Last year, a new mechanical broadhead rolled onto the market and set the bowhunting crowd buzzing. If you didn’t get a whiff of the SEVR broadhead this past season, here’s your chance to catch up.
In a nutshell, SEVR broadheads reconcile all the various issues we’ve had with hunting points over the years. We’re talking not just performance and engineering issues, but even packaging and marketing aspects that most of us have always grumbled about yet simply accepted as “the way it is.” The upstart brand debuted with a single broadhead that took the noted Ulmer Edge mechanical, upgraded it and added new design features, and brought it to market with a buy-what-you-need, factory direct sales model that made many of us go, “Well, of course … that makes sense.”
This year, the SEVR Broadheads brand has picked up serious momentum. The company has broadened their product offerings to, basically, cover all the bases for hunting North American big game as well as the budgets of the workaday bowhunter.
The Big Picture on SEVR Broadheads
Several interesting features are credited for putting SEVR front and center of the bowhunting world last year. Foremost among them is its locking and pivoting blade design.
The dual blades have a machined bevel that, when expanded, locks the blades together. Cool idea, but that’s not the real magic. SEVR’s rear-deploying blades secure to the ferrule with a single set screw. This gives the blades a common pivot so that when they lock into their full open position upon impact, the blades can move out of the way of solid objects, such as bone, and continue straight on through the animal rather than deflecting into non-vital areas or skipping, as is often the case when shooting at extreme angles. This ability to pivot not only promotes excellent penetration, it helps maintain the integrity of the blades so they can pass by bone and keep on cutting.
Each model has a slightly different stainless-steel blade. Machined from a single piece of titanium (models 2.1 and 1.5) and aluminum (model 1.7), the ferrule has a sleek profile to optimize penetration and it utilizes a quad-edge machined point that cuts on contact and does well when punching through bone. We took several hogs with these heads last year, and the SEVR had no problem getting past the tough shields on big wild boars.
Another aspect of mechanical broadheads that the SEVR heads address is practice shooting. A lot of mechanical broadhead manufacturers claim that their broadheads shoot like field points. Well … maybe. The truth is, there are almost always some discrepancies in the flight characteristics between the two. That’s why nearly all packs of mechanical broadheads include a practice point designed to simulate the real thing. That word “simulate” is the problem xe2x80x94 you’re not actually shooting what you will be hunting with, so you really can’t be sure that the point of impact will be the same for the hunting head as it is for the practice head.
SEVR broadheads, however, do not require a separate practice head because you can shoot targets with the actual broadheads you will use to hunt. This is made possible by a second threaded hole in the ferrule designed to accept a set screw. With the blades in the closed/undeployed position, simply install the provided set screw to lock the blades together, and the broadhead is now set to Practice Mode. The blade edges stay protected inside the ferrule, so they won’t dull when shooting into broadhead-compatible targets. We like this a lot because there is never any doubt as to how our hunting broadheads will fly and where they’ll hit.
Max Cut: Titanium 2.1
The SEVR Titanium 2.1 continues to lead the SEVR broadhead lineup this year. As the name hints, the Titanium 2.1 provides a healthy 2.1-inch cutting diameter with what the company calls its Stretch Cut™ design. Essentially, the blades deploy wide and at a relatively shallow angle, which causes hide and tissue to stretch a bit as the blades begin to slice their way through. This design also takes advantage of inherent tissue tension (the natural tension in muscle and organ tissue) to create exceptionally large wound channels that regularly exceed 2.1 inches and are often larger than 3 inches.
The Titanium 2.1 is the broadhead we tested last year on wild hogs with great success. We initially wondered how well such a wide and shallow-angled blade configuration would do when encountering a hog’s protective shield. As it turned out, there was no need for concern. Using FMJ arrows with a 506.9 grain total weight and a 19% F.O.C., the SEVRs instantly sealed the deal. Furthermore, the ferrule held up fabulously despite the hard impact. A simple clean up and replacing of blades and this head will be back in business.
Max Penetration: Titanium 1.5
Building on the success of the Titanium 2.1, this year, SEVR introduces the all-new Titanium 1.5 broadhead. It is identical to the Titanium 2.1 but with two design changes xe2x80x94 cutting diameter and blade angle.
The Titanium 1.5 head features a smaller, 1.5-inch cutting diameter. Also evident is the more swept-back blade angle, which is significantly more acute than that of the Titanium 2.1 head. The purpose of these design changes were to deliver a broadhead with the absolute greatest potential for game pass-through. The idea, of course, is that a reduced cutting diameter and more delta-shaped blade profile will give maximum penetration in the toughest big-game animals, such as elk, moose and bear. So far, they have worked superbly on deer-sized animals xe2x80x94 entrance and exit holes are not as big.
All Purpose: AP 1.7
Also new for this year are the SEVR AP 1.7 heads. These utilize extra-thick .035-inch stainless steel with a cutting diameter that falls between the Titanium 2.1 and Titanium 1.5 heads, at 1.7 inches.
Aside from the thicker blade material and midsize cutting diameter, the AP 1.7 head differs from the rest of the SEVR line up with its 7075-alloy ferrule and quad-edge stainless steel tip. In terms of operational features and penetrating capability, the AP 1.7 stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the Titanium 2.1 and Titanium 1.5 heads and includes the Lock-and-Pivot™ blade design and Practice Mode features. The idea of the AP 1.7 was to bring to market a broadhead suitable for use on any big-game animal but do so at a price point a couple dollars less per head than the all-titanium ferrule versions. Our guess is that the AP 1.7 heads will be a big hit with both vertical bow and crossbow shooters.
A Novel Idea
All SEVR broadheads are sold directly from the factory in whatever quantity the consumer wishes. This is a welcome concept because now it is possible to buy only as many heads as you need at a time rather than the conventional three-pack mandated by other broadhead manufacturers. Each broadhead, therefore, comes in its own plastic case, which makes storage easy and safe (and helps keep blades sharp). Included with each broadhead is a Practice Mode set screw and a couple extra O-rings. All of this is light years beyond the usual blister packaging we’re used to seeing.
SEVR went one step further, though, by developing the Deluxe SEVR Broadhead Case. Each case can hold up to a dozen individually packaged broadheads, and it includes a zippered pouch in the lid to stow small items like broadhead wrenches, Allen wrenches, and spare O-rings and set screws.
The broadhead case is perfect for general at-home storage of your SEVR broadheads, but where it really shines is when it is used for transportation. The pouch is sized just right for tucking into a hard-sided bow case for airline travel or simply driving to your hunting spot after work. It also fits compactly into a backpack, should you find yourself on a remote wilderness hunt.
SEVR set a new standard in bowhunting technology and innovation when it introduced the Titanium 2.1, and the company is continuing that forward-thinking momentum this year with the new Titanium 1.5 and AP 1.7 heads, as well as the zippered broadhead case concept. If you’re thinking about upgrading your broadheads this season and these products pique your interest, just know that you won’t find them in stores or at your local archery shop. SEVR products can only be purchased directly from the factory by going to sevrbroadheads.com.
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