Rocket Steelhead....WOW!!!
 

I did a little Broadhead testing today between Rocket Steelhead 125 gr and Phantom 4-blade 125gr.

I was impressed that everytime I shot the Rocket it out-penetrated the " cut on contact" Phantom by 2.5 inches??? This was into a new layered styrfoam target. I tried from 20, 30 and 50 yards and everytime the Steelhead won.

I know the one extra blade would hinder pentration somewhat but still thought the Phantom would fair better. To the Phantom' s credit it has a larger profile that the Steelhead. I also think that the vented blades catch alot of foam going through.

Would the test results vary if a different target material was used...??


The only reason I ever decided not to use the Steelhead is that for hunting Moose I wanted to be sure to have a good sized entry hole in case I didn' t get a pass through. I don' t think that the Steelhead would leave a good bloodtrail if any without a pass through.

I will still go with the Phantoms but I was still AMAZED at how well the Steelhead performed.

RE: Rocket Steelhead....WOW!!!
 

Steelhead pic

RE: Rocket Steelhead....WOW!!!
 

Corey,
What is your rational for believing that given the same shot and neither head passing thru that the Phantom would give you a blood trail and the Steelhead would not?
On game animals the Steelhead will leave a full width cut upon entrance so I am not following your logic? If both heads hit the same place,penetrate to the same place and cut the same tissue on the way in blood trails should and would be basically equal provided both heads were sharpened to the same quality.


That said, do shoot whatever you have 100% confidence in, because when staring down the barrel of a bull Moose I think you' ll agree that your broadhead is the last thing you want to be thinking about![:o]:D

RE: Rocket Steelhead....WOW!!!
 

I took two deer last year with the Rocket Wolverine - very similar to the steelhead and had very good entrance wounds. No better or worse than Muzzy or thunderhead entry holes I have had.

RE: Rocket Steelhead....WOW!!!
 

Would the results be different in a different material? Probably not.The Steelheads are one of the best penetrating heads on the market.PERIOD.The fact that they are a mechanical is irrelevant. If you are worrying about the foam getting in the blades,why wouldn' t flesh or other things get in the blades from a live animal? Maybe not as much as the foam but when the arrow is spinning and enters the animal,you would almost certainly have something find it' s way inside of the blades.



I may be concerned about a mechanical when not getting a full passthru.If the head is in the animal.The head that is cutting will do more damage.A fixed head will do more damage in this scenario.A mechanical will do a lot of flopping around.It would still be lethal but MAYBE not as quick.


Use the one that you are most comfortable with.They will both do the job.

RE: Rocket Steelhead....WOW!!!
 

Matt,


I haven' t had first hand experience with a jack-knife style mech like the Steelhead( on live game) but I was under the impression that they FULLY open after about a inch or so.. I guess I must be mistaken but on my foam target the hole going in is VERY small(the blades are still closed). I have NO doubt that on a deer I would achive a pass through but doubt they would get through a Moose.

If there was a guarantee that all 3 blades would be fully open on impact I would use the Steelhead on Moose. With a fixed blade you are guaranteed to have a full width cut right.

Can anyone posts pics of Steelhead entry wounds???

RE: Rocket Steelhead....WOW!!!
 

Ahhh... Corey here' s why these forums are such a good thing. You learn something new everyday!:D

There is a reason why the blades do not open fully on the face of a foam target ,yet they will everytime on a live animal and that has to do with the design itself.
Swing open mechanical heads such as the Rockets require a rearward leveraging force to snap the blades open......to acheive this and to get the blade tips around the outermost radius of the blade arc ,the material shot into needs to be of a flexible nature or have some give.....such as you find in an animals hide with hair and then flexible skin.
When you shoot into a hard foam target the blade tips simply bite and penetrate the face without opening because there is not enough intitial give in the target material to allow the blades to freely swing to the open position. There might be enough friction within the foam taregt itself to get them to force open by the time the reach the backside, but they just won' t open on a flat foam surface.

You want to see this illustrated?......take a deer hide(would be the perfect material), or a sweatshirt or something like that and hang it over your foam target. Now shoot it and you' ll see what I mean.

The exception I have found to this rule is with the NAP Spitfire.......while the basic design is the same as a Rocket head, the nature of the very stiff blade retention clips can and will cause some bullet hole style entrance wounds.

RE: Rocket Steelhead....WOW!!!
 

Thanks for the tip Matt....I will try what you said today and post the results.

RE: Rocket Steelhead....WOW!!!
 

Tried using 6 layers of carpet to simulate deer hide....same result blades DIDN' T open until 1 inch into carpet.[:o]


Next tried 6 layers of foam underlay(nice soft stuff) still same result blades didn' t fully open until 1 inch into the underlay(about 4 layers).[:o]

Any other things to simulate animal hide???

I am using Rocket rubber bands but I think they are for the Miniblaster, would this matter???

RE: Rocket Steelhead....WOW!!!
 

Im with Rack-attack, I shot three deer and two hogs last year with the Wolverine and all but one hog droped within sight of my stand.

RE: Rocket Steelhead....WOW!!!
 

Corey,
I did the same tonight shot some Miniblasters w/ Pathfinder tips into sweatshirts and carpet chunks.........boy its tough finding a material that acts like fluffy hollow deer hair and flexible hide! I thought about the sweatshirt and carpet and figured they should work, but they didn' t on my end either.

I think the key is the fluffy hair and the live flexible skin underneath........real deer hide is tough stuff and those blade tips just aren' t going to bore thru like they are for us on carpet and shirts. I think on an animal the layer of hair gets the blades started and that tough flexible skin and muscle snaps them the rest of the way open. The skin stretches out and around as the blade tips swing, and as soon as the edge passes the outermost (widest) part of the swing the snap open and cut.
I have personally killed over 20 deer with Rocket broadheads and have seen close to that many more shot by friends and they all have had nice full width (actually BIGGER than full width on some) entrance wounds.

I know for a fact that this is the reason the heads aren' t opening quickly on the materials we are trying........these materials aren' t 1. tough enough, and 2. flexible as well as tough.3. They don' t have that thick starting hair layer
Also I think if we are putting these materials tight against the foam target, it makes the effect even worse........the blade tips go straight thru the carpet etc. and just jam into the foam as if there was nothing even in front.
Foam doesn' t act like muscle would.

Oh by the way........if you are shooting these heads repeatedly into these targets you have to check the blades and clean the blade grooves of junk. If when you roll the rubber band down the shaft by hand the blades don' t just fall backwards on their own power , or they stick at all then the head is not functioning properly. Those blades should swing freely.
(The rubber band doesn' t matter either , they are all the same.)


Without a deer hide (and probably a fresh one at that, or at least tanned) its going to be tough to accurately simulate a real animal..........maybe an old piece of leather would be enough? It is an animal hide? I just wonder if there would be enough flexibility left to simulate a live animal. But then again there' s no hair either and that' s probably almost as important as the hide.

I think you understand my point..........we just need the right medium to show it.

RE: Rocket Steelhead....WOW!!!
 

Why take the chance? Your not hunting carpet remnants, sweatshirts, or a deer for that matter, your hunting Moose. Stick to the cut-to-tip or another good fixed blade. Its sounds like your trying to talk yourself into shooting something you have doubts about.

RE: Rocket Steelhead....WOW!!!
 

Matt,

I see your point and trust that you were getting full cut entrance wounds maybe I will email Rocket and ask their opinion.

Maybe I will take my wife' s fur coat to the range and simulate deer hide with it?...[:o][:o][:o]

RE: Rocket Steelhead....WOW!!!
 

I agree with Nub on this one, I`ve heard too many horror stories from moose hunters about mechanicals. A good cut on contact or 3 blade Muzzy or my favourite 125 Thunderhead will hold up to moose and with a well placed shot put them down fast.

RE: Rocket Steelhead....WOW!!!
 

The Steelhead 125' s are the only mechanical head I would even consider for game larger than deer. They do penetrate very well and the blades open fast. The phantoms didn' t penetrate as well becuase of the bleeders. Take the bleeders out and the results will be closer, of course without the bleeders you loose a good deal of cutting surface. Without going into all the reasons why, I would choose the Phantoms for my personal setup, and would probably shoot them without the bleeders. In large aniamals like moose penetration is everything.

RE: Rocket Steelhead....WOW!!!
 

I think I will stick with the Phantoms. Not sure if I will leave bleeders in or not yet, I would hate to give up the extra cutting suface.

RE: Rocket Steelhead....WOW!!!
 

I' ve shot at least a dozen deer with Rocket Steelheads. Every one of them had a full-sized entrance wound. You have nothing to worry about with the Steelheads as far as entrance wounds go.

RE: Rocket Steelhead....WOW!!!
 

I used to shoot Rocket steelhaeds. Now I shoot Muzzy' s. Opinions on the topics are like @#$%^&*' s, everybody has one. Consider the fact that many outfitters for big game do not allow mechanicals after years of bad results. I took steelheads and muzzys to Mexico last year to" test" both heads. After shooting 30+ pigs, I can say that I will never use mechanicals again. If you hit them in the perfect spot, even field points will kill them. If the shot isn' t ideal, pray that you don' t shoot mechanicals. Just my two cents.

RE: Rocket Steelhead....WOW!!!
 

I honestly cannot remember if I had full-cut entrance wounds when I was shooting the Steelheads. I remember the exit wound and the 8 inches of dirt on the other side but not the entrance wound...:D

Seriously though, I think it is going to depend on your individual setup. Having plenty of KE and momentum would make several expandable heads practical for moose or elk in my opinion.....assuming a well tuned bow and proper shot placement.

RE: Rocket Steelhead....WOW!!!
 

I have been thinking about going with Steelheads this year, but I can quite get past the " Jack Knife" effect that can take place at angled shots. Even in Rockets own literature they warn against taking an angled shot. Now in a hunting situation we definately dont get to pick and choose. Would this move Rocky Mtn. Snypers up a notch since they seem to have that problem licked?

RE: Rocket Steelhead....WOW!!!
 

Rocket warns against " exreme angled shots" for the larger longer bladed aeroheads. The steelheads blades are pretty short and should not cause a problem.

IMO extreme angled shots should be avoided regardless of bh type.

RE: Rocket Steelhead....WOW!!!
 

anybody have any experience with an angled shot with the steelhead?

10 years later and they are still great heads along with sidewinders