Swacker Broadheads

[DaveShooter]

Thanks all for the input about these broadheads. I watched the video last nite at Swacker web-site and thot about giving the 100 gr heads a try this season. As I too have always been a solid broad-head fan even back in the stick bow hunting and compound bow hunting days.

[DaveShooter]

I'm not a huge fan of mechanicals and after a problem with one several years ago I switched back to fixed blade heads. Found a couple fixed blade heads I can just screw in, spin test, and count on them to group right with field points. My favorite is a Wac'Em Exit, a 4 blade replacable blade head. Every deer I've shot with one (haven't kept count, but I'm guessing 6-8 deer) has gone down very quickly.
Last year I kept reading all the favorable feedback on the Swhackers. I bought a pack of 100gr 2"cut heads to try. No problem with accuracy, so I decided to shoot a doe and check performance. She went about 40 yards (about the same average recovery as I've had with the Wac'Ems). The cut was good, but didn't really look to me like it was any better than I had been getting with the 4 blade Wac'Em.

I guess to quickly summarize it I would say if you are going to use a mechanical the Swhacker is as good as anything out there, but I still have a more secure feeling when I shoot a fixed blade. I just ordered a pack of new Wac'Em Exits this morning to hunt with this year. I'll keep the remaining Swhackers for a backup, but I just prefer the reliability of a fixed blade.

A very nice look'en Bh Wabi- Where do you get yours from? Thanks for the info

[Looper21]

I tried Swacker for the first time last year I dropped a decent 10 point less than 40 yards from where I shot him . I have used Muzzy for 30 years and this was my first Crossbow kill and my first time hunting with a mechanical head. The only downfall is it didn't leave a nice entry hole that I could see from my stand and very little cut deer hair, It did do what it was supposed opening whan it should have and absolutely decimated the lungs and internal organs before exiting. I'm sold

[Lake shooter]

I found this a very interesting read.

http://www.swhacker.com/horse-pucky

[Lake shooter]

Something else about Swhackers: mine have a lot of oil on the blades/inside the slot. I can smell it deer can darn sure smell it! I just got through spraying mine inside and out with a degreaser spam spray, then worked the blades in and out a few times to make sure all areas were dergreased and then put them in a cup of really hot water to lift everything. They are clean and odor free now.

[Fishous]

I decided to try Swhackers this year. I'm not impressed with what occurred.

2 Shots here:

First Shot, after a missed shot at a critter, I found that they have a design flaw. The wing blades contact the arrow shaft when deployed, destroying the shaft. This particular broadhead did hit a few sticks, but was found laying on the ground surface, but not in it.



Second Shot, I still wanted to see what they would do on a deer, since I figured maybe that first one just took a hard hit on a stick or root. Several days later I shot a deer. The shot was slightly more than quartering away, 25 yards. The shot should have come out on the opposite side shoulder area. (not optimum angle, but it was a quick shot)

Instead, the shot entered the last couple of ribs (in front of the diaphragm) and came out the front of the shoulder, on the same side. Same damage to the shaft. You can see where the carbon was damaged and then a sliver 1/16" wide by 3" long was peeled away. You can see this same sliver starting in the first image from the critter shot.
It's not the turning I dislike, it's the damage to the shaft.



I believe the front deploying blades grabbed on the ribs and make the bolt basically take a left turn, resulting in a one lung shot. Deer went about 300 yards.

[Peacemaker]

Wow. The pictures are disconcerting, to say the least.

But.....this can't be a common occurrence with Swhackers, can it? Could these have been somehow defective (though they don't look it).

Swhackers have been around a long time....and are highly regarded by many (and disliked by many, to be fair).....if they destroyed an arrow shaft every time the blades deployed....that would/should be common knowledge, right????

I have an unopened pack o' Swacks....I am now wondering if they should stay that way.....

[Cherokeeson]

Saw this and went home and inspected the ones I have on some BEA's. Them shrink bands kinda tough to break was first thing I noticed. When the blades were open though the "wing blades" did not touch the BEA's shafts or brass inserts. Had to hold them up to some light but they were resting/touching the ferrules of the Swhackers. Not sure if the BEA shafts are smaller or ferrules are larger than the ones in your pictures though but something that I am going to have to digest awhile before I go into the field with them now.

[Lake shooter]

What brand/type of shaft were these?

I just looked at my 125 gr Swhackers on the Diablo shafts. It looks like they do in fact touch the shaft. Thanks for pointing this out!

I'm curious if the German blades and Chinese blades have the exact same dimensions? All it would take is for the swivel hole in the shafts to be 1mm too far inboard (with blade open) and the bottom edges of the wing blades will indeed touch the shafts, even while I can see light between the wing blade and ferrule.

I'm going to send a link to this thread to Swhacker and see what if anything they have to say about this.

[Lake shooter]

Message sent to Swhacker, but I'm also calling them tomorrow to ask about this BEFORE shooting these puppies at a deer!

[Fishous]

What brand/type of shaft were these?

Diablo shafts.

But.....this can't be a common occurrence with Swhackers, can it?

It's not a problem for most bow guys, as they shoot a smaller diameter arrow, so it doesn't hit. I have seen a few other instances of this when doing some searching on the net.

I contacted Swhacker but I haven't heard anything back.

[Cat power]

I was 7 for 7 on deer using slick tricks out of my Ibex bow and decided to try Swackers because of all the positive things said about them on this site. Although they do fly straight and have repeatable accuracy I wasn't impressed with the penetration and lost a nice buck in Ohio last year because of it. Partly my fault for a non-vital shot, but I did some testing into a target when I got back and the ST head had at least 2 more inches of penetration than the Swacker did. I have since went back to what I know works and what Dan Miller recommended.

My chrono speed is right at 275 FPS and I use Dan Miller arrow setup with brass inserts (sorry I don't have an overall weight of arrow, no scale), but they are heavy

Bottom line on the Swacker's IMO, you need speed to get the results you want. It would be interesting to see what bows and what speeds people that like Swackers are using. I would guess it's 200lb bows and higher

[Lake shooter]

There seems to be a lot of "Voo Doo" with BH's. Lots of folks love Rage but, I had two early blade deployments in two shots at game, and I was ANAL about checking that the blades were seated right at least every ten minutes!

Maybe 6-8 seasons back I was using G5 Montecs. Double lunged three does with those, all pass throughs and found all deer, but there was almost no blood with any one! With the first I found a few drops every 15-20', then nothing. Finally found her in a thicket about 35 yards from the shot, but it took me at least 45 minutes of hard searching and self doubt. Second one I never found a single stinking drop of blood, but she was piled up maybe 60 yards from the shot. Third one also left nary a drop, but I watched her fall over not 25 yards away!

I guess my point is that I'm still searching for that magic head that always gets a pass through (given a clean shot in the boiler room) and always leaves a good blood trail, let alone ANY blood trail! I bought the Swhackers after much research and soul searching as I'm not a committed mechanical type of guy, but now it seems that the old Voo Doo strikes again! Shooting mechanicals doesn't guarantee a pass through no matter how bad the tissue damage........ IF they even deploy correctly, and shooting COC heads doesn't guarantee a blood trail even with a pass through. Add possible damage to expensive shafts with the new alternative and things really start getting iffy......

[Cherokeeson]

Found another post on another forum that was quite lengthy about this issue with Swhacker's. On post stated that they were introducing a "Crossbow Swhacker" so I went over to their site and found this in part: http://www.swhacker.com/faqs Can I use Swhacker Broadheads with my crossbow? "NEW FOR FALL 2013! We have a crossbow-specific Swhacker Broadhead just for crossbow hunters. Check it out on our website or a Swhacker retailer."

And a video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8wdI2Eg4go

And here it is: http://www.swhacker.com/product/swhacker-crossbow-100-grain-175-inch.

100 Grain 1.75 inch cut.

Out side of the color I cannot see the difference from the original myself:

[nchunterkw]

Looks like they are trying to address the lack of penetration issue by recommending a "light" 100 gr head with a smaller cut. Keeping in line with the light fast arrow group. IMO if I would make a "crossbow" Swhacker, it would be heavier like 150 or 175gr and I would recommend a total arrow wt. around 500gr.