ArcheryTalk Review: Annihilator Broadheads
Lucas Cooney 09.30.20
This past January at the Archery Trade Association Show I put a video together on the new Annihilator broadheads for the ArcheryTalk YouTube channel. That video ended up being one of the most viewed of the 50 I did at the show, so I figured it made sense to follow up with an actual review.
Broadhead reviews are a bit of a departure for me, but I decided to give it the old college try. While I haven’t actually hunted with these broadheads yet (that is the plan when the season opens up in my area), I had to come up with some different ways to put them to the test.
First, I wanted to see how easily I could get the Annihilator broadheads shooting with field points. For this, I used a Bowtech Revolt compound bow and Gold Tip AirStrike arrows.
Second, I wanted to see what the initial impact of the Annihilator broadheads looked like, so I filled up some bags with water and food coloring. I shot one bag with the Annihilator and another with a different fixed blade broadhead. The idea here was to see what the splash looked like on both sides of the bag (entry and exit). I’m not sure this is a very scientific test, but I it gave us a chance to play with slow motion and, if nothing else, it looks really cool.
Third, I wanted to see what kind of hole the Annihilator leaves. To do this, I sandwiched a pork roast between two pieces of plywood and fired an arrow through it.
Fourth, I decided to make some homemade ballistic gel and see how the Annihilator reacted to it. This, however, didn’t seem to reveal a whole lot, as I don’t think my gel was dense enough. I will have to tweak the recipe if I ever do this again.
What followed next was a torture test. I shot the same broadhead 10 times through 7/16” plywood, then shot it again into a concrete block. The idea here was to see what kind of shape the Annihilator was in after the carnage was over.
Finally, I wanted to see how easily I could bring the used and abused Annihilator back to life again. One of the things that drew me to this broadhead in the first place is that it is a one-piece design and should be able to be sharpened on a flat sharpening stone.
Check out the embedded video to find out how the Annihilator broadheads performed.
