Heel O Matic Quick Release Head Roping Dummy

I was a bit worried about ordering this product because I read other review that was quite negative about the horns not collapsing, which is the whole reason to buy this roping dummy head.

We tried it out a little bit tonight. The bale we put it into was too light. It needs a heavy bale, otherwise when you pull the rope, it will move the bale, and not collapse horns. It is nice that the head pivots back, as well as horns collapse.

We plan to use on our homemade dummy trailer that pulls behind a 4 wheeler ATV. The other style dummy head was not very user friendly to dally and turn. Putting this head on that will work great.

This head is well made, very sturdy. I would prefer longer horns, but these are acceptable. I would think it's probably the same head they use on their Heel-O-Matic. I didn't have a chance to take video or pictures. May try to do that. But overall I like it, and I would recommend, as long as you know the bale has to be super heavy or tied down to a base to properly collapse horns.

Check out the NRS YouTube video on this product. You will notice that the young man demonstrating it never throws a rope on it. There is a VERY GOOD reason why he does not demonstrate with a rope. Because this product DOES NOT WORK as advertised. Yes the head swivels back, but the rope will absolutely not collapse the horns and release. I tried it at several different angles and heights. Same experience every time. The rope collapses around the base of the horns and 'sticks' firmly on the hard plastic of the head -- not able to transition up and collapse the horns. I own a Smarty Extreme and have roped a lot on Heel-O-Matics. I completely understand the way a quick release steer head that is well designed should work, and this one, as delivered, does not. I'm currently debating whether to send it back to NRS, or break it apart and attempt to modify it to get it to work. I have always appreciated NRS and given them my business... but after this stunt with this video (not demonstrating the product most likely because they know the product does not reliably work), I will definitely think twice before ordering from them again. With the price of this product ($200), one would certainly expect it to do the only thing that remotely justifies the price and that people are buying it to do -- release the rope. Definitely a 'buyer beware' on this one.