Great info Rick, keep them coming.

Great info Rick, keep them coming.

1984 Tiger Paw cast steel broadhead.

 

1984 Tiger Paw small game, the result of failed broadhead. Not mine, maybe some day I will get one.

So, the small game head was produced after the full size Broadhead proved to be what? Too weak?

QuoteOriginally posted by TRAP:
So, the small game head was produced after the full size Broadhead proved to be what? Too weak?

I could not find any written facts, but I was told, hearsay, that the manufacturing process was not always perfect, so the main blades were cut down to make the small game head. Wade....help!

Ply-Flex aluminum and beryllium copper broadheads made in the 1950s.

QuoteOriginally posted by bowhunterfrompast:
           

QuoteOriginally posted by TRAP:
So, the small game head was produced after the full size Broadhead proved to be what? Too weak?

I could not find any written facts, but I was told, hearsay, that the manufacturing process was not always perfect, so the main blades were cut down to make the small game head. Wade....help! [/b]

Trap & Rick -

Originally, the small game Tigerpaw was actually the scrapped rejects from producing the broadhead.

When a broadhead was not true, the blade was cut off at the angle or corner where the blade and sloped shoulder met.

Actually the 1984 Tigerpaw was a remake of the SR-100 Magnum that was introduced in 1960... I spoke with the Tigerpaw manufacturer when he was still experimenting before he settled on a production design. He said that he never heard of the 1960 SR-100 Magnum and was surprised that in 1960 someone had invented the design that he thought he invented in 1984.

When I tried to explain the 1960 design was a financial failure, he was still convinced that his cast version was much stronger and would be a financial success.

 

I have talked with dozens of makers of broadheads over the past 50 years or so. Guess with only one single exception, I have never met a designer of a broadhead who thought that he had not created the best broadhead design ever.

The Tigerpaw was a failure for many reasons, not the least of which is that the head is simply too large for the common bow weights and arrow weights.

Another one of my favorite collectible but poor designs from the 1950s that took more bowhunters than big game, is the Blood Trail by WR Books...

   

The tip formed a rectangle "cookie cutter" opening that was intended to cut and remove a piece of rectangular flesh from the wound, creating a wound channel that was impossible to heal over...  

This is another prime example of an individual knowing far more about engineering and manufacturing than bowhunting and killing big game with a bow and arrow.

Some of the manufacturers who made these less than great functioning broadheads, had some pretty fair initial sales because of their advertising and packaging...

e.g. this now very uncommon and highly collectible SR-100 Magnum box which contained three broadheads....

Very cool. I love the quote, "took more hunters than game".

Kinda sums it up.

Trap: Sorry for late response to the 2/8/17 or so discussions. No offense taken. BTW: Jolene and Frida both do have your feather rests which are doing fine. Any other statements from me reflect only my confusion on the matter.

Let me start by saying, "no apples were harmed during this photo session.  They were all perfectly edible after the shoot"

 

Browning Serpentine, Early 1970s

Wonder how many hunters were "taken" with this broadhead? Trying to sharpen it would make me dizzy.

Trap -

Yes, the Browning Serpentine... it is yet another example of a later generation of an earlier idea...

   

The 1957 Cal Ex-Calibre .50 was designed to cut two 50 calibre holes into the wound channel making it impossible for the wound to heal.

The following year, 1958, the Ex-Calibre .45 was introduced and became a better seller than the Ex-Calibre .50.

However, none of the 1950s to 1970s spiral blade heads are effective at penetration, which I have personally confirmed from extensive testing on numerous big game carcasses.

I have a dozen Browning MicroFlite's in the original box, half of them with Browning Serpentine heads on them. I cant decide whether to try one on turkey, where a pass through isn't your best result unless it lops the head off, or just take them off and send them to the recycling center.

I would opt to recycle them over shooting them at a wild turkey.

1958 Ex-Calibre .45