Dr. Ashby Reports

Index of Dr. Ed Ashby's Arrow & Broadhead Penetration Reports - If you have never read Dr. Ashby's reports, you're in for a treat. They're like a good novel that you just can't put down, the content is intense. As you read you'll experience many "a-ha!" moments. Things you have seen and experienced will start to make sense. You may want to bookmark this page as your gateway into the portal of what really happens when arrow and broadhead meet hide, bone, gristle, and meat.

We have all Dr. Ed Ashby's reports to date for you. As he releases more, we'll have them posted here. Here at GrizzlyStik, our roots are in traditional archery so we find it interesting this Dr. Ashby has always used both longbows and compound bows in his testing. Traditional bowhunters embraced the EFOC, heavy arrow, and heavy broadhead idea early on, but lately compound shooters all over the world are using our GrizzlyStik carbon arrows and our GrizzlyStik single bevel broadheads for the largest of game with results that are becoming legendary. Some bowhunting camps in Africa now insist that if you're going to bowhunt with them, you'll be using a broadhead like the GrizzlyStik Ashby 315.

2021 Case Study - Cape Buffalo

July 2021 case study by ABF and PHASA representatives of ten popular two-blade broadheads tested on Cape Buffalo in South Africa

2019 UPDATE - Ashby's Top 12 Arrow Penetration Enhancing Factors

The Penetration Enhancing Factors  

Ashby's Top 12 Arrow Penetration Enhancing Factors

Dr. Ashby's Top 12 - Ranked

Dr. Ed Ashby Getting an Edge on Success

Hemorrhaging Flow Chart

Ashby Broadhead Study

What makes a Lethal Broadhead?

Ashby on Single Bevel Broadhead

Why Single Bevel Broadheads?

Ashby On EFOC (Extreme Forward of Center)

Understanding and Applying FOC

Ashby Ultimate Hunting Arrows

Big Game ~ Big Arrows

Ashby On Momentum, Kinetic Energy, & Arrow Penetration

(And What They Mean To the Bowhunter)

Ashby's Arrow Lethality Study

Results In Graph Form

Papua New Guinea Bows and Arrows Study

And You Think You're Arrows Are Heavy

It's Hard to Argue with Facts & Figures - Starting in 1981, while working as a PH in Zimbabwe, Dr. Ed Ashby was recruited by the Mkuzi Game Reserve head Game Ranger Tony Tomkinson to assist in a bowhunting research study.  At the time bowhunting was not legal in South Africa. The government commissioned a study to determine if African game could be ethically and humanely harvested with the bow and arrow.

Four years later, Dr. Ashby and his team published what has come to be known as the “Natal Study.”  The research was based not on scientific methods but outcome-driven research. Arrow penetration tests were conducted on hundreds of freshly culled animals and results were meticulously recorded and documented. In 1986, based on the Natal Study, the South African government legalized bowhunting.  Legalization in South Africa soon opened legal bowhunting in many other Sub-Sahara countries. The Natal Study was the definitive document used to successfully lobby for bowhunting legalization. 

Ashby On Arrow Lethality Part 1
The Need for Knowledge

Ashby On Arrow Lethality Part 2
Broadheads - The Natal Study

Ashby On Arrow Lethality Part 3
Turning "Hits" into"Kills"

Ashby On Arrow Lethality Part 4
The Physics of Arrow Penetration

Ashby On Arrow Lethality Part 5
Predicting Arrow Penetration on Real Animals

“In bowhunting, there is no such thing as overkill” ~ Dr. Ed Ashby