Arrows for Africa

[ras308]

I have a friend who is going to Africa in July '05, should he be shooting Carbons with mechanicals or my choice of Aluminums and fixed blade heads???  Thanks.

[leverfan]

I have a friend who is going to Africa in July '05, should he be shooting Carbons with mechanicals or my choice of Aluminums and fixed blade heads???  Thanks.

That's an easy one.  Mechanicals aren't even legal in some states for deer, so if he's planning on hunting game larger than 50 pounds in Africa, leave the mechanicals at home.  Cut on impact, fixed blade heads are the way to go for large game.  I happen to like heavy arrows, myself, so I would also prefer aluminum shafts.  For big game, I want a completed arrow to weigh about 9 grains per pound of draw weight.  My experience is with elk and deer, but if he's going after bigger, tougher game than that in Africa, he's going to be better served with heavy, tough arrows.

The Bear razorhead with extra break away bleeder blade, in addition to the main blade, is one of my all time favorites.

[JJHACK]

Use what ever you choose for Cut on Impact or Chisel point. Dump the mechanicals for everything. I have never seen such a pile of intermittant crap in my life! Sure they work great once in a while but they are a disaster more often then not. Broken to bits as often as they penetrate clean through. One of the worst injuries I have seen in  along time was this past year when a hunter was pulling the guts out of a wild hog. His Mechanical head and arrow zipped right through. We struggeled to find blood while following it up. Durring his field dressing effort we found out why the blood was so little. He grabbed a hold of several of the blades that had broken off with part of the hinge mechanism and sliced right through the center of his left middle finger.  There was more blood from his finger then there was from the pig! He was wearing latex gloves and the fingeres were full of blood. He never knew his figer was cut until his gloved hand felt odd because it was filling with blood.

I have not seen a mechanical that I would trust to cleanly harvest a $1200.00 Kudu or a $1700.00 waterbuck. In my opinion tell him to buy a few packs of slick tricks and be done with it.

[ras308]

That's pretty much along the same lines of what I've been telling him.  I've hunted with a bow for over 25 years, I've yet to have a cut on impact broadhead to fail to open!!!  There are a bunch of tests out there on the net that really push the mechanicals, I've even seen some that say certain models penetrate better than the fixed blade heads???  For me, I've had great luck on plenty of deer and large hogs with my Thunderheads on heavy aluminum arrows.  I've never shot African game, but I would have to guess 300 & 400 pound boars are a pretty good test for a broadhead and aluminum arrow!!!  Thanks, I'll pass this along.

[AfricanHandgunner]

Mechanical broadheads are junk, plain and simple.  They should not be use on ANY game except wild turkey.  They are a cheap shortcut to proper bow tuning.