store them in a place where they are not exposed to heat.
When practising for a hunt use only one broadhead out of
a pack. Keep the others aside for the hunt so that when they
are used they are in pristine condition.
When packing, storing, transporting or hunting, you
should always protect your broadheads and not allow them
Figure 2: Use Spark on broadheads to avoid rust.
Figure 1
to move around in a bow bag or container as this will quickly
dull the blades (Figure 4). A quiver with a broadhead cover is
recommended for hunting.
Prevent damage to the ferrule insert threads. If they
are damaged you may experience difficulty screwing the
broadhead into the arrow shaft insert. If the threads have
been damaged use a thread cutter of the correct size to recut
the thread or use a small needle file to touch them up. When
attaching broadheads to the arrow shaft place a bit of wax on
the threads. This will prevent corrosion between the alumin-
ium threads of the broadhead and insert, which sometimes
causes the parts to fuse, but will also prevent the broadhead
from coming loose.WHY BROADHEADS SHOULD BE SHARP
The main reason why a hunting broadhead should be sharp is
that it must be effective in causing massive haemorrhage so
that the animal dies quickly and with a minimum of suffer-
ing. A blunt broadhead causes a ragged cut as it passes through
blood vessels. This type of wound results in the release of large
amounts of clotting factors from damaged blood vessel walls,
which promotes clotting and therefore reduces the rate of blood
loss. A sharp broadhead causes a clean cut, which releases far
less clotting factors and the wound bleeds profusely (see Figure
5). Rapid and profuse blood loss will cause a drop in blood pres-
sure, unconsciousness and a relatively quick death.SHARPENING BROADHEADS
There are three categories of broadhead sharpening.
Edge maintenance is dressing an already sharpened or formed
edge with a leather strop embedded with a honing or stropping
compound. Stropping is sharpening but does not remove metal
aggressively. Using a strop instead of a stone eliminates bevel
angle change and when done properly makes the edge extreme-
ly sharp. Stropping the broadhead each day while hunting will
ensure that it will be ready when it is required.Bench sharpening means sharpening a broadhead with a dam-