Practicing with broadheads?

OK, time for The Grouse’s Total Noob Bowhunting Question of the Week.

Do you ever practice with broadheads? I have seen references to this in the past, but that only leads to more questions.

1. If “yes”, how much? As in just enough to “sight them in”, verify the point of impact, etc? Or really practice-practice as in shooting them quite often?

2. Doesn’t practicing with broadheads wreck the #### out of them? I’d think they’d be dull as a bowling ball after one shot into a target. Do you replace the broadheads and/or the blades after practicing?

3. How the heck do you get broadheads back out of a target? I’d think this would, again, wreck the h@ll out of especially delicate mechanical broadheads.

This just occurred to me. I wouldn’t dream of switching ammo in a rifle without at least verifying that it didn’t change the POI, but in archery I have no idea what’s recommended or done.

Grouse

No matter what is said board heads (fix & mechanical)and field points will fly different at some point. You have more a lot longer profile on board heads. Some group great some don’t all depends on set up and likings.

You should shoot your broad heads to the farthest distance you would shoot in the stand. The longer the shoot the greater chance of deviation. Some hit same place for a long time other don’t. If they don’t you can sight in with broad heads or you can broad head tune. Not that complicated if you look it up.

Some targets are made for broad head others are not. Still cuts down on the life of the target no matter what. Lots of mechanicals come with practice heads to shoot.

Andover has a great range and place to shoot broad heads. Rapids Archery Club. Super nice place to shoot.

I hope this helps it is very quick but is the basics.

I shoot fixed and they (Dirt Nap) are super easy to sharpen with a diamond file. Like stated above, I shot them side by side with my field tips to see what/IF/how much variance. At 45 yrds, my DRT’s are about 2″ 2-1/2″ lower than a field point. At 20 yrds, couldn’t really tell the difference

No matter which type of broadhead you decide to hunt with, you need to practice with them. I used to shoot broadheads all summer long and was tired of wrecking target after target. The best thing that I have discovered and works great for me is to braodhead tune my bow. I do this by first shooting an arrow with a broadhead then shooting one with a field point. If the broadhead hits low and to the left of the field point, I move my rest up and to the right in very small increments (bring the broadhead to the field point). Shoot them again and repeat adjustments if necessary. Don’t worry about your sight pins until you have both arrows impacting together. Once I have them grouping together, I go back to shooting just field points and adjust my sight as needed. Then before season, I shoot my broadheads to double check to make sure my setup is still good. Hope this helps and good luck.

some heads make ‘practice’ heads also, I picked up some for mine (montec) on a good sale and use them mostly when practicing with broadheads, but I will shoot the real ones at least once too just to be sure. I don’t really have any archery stand setups where you will get long distance shot opportunities so at distances I’ll be shooting (30yd and under) my heads and field points shoot very close to each other. Nice thing with the montec is it is really easy to sharpen the heads. When I used to shoot muzzy heads I kept one set of blades that was my practice set and put them in each head to verify POI. (those heads always seemed to hit high and right when sight zeroed in with field points).

My target is just about shot now, it was a foam target, about 3″ thick, from cabelas. The arrows would go thru enough that the heads passed thru, but not as deep as the fletchings. Then I’d spin the heads off before pulling the arrow back out.

I shoot rage 2 blade chisel tip and when you buy a pack you get a practice broadhead with it. They also sell a three pack of practice tips. I only shoot practice tip broadheads all summer to assure you the most accuracy. And when I used to shoot muzzys I bought the practice blades for my broadheads and switched out the blades.
And for a target get a block they are very broadhead friendly.

I always shot a fixed head and would buy two sets early in the practice season. One set was dedicated to target/practice shooting and the blades were allowed to dull, the other set was for hunting and the blades were always sure to be razor sharp. I always hunted from the ground so my practice shooting was done into a pile of sugar sand. I’d put a target stand in front of the pile and shoot away. Safe and easy on arrows. If the bow was not in tune the sand did a great job of showing how the arrow’s flight was being affected too.

I shoot Thunderheads and just take a couple of them to use for practice only. Practice with them and then replace with new ones for hunting. Shooting into a pile of sand works pretty well. Most archery ranges have either sand piles or wood fiber bales for shooting broadheads into.

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

OK, time for The Grouse’s Total Noob Bowhunting Question of the Week.

Do you ever practice with broadheads? I have seen references to this in the past, but that only leads to more questions.

1. If “yes”, how much? As in just enough to “sight them in”, verify the point of impact, etc? Or really practice-practice as in shooting them quite often?

I usually do enough to know they are hitting close.

2. Doesn’t practicing with broadheads wreck the #### out of them? I’d think they’d be dull as a bowling ball after one shot into a target. Do you replace the broadheads and/or the blades after practicing?

When shooting fixed heads I hang on to the ones I’ve shot or missed a deer with, more often than not the blades are beat up that I don’t want to use them on deer.

3. How the heck do you get broadheads back out of a target? I’d think this would, again, wreck the h@ll out of especially delicate mechanical broadheads.

It’s a bit tedious but I’ll often unscrew the head and then pull the arrow out. Saves the target.
This just occurred to me. I wouldn’t dream of switching ammo in a rifle without at least verifying that it didn’t change the POI, but in archery I have no idea what’s recommended or done.

as others have said, always shoot with the head you’re hunting with. A field point will often correct itself and you can get away a not so tuned bow. In general the broadheads will tell you if any fine tuning is needed.

Grouse

I’ve only had one broadhead that I couldn’t get to shoot like field points out to 50 yards and that was a G5 Montec. Everything else has been tunable. The best shooting fixed blade I have shot have been the Slick Trick line of heads. They fly like darts and hit hard. And when it comes to expandables I have yet to shoot one that didn’t fly like my field points. The majority of people that have broadhead issues are either shooting an out of tune bow to start with or the arrow they chose isn’t stiff enough for their draw weight. I have seen that way to often when people are trying to get more speed so they shoot a weaker spined arrow. Take the time to make sure all your gear is up to snuff and you’ll more than likely be just fine! If you’re having issues still it’s usually an issue a good archery shop can fix.