Damn fine buck Congrats!!! Any deer witha CB is a trophy and a nice buck is even better.

U da man! Excellent!!!

Thanks for the report. How did the Thunderhead look afterwards?

Last day...gotta love it!! Congrats!!!
Wyvern

Thunderhead pretty much looked like I just got it out of the package... I have to wonder if these broadheads "float" or "plane" a little bit. I was having issues earlier this fall with not very good groups out of the Exocet. I got it to the point where I felt confident I could make a humane shot at 30 yards or less. I put the dot just behind the front shoulder and ended up catching the last rib and the liver. Besides a straight down spine shot from a treestand, this deer died fast as could be, but it wasn't a double-lunger. Now that season is over, I'm going to spend some time with different combinations, etc. I must be cheap because a while back I bought about 10 packs of Thunderhead 100 replacement blades for about 25c each (spring closeout of a sporting good dept) I thought if I could keep from losing the original 6 heads, I could just replace blades for the next 10 years or so! I didget the broadheads that came with the package, I could try those I guess. I've also heard a lot of good things about Slick Tricks.

I think the exact same thing...

I've used 85gr thunderheads for years with my vertical bow setup and love them andthought I'd be just as happy with the heavier(and unfortunately, bigger) version, but my findings have been pretty much the exact same thing your experincing in that I often get very irratic flyers(and even groups) without any real cause for it which I've pretty much narrowed down to the broadheads...
I shoot 125gr thunderheads in my phoenix andalthough I havent messed with them too in-depth yet I have messed with them enough to form an opinion, and IMO the bigger, wider 100gr/125gr thunderheadstend to plane fairly easy, and often, with the shorter crossbow arrows(wether or not they do it as bad with a longer vertical bow arrow Idont know, I wouldnt think they would)...
they seems to perform boarderline exceptable under perfect conditions but throw a slight wind at them(or anything outside "perfect")and you might as well forget it...

I was actually shooting them today out in the windy snowstorm we had(I had to test out my DNK string ) and couldnt getthem to hit on target consistantly to save my life, where as the field points grouped pretty much like they always do...



I actually missed a nice buck somewhat like yours this last fall(I had my son with me, his first bowhunt), I did hit himand took alot of hair off him but there was no blood and unfortunately, no deer either...we weresitting on the ground and I hadthe crossbow braced on my kneesso the shot, which was around 20 yards,was well placed and good,it was just bad arrow flightand alot of disbelief that it happened and that I didnt get him...

that eventpretty much wrote them off for me...I havent given up on them entirely yet though, I actually like the thunderheads and when the weather gets warmer I'm going to sit down and do some veryin-depthbench testing before I write them off completely, although with what I've dealt with them so far, I dont have much hope I'll see any difference in performance, or thatI'll stick with them...


I think my next try is going to be some spitfires,there seems to be alot of good things being said about themin crossbow arrows, and if I dont like them I'll just have to try something else...

I have all summer...








nice buck by the way...

In my experience I've found that Thunderheads like speeds well under 300 ft/sec. The addded guidance of a longer shaft with fletching way behind to give the ability to steer more leverage makes them work better in a vert bow. Try Slick Tricks, G5 Strikers, G5 Montecs and the 4 bladed Magnus Stingers. The Stingers and Strikers work well if you want to push the arrow faster.
Awshucks and I were talking the other day and we both agree that slowing down the arrow below 300 ft/sec is the ticket to better accuracy and forgiveness.