Team 7 Shwacker Barrel

Good luck!

 

Covering food plots in hopes of rain coming Wednesday

 

I have four, possibly, five, bucks that I would shoot on my lease this year, which is unheard of. This place usually doesn't hold more than 1 or 2 decent bucks each year. The only problem is finding time to get out there and hunt! My boys are keeping me busy with football on the weekends and as soon as that ends I head to Kansas for 10 days.

My goal right now is to get out and plunk a doe on opening night in one of these food plots. Need to break the ice and get the season started on a high note!

 

Kill one!


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You kill one too!


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I have had a bit of a setback today, I decided to throw all my broadheads on arrows to practice with them just to make sure my confidence was high before the season started and literally all 6 them are hitting different spots. I shot probably 100 times today trying to figure it out and I had to scrap the idea of using them. I had one of them tuned to hit with the field points but this was the first time I had tried another one. At this point I had to go with what I’m confident with and the last mechanical I was using before I decided to go back to fix blades was the g5 dead meats and I never had an issue with them so I ordered 6 of the 125 grain mega meats. I’m losing 25 grains so a little tweaking will need done I’m sure but this close to season I have never had an issue like this before so I wanted to buy something I was confident in. I’m still gona be well over 500 grains pulling 76 lbs should blow through anything I can find to shoot at. Here’s hoping it goes as smooth as I remember mechanicals going lol never thought I would go back to them either


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Saw one hunter going through the woods at 5:00pm and saw no deer until I was leaving. Two doe were at the road ready to cross to where I was sitting. They went back the way they came when they saw me. I did see a red squirrel. Can't remember the last time I saw one, they're that rare where I hunt.

Tonight was sort of a trial run to make sure things are right. I had to change my bow hanger to a different angle for better access, other than that things are good with my stand site. Looking forward to the rest of the season.

 

Are all 6 broadheads the same make/model, and they're all hitting different spots? That seems very strange.

It sounds like either an arrow/spine issue, a rest/fletching clearance issue, or an issue with the arrow/broadhead combo not spinning true. Have you spun all of your arrows with broadheads on them to verify they are all good? Also, have you tried turning your nocks a bit and shooting with a different cock vane?

 

They are all vpa omegas with bleeders. It’s not happening with field points. The fletching clearance is close so I check it every time I knock my arrow. It’s something with the broadheads for sure they are not shaped in a way where it’s easy to tell if they are spinning true or not but I don’t have anything to spin them on. When at the shop the guy I was broadhead tuning with spun it and it looked fine but the bleeders and the main cutting surface don’t match up perfectly so it’s hard to tell. When the arrows are flying you can tell they are not flying right with the broadhead on them idk what to make of it. I don’t think it’s a spine issue I have a really stiff spine I think it’s the Easton axis 250 I’m at work but I’m pretty sure that’s the one. I was shooting a 150 grain broadhead and like a 50 grain insert but I’m going down to 125 now. It is weird, the broadheads are right helical and my fletchings go to the right so idk if that’s what you mean by spinning true other than not being wobbly when spun I tried doing it with one of the bad ones on the corner of my table but it didn’t work good and I couldn’t really tell anything.


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IMO every bowhunter should own an arrow spinner. There are few things as important to arrow flight with broadheads as making sure your arrow is spinning true. You can have issues with the actual arrow shafts, your insert system, or your broadheads, which will all cause spinning/wobble issues. You can pick up a cheap china one on Amazon for around $30. Or spend $50-$60 at Lancaster for a decent one. I've had a Pine Ridge Arrrow Inspector for probably 10 years and it works great. Out of a dozen Match Grade Easton arrows I'll always have 2 or 3 that don't spin true and end up being practice/field point only arrows.

Have you shot it through paper or checked the cam timing?

Shooting field points won't show minor tune issues because your fletchings can correct the arrow in flight. Fixed blade heads are basically like having a second set of fletchings on the front of your arrow. If the arrow is leaving the bow at a bad angle, the broadhead is going to keep it moving in that direction and the fletchings won't be able to correct it.

The thing that concerns me is that all of your arrows are impacting in different spots. Generally speaking, if you have a tuning issue with your bow, your arrows will still group; they just won't hit with your field points. So while I still think you need to check your tune, I don't think that's your main culprit.

Also, what fletchings are you shooting? I've seen a lot of people with small/low profile vanes that can't properly steer a big fixed blade head like those Omegas. That could be another potential culprit and would make sense with your sporadic arrow flight.

 

One of the big guys on my local farm showed up for the first time last night. Hammering white oak acorns that are raining down right now. I believe he's 4 this year.

 

It was paper tuned then broadhead tuned from there to one of the broadheads. I’m probably going to re paper tune it Friday for the mechanicals. They are lower profile vanes because of the close clearance on the lift I didn’t like the way the blazers looked but I used them last year with the same broadheads they worked fine. I hopefully get it all figured out this weekend.


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I'm starting to think it's a fletching issue with handling those big broadheads. Which ones are you shooting exactly, and which size?

Edit: Did anything else change from last year to this year? Same bow, arrows, broadheads, fletchings?

 

The team over at Iron Will has done a lot of testing on vanes and fixed blade heads and found the higher profile vanes work the best. Blazers are .57" tall and the Iron Will/AAE Hybrid Hunters are 0.58" so they're basically the same.

As a comparison, TAC Drivers 2.75" vanes are 0.475" tall. Interestingly enough, they came out with a 2.25" Driver "High Profile" vane that is 0.515" tall to help steer broadheads better. If you look at Levi's recent Nebraska buck he killed, he's shooting those taller vanes. For a guy who is as meticulous about his setup as Levi, that says a lot.

When it comes to tuning and clearance yes, it's tight, but it's certainly doable. If you're having clearance issues, your tune probably isn't as good as you think it is. Center shot is either too close to the riser, or your rest timing is off.

If this guy can make them work, you can too.

 

I had issues with my fmj arrows squeaking when it got cold last year when I drew back which is the reason I decided to change things up. So I went with the Axis 250s with the same vanes as last year AAE hybrids which cleared better. I also put stronger mods on it just for fun which is why my arrows got stiffer and heavier. So the arrows just went from Easton fmj to axis arrows and got heavier and I’m drawing a little more. If the problem is the vanes somehow don’t work with the heavier arrows that would be great because the new broadheads I bought will fix it and I’ll be good to go for this year. Maybe try something else next year if I don’t like the mechanicals but I think they will work good with my heavy setup


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Your setup is more than sufficient to shoot mechanicals. You could take down two moose standing side-by-side with that thing.

My guess is that with the added arrow weight and increase in poundage or aggressiveness of your mods, your fletchings just can't steer your arrows properly. Heavy arrows, high FOC, and big broadheads aren't immune from their own problems.

 

The guy at the shop said I was rated for Cape buffalo, I guess that means elephants are out I have never went this heavy before I just have a bad habit of changing everything every year and this year apparently it’s making my procrastination bite me lol


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Am I only one having issues with Tapatalk loading? I haven't been able to post using the app lately. We have had over 2.5 inches of rain the first part of the week. It finally cleared up today and I was able to do a little shooting. I was very pleased with 2" groups. Arkansas season begins Saturday, but unfortunately I'll be working. I'll be in the stand Sunday.

 

I’ve never used the app. We’ve had a good rain here in Indiana as well. Rain, sun, rain, sun. I’m sure the food plot is loving it, but I wouldn’t know. Nothing has walked in front of the camera in a while. Normally I get a lot of squirrel pics during the day, but they haven’t even been out there.