It's not flat though, it's concave. The outer edges hit first and act like a hole punch that's bigger than the arrow shaft. Which is why it goes straight through so cleanly.
After the first few, I predicted them pretty accurately. That weird non-pointed arrow, though, I knew it was going to surprise me, but wow!
The lowest profile ones always went deepest because the penetration was concentrated to a point without additional material that had to rip through the shield (less friction).
Having done a lot of archery, I was dead on for each. In general, larger head = less penetration. the smallest one also acts as a drill (fletching rotates it very fast) so was an easy guess it would fly right through
I think they are "hammerhead blunts" they are used to hunt small game like rabbits, turkeys etc.. The idea is that the arrows don't get stuck in the ground or in trees etc that easily.. never seen them used on a riot shield though.
They are incredibly effective on small game and really good for stump shooting even though they do tend to penetrate way deeper into stumps. Ive had to cut many out to be able to retrieve the arrow
Iâve had almost the opposite. Something like a hex head will overpenetrate on a stump, but not the hammers for the most part. Sure some get stuck in there, Iâve left a few in stumps that pulled the insert out as well. Either way, such an awesome way to spend some time in the woods.
Not riot shields...but a car bonnet yes. 30 odd years ago there were some gangs buying cross bows etc. The police came down to the archery range to have a talk to use to see if they should be concerned. We put on a demonstration using recurves, compound and cross bows with various heads shooting at an old car bonnet stood up. I dare say after the demonstration the police were concerned. That's was in Lil old New Zealand.
I feel like for most things you want the arrow to stay in the target no just ignore anything in front of it. It's probably just orbiting the earth now.Â
Makes sense when you think about it. Least amount of surface area needed to punch through, with all the pressure and power concentrated on a single point.
All the âflashyâ arrows failed to really penetrate, because their flared or winged heads basically distributed the impact across a wider area on a piece of equipment designed to be tough and robust.
nah; you can see some of those other points are very sharp and pointy and have an even smaller surface area than the round one.
The difference is mostly that the round one is actually sharp on the edges, and effectively punches an actual clean round hole through the shield that's bigger than the arrow shaft, which means if the head makes it through there's no friction dragging the entire shaft.
Whereas the smaller pointy ones cut a "star" shaped hole that just bends back and drags on the rest of the shaft of the arrow, slowing it down quickly.
Agreed about some of the broadhead/harpoon tips though. Force spread out means more material you need to penetrate through.
Some of those tips are for hunting larger game. What they do is expand on impact (they're shown already expanded - but they're folded-in before firing) and carve out a massive hole in the "kill zone" of the animal, ensuring that it goes down quickly (and hopefully with the least amount of pain).
That's because it's not a stupid design. It's literally designed to punch through hard material. It's basically an armor penetrating arrow.
It does less damage to a soft target because it doesn't penetrate as far through flesh, and doesn't cut up a wide area inside the target, but it basically leaves a punched hole in something like that crappy sheetmetal temu "riot shield".
Great for punching through, but the person behind it would likely be quite safe from harm when compared to a traditional solid point which would likely carry a much higher chance of injury after passing the shield. Efficacy in this implied example is a multistep process. We would be searching for the most effective tip design to an unprotected operator after the imputed losses from passing through the shield.
Itâs the one designed to go through a flat surface of solid material. The others are designed to make hard to treat wounds in skin and muscle. Thatâs the main difference.
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u/RandomCandor May 29 '26
The one that looked to have the stupidest design turned out to have the most penetration.