Iron Will Broadheads with the Man Behind the Plan Bill - Episode 69

02.11.2019 - By Play

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It all started with family for Bill Vanderheyden, the Co-Founder and Lead Engineer of Iron Will Broadheads. His grandfather and father had long been telling of the adventure to be found from within the Wisconsin woodland.

Bill’s love of the outdoors paralleled his affinity for math and science, especially physics, which led him to become a mechanical engineer. He has earned a total of 50 patents throughout his career. All the while, his passion for the outdoors continued to grow, with ever more time spent hunting and exploring remote locales.

Since moving to Colorado in 1999, Bill began supplementing his whitetail hunts with backcountry elk hunts. Finally, in 2004, after many years of hard work with no payoff, it all came together and he shot a nice bull. Dreadfully, the broadhead apparently hit the back edge of the shoulder blade and penetrated only a few inches and the bull was never recovered. This incident led to wanting more out of a broadhead.

The pursuit began by analyzing the physics behind every aspect of the shot and reading scientific studies. Current broadhead offerings were researched, purchased, and thoroughly tested. Bill was looking for a broadhead that would achieve maximum penetration, pass through bone undamaged, maintain a razor sharp edge, and fly great at long distances. Every broadhead tested fell short in one or more of these areas. Frustrated with the offerings, he decided to engineer his own broadhead. Over 7 years later, numerous field tests, computer simulations, material tests, all resulted in a long-range shooting broadhead that maximizes penetration, durability, and lethality. A broadhead we all now know as Iron Will.

In this episode we cover:

Bill’s Story

Time line from idea, to drawing, to actual product in hand

Broadhead accuracy

Performance in wind

Decision to go with bleeder blades

What is up next for Iron Will

And A lot more