Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Bowhunting American Hunter test on shooting through screens

Have you read the article in the July '09 Amer Hunter about shooting through the window screens in ground blinds? He compares bullets, shotguns pellets, and broadheads.

He shot 3 broadheads, 1 fixed blade (Thunderhead) and 2 mechanicals (Rage and 1st Cut). Admittedly, this isn't a comprehensive test and it only applies to these 3 heads. He tested them at 25 yds.

The Thunderhead lost some accuracy but was still within reason at 25 yds. The mechanicals had a serious problem - premature opening. They would sometimes open going through the screen which really screwed up accuracy. And a bigger problem - they only opened part of the time and he couldn't predict when they would. His average group sizes with the mechanicals was more than double the group size without the mesh.

His recommendation was if you want to shoot through mesh, do a lot of shooting with your head,mechanical or fixed, before you try hunting with them. He couldn't possibly test them all and other brands might work a lot better.

Wonder how field tips would perform? Just wondering if it's the broadhead or the paradox of the arrow hitting the mesh?

I tried shooting through the mesh on my blind.......the mesh is not in the shooting window now.

Blind mesh screens are a PITA and completely unneccessary, IMO-
I think they are mostly a marketing gimmick.

Unless you have a cutting edge on your plastic fletching, it's going to snag. I kind of doubt that feathers will get through it without some leading end hangups, but I'd have to try it to be sure.


He got noticably different results when the heads opened so it has to be the heads or both, or the fletching, too.