I recently went on a couple of bow fishing trips and had penetrat ion issues with the jackhammer bow fishing tip. I used it on the first trip and had a lot of ricochets and bounce backs off of the fish with it. I was shooting big carp and buffalo. Most of the problem shots were when the fish were swimming right at me. I was wading while shooting. I went yesterday and changed tips and had absolutely no problems at all at any angle. Makes me think that all those years of using the jack hammer it was costing me fish and I was blaming it on bad shots. Its hard to notice these things unless you compare the two over a two day trip. One 1 day and the other the next, and not through years of mixed up arrows. I had a friend that said that the tip was junk and not to use it, but I said look how pointy it is. He said it would cost me fish and now my survey says yes. Im going to stick with the original style muzzy tip for carp and gar. The jack hammer style is on the right side of the picture.

I have used both on buffalo, carp, and gar, and haven't noticed much of a difference in performance.

Hey thanks for responding. I feel like the original style muzzy tip cuts on contact unlike the jack hammer tip punching a hole like a bullet and not cutting the very tuff scales. Over the two bow fishing trips I really realized on the second when every fish I shot I retrieved, and it was with the original muzzy tip. When I used the hammer and had a failure I would have a scale stuck to the tip. When I used the muzzy I had some scales stuck to the tip too, but it still went all the way through the fish. This makes me think that when the hammer tip hits a big fish scale in the center it slows the arrow down significantly. I think that when the muzzy hits the scales it cuts them and keeps driving through vs trying to poke a hole without a cutting edge. The guy that warned me about them when he saw them in my boat was a bow fishing tournament competitor and shot mostly carp and buffalo in the competitions.

What bow?

Let me try this again my computer is a little wacked out right now. I use a high country micro quad. It is set up at 50 pounds and has a 29 inch draw length. It has done me good for several years. I have landed some 6 to 7 foot gator gar with it.

I have both those kinds of points used them quite a bit and never had a complaint with either. I have shot them till they had round tips due to hitting rocks etc and still never had a problem getting penetration. I shoot 1 of two bows, an old 65 lb bear or a browning barracuda, never had problems with either.

I have backed off the draw weight on my bow fishing rigs now days, because I was shooting through small and big gar and the razor sharp scales would cut my string like it was sewing thread. Also when shooting rolling fish you have to be extra quick. Ive taken people bow fishing for rolling gar and I will have an arrow in a fish and they are just now trying grab their string not mention they've got pull that thing back. Im happy with the 50 pound mark. The round cams on my high country make for a real smooth let off, so with the 50% let off and the round cams it feels more like a recurve. I had a 50 pound PSE coyote recurve and the micro quad launches the arrows smoother, faster, and farther. Its also only 32 1/2 inchs axle to axle. Its a little less cumbersom for me.