Reasons to Switch to Tooth of the Arrow Broadheads

January 17, 2024 by Leigh Hauck

Broadhead selection is one of the most crucial decisions we mull over as bowhunters. It is often the topic of heated debate, and heavy over-analysis.

While much of the discussion around broadhead selection gets far too theoretical to ever make a difference on a hunt, I believe that this type of detailed analysis is one of the most fun and inspiring things about any hobby. 

If you are a fan and follower of my blogs and/or YouTube videos, you will know that I don’t often talk about our product – Tooth of the Arrow Broadheads. My content is focused on archery education for everyone.

Recently I received several requests to actually talk about this topic which I tend to stay away from. Sure, the brand name is the title of the YouTube channel, and all my blogs are on the website, but the brand name is primarily a way for me to communicate with a large audience rather than to sell.

I know that there are a lot of bowhunters who shoot other brands and still follow all my content. That makes me so happy, because at the end of the day I just want you to be shooting gear that you are confident in, and that makes you feel as though you have the best chance of success on your next hunt.

In light of the fact that I don’t talk about our broadheads much in a ‘selling’ sort of way, many people wonder who I am and where my passion for the product came from, I am going to break my mold for a blog here and talk about why I love Tooth of the Arrow Broadheads.

So, while I still have a hard time writing something that says, “Here is why YOU should buy this product”, here is why I did long before I ever had an affiliation with the company.

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Aluminum has no place in a broadhead.

For several years, I was shooting a new broadhead on almost every hunt. Mechanicals, fixed, hybrids, you name it. While I understand that one hunt is not enough of a test to truly assess the quality of any archery product (usually), I was able to keep mental note of things which tended to work and things which tended to not work in broadhead designs. One thing that I was desperate to get away from was bent and broken broadheads.

I rarely have a practice session where I don’t shoot broadheads – at any time of year. I understand that when you shoot a single head hundreds of times it is bound to bust or bend at some point, and I am fine with that.

However, a broadhead should not bend after only a few shots into foam. What causes broadheads to bend so easily? Aluminum ferrules. I can’t stand them.

Aluminum is much lighter than steel, so often it is used as the material for the ferrule, so that more weight can be put into wide steel blades. There are a few issues with this design which pushed me towards an all-steel broadhead.

First, aluminum bends! If a broadhead has any aluminum component, that component will not last very long. Period.

The second issue with this design is that it gives the broadhead terrible flight characteristics. A field point flies perfectly because 100% of the weight of the point is in line with the arrow shaft.

When you have a light aluminum ferrule and large, heavy steel blades, most of the weight of the head is outside of the arrow shaft. This design simply is not conducive to good broadhead flight and while it is possible to make a head like this fly perfectly, it takes an exceptionally well setup bow and perfect (I mean REALLY perfect) arrow to make a broadhead like this fly at long range. The more weight that is in the ferrule, the more the broadhead is like a field point.

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No moving parts means no room for failure. 

This became a big priority for me while seeking and assessing broadhead designs. When you look at the broadhead market you will see heads which are held together by elastic bands, plastic collars, single screws, and sometimes even just the pressure of the insert as the head is screwed into it.

More moving parts means more things can go wrong. If I have 4 blades and a ferrule all being held together by one single screw, that makes me very nervous. What if your truck's wheels were only held onto the hub by a single lug nut?

While replaceable blade broadheads have the luxury of becoming factory sharp again by just buying and installing new blades, I found that they rarely last that long.

Broadheads are subjected to extreme amount of pressure and stress, and you will find when practicing with replaceable blade broadheads that they often start to rattle after some shooting into targets. Not for me.

I have shot a lot of animals with mechanical broadheads too, with varying degrees of success. I have certainly had some short track jobs and gory blood trails with them, but there was one experience which ended the mechanical journey for me.

It was a very windy day here in Alberta and I was attempting a 40-yard shot into the wind at a mule deer buck. While my arrow was in the air, the blades opened. The force of the wind and the speed of my arrow working against it was enough to pop a blade open and send my arrow dive bombing into the ground between the buck's feet.

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Pass throughs matter

It is a fact in bowhunting that you will generally see better blood trails from shots which have passed through an animal, than with shots where the arrow stays inside of the animal. It isn’t difficult to get a pass through when you make an ideal shot behind the shoulder or ribs don’t offer much resistance and the rest of the space is just air and flesh.

Well, what about when you aren’t given that perfect broadside shot? What about when your bull of a lifetime is at 25 yards but all you have is a quartering towards shot? What about when you make a poor shot and hit that shoulder square on? (it has happened to all of us, let’s not pretend).

I wanted a broadhead that will have the greatest chance of holding up to anything it encounters, whether that is a scapula, knuckle, spine, or even a branch that it may hit on its way to the animal.

When these less-than-ideal shots happen, I still want the best odds of a pass through. That comes from a broadhead which has no moving parts, and a broadhead which will not bend or break when it comes up against some serious resistance.

I shot Tooth of the Arrow for two years before I ever spoke with anyone at the company.

It was the first broadhead that I hadn’t found an issue with. Very reasonably priced, sharp, flies great, cuts big square holes, and I had never broken or bent one. After hunting Alberta whitetail, elk, and bear extensively with them, I took TOTA on my trip to hunt Gredos Ibex in Spain.

I shot a 14-year-old billy just behind his left shoulder (but through the thick of the muscle), and the arrow came out the other side having punched right through the scapula. The ibex ran about 10 yards and his chest hit the ground. My arrow was about 40 yards past where the ibex was standing, even after going through two shoulders.

My Gredos Ibex from Spain, shot with a 100gr. XL V-series Tooth of the Arrow Broadhead

After this hunt I sent some pictures to Luke and asked about joining the staff team. Soon after, he sent out a note about hiring someone part-time to help him as he had been running the company as a one man show for years. As a university student this was a perfect opportunity for me, and we teamed up. One thing leads to another, and Luke and I are now both full time Team Tooth of the Arrow.

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If you have any questions or would like to discuss the topic further, please feel free to reach out to us at sales@toothofthearrowbroadheads.com

We are always more than happy to talk arrows and broadheads with fellow bowhunters!

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