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At what point...

RedCloud

Super Moderator
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North Central Ohio
From all the Slo-mo testing I have seen...it stops spinning on contact with the target but of course that is going to be different then in flesh I would think.

If I had to guess...It would all depend on the BH and the size of the cutting surface. The bigger the cutting surface is the faster it will stop spinning. I would say most probably stop spinning within the first 1/8"

I could be wrong but this is an interesting topic :D.
 

Jackalope

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When the force from the meat on the sides of the blades, is greater than the force of air against the side of the vanes, and said force overcomes rotational momentum. To figure this out we would have to know those forces. Best guess. Within the first 1/4 inch of blade entrance.

That is unless you have a head with blades that rotate, offset blades, or curved blades. Then much sooner.
 

DJK Frank 16

Senior Member
Supporting Member
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Hardin County
I would say that depends on two things, shot placement and arrow setup. Say you have an arrow that you fletch with and offset/helical built to spin like crazy and you get a good clean shot without hitting any major muscle/rib/bone, I would assume that you would get SOME rotation, but still would not be near as much as during the flight.

More conventionally setup arrows with a fixed head I would guess you spin would be minimal once it hits an animal.

Either way, once you get muscle or bone your rotation is done.

But to contradict/argue with myself, I have also seen a 3blade BH on an offset fletched arrow that is built to spin a lot, hit a deer and you can see the triangular wound channel all the way through the deer, whereas if it would have kept spinning it would have been more of a circular wound channel.


Great question, looking forward to what kinds of input we get here.
 

Hoytmania

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Gods Country
I can't remember having a single pass through shot that the blade cuts lined up on the entrance and the exit as if the arrow had stopped spinning totally. I think that the arrow still continues to spin just not near as much as when it is flying through the air.

This is my quick work response. Not to much science in this answer.
 

Jackalope

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I can't remember having a single pass through shot that the blade cuts lined up on the entrance and the exit as if the arrow had stopped spinning totally. I think that the arrow still continues to spin just not near as much as when it is flying through the air.

This is my quick work response. Not to much science in this answer.

Well. That doesn't necessarily mean it was spinning from the pre impact force on the vanes... But could be any number of things, bone, hide, meat, or animal movement acting on the arrow.. Even if you shot an arrow that had zero spin, the odds of the blades lining up are pretty slim.