To get a feeling for the Fulton Precision “style”—all you need to do is check out its web site at www.smokebroadheads.com. Browse down the Home Page about half way until you see the video “One on the right. Trophy Quest—Brett & Chris Fulton Hog Hunt 2012.”
In the video, Chris (Brett’s wife and vice president of Fulton Precision) is sitting in a treestand. She is dressed in camo and holding a crossbow, hunting feral hogs. It will be her first kill and she is nervous. If you are an experienced hunter, Chris’ honest emotional responses will take you back to your first time. If you are a newbie, you can empathize.
The video is at once touching and—dare we say this in a hunting business magazine—sweet. We can relate.
Just a few years ago the idea of a “hybrid fixed blade broadhead” caused the archery industry to scratch its head. Fixed blade heads and even mechanicals were by then well understood, but a hybrid fixed blade …. What the heck is that? Today, Ramcat heads from Fulton Precision Archery have made significant inroads into the ranks of America’s bowhunters, thousands of them Ramcat adherents.
Brett and Chris Fulton—both of whom are now rabid bowhunters—want to be sure the public understands that their three-blade head is a fixed-blade broadhead … with an added dimension that prevents it being thought of as a “barbed” head. Therein lies a bit of confusion, Chris says, because some see the hinged blades and immediately think Ramcat is a mechanical. It isn’t.
The unique Ramcat in 100- or 125-grain sizes has .032-inch solid stainless blades that are extended in flight and neither move forward or back upon impact. Blades are cantilevered or offset to the flight-path of the arrow, a design which Brett says promotes arrow rotation and stabilization. Blades are held against the ferrule, each tightened (or loosened) independently with .050-inch screws, the smallest Allen wrench in a set.
Ramcat blades were the first modern blade-over-shaft heads and they have exceptional pass-through qualities. They are not only surgically sharp on the leading or forward cutting edge, but they are sharpened on the rear or trailing edge as well, a factor that you should keep in mind when presenting these heads to customers.
Brett, in fact, has an often-used phrase that helps him explain why he sharpens the trailing blade edge: “No pass-through,” he says, “no problem.”
Because blades are sharpened on the trailing edge and rotate forward on an internal cam they will cut as they are backed out of a wound. A deer, for example, cannot pull a Ramcat-tipped arrow out without causing disastrous internal damage; and any big game animal running through the brush will scrape the back end of the arrow against limbs and tree trunks, and this will result in the initial 1 3/8-inch cut (with the 100-grain head) becoming much wider. This design results in extreme blood loss, short blood trails, and big game animals that expire rapidly.
What’s more, Ramcat blades are aligned with the structural ribs of the scalloped chisel tip, the tip that helps this head fly like a field point. The one-piece 440 stainless steel tip and ferrule are engineered to maximize penetration and to work with Fulton’s blade design as a system—each element is independent, but taken together they produce a super broadhead, a head that is greater than the sum of its parts.
“The self-centering chisel tip promotes hydro-shock in a big game animal’s body cavity. The deep lobes form an ‘in-cutting’ tip that create a hydrofoil effect, forcing body mass outward, and thus lessening friction down the arrow shaft. This results in deep, deep penetration. The purposefully scalloped lobes cause an airfoil-effect that drafts wind over the blades and prevents the head from windplaning.” On a close shot that may not be important, but on a windy day or with a shot to 40 yards or beyond, it is a definite element in the accuracy formula.
This year, Brett and Chris have climbed aboard Easton’s “Deep Six” Micro Diameter Carbon train and introduced two Ramcat heads with 6-40 ferrule threading for more secure point-to-insert connection: Available are a 100-grain 3-pack ($38) and 125-grain 3-pack ($39). Deep Six inserts provide 25 percent more thread engagement than conventional 8-32 (32 TPI or threads per inch) inserts and points. Thus, point installation feels more precise as additional threading links steel points to high-strength steel inserts. This also decreases point rattle and tip loosening as arrows are shot.
A plumbing contractor and part-time real estate investor by day, Brett Fulton has bowhunted for 40 years. So he speaks from experience when he recommends that when a customer takes the broadheads out of the package, they make sure that the blades are tight in their shipping position. After shooting several times, an archer may need to re-tighten the blades with an Allen wrench.
With the blade-over-shaft design of the Ramcat, Fulton suggests that bowhunters ought to practice drawing the broadhead when attached to a hunting arrow to make sure it clears the riser. If it does not, the arrows are probably too short. Align one blade at the 9 o’clock position, he says. “This indexing assures that the other two blades will fully clear the riser and that they don’t hang up in the quiver.”
Learn more about Fulton Precision Archery at www.smokebroadheads.com. The company also has or is featured in a number of videos on YouTube.com. You can follow Ramcat performance on Trophy Quest, which airs on the Outdoor Channel at 2:30 p.m. and 12:00 a.m. on Thursdays and at 10:00 p.m. on Saturdays, Eastern time. To place an order at company headquarters call (412) 519-5352.
