2023 had no shortage of gear changes for me. I’m always looking for ways to solidify my system even more. The only way to do that is to try out new things. Sometimes they work and sometimes they don’t. During the 2023 season, I was reminded of the phrase, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” My arrow setup is now what it once was instead of something totally new.
I’ve ventured out of my comfort zone the last few years and tinkered with some new arrow setups. I’ve tried heavy arrows, midweight arrows, high-mod carbon arrows, low-mod carbon arrows, etc. From in the backcountry running through animals to the range cutting 100 yards of real estate. In the end, I went back to what I was most confident in. The Victory VAP TKO.
The Victory VAP TKO is an arrow I have a massive amount of confidence in. This is a midweight high-mod carbon. I feel like high-mod carbon aids in penetration and more consistent arrow flight. I’ve noticed with low mod carbon an arrow flexes more on impact, say on a target. I’ve captured this on video. High-mod carbon hits and is rock steady. There is no tuning fork effect if that makes sense. To me, that means more retained energy is in the center of the arrow shaft upon impact.
Snag some of the Evolution Outdoors VAP TKO arrows HERE
On the arrow weight side of things, heavyweight arrows are just not for me. I know many folks swear by them and have great success. But for me, I like an arrow that has a flatter trajectory. It’s more forgiving in the field when you need to judge yardage, or in all honesty, if the nerves are flowing heavily. Accuracy is the most important thing to me and a midweight arrow lends to that. You get the best of both worlds in both momentum and trajectory.
Year after year I’ve had great success with it on all fronts. It’s durable, flies incredibly well, and I get great penetration out of it. I’ve also never received a crooked one. They are performers “through and through” literally.
Same story, different piece of gear. In the last few years, I’ve tried out a number of heads. Non-vented fixed blades, vented fixed blades, 2-blade with bleeder, 3-blade, 4-blade, straight mechanical, and hybrid. All of them will work, but I had mixed results on arrow flight consistency throughout. Perfect arrow flight leads to consistent accuracy. That is the most important thing to me. The broadhead that stood tall above everything else was the Evolution Outdoors Hyde and the Jekyll.
The Hyde is a hybrid broadhead and the Jekyll is a fixed-blade broadhead. To this date, I haven’t found another head that has given this level of consistency to me. Both fly incredibly well and perform exceedingly well on animals. And it all comes at a price that doesn’t involve endless amounts of tuning. That’s a problem I’ve run into with other heads. The tinkering in order to get broadheads to fly with field points. With these, it’s a non-issue. So, in that regard, they are much more of an efficient choice for me in terms of time.
My entire setup looks like this:
Total Arrow Weight – 476 grains
We can chat about how something is going to perform on paper all day, but results are what really matters. And this setup has given me the best results I’ve had across the board.
The only thing I’ve done for tuning with this arrow setup is paper tuning at 3 yards and then again at 6 yards. This is all done with a fletched field point too. Once I get a bullet hole through the paper, I’m done. After doing this, I can confidently shoot these broadheads out to 80+ yards with my field points with no issues. It’s the most efficient system I’ve ever used.
Since switching to this arrow setup I’ve taken 4 animals. 2 coues deer bucks, a mule deer buck, and a black bear. The first coues deer was shot at a lengthy 101 yards. That deer went 20 yards before falling over. On my second coues buck, my arrow zipped through him at 40 yards. Having gone through the gut, liver, and one lung, that deer went 100 yards. Both coues deer were shot with the Hyde.
My mule deer buck was shot at 35 yards with the Jekyll. Recovery there was about 200 yards, simply because of gravity. It was super steep, so the buck went much farther than he would have if it hadn’t been so vertical.
Lastly, my black bear was arrowed at 30 yards and he went a mere 20 yards before he passed. That bear was shot with the Jekyll. I was super impressed with this given the fact that the Jekyll is a fixed blade with a smaller cutting diameter than its sibling the Hyde which packs a 2″ cutting diameter.
At the end of the day, this whole arrow setup thing comes down to one thing. That is confidence. No matter what the current trend or what your friends tell you, if you don’t have confidence in your equipment, the ground beneath your feet is a shaky one. I’ve been there and it isn’t a recipe for success. And to be fair, this setup above might not be for you. That’s totally fine. The point of this is to not only share what I’m using but to encourage you to find your own confidence in an arrow setup based on your own experiences. Confidence is not bought. It is earned.
Want to learn more about backpack hunting? Check out my book Becoming a Backpack Hunter: A Beginner’s Guide to Hunting the Backcountry.
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