As some of you know, I have made bad hits on the first two animals I ever shot at with a crossbow. A yote and the biggest buck of my life. I have been at a loss to explain it. The two things that are different with these shots from many I have taken with compound bows is that it is a crossbow and that I went to mechanical broadheads.
Another member mentioned in one of my threads about it, that he had experienced radically different accuracy between his practice mechanical and actual broadhead.
I finally got a chance to check that today. I had put a new scope on, so the first thing I did was zero and find the correct velocity adjustment for my bolt trajectory. I was using field points and the practice broadhead. The point of impact for them is identical. No problem shooting 1 inch groups at 30 yards off sticks. Then I started shooting with an actual mechanical.
The first thing was that the POI was way left at 20 yards. Okay, I adjusted the scope and got acceptable, but not great, groups at 20. Then I went back to 30 yards. What a disaster.
The bolt completely destabilized before it got to the target. 12 inch groups. I could see the bolt corkscrewing in the air. There were also a couple of times I know the blades didn't deploy because the broadhead was sticking out the back of the target and it was still closed.
My bad for not shooting the actual broadhead before I hunted with it, but through the years I have used practice heads of several different kinds of fixed blades and they always had the same POI as the broadhead, so I stopped checking.
I went to Bass Pro and talked to one of the crossbow guys. He sold me on the Slick Trick fixed four blade broadhead. The guy is a serious deer hunter (I saw the pics) and these are what he uses. Sure enough, I shot once at 20 yards, made a scope adjustment and the next shot was a bull's eye. I moved back to 30 yards and that shot was also a bull's eye. The bull's eye on my target is 1 inch diameter.
I will never use mechanical again. Ever.
If anyone wants six unfired 100 grain NAP Spitfire MAXX crossbow heads for free, come get them. But I wouldn't advice actually using them.
Another member mentioned in one of my threads about it, that he had experienced radically different accuracy between his practice mechanical and actual broadhead.
I finally got a chance to check that today. I had put a new scope on, so the first thing I did was zero and find the correct velocity adjustment for my bolt trajectory. I was using field points and the practice broadhead. The point of impact for them is identical. No problem shooting 1 inch groups at 30 yards off sticks. Then I started shooting with an actual mechanical.
The first thing was that the POI was way left at 20 yards. Okay, I adjusted the scope and got acceptable, but not great, groups at 20. Then I went back to 30 yards. What a disaster.
The bolt completely destabilized before it got to the target. 12 inch groups. I could see the bolt corkscrewing in the air. There were also a couple of times I know the blades didn't deploy because the broadhead was sticking out the back of the target and it was still closed.
My bad for not shooting the actual broadhead before I hunted with it, but through the years I have used practice heads of several different kinds of fixed blades and they always had the same POI as the broadhead, so I stopped checking.
I went to Bass Pro and talked to one of the crossbow guys. He sold me on the Slick Trick fixed four blade broadhead. The guy is a serious deer hunter (I saw the pics) and these are what he uses. Sure enough, I shot once at 20 yards, made a scope adjustment and the next shot was a bull's eye. I moved back to 30 yards and that shot was also a bull's eye. The bull's eye on my target is 1 inch diameter.
I will never use mechanical again. Ever.
If anyone wants six unfired 100 grain NAP Spitfire MAXX crossbow heads for free, come get them. But I wouldn't advice actually using them.
