Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Bowhunting interesting mechanical BH observation

I was fooling around with my archery gear and the chronograph when a friend wanted to see how fast his bow was.

While doing this, He shot his broad heads at my old block target that I use only for broad heads now. It's kinda beat up but still works okay for broad heads. His arrows were fine at 15 yards, but at 30 were all over the place. At 40 a 15" group was a good one! He shot some slick tricks as a base line and they were more like a 5"-7" groups. Maybe equipment, or his skills?

While doing this I shot several mechanicals and saw something amusing. With my bow which at this moment is set up to shoot 75FPE these mechanicals which were NAP kill zone, Rage, and grim Reapers all worked with amazing performance and drove the arrows more then half the length into the target at 18-20 yards. They stick out the back and show full deployment. Every time I do this I feel like this is the best way to shoot game. These things are astonishing!

Then I go to 30 yards none stick out the back of the target? A ten yard difference and 12" less penetration? At 40 yards they are only 6-7" deep at the most! By comparison at 40 yards the Slick trick Viper's penetrate more at 40 then the Grim Reaper did at 20!

After this exercise I come back down to earth and remember why I don't use Mechanicals on big game. Only on turkeys. After doing this we got to discussing the situation. I think that if a guy is shooting over 70FPE and holding shots to 25 yards or less with a decent mechanical shooting deer size game everything is good. Maybe the failures folks have and complain about, or become critical of, are shooting at 40 yards and expecting the same results. Or possibly they are shooting 60FPE and at 30 plus yards?

I don't see Mechanicals working at longer distances with the lower velocity and greater resistance to penetration. Especially when the bow has a lower draw weight, shorter draw length, or 60FPE to drive the arrows. I thought about how many guys use the ulmer edge and the Schwacker. Both are 1.5" expanded and two blades. I can believe that they would provide great long range penetration and perform as advertised.

The question then is, My little 4 blade 1-1/16" cut (one side) with the other being 7/8" as I recall is a greater amount of cutting area then the 1.5" mechanicals. I'm just not seeing any real advantage to a mechanical that only cuts 1.5" with two blades. The Short stubby blades on so may 4 blade heads today that shoot with flawless perfection have every advantage over a 1.5" 2 blade mechanical.

I've heard that the Ulmer and schwacker are the preference for very fast bows and guys shooting 50 plus yards. I cannot argue this point and I have no experience to even question the folks claiming this. I just don't shoot 50 plus yards at game and don't really know any folks personally that do this. I've had clients tell me they are good to 75 yards, but then lose game or make poor shots and need hours of tracking and follow up. I just don't care to see this kind of shooting. One friend of mine was (is) an astonishing archer. Pop cans with judo points in my pasture are no problem for him beyond 50 yards. Yet he shot a deer while I was ranging distance for him a few years ago, it was a looong shot. The arrow was way too far back left a few hundred yards of blood and was never recovered. Hunting in the real world is not pop cans in the pasture, or targets!

From my angle on this, it's not the mechanical heads that are the fault. It's the power available and the distance of the shot that plays a major role in the result. I believe that a big chunk of the failures are too little power. Whether it's from draw weight, length, or arrow weight. When you have the power to deliver a mechanical properly they are astonishing.