Top 5 MISTAKES Bowhunters Make When Buying BROADHEADS!

Hi, I'm Chris with Afflictor, and today we're going to talk about the top five mistakes archers make when purchasing a broadhead. Okay, so when we're talking about broadheads, of course, we're in an ever-expanding category, right? We have so many different things to pick from between fixed blades, hybrid blades, mechanical broadheads, and variations of all three of those in between. Some of the top mistakes that people make, especially new archers, is if they're looking for a broadhead, they are seeking somebody else's recommendation. And while that can be good, there's some inherent danger in that as well. If you are asking a question on a forum online on Facebook or wherever social media you happen to be on, and you ask an ambiguous question like, what is the best broadhead, and you literally get 200 people's opinions, and you're looking down that list, and you're probably looking at the most devastating picture or the best thing somebody said about a certain broadhead. And there's nothing wrong with that inherently, except the chances of that person's setup matching yours is slim. So that's where the cautionary statement comes in when you are looking at using somebody else's recommendation. You want to make sure that if you're going to do that, that it is a broadhead that is suitable for your platform. I've seen people ask that question, and somebody told them a broadhead choice, and showed them great penetration and a giant wound channel, and that broadhead was being used on a crossbow platform, not on a compound that that person had originally asked the question about. So you have to be very careful about what you're asking and what information you're taking in. You want to get as close to whatever you're doing as possible. So if you're asking a broadhead question, and it's for a crossbow platform, get specific. Ask specifics. If you're on a website that's crossbow only, say I have X crossbow. I'm shooting this bolt. Let me see what people with that setup have used, and let's talk about that success. And then after you get that narrowed down, you still want to do some general research to make sure that you are getting the best broadhead for your setup, whether it's compound, or crossbow, or trad. The next mistake that a lot of archers make, especially new archers, is they purchase a pack of broadheads based on the wow factor. And what I mean by that is, if you let me have a little bit of a fishing analogy, you guys and gals that are fishermen and women, you know what I'm talking about here. There's a lot of lures that are designed to catch fishermen and not fish. You go to the tackle shop, and you see a top water frog, and it looks like a frog. Every detail is perfect. It has all the legs. Everything looks good. Even the pupil is painted perfectly. So you buy it because it looks great. But then when you get to the water and you make your first cast, the thing is upside down. It doesn't run right. And when you finally do get a strike, the hooks are embedded in the bait, and you don't even get to set the hook on the fish. Broadheads are not too far from that sometimes when it comes to tricky marketing and packaging. So you need to be careful. When you're looking at a shelf full of broadheads, and there's a lot of really cool attractive packaging, you want to look at the broadhead itself. What does it look like? What about it is attracting you? But you don't want to go on the wow factor. You want to base your purchase on your needs and your setup. So again, we go back to that because that's where this is most important. You are not probably going to use the same broadhead that you would on a white-tailed deer if all of a sudden you're going to Africa. So you don't want to base your purchase based on something that looks super cool and be able to use it across the board. You want to make sure that you're having the right weight and setup and everything that you need for your arrow and your bow. And packaging can be really cool. You can look at a broadhead and it's got a neat blade out here and twisted blades in the middle and a set of fixed in the back. And oh, look, there's another set of blades that opens in the arrow shaft that just might not be suitable for your platform. If you don't have the right setup, if you don't have the right arrow build, that broadhead will not work for you. So you want to go back to your manufacturer, get your arrow specified, get your bow, everything's tuned and ready to go. And now you can look at categories that fit your setup and then you need to match it to the type of game that you're hunting and pick from there. Another very common mistake, especially right now in the world of online shopping, is bargain basement broadheads. This has been a huge issue across the industry, especially for manufacturers that are working hard to really build a great broadhead with quality materials. And all of a sudden you start seeing these knockoffs and knockoffs are attractive to people based on price points. So they'll see a knockoff. Hey, that looks just like X broadhead. I'm going to give it a try. And they try it and some of them are decent, but a lot of them are just pure junk. If you don't know the manufacturer, if you don't know the materials, if you can't really put some base behind that, you're probably taking too big of a risk. Broadheads are like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're going to get. And I use that because you don't know what's coming from a source that you haven't verified. And even though the price point's right and there may be some good reviews, there's a lot of ways online for reviews to be manipulated. So you want to make sure that you're going to sources that have used and tried a particular broadhead so you can get accurate information. Now a lot of times broadheads that have a low price point are made inferior with inferior products. The steel is not right. The aluminum may not be right. The blade thicknesses could be thin. Things could break easy. You owe it to yourself as a hunter all the time, energy and effort that you've put in getting ready for a hunt and you owe it to the animal to pick the best broadhead that you can even if you're paying a little bit more for it. Why take the risk on a buck of a lifetime? Because you got a sale bargain basement broadhead. Now people are still going to buy them and some of them are okay to use. But again, do your homework a little bit. Play with that. Test that broadhead. If you're going to use it, go out there and beat the snot out of a package of them and make sure that it's really going to hold up to your expectations. One way I like to think about the bargain basement broadheads is you want to shoot a broadhead that somebody cared about building. So if you can keep that in mind when you're selecting a broadhead based on price point, that might help you out. Another common mistake is going way too light or way too heavy for your setup. So you need to be sure of what your arrow specs are and your setup is qualified for. So it's sometimes it's just if you're looking for speed and you really don't have the proper arrow and you're shooting an 80 grain broadhead, you're probably going to be disappointed with your penetration. But also the same can be said if you're shooting too light of a spine arrow and a real heavy broadhead. You could actually wind up being in a dangerous situation for arrow fractures or other things happening. But you're also never going to get the right flight. So as far as choosing the right weight, go back to your manufacturer, make sure that whatever weight you are looking at your setup can handle and then you can tweak them, tweak some things from there. Try some different weights that are variable. Check your FOC, check your momentum, check your KE, make sure everything falls in line. And then that way you can be sure you have the exact weight that you need to get the job done for whatever you're hunting. Another mistake that we encounter a lot in the broadhead business is people getting broadheads that are too big for their setup. And what do I mean by that? It doesn't sound like you could have something that's too big. If you are not properly set up with the right arrow configuration and the right bow, shooting a broadhead that cuts now two and a half, three inches or even more, you can find broadheads that have these massive cuts. You're basically stopping your arrow because you do not have enough momentum and that arrow is not going to penetrate like you want it to. So if you're a new archer and you're looking at your setup and you have an arrow, make sure that you have an arrow that's got the right spine and the right weight accompanied with the right broadhead to be able to get a pass through on whatever game you're hunting. It is essential more for shot placement and having a broadhead that performs correctly than it is to have a giant cut that doesn't go anywhere. So keep that in mind on your next broadhead purchase.