mauser06

i know 5shot does broadhead testing.....for all you that do or have...anyone do a gelatine test? like balistic gelatin....jello even? i think it would be neat to see how well an arrow actually penetrates with setups and heads and all that good stuff....anyone do it before? i know it might get costly being you only get one shot out of alot of jello..anyone have any other ideas for somehting like that? someone said on 5shots llast test that broadheads are made to shoot soft wet tissues not metal and boards....i agree.....if i can find a cheaper way then spending about 10 bucks a shot for a jello cube i may do some testing if i ever get a bow.....anyone ever do anything like that? anyone have a cheaper way?? you could measure and see damage and penetration...i think it would be neat.....

Arthur P

I' d thought of it, but to do a penetration test with ballistic gelatin you' d have to have an awful lot of it.

It' s no big deal to figure out the wound channel for a fixed blade head. Cutting diameter and number of blades by depth of penetration.

Mechanicals now... Those critters are something different. It would be nice to drape a green hide over a block of gelatin and shoot mechanicals into it, just to see how far it actually takes the blades to open to their maximum cutting diameter. That' s about the only practical use I can really come up with for gelatin.

I saw a penetration/expansion/retained bullet weight test in a gun magazine once, where this fella built an open ended trough and filled it with gallon sized freezer bags filled with water. He shot into the bags from the end of the trough and measured from that end to where the bullet stopped. Don' t see why you couldn' t do the same thing for arrow penetration. And, since animal flesh is mostly water, it would be pretty close to the real thing.

I really like 5 shot' s tests. Especially the destructive parts.

98Redline

I don' t think balistic gelatin would be a good indicator of broadhead effectiveness. The reason they use it for bullets is that it will show the wound cavity that is created due to the hydraulic shock wave of the bullet. Broadheads kill by massive hemoraging. As Arthur stated, it is not difficult to determine what the wound channel size would be for a broadhead (just look at the cutting diameter). I think it would also be quite uninteresting (hole for the shaft + 3 slices for the blades)
As far as the opening is concerned, you can use an orange or grapefruit as a pretty good indicator as to opening speed. With 5shot' s tests most of the mechs were fully open by the time they exited the orange. If you wanted to see how little material it takes, cut it in half before shooting it.