Robin Hood!

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For all of you that don't know, Archery season opens here in central Florida this weekend. I just built a brand new set of arrows  for the occasion. One dozen finely tuned meat missiles. I weighed each and every component on a grain scale and matched everything together, ground off tiny amounts for exact weight and added small set screws to the back of my inserts to bump up my f.o.c. a little. All dozen arrows finished out to within 1/2 gr.  of each other. It was really quite a bit of work.

Last night I decided to shoot a little with my broadheads and see if I need any last minute adjustments. Usually I pick different spots when shooting broadheads and only shoot one arrow at any one target so I don't ruin an arrow....you probably already figured out where I'm going....a robin hood!

Well, I'm not sure whether I should be glad or sad about this. I guess I'm out a brand new XX75 either way. Actually quartered the alum. uni-bushing! I found one of the pieces, you can see it in the lower photo.

If I can shoot like this when I get out in the tree I guess it will be worth it!

     

Most people have converted to carbon arrows at this point but it's hard to beat the Easton XX75 and XX78. I used the Pinwheel archery program to fine tune my shaft size and the 2215, while a little uncommon, was right on the money. The aluminum shaft is typically twice as straight as carbon and half the price (or less) of quality carbon or carbon/alum., etc.. I personally prefer XX78 but they were not available in 2215 so I went to the XX78 CAMO HUNTER. They even come with uni-bushings for easy nock adjustment.

Steve Kelly, Owner of American Sports in Havana Illinois, did call me a dinosaur when I had him build me a few last year when I ran short on a hunt there but why fool with something that works so good.

I took a gobbler, (2) hogs and more than a dozen whitetails last year with these aluminum shafts. Hard to argue with that!

You'll notice in the picture I'm fletched these shafts

with AAE's new Maxi-Hunter 2.2 vanes. They are

2.125"l.x.59"h. and control my muzzy's just fine. I

prefer them to blazer types as they are a little more pliable and are ribbed to create a little more drag

for stabilization. They are far more durable than the

standard AAE 4" vane. I can shoot clean thru a "Block" target and the vanes look perfect!

Good luck and send me some harvest pictures!

Larry

P.S.

If you doubt the effectiveness of a Muzzy have a look at my Muzzy vs. Deer Spine post!
http://trophy-hunting.blogspot.com/2010/02/muzzy-vs-deer-spine.html

Below are a couple of links to Amazon with pretty reasonable prices on these shafts and fletch if anybody needs some.

Muzzy vs Deer Spine!

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I promised to post these pictures of a section of whitetail deer spinal column.

I think it makes for a strong case for quality, well engineered broadheads of fixed or replacement blade design.

You will not see an expandable blade broadhead do this!

You can see in the picture above that the blades have been bent together a little bit but the did not break. They are shaped more like an "X" rather than a "+". Completely severed the spine!

The Following is a post I made to "Kisky's Whitetail Freaks Forum" http://www.kisky.com/forum/default.aspx?f=11&p=2&m=151307

“A lot of guys won't like this but do yourself a favor and steer clear of expandables. a pile of deer have been killed with them but a pile more have been lost. More often than not, you will not get a pass thru. without a low exit hole your blood trail can be weak to non existent. Quartering shots can be a problem with many expandables. i have heard of many instances of broken parts and structural failure with these also. If you have a perfect broadside shot and punch him square in the ribs, most any broadhead will do but that is not the real world.
A friend of mine owns an archery shop in Illinois and he shoots expandables buts admits he don't get a lot of pass throughs. His reasoning for overlooking this important factor was that the woods there are open and you can usually fan out your search and find him. I want a blood trail and the best trail comes from a pass thru. Besides that, ask an expandable fan what happens when heavy bone is encountered. I have shot completely thru several deer spines, you'll never see and expandable do that.

If you want some more convincing, take a piece of fresh deer hide and try to push an expandable, a cut on contact and a replaceable blade style head thru it.

I have taken 74 deer with a bow and untold # of hogs. I shoot a muzzy (4) blade 100 gr.. You will never see one of these fail! You might get a crack in a blade once in a blue moon but it will be in tact. I have only seen (1) or (2) bent ferrules.

"G5-Montec" and Snuffers are great also! you won't go wrong with them but you have to develop a method to sharpen them and they have to be absolutely as sharp as possible. This is a mistake many make. They don't realize just how sharp the blades need to be. If not razor sharp the head has more of a tendency to push everything out of the way rather than cut it's way thru. I also recommend staying away from heads with blade configurations that are not swept back with enough angle. In other words, the less the angle between the cutting edge and the target, the more the blade is pressed thru rather than cut it's way thru.

There are many other good heads but if you stick to models like the three i mentioned, it will be the best you can do.

Have a look at my site, http://trophy-hunting.blogspot.com/ , I'll post a great picture of one of my Muzzy's sticking clean thru the spinal column of an Illinois buck!

Good Luck! Larrysdd"

Choose your broadhead carefully, its one of the most important choices in gear that you can make!

Best of Luck, Larry