When I first found PA, I did a lot of searching for information before posting questions. I thought this sticky would be a good way to share some of what I found regarding blunts, and this post is intended to show methods of making various blunts and small game points.
All the photos are saved with the Authors forum user name, but the descriptions below are thrown together from various posts on PA. If you are the author and want credit, let me know and Ill revise the post.
edit to add......I need to point out, I did not personally make all these points. Rather, this is a collection of photos from PA, and it shows other folks hard work. All I did was compile the data.
Cheers,
J
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Good General Advice from Hawk:
I hunt a lot of small game and game birds with handmade arrows. I can honestly say that although most anything tied to a shaft will kill if the shot is perfect. However the shot is not always dead on with a small and sometimes moving target. So I would encourage you young guys to shoot broad heads at everything you hunt. You can make points from wood, bone, steel, and stone, even plastics that will kill quickly and humanely. We owe it to the prey we hunt to kill as quickly and cleanly as possible. Hope this helps brothers
Hawk
Cartridge Casing Blunts:
.357 casings with the primers knocked out and a small nail put in it
a .38 cartridge case over the end of the shaft, drilling holes through it at right angles to each other, and then epoxy pieces of welding rod through them
38 or 357 or a sized and cut down 30-30 brass into the pan of a powder scale and dribble small bird shot until the weight is about 150 Grains and quick pass through a propane torch flame and I have a throw away blunt.
38 or 357 case fits perfectly on an 11/32" shaft, .30 carbine brass fits 5/16", and with cane, .30/30 or .30/06 hulls with the neck cut off often fit.
homemade judos w/ .357 cases on 11/32 shafts with finishing nails for arms, then put the empty case and pieces of nail in my reloading scale and snip bits of lead into the pan till it weighed 125 grains then glued the whole works on w/ the lead inside the case, they work but as someone else said they bend and you are constantly straightening the nails.
.38 cases with a finish nail installed into the shaft and bent back to make a barb.
Grind a notch on the nail near the center, then insert it into a hole thru the casing
put the casing and nail on a powder scale and add lead shot until it all weighs 125 grains.
Heat it with a propane torch, the lead melts, flowing into the primer pocket and solidifying around the notch in the nail shank, keeping it from pulling out.
center punch them at three or so places to hold them onto the shaft.
Miscellaneous:
bleeder blades or small trade points out of steel banding material (like from construction sites) or old table knives
wooden lattice work (ala Ishi)
Abenaki-Penobscot style wooden blunts (carved into the shaft or added)
blunts from horn, or bone
hand forged sickle points (wicked!)
field points from duplex nails with the point cut off and brazing material added for weight (see Little John Photo)
use a 16 penny nail, braze a glob of brass onto head of nail and grind to shape while spinning with electric drill. About 125 grains.
16D double headed (or duplex) nails. Grind off the primary head to form a point, the secondary head abuts the end of the shaft. The finished point came out to 145 grains at about 2-1/2" long
concrete nail points (see photo from Welch2)
Nutters:
Often considered one of the best small game points is the "nutter"
Simply thread a 3/8" hex nut on the taper at the point end of your shaft and add a bit of super glue just for giggles. Not very primitive but very effective!
The nut will help keep the arrow from burrowing under the grass or leaves somewhat, but not like a judo or similar homemade point.
Try to find the largest(OD) 3/8" nut you can or maybe even a wing nut
Use two 3/8" nuts, and they weigh 160 grains, just like my field points
From Minuteman:
Use toothed washers (see photo) which grabs the grass and keeps the arrow from snaking underneath and getting buried.
It'll stand the arrow up good in taller grass and makes an awful tearing sound when it hits stuff.
Another cool thing is that with the larger nut , two toothed washers and the 1- 1/4" drywall screw it brings the weight up closer to a field point
The nut is just a regular 5/16" nylon bushing nut, taper the tip of the arrow a little until it screws on tight.
Then pilot a hole for the drywall screw, slip the washers onto the screw and insert it into the end of the shaft
The little washer keeps the larger one centered on the screw.
very little tapering that needs to be done - Just enough to get the threads started .
Presenting the TARANTULA current King of Blunts
Thanks to Nomadic Pirate:
The history taken from one of Mannys posts:
The first mongoose I killed was with a Judo and the head made a bloody mess of the poor critter and didn't even killed it.
then I started using all kinds of different points, the Adder behind a field point, blunts, broad heads, casings, tiger claw, and Judo again, but none of them covered all the angles
the mongoose is a tough little bugger and they took all my arrows down the holes with them, I was hitting lots of them but never retrieving one.
I tried HTM blunts and 3/8" hex heads, and bingo, I was killing them on the spot, the only problem was that when I missed most of the time was a lost arrow.
Some did good work by killing by shock, but not having the capability to stop themselves so they where easily lost. The other ones would either leave a screaming animal with a gory mess, or have the critter run away with the arrow never to be seen again
I had these blunts at the house that had real bad flight characteristics so I never used them, one day I was looking at one, and I saw it, like when you look at a tree and see the bow inside.
So the TARANTULA was born, this head has all the best characteristics for a small game stumping head in one
the design slows it down in flight, almost working as a flu-flu losing velocity after 20 yards or so
It's unbreakable, cheap, and very easy on wood shafting in rocky terrain
delivering awesome shocking power that kills small game even with marginal hits
incomparable stopping quality in tall grass
this head is very back quiver friendly
The How To:
Start with a bludgeon small game blunt
get some casings or regular steel blunts
with a knife cut out the pie shaped wedges and bingo you have the TARANTULA
match it in weight to your broad heads
½ of a 38 casing will give you a 125gr
full 38 casing 150gr
100gr steel blunt 190gr
you can even add a bleeder blade, or a nail, or a wood screw thru the middle before putting the head over the blunt or 38 casing...now thats flexibility
Now on to the photos:
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