Are we sick of this topic yet? What is the continued fascination for us with broad heads? For me this has been the most contemplated and least changed part of archery hunting.
I have used an evolved with various broad heads for my whole archery life. Around 40 years now if you can believe that! From Bear COC and zwicky COC which were not much more then stamped and formed soup tins that had to be sharpened after you bought them. When the Thunderheads came on the market with 5 blades that were razors out of the package I was in heaven!
My first big game with those were deer, but after shooting a cougar with one and finding the arrow with 3 of the blades missing and likely in the meat, I was skeptical of further use. The thought of biting into a chunk of razor freaked me out. Switched to a 1/2 dozen others and never really felt the flight was consistent enough to feel 100% confident.
Enter Slick Trick...... I met Gary at a hunting show the year before he had these for sale. He told me he had a broad head design that would change the way bow hunters think about broad heads. He said it was going to be a big surprise and not be easy to accept, but that the lethal ability and absolute field point flight would would eventually convert the people willing to try them. His struggle was going to be acceptance of the design before financial failure of the business.
He gave me a three pack of the very first original slick trick heads. I took them home and commenced to slice the fletching off the field pointed arrows that were in my target when shooting this Slick Trick head. I still looked at this odd short blade and steep cut angle thinking it was not going to slice into game but rather chop into game. I did not like this "look" one bit and had a level of skeptical feelings that I was no way going to use this on any important trophy.
I did shoot a couple of smaller domestic livestock that had to be butchered. Wow these things really slide through and make a hole every bit as big as a full size long sloping broad head design. Plus they fly perfect! The next year Gary finally had them on the market, as he expected the folks seemed to snicker and scoff at the look. That was short lived........... magazines and some of the bigger name archery people began touting the absolute field point accuracy even with badly timed poorly set up bows. Then the results began coming in from the field. ..... Yeah they were working in a big way! They were chopping their way through game and on track to revolutionize broad heads for the future.
It was about a 2 year Slick trick revolution before many other manufacturers began offering a similar design with the same claims. However not a single one could match the blade lock design, or surpass the sharpness of the blades. You could by something close but it was still not a slick trick.
I have not used anything else consistently since this time. I have tinkered plenty trying all sorts of heads and examining the blade locking system. Still nothing even close to give me a reason to change. When I have hunted in Africa, 100% of my game has been taken with a slick trick or a Viper Trick. There is no way I would have risked trying anything less. When My bow hunting clients call and ask me about equipment the two most important things I say to them is:
Use slick tricks, and make sure you can draw your bow while seated and not lift it above your head to draw.
More recently this spring and summer I was infatuated with mechanicals. They are superb on turkeys. I would not even consider anything else for turkeys. So why not big game? The curiosity was getting the best of me. I tried quite a few on my livestock with good results. However I found that there was one problem that was a deal breaker. I was going to need more draw weight, heavier arrows, or some aggressive cam design to drive them much harder for consistent exits.
These mechanicals really need a lot of power to drive them clean through an animal. It's my opinion that two holes are mandatory for 100% recovery of game. especially when shooting from a tree and having the entry high on the body.
Early in my career with the COC heads many were a one shot design. Hit a rib or glance off a bone, even a pass through hitting the ground destroyed the tip. Worth it if you killed the animal. However the paranoia was always there that the tip could be damaged with impact and reduce the COC advantage. I was a fan of the Muzzy Trocar tip, but I never had a Muzzy broad head that would shoot accurate from my bow. I could tune the bow to shoot them perfectly. It would then not shoot Field points to my point of aim. It was one or the other. Too frustrating and time consuming to deal with. That trocar tip was perfect though!
When the Slick trick came out it had a great needle sharp point which looked to be functionally as good. They killed in the area of 100 plus game for me with perfection over the years. Then they released the Viper trick......... as a huge fan of COC and the perfect success with Slicktrick Magnums what could be better?
These Viper tricks are so good! When I was testing the mechanicals this summer I had very few poke out the exit side, the slick trick magnums in past years would exit but with longer shots sometimes the fletching would remain inside the animal. With Viper Tricks, I have never had one stay in an animal. I have had 100% exits with my 28.5" draw, 63lb smooth drawing ( not aggressive) cam design. I shoot them at about 270fps with a 440 grain arrow.
The only time they have not exited complete have been when they are shot from above and they stick in the ground while the fletch is in the bear or pig I have hit. With Luminocks you see the streak of light hit and go out until the animal moves away and the light pulls out. On some occasions the arrow breaks off and the light will be found glowing in the body when they are processed.
The Viper tricks are the best penetrating heads I have ever used or seen used. The slick trick magnums are now for me anyway, the standard by which all other broad heads are measured. I'm not on the slick trick Prostaff, not an investor, not a personal friend of the company or even Gary.
This post is simply fact based on my personal experience and the performance of a magnificent product that I really believe in.
