In this review, I tested the Ozcut Hurricane broadheads.

Ozcut is a company outside of Australia and the time of this review, they are a relatively new company. I’ve been intrigued by these broadheads and was excited to test them out.

I have a passion for single bevel heads. So, I love it when someone comes out with a single bevel, 3-blade head.

Now, I’ve seen some other single bevel multi-blade heads that had some design flaws that prevented them from getting the full benefit of the single bevel.

However, I was intrigued by this one for a few reasons that we’ll get into right now.

My Initial Impression of the Ozcut Hurricane

First of all, the Hurricane is one piece, solid construction, and made out high-carbon steel.

The blades are really thick. And, for a single bevel to be of a benefit, they need to be thick like that.

There’s a nice tanto tip, so it’s a really durable tip and the back of the blades are sharpened. So, if it doesn’t go all the way through the animal, that head is going to stay in there doing some cutting. It also makes it easier to pull them out of your target.

So, there’s a lot about this head that I really like. I did some of my normal testing. I shot it through a couple of different layers of MDF with a rubber foam mat in the front. I also shot it at long distance. And, I shot it through some steel as well as into a cinder block. I also shot into ballistic gel to test rotation.

So, let’s see how the head holds up, how it penetrates, and how it does in this testing.

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02/16/2025 02:43 am GMT

The cutting diameter on the Ozcut Hurricane broadhead is 1-1/16 inches.

Long Range Flight

The Ozcut Hurricane flew exceptionally well in the long-range shot testing. I was able to pop a balloon at 80 yards with ease.

Penetration Testing

The first penetration test was through MDF boards that had a layer of foam matting in front of them…

On the entrance into this foam mat, you can see you got a little bit of rotation from the Hurricane as evidenced by the “S-cut.”

Here, you can see the penetration through the first board right there.

And then through the second MDF board…

It bulged out of the back of the 3rd MDF board.

Upon inspection of the head after going through two layers of MDF, you can see that there are no signs of wear whatsoever. The edges maintain very well and they still shave nail.

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Steel Plate Penetration Test

In the next penetration test, I shot the Ozcut Hurricane into a steel plate, followed by a layer of MDF behind it.

There’s the hole of the steel plate. It made a nice, good triangular hole and you can see again the offset blades making that extra “S-cut.”

See the head after it went through the steel plate. You can see that the edge got quite a bit nicked up and dulled. You can see it here on the edges. Overall, it did well. And the structural integrity of the head was fantastic. This has now gone through three layers of MDF and one layer of steel plate there. But, the edges did get more dinged up than I would have expected.

Cinder Block Test

Because it’s a solid machine broadhead, I shot the Hurricane into a concrete block. Not many heads have held up really well through this. the Bishop held up well, and also the Iron Will. The Tooth of the Arrow broadheads, Exodus, and A-TAC broadheads also held up quite well.

Let’s see how the Ozcut does.

Here’s the chunk (right side) that the Hurricane head took out of the concrete block. Not as big as some of the other broadheads that I’ve shot but it did penetrate and take a chunk out of it.

The Hurricane broadhead after it went into the concrete block. You can see that it got mangled quite a bit. It’s hitting concrete, so I understand that. (We are not hunting concrete. I understand that. But, I was testing it to see its overall durability and it stayed in one piece). If this did go into an animal like that, it would stay in there still cutting away but it did get mangled beyond repair going into the concrete.

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Ballistic Gel Test

I was curious to see how the rotation of the Hurricane would do in a ballistic gel. So, I shot it into the ballistic gel (below). I also had some MDF behind it.

In this test, I compared it to a single bevel, 2-blade head, the Bishop Scientific Method to see how it rotates in the same medium. I also compared it to the Exodus broadheads.

You can see the penetration difference between these three heads as they all go through the gel and then stop. You see at the top, you see the Exodus that came in third and then you see the Ozcut Hurricane came in first right below that and then you see Bishop Scientific Method 2-blade right below that.

You can see the wound channel of the Ozcut in the middle. The lighter areas are where the blades are rotating around. It looks like it almost made one full rotation.

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Final thoughts on the Ozcut Hurricane

So there you have it, the Ozcut Hurricane. This broadhead is a winner. There’s a lot I really like about it. It flies really well.

They say the single bevel design helps to speed up the rotation. I can’t verify that because I can’t quantify the rotation. But, I can tell you, I shoot a lot of single-bevel heads at long range and man, this one was really easy to pop balloons with. It was automatic.

I would say this is amongst the very best shooting long-range, solid fixed-blade broadheads that I’ve ever shot. I can’t think of any that fly better than this.

This head is right up there with the A-TAC. It just flies really well.

This head also penetrates really well. You can see through all those mediums and where it rotated really well through the gel. You could see that S-cut in the steel and see it starting into the wood as well.

Possible Improvements

There are two things about this head that I think they could have done differently.

What could have made it like even better is using a higher quality steel. Not that this is bad – it’s a good machined head, out of a solid chunk of carbon steel. But, when you’re using a single bevel broadhead, the rotational force and the pressure that is put on that one blade angle is intense. This calls for premium steel.

After shooting it a few times, you can see where it gets dinged up.

In addition, it’s not super easy to find that bevel to sharpen it just right.

I also wish there was a larger cutting diameter. And, although it penetrates really well, the 1-1/16 inch cutting diameter is not the best for opening up a very big hole. I just wish it was bigger.

If it was like 1-1/8 inch, even or 1-1/4 inch, that would be awesome. If it was just a little bit bigger entrance and exit hole, I would like it even more.

So, what is this type of head great for?

As it is, this would be a great elk or moose head for lower kinetic energy setups. I think it could also be great for deer hunting, for big hogs, bears or African plains game.

So, really cool design, really cool head. Give it a look.

In this broadheads review, I tested a really creative broadhead on the market – the Zeus, by New Era Archery.

When you read the package, it says, “Zeus Broadheads – Smart Head Technology – Cut The Zeus Loose.”

So, what is a Zeus broadhead?

When I first saw these, my first thought was, “what in the world is that? Is it a mechanical? Is it a fixed? What is it?”

It never ceases to amaze me how creative people can be in designing broadheads. How creative can you be just putting a sharp object on the end of a stick?

Well, apparently, you can be really creative. And, the Zeus is about as creative as they come.

Zeus Broadheads Smart Head Technology

Zeus broadheads refer to “Smart Head Technology.” What that means is you’re getting the best of both worlds of a both a mechanical broadhead as well as a fixed blade broadhead.

Let me explain…

First of all, the diameter of the upper fixed blades is 1-1/2 inches. Then, the bleeders are 7/8 of and inch wide. So, you’ve got 1-1/2-inches in one direction, and 7/8 of an inch this way, providing almost 2-1/2 inches of total cut.

Now at the same time, the profile of these blades is really small. So, in theory, they would fly really well, like a mechanical.

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Additionally, they have a tip containing many little grooves.

And so, it’s designed to fly through the air, and as it spins, to circulate the air around it, much like a golf ball with dimples prevents a vacuum on the back of the ball from making it fly off course.

Similarly, the grooves on the tip help prevent a vacuum on the broadhead. And so, as the head rotates, it rifles and stays right on track, thus flying more like a mechanical.

Penetration

Additionally, the way the Zeus broadhead penetrates is interesting.

In the wide-open position, it penetrates through normal tissue with that 1-1/2-inch cut. But, when it encounters a hard medium, the upper blades retract. (It takes 48 pounds of pressure to compress the internal steel spring). Once that amount of pressure is achieved, the blades compress all the way down to 7/8 of an inch, the same diameter as the lower bleeder blades.

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So, say if they compress all the way into a bone and you go, “Well, then I don’t have a blade.” No, you still have 7/8 of an inch this way and 7/8 of an inch the other way. It’s not that much different from a Slick Trick standard. So anyway, it’s designed to do that.

But, after it cuts through whatever hard surface it has encountered, the spring forces the blades back open to their full 1-1/2″ diameter.

Before testing, I was thinking, “Oh, that’s creative!” But, to be honest, I was a bit skeptical, so I wanted to put these broadheads through the wringer and see how they performed.

So, again, the thought here is that you get the best of both worlds. You get deep penetration due to the the blades compressing when they hit a hard surface. But, you get a larger cut through softer mediums like animal tissue and hide.

I realize that some might say, “Hey, I don’t care about that test, because I don’t hunt MDF and I don’t hunt steel plates.” Good for you. They would be kind of hard to eat anyway!

But, my goals are to provide hunters with data points so that you can make decisions that hopefully make you a better hunter. I don’t have a live deer during tests to shoot an arrow through. I shoot through wood just to give you a data point.

It’s easy to read the back of a package and gain some information on the specs of a broadhead. And, you can certainly read magazine ads about a head or look online to get info. But, if you’re like me, you want to know, “How well is this head going to hold up and how well does it penetrate?”

Well, hopefully my testing will give you some data points to consider as you are selecting your broadhead.

Broadhead Specs

In terms of materials, the Zeus broadhead tip is really interesting. It’s constructed of 441 steel, so it’s a really strong, hardened steel. The ferrule is 7075 aluminum. So, it’s stronger aluminum than any other broadheads are using right now.

All of the blades are stainless steel. The tip of the head unscrews. You can take out the 100-grain hardened tip and then screw in a longer tip that weighs 25 grains more, thus making it a 125-grain broadhead. I like that.

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And the 125-grain tip is a lot longer and looks like it would penetrate really well.

The Zeus head looks to be of good craftsmanship. It also spins true.

The creativity of the Zeus broadheads design is off the charts, but how would it test?

Let the tests begin

As in all my tests, I shot the Zeus head with my Bowtech Realm SR6 set at 73 pounds with a 27-inch draw length.

I shot the Bishop Mammoth FOC King Arrow, which can handle pretty much anything.

Zeus broadheads flight test

The Zeus flew extremely well at both 60 and 80 yards.

Direct Penetration Test

In regards to total penetration, these heads did really well. They blew all the way through two boards there and completely came out the back board.

Now, as we examine the impact of the broadheads into the rubber mat, we see in the entrance there a perfect entrance and that is 1-1/2 inches by 7/8 inch just as the blades themselves are. Those main blades did not close in.

Then as we look at first board, you can see the blades cutting right there and the main blade was an inch upon impact there. The bleeders is a 7/8 of an inch cross ways.

The Zeus blew right through the first MDF board.

As it came out, it made a nice hole coming out of the second MDF board as well.

This picture shows the Zeus poking through here. None of the blades made it all the way through, but the head got really deep penetration.

And then it embedded in the final board. Here, you can see the bleeders didn’t quite go all the way into the board, but the blades had reopened up after they closed in the previous boards. So, that spring opened them back up a bit and you see a little less than one inch of cut right there from the main blades on this board and didn’t reach to the bleeders.

Here’s the Zeus after it went through those MDF boards. It wasn’t easy to get out. I had to push it all the way through which put a lot of extra pressure on it and it still held up remarkably well. The blades are just – it seems like just as sharp as they were. They are still shaven nail. They didn’t bend. The ferrule spins through. Everything held really well. The spring contracted a bit extra in there to where they are just a little bit – the blades are a little bit looser so they collapsed a little bit more than the original 1 1/2 inch. You can see there, it’s about 1 1/4 inch. But other than that, they just help up remarkably, and honestly, surprisingly well.

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Angled shot penetration test

In the angled shot test, I set up boards at a 45 degree angle. Let’s see how the Zeus broadheads did in this test…

In the angled penetration test, the Zeus stuck in really well. Here you see the impact of the angled shot. As for penetration, it stayed on course. It stayed straight and penetrated right through very easily. The blade and the head help up really well.

You can see the hole in the entrance hole that the head made in the angled shot and it blew right through. The blades contracted as designed and then it continued to penetrate right after it got through that board. The blade sprung back open and here they are at their full deployment again of 1 1/2 inches. And as for durability, it held up super well. The spring is fully intact. The blades are just as sharp as they were, and still able to shave my fingernail. nail. The head still spun true. A very good performance in the angled shot.

Steel plate penetration test

Out of curiosity, I wanted to see this head would do on a steel plate…

The head easily penetrated the steel plate.

The penetration here was amazing. It went through the steel plate, blew through the second half inch MDF, and then almost made it to the third.

Here you see the head after it went through the steel plate and then another layer of MDF (and also after the angled shot). You can see that it held up remarkably well. The blades are a little bit loose because that spring is a little bit contracted. They are not the full 1.5-inch. They contracted just slightly. And you see those bleeder blades bent just a little bit. But, they did surprisingly well. A little bend like that big of an issue because they’re continuing to cut as they go in.

Conclusion

I’ll be honest. This head surprised me. When I first was reading about it, I thought, “Oh man, what kind of a newfangled weird thing is that?”

But, as you saw, even at 80 yards, it flew just like my field points. I was really impressed. It flies extremely well, just as advertised.

I was also a little suspicious of the durability. But, shooting it into two half inch sheets of this MDF, it held up really well. The blades were like brand new.

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And then I shot it through another layer of MDF that was preceded by a stainless steel plate. And, it held up well to that as well. There was a little bit of bending in the bleeders, but that’s a lot better than breaking. If they bend, I can live with that. If they break off, I get concerned about that. And the tip, of course, held up well.

The blades still stayed in great shape as well.

The spring got some damage, causing the blades to collapse a little bit more than the full inch and a half. But, they are coming out with a little assembly package where you can put in a new spring there and get it replaced like that.

So overall, I would say this is a really creative head. Penetration wise, it did really well. The penetration is the best I’ve tested so far in terms of this medium.

To this point, I’ve been shooting this medium of MDF with the foam in front of it on a dozen different broadheads. The Zeus penetrated the best of any of them.

Now, I will say, the blades collapsed. So, by design, it didn’t cut all that tissue as it’s going through all those mediums. But, it did penetrate deeply.

This head will give you a deep penetration, but if you hit that bone, it’s not going to cut the bone all the way through, but then again, that’s what’s going to allow it to penetrate more deeply, right? So it’s a good tradeoff. I

So smart technology, indeed it is. Worth a try? Definitely.

Good job, Zeus. I appreciate the creativity.

Many people have asked me to do a review of the Valkyrie broadheads, and I finally got to do it.

Many people have asked me to test this broadhead. If you have read any of my other reviews, you know that I test a lot of high quality broadheads. The Valkyrie definitely fits the bill.

Valkyrie broadheads | An overview

The Valkyrie heads are machined out of a single chunk of S7 tool steel. that is brought to a Rockwell hardness of 58 to 60 which is really hard.

Now, it’s important that you don’t compare that to 58 to 60 in a stainless steel, because with an S7 tool steel like this, the impact resistance is many times greater than that of stainless steel.

So, you are getting the benefit of a really hard edge and really hard blade combined with really tough impact resistance as well.

The Valkyrie is a 3-blade design. The cutting diameter is relatively low at 1 inch. But, with 3 blades, you are getting an inch-and-a-half of total cut which is a lot more than most 2-blade heads.

The heads range from 160 grains to over 300 grains (for those needing a higher forward-of-center %).

The overall purpose of the Valkyrie design is to maximize penetration. And that’s why this “swept” design in the short Jag head, and in the regular-sized Jagger.

The blades of the Valkyrie heads are also completely coated with a Cerakote ceramic finish. This aids in resistance to the elements, which a tool steel typically does not have. It also provides a less of a glare and it aids in penetration, to give it a bit more smoothness through bone, tissue and hide.

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The Setup

For this test, I’m used my Bowtech SR6 set at 72 pounds and I’m using the whole Valkyrie system pictured below. It comes with VAP arrows 0.166 diameter and with their titanium centerpin and the broadhead. The arrows even have their own fletching.

Valkyrie testing

I was very eager to test these heads. They looked like they would penetrate well. They also spun very true and looked and felt very sharp. I also wanted to test for long-range flight, edge retention, penetration and durability. So let’s get to the results…

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Sharpness test

To test the sharpness of the Valkyrie Jagger, I examined its ability to cut paper not only out of the box, but also after up to five strokes of the arrow shaft against the blade edge.

You can learn more about the Valkyrie arrow system by visiting their website, valkyriearchery.com.

Long Range Flight | Balloon test

Penetration testing

In the ballistic gel test, the short Jag penetrated 8 inches.

In the steel plate penetration test below, notice the holes that the Valkyrie heads make. They are not just slits, they really put those nice triangular holes in the steel plate.

And, I will note too that it’s fairly easy to sharpen. When I’m sharpening it, I use a paper wheel. You can use whatever you want or you can just mail it back in. They actually sharpen them or will even repair them if they need repair… all for free. ($10 shipping and handling to send the head in).

Final Thoughts

So what do you think of the Valkyrie? I’ve got to tell you, I was impressed. I was expecting quite a bit from these broadheads and I have to say, they exceeded even my high expectations.

This is one very well-designed, very well-constructed broadhead.

If you are looking for something that’s high quality that’s going to last you forever and that you can use on anything in the world, this is a head worth checking out.

Overall, the Valkyrie is just an incredible head, well-worth checking out especially if you are going after a really big-bodied animal. This is something that is really worth investigating.

Great job, Valkyrie.

Best of luck on your next bow hunt!

(Be sure to visit our deer hunting tips page to get ready for the upcoming season!)