I’ll start this review off by saying in the past three years I have been shooting mechanical broad heads because I love the accuracy and the zero plain that are typical with this type of head. The main complaint that I have always had are the blade retention design that all these heads have had. That is true weather it is an o-ring design or using some type of spring design. Whatever the case may be that has always been the main downfall of broadheads. The o-rings don’t hold or the spring system holds the blades too tight and they take up too much energy upon contact with the animal. Of course in the past couple of years the new forward deployment design is the new rage so to speak. These type heads deploy to their full cutting diameter before entering the animal so you have large entry and exit holes that are the most desirable.

I tried the new Rage broadheads when they first hit the market and even harvested one buck with one and while it did do it’s job the o-ring system was sub-par. A problem occurs if you put any pressure on the blades such as pushing them up in your quiver. The o-ring will develop an indentation. After this happens is next to impossible to keep the blades in a closed position. That really didn’t work for me because 90% of my hunting is stalking so my arrows get moved around a lot and the o-rings just wouldn’t hold. With this said, I will now get onto the subject at hand, the new Tru Fire Switch Blade. This is the first true mechanical broadhead. Period. I first saw these advertised in one of my favorite bow hunting magazines and couldn’t wait to try them out. The first thing that caught my eye in the advertisement was no o-rings or automatic tip activated blade deployment and oversized tip technology. While skeptical I had to give them a try too.

I’m glad I did. When I first received the broad heads, I noticed they also guaranteed the three heads within 1 grain tolerance so of course this was the first thing I checked. True to their claim all three heads were dead on 100 grains each. After opening the package I noticed that it also suggested that they do not recommend layered targets for the heads. Nevertheless, the practice heads would work well so I used a layered target anyway just to see how the new heads would hold up. After installing one on my arrow, I pushed the head down on my workbench to see how much pressure it would take to open the head and found out it doesn’t take much. It is defiantly less than 25 ounces just like the packaging says.

This is the way it works: when the head meets its target the head pushes back and out come the blades to a generous 1 and 3/8 inch cutting hole on both entry and exit of its target. After the shot you simply pull out on the end of the head and it resets the blades. Now it was time to see if they would fly straight and hold up shot after shot. I decided to shoot these heads on a 300 grain arrow that put me right on 400 grain total weight. I used 3 inch dura vanes for this test and the arrows flew perfectly to the target out to 60 yards. No problem with no planing what so ever. This is one thing that is a must for me while using mechanical heads. The groups I shot with these are as good as when I shoot field points. I shot these though a layered target that was 12 inches thick and while it’s not a new target I will say this it always stops most of my fix blade heads I have tested and all of my mechanical heads I have tested. So I was happy to get several total pass through’s.

While shooting these heads, I shot one head more than 40 times without any kind of failure what so ever and while inspecting the target, the blades were always fully deployed upon entry and exit. Very impressive to say the least after that round of test with one head I decided to use the same head and shoot it through two of my old hunting magazines I had lying around in my shop. I like to do this with all mechanicals I test to make sure the blades will hold up. The thickness of these put together are about one half inch. Because most mechanical heads that I have tested don’t hold up well under these conditions after a few shots I was very pleased to see the head go though without a problem and still sticking out of the back of the layered target with more than 10 inches on every shot. I ended up shooting 20 rounds and still no problem that’s more than sixty rounds with the same head and no failure to the head at all. After testing these heads I decided to give Tru Fire a call and see if they had harvested any animals with the Switch Blade. Sure enough the folks at Tru Fire had used them for the past three years. They have taken elk, deer and hogs with great results with some shots out past 40 yards. Steve Tentler told me the heads were kept a secret for the past three during their development. They wanted to make sure every thing was perfect and ready to go before they put them on the market. They actually shot the Switch Blade through beef and pork ribs to put the heads thru the test to make sure that bone penetration was not a problem. Talking to Steve about a large Bull elk harvest, I was quiet impressed to learn these are not the easiest animals to take down with any broadhead.

My initial tests and Steve’s field test reports have convinced me. This season there will be a quiver full of arrows with the Tru Fire Switch Blade heads attached to the end of them on my hunting rig. Of course after the season I will have a full report on them and their performance in the field.