THE BEST BROADHEAD FOR LOW POUNDAGE SHOOTERS

The trend of low poundage shooters has been on the rise over the last two years. This is happening for a couple of different reasons.... the addition of young hunters entering the marketplace, more female hunters entering the marketplace, and older hunters dropping poundage due to losing physical strength or a hand forcing injury.

Bow manufacturers across the board have taken note and are now offering a plethora of affordable compound options for this demographic. Getting the perfect low poundage bow hunting setup is less than clear once these hunters get passed their bow and arrow. The truth of the matter is, you can shoot low poundage and still be lethal, however due to the lack of energy produced your entire setup from bow to arrow to broadhead needs to be on point.

Here are a few things to consider when selecting broadheads if you fall into the  low draw weight shooting category.

Mechanical or Fixed

While this argument is basically Chevy vs Ford when it comes to high poundage and long draw shooters, it becomes much more black and white for low poundage shooters due to the available energy in forms of Kinetic Energy (KE) and Momentum.

Low poundage setups simply do not produce enough KE where it can be afforded to be lost from traditional mechanical broadhead deployment designs. Collars, rubber bands, and any other mechanism requiring a force or loss of energy to allow deployment hinders low poundage compound shooters lethality. For this reason alone, sharp fixed blades are always the best option for low draw weight shooters. When it comes to fixed blade broadheads you'll want a sharp broadhead with great penetration characteristics to work with the limited amount of energy produced by your bow and arrow setup.  

If you are a die hard mechanical shooter and refuse to shoot fixed blade broadheads be sure you understand what it takes to properly deploy your mechanical broadhead. Assuming you do not have access to a lab radar, you can take the KE number required for proper deployment and subtract it from what your setup is producing at launch to come up with an "approximation" of energy at impact. If the KE number seems low you'll want to rethink the broadhead. If that process seems like too much work then you really need to look at designs that require little to zero energy for proper deployment...something like the Afflictor hybrid series.

Cutting Diameter

In the case of low poundage shooters, smaller is better. Again, the conversation revolves around the available energy produced by the bow. A broadhead with more surface cutting area requires more force to penetrate the same depth as a broadhead with less cutting area. 

The ultimate goal as a bowhunter is two holes with a well placed shot. As a low draw weight shooter, you are at a disadvantage in achieving that goal. If you think any broadhead with a cutting diameter of more than 1.5" is a good choice....well I hate to say but you're seriously putting yourself behind the eight ball. A smaller cutting diameter broadhead is going to be the better choice when comparing apples to apples for low draw weight bows.

Also note, cutting diameter and cutting area is often interchanged but with low poundage draw weight bows you will absolutely want to pay attention to this. When comparing 1.5" cutting diameter broadheads, something with 4 blades will likely take more energy to penetrate the same depth when compared to a 2 blade broadhead. 

While there is some added thought to broadhead selection for low draw weight shooters, finding the perfect broadhead to maximize lethality is possible. Keep these topics discussed here top of mind and you will find yourself in a good scenario.

Author: Chad Sylvester, Team Afflictor