I am excited about the broadhead I’m testing in this review… It’s the new BEAST Broadhead by Bowmar.

BEAST is actually an acronym that stands for Bone Evading Advanced Spring Technology.

This broadhead has a lot of cool features, so let’s go through those features and specifications and then we will put it to the test!

For these tests, I used my Bowtech CP28 set at 72 pounds, 27-inch draw. I used Bishop FOC King Arrows for most of the shooting, but then I’m using the Bishop FAD Eliminators for the really hard impact shots.

The Bowmar BEAST broadhead up close

The point of the BEAST broadhead is a needle point tip. I actually thought I had cut myself when I touched it!

The blades take 1.3 pounds of force to deploy, and they deploy with 15 pounds of force at 750 miles an hour. So, they are not losing the energy with that penetration.

They are actually gaining some with that stored energy that allows those blades to cut through the hide in an even faster way than they would have if they didn’t have that spring inside them.

Bowmar wanted to get a spring that could stay closed like this for a long time and then still work. And so, they looked all over the world and found these springs in the auto industry by a company that makes them for Lamborghini and Ferrari.

The spring has 15 pounds of stored energy inside the broadhead, but can stay in a closed (contracted) position and still retain 95% of its energy for 3-5 years. There’s never been a spring used like this in a broadhead application; it’s not just your normal little spring!

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Once the spring is deployed, it pushes the blades into the open position. It’s not barbed because these blades can fold back beyond just their barb stage. But, I will say they are difficult to get out of a target.

I shot them into a target and though they do bend back, they don’t bend back so much that they’re super easy to get out of. So, I wouldn’t be shooting them into targets too often.

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Bowmar BEAST Broadhead Testing

I was eager to put this BEAST broadhead to the test! Here’s what I learned…

Flight Forgiveness (I field pt then I broadhead @30 yds)  

Initial Sharpness

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Penetration Test 1 (2/3″ rubber mat, 1/2″ MDF, FBI Gel)   

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Edge Retention Test (sharpness after Penetration Test 1)

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Penetration Test 2 (layered cardboard)

Opening Test (Leather stretched over box)

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Angled Shot Test (1/4″ MDF/Carpet)

Durability Test (1/2″ MDF max 3 shots)

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Durability Test (22 gauge steel plate max 2 shots)

Concrete Test

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Final Thoughts On The Bowmar BEAST Broadheads Review

So what do you think of the BEAST?

Man, there’s a lot to love about this broadhead! I love the low profile and the flight, as well as the super secure retention system blades. There are no O-rings and no clips. And, I love the spring action that they have in there.

I get the feeling that they’re going to be a lot more effective on animals than my testing really allows. There’s only so much you can do with standardized tests. But, even so, it did well in my testing, and I think it’s going to do even better on animals the way the spring causes those blades to just pop forward with such force.

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I love the blades and the sharpness. And then there’s the edge retention! That’s the sharpest and the best edge retention of anything I’ve tested. I’ve tested others that were 125, but this one was was 125 grams of force after going through penetration test 1. That’s super rare! I’ve never seen that before.

So again, just a lot to like about this broadhead. I look forward to seeing the future models that they come out with!

Josh Bowmar, you’re on to something really good here. I appreciate all your hard work and ingenuity in designing this head.

I always love it when new broadheads come out. And, there was a new one from a company I had never heard of… Exact Archery.

I reached out to them and they sent me a pack. They sure do look cool and I was eager to put them to the test!

The Exact Archery Broadheads Up Close

Let’s zoom on in and take a look at the Exact Archery Broadheads…

The cutting diameter in each direction is 1-1/8″. So the total cut is 2-1/4″. That’s no slouch! It’s like a Slick Trick Magnum head.

By my measurements, the head measurement comes out to 0.85″ long. So, that’s one of the shortest broadheads that I know of. But, even so, you’re getting a decent size cut. So, I would imagine it’s going to minimize surface area and maximize flight forgiveness and penetration.

I wondered a little bit about the durability on a hard impact with this cut on contact blade since it doesn’t have a chiseled tip (more on that below). I thought the ferrule would probably be pretty durable because it’s so short.

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Exact Archery Broadheads Testing

It’s not very expensive broadhead, but seems really well-constructed. I was eager to see how it performed!

In the following tests, I used my Bowtech CP28 set at 72 pounds. I’m using Bishop FOC King Arrows for most of the shots and Bishop FAD Eliminators for the shots into the concrete, because they can handle it like no other arrow that I’ve ever tested.

Flight Forgiveness Test  

Initial Sharpness Test

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Penetration Test 1 (2/3″ rubber mat, 1/2″ MDF, FBI Gel)

Edge Retention Test (sharpness after Penetration Test 1)

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Penetration Test 2 (layered cardboard)

Angled Shot Test (1/4″ MDF/Carpet):

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Durability Test (1/2″ MDF max 3 shots):

Durability Test (22 gauge steel plate max 2 shots):

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Concrete Test

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Final Thoughts On The Exact Archery Broadhead

So what do you think?

Man, the Exact Archery broadhead really, really surprised and impressed me!

When I first saw it, and looked at the price point (7 bucks a head), I was thinking, “OK, I’ve seen designs like this. The blades are probably going to separate on hard impact. Maybe they’re going to break. Maybe they’re going to roll over.”

I was wrong!

This head is impressive in every area. It flew super well. It penetrated really well in every medium. It held together well in MDF, the steel plate, buried into the concrete… wow! And, this is just the 100-grain version. You add that extra washer down there at the bottom, to get up to 125, it might do even more!

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And, here’s the thing. This head got a score 10 golden arrows! There are not many heads that get 10 golden arrows, but this one did. And it’s 7 bucks a pop. Man, that’s really impressive!

So hey, Exact Archery, you’re doing something right. Welcome to the ballgame. I look forward to seeing more stuff that you come out with in the future!

In this article, I’m covering a re-test of the 125-grain Annihilator Broadhead.

When I originally tested this broadhead, it performed extremely well in terms of penetration, (i.e., draining a water jug) and in terms of the hole that it produced in a layer of MDF.

It also flew really well out to 50 yards. However, beyond 50 yards, there just seemed to be a drastic drop in velocity, causing an incredible drop in the point of impact.

However, after making a video of that test, I was contacted by some friends who had also tested this broadhead at longer ranges, but did not see the drastic results I had seen.

I then visited with the designers of the Annihilator broadheads at the Archery Trade Association (ATA) show. They also said that their tests had not shown the drastic drop. In fact, they had seen really consistent flight, even at longer ranges. So, I told them I would very gladly test it again.

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>> Click here to jump straight to the broadhead battle between the Annihilator Original and the Annihilator XL

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The backstory to my original test of the Annihilator broadhead

The day of the re-test, it was sub-zero temperatures (with the wind chill). When I re-tested the head, I found that the people I had spoken to were exactly right. It flew extremely well, even at longer ranges.

I realized that in my original test, I had made a two-fold mistake.

My two mistakes

Before I tested the Annihilator broadhead the first time, I was talking to a friend about it. He told me that when he shot it at longer ranges, there was a really large drop due to the wind resistance of that big surface area that they have. And so, that was already in my mind.

So, then when I shot it and tested it and there was a big drop, and I thought, “Oh, this just confirms what my friend had said.” I didn’t retest it or question my test results enough. That was my first mistake. I shouldn’t have had that in my mind.

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The second mistake that I made in the initial test is that I had made adjustments to my site tapes and I didn’t take that into consideration when I was testing the Annihilator.

So, I felt really badly. I went back and made the adjustments in my site tapes and… Boom! Dead on!

I feel really badly that I made both of those mistakes, and both of those mistakes adversely affected the reputation of Annihilator (as well as my own reputation for doing a poor job in testing the broadhead).

I want to give a sincere apology to the makers of Annihilator broadheads, to their loyal fans, and especially to those who I turned off from these broadheads after my initial test, because it actually does fly very well even at longer ranges.

So, that’s why I wanted to do a completely new test. I’ve got new test mediums for 2020 that I’m using anyway. So it’s a good way to do those.

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The Annihilator broadhead | The specifics

So, let me explain this broadhead just a little bit for those of you that aren’t familiar with it.

When I first heard about it, I wasn’t that interested in testing it because the cutting diameter is sub-1 inch. It’s 0.91 inches of cut. To me, that’s just so small.

I thought, “Why would I want to test the head that has that small of a cut?”

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However, what I wasn’t understanding was the design of this head has a “scoop” feature to it. So, while it has a small cutting diameter, when it presses through a medium like animal tissue, it actually displaces an incredible amount of it. (Note: As of the publishing of this article, I personally have not tested the Annihilator head on an animal).

So, the hole that it creates, and the tissue that’s displaced, is in theory far greater than if it was just 3 crossblades of 0.91 inches. It has an incredible surface area. (That showed in a test that I had done originally. The Annihilator drained a water jug in record time. It also put a big hole through MDF. And so, in the retest, I wanted to show that).

The Annihilator is designed to put a much larger hole than the head size suggests. The small surface area allows it to fly really well, but then displace a lot of tissue. And so, it makes a really nice hole.

Another cool thing about this head is that it’s a solid piece of 4140 tool steel. That is a really high quality of tool steel. So, it’s way more resistant to impact and much tougher than stainless steel, for example. It has a Rockwell hardness of 52, which is a pretty good balance of being soft enough to resharpen and hard enough to keep its edge.

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Another thing I really like about it is that re-sharpening for this head is extremely easy. It’s like the Bishop Holy Trinity and some other three blades that I’ve tested in the past.

You can just lay it flat on a flat stone or any kind of a flat edge surface and it is very easy to sharpen to a razor-like edge.

In my re-test, I used a half-inch layer of MDF surrounded by 1/3 of an inch of rubber foam mat. Beyond that was a gel block by Clear Ballistics, so you can see what happens to the broadhead once it enters the gel. (I will be doing this for all the broadheads I test this year).

Then, I shot it through a 22-gauge steel plate 5 times. (I like to shoot it through the steel plate until there begins to be significant damage to the blades. So, I basically see how many times it can be shot into the steel plate without facing significant damage. But, I stop at 5 because with some heads, I could keep going forever).

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The Re-Test of the Annihilator

So let’s get into the test results and see how it did with long range flight, penetration and water drainage ability.

Long-Range Flight

In the re-test I was able to pop a balloon at 70 yards with this head.

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Penetration Testing

In terms of penetration through the MDF and gel, the Annihilator did very well. It did not do as well as some other broadheads I’ve tested, but it still had good penetration and made a nice hole in that MDF, as well as the gel.

Below, you can see the penetration of the Annihilator after going through the MDF and the rubber foam mats and into the gel. It penetrated 8-1/4 inches.

Below is a steel plate after I shot it 5 times with the same head. You can see the Annihilator really does make nice holes. Thus, it should displace a tremendous amount of tissue.

Edge Retention

In terms of the durability of the edge (edge retention), the Annihilator is pristine. There is not a mark on it. It doesn’t quite shave hair, but it still bit into my fingernail… very impressive.

So, it’s durable as they come. It went through 5 layers of steel back-to-back-to-back with zero damage. That’s what that 4140 tool steel is going to do. It kept its edge really, really well.

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Water drainage test

The water drainage test was just other otherworldly. I don’t know any other word to describe it. It drained the bag in .40 seconds!

The reason I used the water bag drainage test instead of a water jug drainage test is that I felt that in a water jug, because the plastic is pretty stiff, sometimes the plastic folds in, sometimes it comes out, sometimes it stays in place. And so, the results are very inconsistent. Even with one head, I get different results.

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But with water bag drainage test, and I fill it up 10 cups the same amount that the line is the same in all the tests that I do, try to shoot it in the same spot every time.

It’s much more consistent and much more like an animal because the bag is a little more nimble, like the tissue or the hide of an animal. And so, what you see is kind of what you’re going to get in terms of the drainage.

The Annihilator goes into the bag and displaced so much water so readily, it actually created a back-pressure to the water. When I looked at it in super slow motion, I could it make the hole and suck the water right out of the bag.

It was just amazing to see that. It’s an indication of what may happen with blood-letting and tissue damage within an animal as well. I can’t wait to test it on an animal at some point in the future.

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Conclusion on The Annihilator Re-Test

I’m really grateful that I was encouraged to retest the Annihilator, because I knew it was a great head before. It tested really well in all categories except long distance.

However, now knowing after the re-test that it actually flies extremely well, even at long distances, it has gone from a very good head to a phenomenal head.

So, now I have confidence in this head at longer ranges. It gets a 10 out of 10 in terms of accuracy at long range.

The Annihilator did excellent in all of the test categories. This is a winner of a head and it’s something to really consider for pretty much any animal you are going after. Give the Annihilator a look. Great job, Annihilator!

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And now a Battle! [Annihilator Original vs. Annihilator XL]

I was really excited to battle the Annihilator Original vs. the Annihilator XL. The XL is basically just a bigger version of the Original.

For my flight and some of the penetration testing, I used the Bishop FOC King Arrow from Bishop Archery. For some of the more harsh durability tests, like shooting through steel, I used the Bishop Frozen Fire Arms Dispatch (FAD) Eliminator. It has a nice footing on the end and that prevents the steel from cutting through the shaft.

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And then for some of the concrete tests, I’m using a tank of an arrow by Bishop Archery. It’s called the GOAT (Greatest Of All Time). The Goat with a 125-grain tip weighs 1300 grains. Just the shaft is like a weapon in and of itself. It feels like a giant tent stake or even a spear. It is the best of the best when it comes to arrows.

So, let the Annihilator Broadhead battle begin!

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Annihilator Original and XL compared

Here’s a good look at both models of the Annihilator heads below. The Original has a cutting diameter of 0.91 inches and the XL has a cutting diameter of 1-1/16 inches or 1.06 inches. So, 0.91, 1.06, about a 17% difference.

Flight comparison

For my flight comparison, I shot two broadheads of each model as well as a field point, to compare.

Out of the box sharpness comparison

In the out-of-the box sharpness comparison, I used a sharpness testing machine, by Edge-On-Up. This tester holds a wire and measures how many grams of pressure it takes for the blade of a broadhead to break it.

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Ballistic gel penetration test

I shot both the Original and the XL into ballistic gel, fronted by rubber matting and 1/2″ MDF.

Cardboard penetration comparison

I shot both heads through layered cardboard to determine how many layers each could penetrate.

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Steel plate penetration test comparison

I shot both the Original and the XL through a steel plate five times each.

Now, I will say that I don’t think that the holes these heads made in the steel plate is really any different than the holes that an Exodus would make, (which are amazing), or a Tooth of the Arrow, a evan a solid steel 3-blade like a Bishop Holy Trinity.

Those all make triangular holes really similar to this. But, I do prefer those to just 3 slits. I mean they make a lot more internal damage and cause a lot more blood-letting than just the 3 slits do.

Cinder block test comparison

I shot both the Original and the XL into a cinder block to see how they would hold up. The XL showed out! See picture below.

How to sharpen the Annihilator broadheads

Now, you saw how durable they are and how they hold their edge really well. But, if you want to get them really sharp, one method of sharpening is super easy.

Because the Annihilator heads are 3-blade solids at a 60-degree bevel angle, you just one flat on any stone or any surface and just stroke it gently. Just be sure you have the same number of strokes on each side.

Do this until it comes out just like you got it from the factory. It’s super easy to do. You can even do it in the field. Again, you can do it on any surface. I love that about these 3-blade, 60-degree bevel heads.

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You can also use the Stay Sharp Guide. They come out with individual sharpeners that are not very expensive at all for different styles of broadheads. And, in most cases, they put an edge on those heads better than how you got them from the factory.

They have a sharpener especially designed to put an extra sharp edge on these 3-blade, 60-degree heads. This is super helpful, because one of the drawbacks is that you can only get it so sharp with that 60-degree bevel.

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Conclusion of Annihilator Original vs. XL battle

What can I say about the durability of these Annihilator heads? They are absolutely fantastic!

Both of them performed really well and both had some great strengths.

My only critique of the Annihilator Original is the size of the cut. It has got some really cool features and it’s incredibly durable. It flies super well, penetrates exceedingly well, but I just have a little concern about that small cut.

And then you have the Annihilator XL. Even with it’s larger surface area, it still penetrated and flew very well and it was just still extremely durable.

So, for me and my hunting purposes, like hunting whitetails and hogs and stuff like that day in and day out, the broadhead battle winner of the Annihilator Broadhead battle is… the Annihilator XL! (check out the scorecards below).

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Other fixed-blade broadhead reviews from John Lusk:

• Afflictor Fixed Blade Heads
• Valkyrie Broadheads
• Dirt Nap DRT heads
• Bishop Holy Trinity

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