Arizona Outdoorsman

Arizona Outdoorsman / AZOD

HOW SHARP ARE YOU GOING TO BE?

By Todd J Hulm

Archery Section Leader

As the fall archery season approaches many of us are getting ready to venture into the field in pursuit of big game. We will take extra time for practice with our bows and make sure our arrows have clean fletching, and we will even purchase a few new items to make our hunt more enjoyable.

Some may even be lucky enough to have everything they need, and they are simply scouting in preparation for opening day.

Yes, that special time of year is just around the corner.

And with that in mind, I would like to bring up a point that many archers fail to consider in the preparation for the upcoming season: Broadhead sharpness.

Whether you choose an expandable or fixed-blade broadhead, your blades must be razor sharp. This will not only make you more effective, it is the only way to ethically harvest an animal with a bow and arrow.

A razor sharp broadhead could be the difference between a clean, efficient kill and a lost animal. As an archery hunter, you should be very concerned with losing an animal that you have shot with an arrow. The anti-hunting factions are all too eager to publicize the instances when animals are not killed efficiently, and much of the public opinion is formed by uninformed, unconcerned individuals who may be influenced by the propaganda distributed by those groups that are against hunting and hunters.

Ethically speaking, as an archer you should be concerned with the humane harvesting of big-game animals, and with that in mind, you will be committed to using only the sharpest of broadheads as blood loss is the cause of death in most archery kills and a sharp broadhead will simply increase blood loss.

Most of the broadheads on the market today are extremely sharp when packaged. For these heads, you simply need to insert them in the arrow, and you are ready to hunt. However, I still encourage archers to check the sharpness of the blades before using them. And, checking a broadhead for sharpness is quite simple:

To determine if a broadhead is sharp enough to use one simply needs to have a rubber-band. The average rubber band simulates the consistency of blood vessels quite well and is a great indicator of blade sharpness. With the rubber-band simply extended—not tight and stretched--- run the rubber-band down the blade as a vein or vessel would pass over it during a shot. The rubber-band should be cut quite easily if your blades are razor sharp. If not, there are many broadhead sharpeners on the market that work to bring the blades up to an acceptable level.

With that in mind, make those blades razor sharp to ensure a clean, quick kill and to continue the legacy of archery hunting for future generations.

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