Mechanical Broadhead Reviews: What You Can Learn From Other’s Mistakes
As a rule, bowhunters are pretty passionate about the broadheads they choose to tip their arrows with. It’s sort of like pickup truck owners who take pride in the logo that’s on their grill. Every other truck brand sucks.
Typically, bowhunters will stick with one broadhead until it does them wrong. Then, the search for a new one begins. And this is where they may come across mechanical broadhead reviews.
You want to know what mechanical broadheads have the best reviews? Don’t simply look at how many 5-star reviews it has. Look at how many 5-star reviews it has in relation to 1-star reviews.
Bowhunters have a love/hate relationship with many of the mechanical broadheads on the market (83.51% of all reviews were either a 1-star or 5-star review). Take the Rage Hypodermic, which is rated 3.7 stars by reviewers on Cabelas.com. Yet very few of those reviews are 3- or 4-star ratings. For about every couple of 5-star reviews it receives, there is also a 1-star review.
What’s happening here?
In most cases (my guess is four out of five), what broadhead you shoot doesn’t matter. It’s all about shot placement, right? When taking a 15-yard shot on a broadside deer and hitting it square in the vitals, my arrow should pass through every time no matter what broadhead I am using. When I ask a little more of the broadhead, and it fails… that’s where the 1-star reviews come from.
You might shoot a mechanical broadhead that has a reputation of not deploying. Four times it deploys fine. But what if, on the fifth time, when you’re drawing back on the biggest buck of your life, you know in the back of your mind that it could fail? Do you really want to take that risk?
Or maybe you need to take a hard quartering shot and blow through the ribs. Or let’s say it’s winter and the bowstring hits your bulky jacket on the release and sends your broadhead into a whitetail’s shoulder. How do you feel about those 80% odds now?
We compiled data* from mechanical broadhead reviews from Cabelas.com and Basspro.com. The Wasp Jak-Hammer has the best overall rating, the highest percentage of 5-star reviews and the least percentage of 1-star reviews
Mechanical Broadhead Reviews
|
Broadhead |
# of Reviews |
Overall Rating** |
% of 5-Star Reviews |
% of 1-Star Reviews |
|
Wasp Jak-Hammer |
150 |
4.62 |
80% |
3.3% |
|
Rage Hypodermic |
84 |
3.70 |
55% |
24% |
|
G5 T3 |
173 |
4.01 |
65% |
14% |
|
G5 Havoc |
22 |
3.64 |
59% |
32% |
|
Grim Reaper Razortip |
149 |
4.36 |
77% |
11% |
|
Nap Spitfire 3-Blade |
258 |
4.35 |
73% |
7.8% |
Let’s assume, because in most cases it was, that a 1-star review stemmed from the result of losing an animal. Why take the chance of shooting a mechanical broadhead that might fail?
Where there’s smoke, there’s fire, and it’s an odds game when you choose a broadhead that has even a slight reputation of not performing. What’s clear from the reviews is that some are being dealt a crappy hand sooner than others. But like any odds game, time is the equalizer.
The Wasp Jak-Hammer, a 3-blade mechanical broadhead with a 1-3/4″ cutting diameter, has been around for 20 years. A product doesn’t stay on store shelves for that long if it doesn’t work. The newer Jak-Knife, a 2+” cutting 2-blade mechanical broadhead is built on the same chassis – one that has been proven to work. So, put the odds in your favor and order a pack of the best reviewed mechanical broadheads now.
*Reported figures are accurate as of 8/9/2016.
**In order to weigh each review equally no matter what site it was published on, we used this formula:
(Avg. Bass Pro Shops rating x no. of Bass Pro reviews) + (Avg Cabela’s rating x No. of Cabela’s reviews) / total no. of reviews = Overall Rating
