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The ongoing debate over the importance of tuning broadheads to today’s lighting fast bows is an issue put to rest by Sullivan Industries at the recent ATA Trade Show in Indianapolis. Most industry gurus agree that as bows have gotten faster they have become slightly more difficult to tune and slightly less forgiving to shooter error. Add to this the markets growing preference for carbon arrows that can’t take the necessary heat needed for tuning glued-in broadhead arrow inserts and you’ve got...well, you’ve got a lot of archers shooting bigger groups. While it’s true that the speed of these bows provides a larger “kill window” at various ranges, many archers agree that their confidence builds with good tight groups and consistently reliable (and repeatable) arrow flight on the practice range. Carbon arrows are light, fast and very straight, so what accounts for the variation in flight on the range? Innerloc® believes, and their testing supports, that the culprit is the broadhead’s orientation as it bottoms out and tightens against the arrow insert.

Here’s the scenario.

A 300 fps bow launches an arrow at approximately 200 mph. In a perfectly tuned bow (in a perfect world), the blades slice precisely through a 200 mph wind and the arrow shoots to the same impact point every time. Of course, we live in the real world and this actually NEVER happens. The best we can hope for is working to make the tiny glitches in nock points, arrow rests, arrow spines, etc. REPEATABLE from shot to shot. It is then that tight consistent groups begin to take shape. At this point, the only adjustment that is NOT repeating itself from shot to shot is the position of the broadhead blades on the carbon shaft. In the few nano seconds that the fletching is trying to stabilize the arrow, the broadhead, at some point, may be slightly influenced the “wind”. At 200 miles per hour, even the smallest glitch in bow tuning can create minute changes in the forces of the wind against the broadhead. In fact, at these speeds even mechanical heads are subject to such forces. To deal with these forces, Innerloc® has created B.A.T., Blade Alignment Technology™.

Innerloc’s challenge has been to gain control of the last remaining “unadjustable” tuning component and they have done so with amazing results. B.A.T. is featured in two new heads, the Falcon™ and the Carbon Tuner™. Both feature a unique dual-threaded “stud” that offers insert threads and broadhead body threads. Together, the dual-threaded stud allows new .027 thick blades to be positioned and tightened at any point in the insert, resulting in broadhead blade orientation that matches perfectly from arrow to arrow. The Falcon head carries the entire concept a step further with a single piece tip that aligns the tip edges to the blade edges and makes the entire head more compact. Falcon broadhead users can expect perfect alignment from the tip through the fletching and the nock. With Falcon heads, an archer can set-up every arrow in his quiver exactly the same. The Falcon will be available as a stainless 100gr head or as an 85gr stainless/aluminum. The Carbon Tuner will be available in a 100gr model similar in design to Innerloc’s successful replaceable blade line with tuning capability.