Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Bowhunting Diy Homemade broadhead Project

Ive killed deer and bear with homemade broadheads in the past but they were 2 blade, single bevel designs I built. I shot them at the end of homeade arrows fletched with the feathers of Turkey Id killed. I launched them from a homemade longbow I designed and made.

This DIY homemade broadhead is a bit different. It will weigh 250 grains as that is my preferred weight in a broadhead. Roughly 91% of bowhunters that target deer use a 100 or 125 grain head. Its not my intention to market this head for many reasons but weight is a big one, It would appeal to less than 10% of the bowhunting community and Ive got so many projects in the works I dont have the bandwidth to bring another bowhunting product to market.

Ive got an Africa bowhunt this coming fall and Id like to take them on that traveling bowhunt but there is a lot of testing to do in advance.

Here, Im making the first set of blades. Its a work in progress. Im still waiting on the delivery of some small screws to secure the blades. Then do flight and destructive tests. Then travel around and kill some critters to evaluate performance.

That’s very interesting.
Thanks for sharing.
And good luck in Africa, I’ve bowhunted there. It’s amazing.

Ive had many blades made via water jet cutting and then each must be hand sharpened by me. Here I explain how to get things sharp.



Making each blade takes some time.



Then (since Im always concerned with tip curl) I made a tanto tip on the leading blade.



Prior to kicking off the blades, I contacted a company in Lincoln Nebraska to make the stainless steel ferrules for me. The design is complicated and requires a Swiss Screw machine to produce the parts due to the complexity and tiny slots and tapped holes in stainless steel. I sent them a 3D cad file Id created as well as a drawing I made of the specs and tolerances. The supplier sent me this photo of the parts prior to shipping them.





Then I assembled the heads and did a non-scientific push test. here is that video.



In order to evaluate the efficacy of any broadhead, one must field test it on things that bleed. After assembling some heads, I set out to accomplish a few things with this field test. Since I do suburban deer culling for a couple municipalities, Im able to target whitetails and I have until the end of January to remove as many as I can.

I wont be evaluating just this prototype broadhead with this field test. I will also be evaluating a arrow mounted telemetry tracking knock ive spent more than 3 years perfecting, I will also be evaluating a thermal imaging capable drone that will be slated for big game carcass location and recovery. Here are the effects of this broadhead on a live test subject. Here is that video



Here is a still photo from the video I made with the thermal imaging drone. This was about a half hour after the deer had expired. I had the drone about 100 feet up. Even the entrance hole from the arrow can be seen.



Im now trying to source the proper thickness of tool steel (preferably O1 tool steel) that I can have water jet cut. I will then do my own heat treating and tempering to make them suitable for broadhead blades. As a custom knife maker, O1 is one of my favorite high carbon steels for blades. Its superior to most stainless steels. The only negative is that is is not corrosion resistant so it will have to be oiled and protected from rust.

I did not need need the telemetry tracking nock for this recovery but its installed in the arrow so I used to test for efficacy.

Here is my favorite part or bowhunting product testing.

Boy does that look good ...

Another successful test of the Homemade broadhead.

Been very busy with many projects and havent stopped by in a while. Im getting ready to test some of my DIY broadheads on another traveling bow hunt for hogs in March and then another adventure bowhunt in Texas in April to further test a few bowhunting tools as well as my broadheads.

If you have been paying attention to press releases from Pope and Young, Wisconsin Bowhunters Assoc, WI traditional Archers and other orgs you will understand why I havent had time to visit here much. Things are really going nuts around here. (and its awesome)

Very interesting.
Thanks for sharing b