What Grain Broadhead Should You Use on a Crossbow?

Three reasons stack up, and together they are hard to argue with.

Your bow was sighted with it.Crossbow packages ship with field points and a scope sighted at a factory velocity that assumes a specific finished arrow weight, and the point in that calculation is almost always 100 grains. Change the head weight and you are not adjusting a rifle scope’s turret for a known offset — you are starting your sight-in over.

The crossbow-rated heads are built in it. Crossbow launch forces break heads that are fine on a compound, which is why makers build crossbow-specific versions. The Rage Hypodermic Crossbow NC is a 100-grain head; the Muzzy Trocar HBX is 100 grains; the Slick Trick Magnum 100 is, as the name says, 100 grains. The choice of weight is partly made for you by what exists.

You do not need the penetration.A typical modern crossbow produces 120 to 220 ft-lb at the muzzle against an Easton-published deer recommendation of 25 to 41 ft-lb. The classic argument for 125 grains — a low-poundage bow that needs help driving through — mostly does not apply to a 400 FPS crossbow shooting whitetails.

The general case for heavier heads is real: heavier heads penetrate hide, bone and muscle better than lighter heads that travel slightly faster, which is the same physics as the arrow-weight argument. The conventional dividing line comes from compound bows — under about 55 pounds of draw weight, 100 grains is recommended so you keep arrow speed, and higher draw weights can afford 125 for the penetration.

Front-of-center is the percentage of your arrow’s total weight that sits forward of its balance point. It is what actually decides whether a broadhead flies like your field points, and the commonly recommended window is 12 to 15 percent as the balance between stability and trajectory.

This reframes the whole question. If your broadheads are not grouping with your field points, the problem is more likely low FOC than the wrong head weight — and going from 100 to 125 grains is one of several ways to fix it, not the only one.

A 25-grain change in head weight is a 25-grain change in a finished arrow that might weigh 400 to 450 grains. That is roughly six percent — enough to move your point of impact, nowhere near enough to transform penetration on its own.

For comparison, the TenPoint EVO-X CenterPunch16 finishes at 410 grains with a 92-grain brass insert and about 17 percent FOC. The insert alone is close to the weight of the broadhead. If your goal is front weight, the insert is the bigger and cheaper lever.

Changing head weight changes total arrow weight, which changes velocity, which changes trajectory. Your 20-yard zero may survive; your 40- and 50-yard marks will not. A crossbow scope with fixed stadia or a speed dial makes this worse, not better, because the reticle assumes the velocity it was set for.

So budget the change properly: new heads, a target, and an afternoon. If you are not willing to re-sight, stay at the weight your bow is already zeroed for — that is a completely legitimate reason to buy 100-grain heads.

Who each is for. Buy the Hypodermic if you want the standard answer and a big wound channel on deer. Buy the Trocar HBX if you want a fixed tip leading the cut without leaving 100 grains. Buy SEVR Titanium 2.0if you specifically want to try 125 grains, because it is the one here that offers it — it is sold per head at premium prices, so a full quiver costs real money.

If what you actually want is more FOC and more penetration, buy it at the insert rather than the head. A brass insert adds 50 to 90 grains in the right place, keeps you on a 100-grain head so your head options stay open, and — unlike a head swap — it is a change you make once to the arrow rather than every time you replace a blade.

You still have to re-sight after adding weight anywhere. The advantage of doing it at the insert is that you only do it once.

Before ordering, check two published numbers in your manual: the minimum finished arrow weight in grains, and the required nock type. The weight figure is the hard limit — it includes your broadhead, and dropping under it is treated as a dry-fire-class risk rather than a performance preference.

Owners of closed-system bows have less to decide. Ravin bows take Ravin’s proprietary clip-on nock arrows, and TenPoint states that using a moon or capture nock in any of its crossbows voids the warranty. In both cases the arrow is chosen for you and the head weight is the only variable left — which is another reason to leave it at 100 grains and spend the attention on shot placement.