5 shot

Rocket Miniblaster
Accuracy 5 points
Plywood 4 point
Steel drum 3 point
Orange 3 points
Blades 3 points
Cutting diameter 4 points
Total score 22 with a blade sharpness rating of C

The Rocket miniblaster is a 3blade swing open style mechanical broadhead. The cutting diameter is 1 ¾” and the total weight of the head is 75 grains. With a pathfinder point the head now becomes a 90grains. The performance difference with and without the pathfinder point is small, but I did find I prefer to use the head with the larger pathfinder tip. The larger tip gets through hard material like bone with less effort and less stress on the blades. The downside is that the larger tip will probably delay opening of the blades to some degree in what matters most, deer hair and hide. I tested the head both ways and the results changed only slightly and not enough to affect the “score”.
In the orange test the head opened fully by the time it exited. In the plywood with the pathfinder tip the head penetrated completely and with several inches of arrow shaft. Without the pathfinder tip the head still fully penetrated, but only by the slightest margin. I really had to look close to see if everything really made it through. In both cases two of three blades were badly bent/twisted and or broken off. To put it simply they were a mess. In the steel drum the head fully penetrated the first side with the tip sticking in the back. This time most of the cutting surface of a three blades was missing. Just as with the sidewinders the entrance hole showed that the head did not open full before the blades broke. I have mixed feelings on this. With the heads bending and breaking in hard materials they allow for more penetration. This would be handy in the case of heavy bone. On the other hand with every blade that breaks or twists the head looses cutting surface that reduces the amount of tissue damage it does. About the only kind of bone in a deer that could cause this kind of resistance would be the shoulder or hip. The bottom line, just as with the Rocket sidewinder/Cableas lazer Strike, I would have no problems at all in using this broadhead for deer size game with my setups. It would seem that Rocket has improved their broadheads over the last couple of years, at least the mechanical ones, and the miniblaster with or without the pathfinder point is a very good mechanical head.
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xibowhunter

i have a question 5 shot , i was gonna switch to miniblasters from thunderheads, i shoot an mt sport 55 lbs 27 in arrow 2114 only on deer , should i make the switch or stick with the thunderheads??

AK

Between seven and eight years ago I used various (3, 4 bld) Miniblasters on 3 whitetails. The heads fell apart in every case...tips torn from ferrules, ferrules bent to 30+ degrees, blades bent or missing, etc.. In one case, the head only penetrated 4" into the chest of a buck on a simple broadside shot. Since bent ferrules impede penetration and bent/missing blades don' t cut, I felt fortunate to find the deer and quit using them after that.

Since I had also had occassional head failures even with popular modular fixed blade heads, I decided to try a more conservative one-piece/ cut-on-contact head. After I sent the first one through both shoulder blades of a buck and found the head sustained no damage, I decided to stick with that style. Eight or nine deer later, and with 275 fps compounds and 150 fps selfbows, I haven' t had a head failure or anomalously shallow penetration issue yet.

Speedmaster

I can' t complain about the mini-blasters! When they first came out I used them! I shot a three pointer @ 30 yards and spined it. The shot was dead center in the thick of the spine & it passed through the spine. That is the head passed through before it stopped. One blade bent, one broke off into the spine, & the third blade was straight. I got five deer with them & never had a problem with them. I was amazed how well it held up in the spine. I now shoot Muzzy' s now, just like them much better. Just saying I never had a problem when I used them.

5 shot

Xi I don' t know the exact Ke for your setup but I would think you would have to be on the border for using most mechanical heads and the Miniblaster would not be one I would recomend. If your thunderheads are shooting well for you I don' t see a reason to switch.
I think rocket has improved their heads over the last few years. They still are not the most durable on the market, but seem to have got better over time. While this is not my first choice in a mechanical, I would feel comfortable using it on deer size game with my setup.

xibowhunter

i guess i' ll stick with the thunder heads, thanks 5 shot

nub

This head had blades that totally broke off, partially broke, and bent to different degrees of severity. And it still scores a 22? I think you need to find a different way to score heads. How many times are some of these heads shot? I realize the most important shot is the first, but is a low number of test shots really an indicator of how good they are? Is each head only shot once? Are the same number of heads of each type shot? Is there any mechanical that opens fully on both sides of the orange? Didn' t there used to be a steel belted tire in these tests? I don' t shoot mecanicals so I' m not trying to protect this particular head over another. Guess I' m just curious why so many heads score between 20 and 25. A difference of 5 don' t seem like a whole lot to me.

c903

I am sure, by now, that it is no secret that I consider it to be inappropriate to use plywood, steel, tires, fruit, etc, as a medium to determine penetration capability and durability of broadheads.

Broadheads are designed to primarily penetrate wet and lubricous tissue and certain bone that is living and somewhat hollow. Most bone will often break or fracture when impacted by a broadhead; plywood, tires, and steel do not.

Although I have no personal disapproval of " 5 shot," and although I believe he is trying to be earnest when evaluating and comparing the performance and durability of broadheads, in my opinion the tests might be entertaining but that is all they (tests) are. I personally would not choose or reject a broadhead using such tests or scoring.

OlMossyHorns

THanks 5shot, I used the miniblasters for one year and harvested a buck with them. I just didn' t get the kind of penetration I would like so I switched to the smaller diameter steelhead.

AK

C903, It' s tough to formulate a " home test" to evaluate broadheads. None of the media used actually provides likeness to game animals. Take 1/4" plywood for example. It would " seem" like plywood would represent a shoulder blade, and that good penetration through plywood would be an indicator as to how a broadhead would penetrate in an actual whitetail. However, nothing passes through plywood better than an ordinary steel blunt. Though a blunt would undoubtly score high, I sure would not want to use it for whitetails. Other scores such as those for sharpness, mean little me as I file sharpen my own fixed heads to a razor' s edge.

BUT, I think the tests do have " some" value beyond simple entertainment if you interpret the data under different terms. Penetration qualities can pretty much be inferred from broadhead design. (ie; long, narrow, 2-blds penetrate best; while short, wide, multi-blades will penetrate progressively more poorly.) So primarily, I look for durability issues. Do blades break, ferrules bend, tips curl, or does the head otherwise fall apart? " Scores" be damned, for instance, the fact that these particular heads fell apart in various media says alot about their durability to me. (My own experiences with them supports that.)

Anyway, 5-shot, I enjoy your evaluations.