- It did not take long after
Emerson wrote, “Build a
better mouse trap and the world
will beat a path to your door." to realize a valuable lesson.. You cannot substitute the word “different” for “better”
in that phrase and have its age-old wisdom hold true. Far too many
people have wasted their time and money on different ways of doing the
same thing only find that another proverbial statement stills holds
true today. “If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it!”
- So it goes with many new concepts
in the outdoor world. Year after year, we see many different items
come to market only to see them disappear by the next fall catalog.
The reason, the item either did not producer the expected results or
did not do the promised feature any better than the tried and true (
and usually cheaper) method already in place. How many times have I
gleefully spent money on something that looked so beneficial in
concept only to realized when put into use it just was not practical
or did not deliver the promised benefit to the degree I hoped for. After many
years of experimenting with ways to waste my hard-earned cash, I have
developed a healthy cynicism towards the new an untested.
- It was no different when I first
received an e-mail flyer from New Archery Products. The product was a
new vane for archer to use on their shafts that would introduce a spin
far exceeding what normal vanes and feathers would produce. Like all
new and great products, the concept seemed on the surface to make
sense. Rifles have rifling and nobody disputes the benefit to the
shooter by having a rifled bore. Therefore, I thought, “of course this
makes sense”. However, that little skeptic within me jumped forth and
said, “Yeah it sounds reasonable but then who promotes their products
to sound unreasonable”
- Normally the skeptic within me has
developed enough that I would not have rushed forward to spend my cash
quite so quickly. What a mistake that would have been. Not only has the new QuikSpin vane proven its worth
to my archery shooting, but it has also restored a bit of my faith in
good old-fashioned entrepreneurial ingenuity. New Archery Products has
now soared to the top of my list of companies that reside under the
column heading “if they make it, then it must be good”. I can tell you
not many companies get that rating from me. As you will see with the
results of my informal testing the vanes not only lived up to its
billing but far exceeded what I expected to receive.
- My first shock about the QuikSpin
vanes was the price. $19.99 for 36 vanes, I thought these must be
great vanes for me to spend $19.99 or I must be an idiot. Why else
would I spend 62 cents a vane for something I could get for a penny or
two? Nonetheless, the purchase was made.
- Before I attached the vanes, I
visually inspected the product to get a sense of why the might be
worth such a high price tag. I was impressed by how different they
were in appearance. Superficially, they resemble any other vane you
might purchase. However, on close examination I noticed several
features that quickly made me aware of why these were more expensive
than your normal Bohning vanes. First was the plastic itself. The
QuikSpin was much more durable than normal vanes. These thicker vanes
held promise that the vanes would be able to stand up under the forces
that air can exert on a flexible piece of plastic. It is not uncommon
for normal vanes to “lay down” to some degree in mid flight. The far
more durable and slightly stiffer plastic on the QuikSpin vanes
promised my arrows rear guidance system would perform true to it
billing without the vanes folding over or fluttering as they fly
downrange. Next, I noticed that there was on one side, inlaid grooves
to help reduce the air friction that can accumulate on a flat surface.
The effect accomplished essentially the same thing that dimples on a
golf ball do. The hollowed pockets allows for tiny eddies of lower
wind resistance hence allowing a reduction in air drag. With air drag
reduced on one side only this will create a lower pressure on the side
of the vanes and cause the high pressure side to move the vane toward
the lower pressure edge. This is one reason the vanes rotate so
nicely.
- The third thing I noticed was what
New Archery Products refers to as a kicker tab. This little curled tab
on the back edge of the vanes allows a jumps start contact to the air
stream to quickly get the arrow spinning. This kicker tab is on the
opposite side of the grooves. What a genius this combination is. The
grooves lowering pressure which helps the other side of the vanes push
with higher pressure then add in the little extra oomph, the kicker
tabs gives and you have an arrow that can spin 300% faster than other
vanes on the market. In short NAP uses the Bernoulli principle to
create a rotating wing.
- Multiple phone conversations with
Cary Pickands at New Archery Products proved enlightening on why this
new designed was going to change how well we shoot our bows. According
to research by New Archery Products one turn within three yards is
required to eliminate the potential planning effect that a broadhead
can have on the flight of an arrow. Testing shows that if you used a
feather fletch with a severe helical twist you still only got one
twist in perhaps four to seven yards. Vanes would be worse yet.
Therefore, you can see why even a fine tuned broadhead can still have
some planeing effect and result in, to some degree, a fall off in
accuracy and/or point of impact. The QuikSpin vanes introduce a rate
of twist that even when used in a straight fletch pattern would be
enough to overcome any planeing from the front end of your shaft. Used
in a offset or helical array with these new vanes and more than enough
spin is available to assure your accuracy.
- Of course, it all sounded
impressive and we could not wait to see if it worked out as planned.
- First we started by taking and
tuning three matched arrows to fly as well as we could make them. All
shafts were spun for straightness and tested to assure our broadhead
had no apparent front end wobble and tips all spun true. All arrows
were weighed to confirm uniformity.
- Next, we fletched the shafts with
Bohning 4” vanes in a 1/16 inch right hand offset.
- I shot several groups to assure
ourselves that I was not taking unfair results.
- The Bohning vanes shot straight and
true with field points. When we changed to Muzzy 100 Gr. broadheads
with practice blades, our group sizes on average opened up by a third
and point of impact was now a couple of inches to the right.
- The next step was to strip the old
style vanes from the shaft and put the new QuikSpin vanes on. We kept
the offset the same. The only change was in the vanes themselves. Our
first shot reduced the number of arrows we had to test with down to
two. This was a bittersweet surprise. I was impressed at the Robin
Hood I just pulled off and immediately impressed with the accuracy
introduced by the vanes, but realized this could cost me a small
fortune if I kept shooting at 20 yards. So a modification was made to
the testing of the QuikSpin vanes. We backed up to 31.5 yards. This
peculiar range was established for the simple reason that we were
fairly certain we would not keep blasting our arrows apart or shooting
holes through the vanes. Additionally this was now the range that we
started to get a group size that was previously equal to what we were
used to getting at 20 yards,
- The testing started again (with two
arrows this time). To sum it up, the point of impact and group sizes
were no different with our Muzzy Broadheads than they were with our
field points. What a relief to know we could screw on a broadhead
(properly tuned of course) and reasonably expect to shoot to the same
point of impact as our field points. To say we were impressed with
the effect such a small item could have on our accuracy and
consistency would be a gross understatement.
- The second part of our testing
process was to setup a chronograph and see if the accuracy cost us too
much in the way of velocity.
- The Bohning vanes were again put on
the shafts (authors note to himself: next time test speed before
stripping off the vanes the first time) and the downrange velocity was
compared to front end velocity. To sum up the tests; both vanes
produced 240 FPS at one yard from the bow. At 30 yards, the Bohning
was flying at 223 FPS a loss of 17FPS. The QuikSpin vanes at 30 yards
were 213 FPS a speed loss of 27 FPS. The new New Archery Products
vanes had lost 10 FPS more in 30 yards than the lighter traditional
vanes
- We then ran our figures through the
Easton ballistics program. We wanted to see just what this loss of
arrow speed represented to us by way of reduced kinetic energy. The
results are posted for your review directly from the programs window.
However to quickly summarize our finding we can say that while there
is a small reduction of energy it does not make any significant
difference. The Easton chart clearly indicated that even at 30 yards
both arrows retained enough energy to dispatch a big game animal.
- Kinetic energy Q.S.
-
- Kinetic Energy Regular vane
-
Click to enlarge
- Then we wanted to see if our F.O.C.
(Front of Center) was reduced enough to possibly hurt our accuracy by
losing our forward balance. The vanes are slightly heavier than
traditional vanes and feathers. Our Bohning vanes weighed 10.2 grains
while the QuikSpin vanes weighed in at 12.9. so three vanes would put
an extra 8.1 grains on the backend of our shaft. Therefore, if your
F.O.C. were already around 10% then perhaps a heavier broadhead would be
in order to keep your F.O.C. between 10% and 12 %.
- Truthfully, this test was not
needed because it was obvious by the accuracy we achieved in our
testing that whatever the F.O.C. was in was not hurting our accuracy.
Never the less we ran the results and found that both arrows stayed
within acceptable limits for hunting shafts. We may like to see a few
weighted spacers installed to get the F.O.C. back were it was, but then
again if our accuracy got any better we would be having to shoot from
35 yards not 31.5 yards. So really the F.O.C. became an academic issue
rather than a practical point of concern, the
results spoke for themselves.
- F.O.C for Regular vanes
- F.O.C for Q.S. vanes
- Click to enlarge
- In the beginning, we planned to
test the QuikSpin vanes with the new Spintite broadhead utilizing the
Aero-Foil technology they incorporated in
to the Talon Broadhead. This new
broadhead also reportedly introduces arrow rotation to help guide the
arrow from the front. My thinking was that the two methods of
introducing arrow shaft rotation might compliment each other. Neither
Spintite nor New Archery Products thought this would be a good idea.
In fact, on theorizing this issue it may be possible to severely
reduce penetration by too fast a rate of twist. The current twist has
no effect on penetration but if you were to rotate the arrow too fast
its blades would have to absorb that twist as they went from a low
drag environment like air to the high drag environment of flesh and
bone. Imagine a drill bit with extended wings that is spinning then hits serious density.
Both spin and penetration our reduced while the bit struggles to
overcome the new drag. Running this theory past the technical genius
over at New Archery Products (Cary Pickands) firmed up that my thinking
was on the right track. That is in fact why New Archery Products has
developed the Crossfire broadhead. The blades are a cartridge that
spins freely on the broadhead shaft. This way the arrow can continue
to penetrate and rotate without the blades trying to grab flesh as
they try to spin in the animal. Cary says that in his estimation the
Crossfire is the most technically superior broadhead available today.
We ordered a set of broadheads to try to prove or disprove this claim
but at the time of this writing, they are not in hand to test that
claim in the next article we hope to provide further testing using the
New NAP Crossfire broadheads. We can assure you, despite how sound the
product seems, if it does not hold up to our real life testing we will
alert you. . I will say this though. Based on the expert attention to
technology and detail in advancing this latest product I am willing to
say that New Archery Products seem to be that rare company that makes
you say, “If they made it then it must be good”
- One last comment, I was encouraged
enough by the QuikSpin vanes and the idea behind the Crossfire
Broadhead I plan to use it on this years bear hunt in Ontario. Check
back in the near future to se if it held up under the truest test for
any archery product. The hunt.
-
Click
for larger image
Typical damage you can expect as a
result of increased accuracy. The stiffness of the vanes allows the
arrows passing next to it to pierce the vane . Other fletching tends to
be softer and lay down if an arrow passes by it. For this reason, this
stiffness in the vanes may seem undesirable, however we find that the
rigid material is what keeps the vanes from laying down against the
shaft in flight. The QS vanes stay erect and grab air like no other
vanes we have tested. The stiffness couple with a single grooved side
(to reduce air drag) on the counter spin side and the kicker tab
on the rotation side all form an unbeatable combination for stable
flight.
Click
for larger image
Three shots from 31.5 yards. Two are
100 gr. field points and one is a 100 gr. Crossfire with 4, 2.5 gr.
spacers added to increase F.O.C. No obvious difference in point of
impact can be seen. The lower of the three arrows is tipped with the NAP
Crossfire. Perhaps the 10 extra grains on the crossfire shaft attributed
to the minutely lower placement within this perfectly acceptable group.
Sept 15th 2004 Post testing, Post bear
hunt.
As mentioned earlier after the
encouraging results with the new NAP vanes we wanted to see if matching
this shaft-vanes combination with the new NAP Crossfire broadhead would
prove a blessing or disappointment.
The Crossfire broadhead introduces a not
so new feature from NAP. The blades are designed to rotate on axis when
the arrow strikes it target. This was a feature offered far ahead of its
time originally on the Razorback 5 broadheads. While the current
razorback broadheads no longer offer the rotating blades a new
improved version is implemented on the Crossfire head. The
proposed benefit should result in the forward momentum oádÓdáàáá
åTå£&“Þ148.63.199.63@æ1.0.14æy by the arrow having to absorb some of its
energy in the form of momentum loss when it has to try to stop a
spinning broadhead. The crossfire allows the shaft to rotate independent
of the blade.
Another feature that was completely new
to us was the inclusion of a kicker tab on the base of each blade. This
kicker tab introduces the correct amount of rotating to match the spin
from the Quick Spin blades. These two rotations working together do not
fight for dominance but rather harmonize the arrow flight. It was a
worry that perhaps using the new Talon Broadheads would commit the shaft
to a different rate of twist and perhaps have negative effect on
accuracy.
You may be following this description and
wondering if the blades have a kicker tab NAP refers to as the "Spintab
Winglet" to produce a spin yet the blade also rotates on the shaft how
can the kicker tab
have any effect? Wouldn't it just spin freely on the broadhead shaft and
not act as a guidance system? This would be the case except for the fact
that NAP has the blade rotation set on a friction fit shaft that is just
tight enough not to spin in flight but once any extra density is
occurred the blade can rotate as needed. In our testing this proved true
and we congratulate NAP for finding the perfect balance here.
Additional features that add to
performance are the dimples on the AXIS surface. Like the
dimples on a gold ball these can aid in drag reduction to benefit
downrange performance. The tip is six sided Nickel plated and
designed to aid penetration.
Our
testing of the crossfire started at the archery range. Field points were
shot into our target to establish a reference for point of aim and
accuracy. Next we fired three crossfire's into the same target at the
same distance ( 30 Yards). Our conclusion was the broadheads shot
straight and true. No increase in group size was noted nor was there any
difference in point of impact.
After confirming the accuracy we then
packed up our hunting g gear and went north to Canada were HTH has its
own cabin and acreage set aside for the ultimate archery testing.
Ontario black bears.
The fourth bear to enter our bait site on
the first evening gave me the perfect quartering away opportunity that
we should look for when hunting with bow and arrow. The shaft entered
just behind the right shoulder blade and passed through the far left
forearm on its path. The shot resulted in a clean pass through that left
little room for tracking ability since the blood trail was profuse.
Blood trail or not, a blind person could have tracked the bear down since
it went no further than 20 yards out of the bait site. The death moan
left us without a doubt as to were we would find the bear. There are
plenty of fine broadheads on the market that a archer can use. Many
would repeat the performance we achieved with this shot. I doubt though
that any could do better than the Crossfire. If your goal is an accurate
shot with a quick and clean kill then it would be hard to get any better
performance than we did with the Crossfire. The bear was dead within one or two seconds of the
shot. In my mind the Crossfire set the standard for accuracy and killing
power. I don't doubt that any failure someone would have with this
combination would have been because of human error in shot placement or
poor tuning of their equipment.
