr heads. I am assuming he is shooting the 340’s with 65lbs and would not go lighter. The no cam is a slower bow so he needs some oomph on his arrow in extra weight.
What part of MT is he going to? My son and I are planning to go.....but the draw isn’t up till May, so we won’t know if we drew till then. There are no over the counter elk tags in MT.
They are a bit short & stubby, but with a #65 compound should do the trick.
Hard to beat a SHARP COC....
GF, I've had good luck on deer with them too.
Why not use a four blade instead of a three? More cutting area
ne, that's what I like about the Black Hornets. Four blades sharpened on both sides so they cut if the head moves forwards or backwards whereas the Montec is three blades. I have zero experience bow hunting elk ;so, I'm asking those who might know.
I've had good luck with them on elk and deer. They fly great and you can't beat the lifetime return policy.
Spikehorn , appreciate the positive info; will relay it to my son.
Big Dog, My brother is an Elk hunting guide in Utah, before that he was a Game Warden for 25+ years.
The outfit he's at doesn't recommend expandable BH's.
It was always the so called reason if they didn't find the wounded Elk. "Must have not opened or the blade's broke"
So I'm sure he will find the perfect Steel fixed BH that he's confident in shooting
Please post pictures after the hunt!!
ne, will do. I always find the quest for the right BH fun. It's kind of like finding the right wine: you've got to pull a few corks, lol. My son was my hunting buddy at an age where I carried him up the mountain piggy back. In an hour he was cold and as I'd carry him down he'd say ,"You're never going to get a deer with me along". Out of the mouths of babes !
The beauty of a good COC is that there are just no excuses to be had. And if your arrow is too fast to fly straight with a fixed blade, it’s probably too dang light anyway ;)
Myself, I am planning to stick with 2 -blades, but if you like 4, use 4. I don’t care for sharpened trailing edges. In my hands, they are a proven safety hazard, and with the cut I gave myself, if I had been shooting a stickbow that year, I’d have been done for the trip, most likely. It wasn’t enough to keep me from using a release, but it was bad enough that if I had shot an Elk with a Stickbow, it would have taken a minute to figure out which blood came from the critter and what was mine!
So I can definitely attest to the sharpness of the Stingers....
I think the thing about Elk is that the spine runs appreciably lower in the body than in a deer; the spinous processes are a lot longer, so a “slightly” high placement on a bull is really not so slight an issue....
The other thing is that if you’re used to shooting down from trees, you will probably tend to place shots high to angle down and exit low. If you’re hunting from the ground, you may find there IS no downward angle, and it may well be UPWARD.
So JMO, anybody who says Elk are “just big deer” is either out of his mind or out of his depth entirely... A CALF Elk is a GINORMOUS whitetail....
You have no idea how big they are until you find yourself standing over a dead one, a couple of miles and a couple thousand vertical feet from the nearest road...
Just a whole lot more going on here....
Just a whole lot more going on here....
Spinous Processes Illustrated
GF, good points . We should carry surgical tape, gauze and an antibiotic ointment on a hunt.My son got a helluva cut reaching for an arrow in a cat quiver which screwed up our hunt. GF, I find it interesting you blame trailing edges for your laceration rather than GF himself, lol.
So.... exactly WHAT part of “ In my hands, they are a proven safety hazard, and with the cut I gave myself.... ” is me blaming the head???
I have always hunted with a Catquiver; 30 years, now. I have no idea how many hundred times I’ve removed and replaced arrows without incident, but with those sharp trailing edges, I nailed myself early on the first day just out of a habit.
So the sharp trailing edges aren’t compatible with the way I use the rest of my kit. I didn’t think about that in advance, but recommend that others do so.
And I do get why sharp trailing edges seem like a good idea; I’m just not convinced that it would ever come up. Because if the broadhead pokes through the far side, it’s not likely it’ll get pulled back out the way it came in. And if it DOESN’T poke through, it’s because it hit something solid enough to get stuck... so it seems like there would have to be some real pulling done to get it to back out. Maybe if you’re accustomed to big mechanicals failing to blow through the off-side ribs, it would seem plausible?
My only experience with an arrow not providing an exit wound was on a shot that pierced the meatiest portion of both shoulders and the head lodged against the humerus on the off side. So that arrow snapped off on a near-side rib on the first jump and the front portion of broken shaft got pulled into the body cavity even quicker than the back half fell out. NO WAY that was getting pulled back out.....
Not saying they couldn’t help In The Event; just the Event strikes me as improbable.
Big, if you need help with what to have in your pack for day trips from camp/truck, I can help if you'd like. Also, your pack itself is a big deal if you are the one packing out an animal.
Blood , appreciate the info but I'm pretty sure my son knows what to pack. I'm not going on the hunt but thank you.
All good. I’ve been on elk hunts to MT and ID over the last 8 years. I’m always tweaking my pack because you never know what the mountains will throw at you. I hope he draws a tag. Deadline is April 1 if he still needs to apply.
GF, for decades we used the Cat Quiver with the small built in pack on top. It had everything in it so nothing was ever forgotten. They've fallen out of favor these days and ours are long gone but they were utilitarian in their day. Ours were so old they had the old blue-black original Trebark camo. I even remember the broad head he cut his hand on, Crimson Talon with wicked curved blades . After that I reversed the arrows in the quiver so he was grabbing the vane portion. That solved the problem. No worry about the broadhead pointing upward because it was a big fairly blunt trochar rather than a thin COC. I don't suggest that arrangement with today's pointed COC's.
OMG, so cool. That brings back memories. I hope it brings you luck this fall.
I will feel lucky enough if I just get a chance to get out there and carry it for a few days!
And the funny thing is it 25 years ago I was smart enough that I could attach everything I needed to that thing and go up the hill for a 16 hour day. These days, I seem to think that I need to carry a whole lot more crap… and it’s not as if I’m becoming any more capable of hauling it as the years go by...
GF - what's the purple strap on the fletching to the nock?
I realize the pics were to demonstrate the spinous processes, but whoever assembled the top skeleton pic attached the shoulders way too low.
BBB - that, my friend, is a rubber band. Broadheads are longer than judo points, so if I want to carrier judo, I either have to have arrows that are cut specifically to a somewhat longer length, or I can just load that one arrow on the outside held in place with the rubber band instead of under the hood with the foam and the rest of the arrows. flu flu‘s don’t fit inside the hood very well anyway, so it keeps my squirrel/grouse/stumping arrow handy that way, and it’s just enough of a nuisance to reinstall it to keep me from taking toooooooo many “stay loose” shots during the day. And me bein’ me, that’s a good thing so that I don’t end up going out for a 16-hour rove and forget why I was there in the first place. Not that there’s anything wrong with that!
And N8 - I was thinking the exact same thing! The tops of those scaps are down almost where the shoulder JOINTS should be!
Thanks, never participated in a flu flu, but my grandson did do judo for a couple of years. Not sure what any of this has to do with bow hunting :>)
The guys on the TV hunting shows carry packs so big they look like sherpas on a final ascent of Mt. Everest. Unless I'd stuffed a coverall in there or lots of chocolate chip cookies,lol, it seems like an unnecessary load especially for a few hours hunt.
Some of those guys carry their camp on their backs so they can stay where the elk are. I'd rather walk a bit farther than get exhausted with my camp on my back.
“ especially for a few hours hunt.”
Ummmm.... I have yet to experience anything that could be described using “Elk” and “a few hours hunt” in the same sentence....
But you might be surprised how much gear is required to get an Elk off the ground and out of reach Da Bears. I tried hoisting Elk pieces with paracord, and it was an exercise in futility.... LOL
If you want to be able to haul off a hindquarter right then & there, that’s around #60... so an un-loaded packframe isn’t a bad idea....
Just depends. The guys who haul their whole camp all the time are probably just trying to stay mobile to stay after them in huge units where they can hop from one drainage to the next.... My brother and I just hunt one the one drainage, because if we can find ANY Elk, we’re happy. Between the 2 of us, we’re still trying to get that done with a bow... But especially when we camp on the hill, it would make sense to leave the frames and heavy equipment in camp. A lot of the old-timers told me that they did that, so when they got an arrow into an animal, they had something to keep them busy for an hour or so to make sure the animal had time to expire unmolested. You could argue that’s a lot of extra hiking... but you only have to do it if you get one, and the rest of the time you can go Light... So maybe that beats hauling a bunch of extra weight all day, every day.
Yup, it’s never a few-hour hunt.....a few hours of hiking just to get to a peak or drainage just to hunt maybe haha. It’s an all day affair. Leave in the dark come back at dark. If your son needs help with what he should have in his pack, if he’s never gone before, I’ll offer help. His pack could we weigh 25lbs for a day-hunt or 50+ if he’s bivy hunting for a few days. And you want a pack that can haul out a quarter or more like GF said.
I apologize, I was thinking of a local deer hunt . Should have specified. And,true to form, I didn't adhere to the thread topic. You guys are correct.
This is going to be a departure. Here is something else to consider. Unless your son is prepared to change his whole arrow set up to stiffen the spine. 125 gr may be fine for his arrows but it may not be. He won't know until he tries it. I would recommend he try heavier weights before he settles in on making a wholesale change. 125 grains isn't going to do what a 100 gr cant do. It's more important that the arrow is tracking properly with the nock following behind the point. Way more so than a few more grains of arrow weight. I have lost count of the Elk I've killed with 90 gr 4 blade heads.
I’ll never disagree with anyone preaching the virtues of good tuning!
Mass is good; mass up front is arguably better; tuning trumps just about everything. But I’m seriously considering using woodies this year, FOC weenies be damned ;)
Or maybe aluminum. At least with the #62.
bb, this is true, but I think my son will sort it all out by Sept. with the help of the pro shop and the experienced elk hunters he knows. Appreciate your info. thanks. He's got a new string, new arrows spined for his heads (whatever they are?) and paper tuned for the heads. I'm expecting a gift of elk tenderloin and nothing less, LOL
I have not shot the Black Hornet but have shot the Magnus Stinger and Stinger Buzzcut with success. The Magnus warranty is outstanding as I had a few practice broadheads miss the mark and they turned around new replacement broadheads to me quickly. I actually hit a brick I used to weigh down my target.
For deer 125 and/or 150 grain heads are more than enough. For elk, I would reduce the insert weight and go with a 150 grain head as the ferrule is a little beefier on the 150.
I can't say enough about this company.
MWik. I shot Black Hornet Ser Razors 100gr. last year on deer and they left a great blood trail and were bone breakers with no damage to the head. My grand daughter has shot Stingers ;so ,we have a bit of a history with Magnus and their iron clad guarantee....all good as you stated.
Big Dog, the draw results are up online today. Hope he drew his tag!
Blood,He drew it. Good luck if you also have a hunt planned.
