The era of the four-blade broadhead is here. It’s been over a decade in the making but they have begun to really gain popularity, especially in recent years. Why? The answer is simple. More total cutting area, designs built for accuracy and most importantly, hard-hitting modern bows to drive them home. About 15 years ago when my archery career began I went straight to four blade heads. That’s about the time companies began emphasizing short profiled, four-blade heads like Muzzy and shortly thereafter, Slick Tricks. Now, there are multitudes of effective fixed, hybrid and recently, fully expandable heads available.
Over the past three years I’ve tested as many types and variances of four-blade broadheads as I could get my hands on. During that time I’ve shot roughly 50 animals ranging from javelina to giant wild brush bulls across the West and Hawaii. Results have varied from disappointing blood trails to jaw-droppingly awesome performance. On top of that, our arrow flight performance testing using Doppler radar by Labradar makes this review the most comprehensive and detailed broadhead review ever published to date.
The Labradar:
The Labradar is a first of its kind tool for measuring velocities of arrows during their entire flight path using Doppler radar technology. In our groundbreaking testing, we have been able to actually measure the drag of any given arrow/vane/head combination along its entire flight path. The results of our testing showed some dramatic results. We concluded that vane orientation (degrees of offset or helical) plays a larger role in drag than the broadheads do. And another big take away we found was all of the broadheads are equal in velocity loss when compared to each other meaning the drag amongst the fixed blades is equal.
As bowhunters, the important thing to note here is you need to find the ideal balance between stability and speed to maximize your rig’s potential.
After comparing field tips on both straight vane and three-degree helical fletched arrows as our control, the helical arrows were about five fps slower than straight vanes at 90 yards. Inside of 50 yards the helical vanes averaged three fps slower than straight.
Furthermore, the same arrows tipped with a big, fixed broadhead (Magnus Stinger) were around 11 fps slower at 90 yards with straight vanes as compared to the control and 12 fps slower with helical at the same distance compared to the control. See the chart on page XX for a graphic of our findings.
The Setup:
My bow setup is 29” draw with an arrow speed of just over 300 fps. I broadhead tuned with the largest surface area blade of the bunch – the Magnus Stinger. Broadhead tuning is very simple (see the video on our YouTube channel) and is the only way to achieve the best accuracy out of your setup. For best accuracy results, I’ve found full helical fletching for COC type broadheads performs best.
For this test, I have 12 different four-blade style broadheads in three different categories. Fixed Blade, hybrid and mechanical – all 100 grains. I am considering cut-on-contact heads with bleeder blades a four-blade broadhead (i.e. Magnus Stingers) mostly because my focus is on total cutting area. I also rate each broadhead based on construction, blade sharpness and spin-testing.
Vanes:
While I did use straight vanes in the Labradar testing, I never shoot them with a broadhead in a hunting situation. I always start off shooting every broadhead with a 1° offset vane configuration because a slower spinning arrow is affected less by drag when compared compared to full helical. If I’m not happy with the accuracy at 60+ yards, I’ll go to a full helical. Usually fixed broadheads have a decent amount of surface area and require a full helical vane configuration for maximum accuracy despite losing some velocity.
The Fatal Fours
Pro – COC blade with steel reinforcement/exceptionally sharp.
Con – Partial aluminum ferrule.
Blade Sharpness – five stars
Construction – five stars
Spin Test Approved
.040 Blade thickness
Total Cut Area – 2”
MSRP: $34.99 / 3 ea.
Pros – Stainless steel precision aligned tip/exceptionally sharp.
Con – Partial aluminum ferrule.
Blade Sharpness – five stars
Construction – five stars
Spin Test Approved
.027 blade thickness
Total Cut Area – 2”
MSRP: $37.99 / 3 ea.
Pro – One-piece steel ferrule
Con – Small cutting diameter
Blade Sharpness – five stars
Construction – five stars
Spin Test Approved
.035 Blade Thickness
Total Cut Area- 1 15/16”
MSRP: $42.99 / 4 ea.
Pros – One piece steel ferrule.
Con – Some noise in flight.
Blade Sharpness – five stars
Construction – five stars
Spin Test Approved
.035 Blade Thickness
Total Cut Area – 2”
MSRP: $42.99 / 4 ea.
Pro – Short profile.
Con- I experience some wind drift possibly due to solid blade design (vented blade option available).
Blade Sharpness – five stars
Construction – four stars
Spin Test Approved
Blade Thickness .030
Total Cut Area – 2”
MSRP: $29.99 / 3 ea.
Pro – Low blade angle designed for maximum penetration.
Con – Long blade profile, greater chance to be affected by cross wind at distance.
Blade Sharpness – five stars
Construction – five stars
Spin Test Approved
.040 Blade Thickness
Total Cut Area – 1 13/16”
MSRP: $39.99 / 3 ea.
Pro – Thick, solid steel built to split bone and penetrate with a minimal profile.
Con – Smallest total cut diameter of broadheads tested, pricey.
Blade Sharpness – five stars
Construction – five stars
Spin Test Approved
.080 Main Blade Thickness
Total Cut Area – 1 6/8”
MSRP: $95 / 3 ea.
Pro – All steel COC design, tip can be re-sharpened.
Con – Blades are on the thin side.
Blade Sharpness – five stars
Construction – four stars
Spin Test Approved
.027 blade thickness
Total Cut Area – 2 ⅛”
MSRP: $37.99 / 4 ea.
Pro – One-piece solid steel ferrule.
Con – Thin expandable blades.
Blade Sharpness – five stars
Construction – four stars
Spin Test Approved
.035 blade thickness
Total Cut Area – 2 ⅝”
MSRP: $39.99 / 3 ea.
Pro – COC or Chisel tip design with efficient combination of penetration and total cut diameter.
Con – Aluminum ferrule.
Blade Sharpness – five stars
Construction – four stars
Spin Test Approved
Blade thickness .040 Fixed Blade, .032 expanding blades
Total Cut Area – 2 ¾”
MSRP: $42.99 / 3 ea.
Pro – Massive total cut diameter, most accurate in the wind.
Con – Long aluminum ferrule, hard bone impact could be an issue.
Blade Sharpness – five stars
Construction – four stars
Spin Test Approved
Blade thickness .035
Total Cut Area – 2 ¾”
MSRP: $44.99 / 4 ea.
Load Your Quiver
We hope this article helps when it comes to finding the right broadhead for you from the mind-boggling array of quality options available. Be sure to look to future EBJ issues for more testing with the Labradar, we have some exceptional articles coming!