Always do your best to find your bolts

jay73 · Post by **jay73** » Fri Apr 06, 2007 11:09 am

I'll try to get to the point quick...

Was on my way to work yesterday when I came across about a dozen turkeys on the side of the road. Some took off flying, some ran. Anyways, I went knockin for permission on my way home. Long story short, the farmer has hunters on his property already.

The worst part is that he has sworn off bows for hunting on his land. He went into the back room and brought back the front end of an arrow with 1/2 of the broadhead still attached. HE FOUND IT ON THE FLOOR OF HIS CATTLE BARN. He thought it must've got rolled up in the hay.

Anyways, I didn't get permission.....dang-it.

Jay

Adam · Post by **Adam** » Fri Apr 06, 2007 12:30 pm

i always heard an arrow in a field could mess up a combine when hes cutting hay, not so much the carbons as the aluminum bolts.

crazyfarmer · Post by **crazyfarmer** » Fri Apr 06, 2007 2:27 pm

speaking from a farmers point of view.. usually if you cut hay those blades would slice and dice anything that gets in their way and wouldnt even flinch if they hit a arrow. The problem arrises if that bhead gets in the hay and if a cow manages to eat that head it wouldnt be pretty. but the oods of getting struck my lightning are probably better than that happening. One could still stick into a tire though. Ive found arrows in out fields before but they were flush with the ground so nothing made contact with them. But still try your best to find them cause it would never fall that a bhead would stick into a tire while we are in the middle of rushing to get something done LOL. Its a 15 chance they would affect something, but if they did you dont want a ticked off farmer calling you up at 11pm at night

Golden Eagle · Post by **Golden Eagle** » Fri Apr 06, 2007 4:59 pm

I always try to find my Arrow or Bolt for that xact reason. I do a lot of my early Archery Hunting near hay Fields where the Deer come to just before dark. I have always been afraid of Cattle getting a Broadhead Cut in the mouth while eating the Hay. I can honestly say I have always found mine in Hay fields. Lost some in the thick Woods with underbrush though.

jay73 · Post by **jay73** » Fri Apr 06, 2007 6:54 pm

crazyfarmer wrote: The problem arrises if that bhead gets in the hay and if a cow manages to eat that head it wouldnt be pretty.

Thats what he was getting at, and it was in the hay.

Jay

wabi · Post by **wabi** » Fri Apr 06, 2007 8:05 pm

I can see the farmer's reason for concern is valid, and would have to admit it can happen. Not too likely, but certainly possible!
Where I hunt there is no livestock, and the landowner bowhunts, too. I've lost two broadheads over the years and I know he has lost at least one. We even went back with a metal detector to look for his and didn't find it!
That's another reason I can think of for using aluminum shafts. They could probably be located with a good metal detector. I believe all the lost arrows have been carbon shafts.

BigTiny · Post by **BigTiny** » Sat Apr 07, 2007 12:50 am

You can use a metal detector to find carbon shafts too. The tip and nock are metal, it just takes longer. I found one of mine using my son's toy metal detector.

Farmer · Post by **Farmer** » Sat Apr 07, 2007 5:53 am

A broadhead in the feed or finding one in a tractor tire would be a big problem . I spent the better part of a whole day looking for an arrow in corn stubble .

Did find it though .

With my luck it would have been a Thunderhead thru the side wall of the no till drill in the spring .

GREY OWL · Post by **GREY OWL** » Sat Apr 07, 2007 10:35 pm

Treestands are great, arrows usually stick right in the ground, straight up.

Grey Owl

Grizzly-Papa · Post by **Grizzly-Papa** » Sun Apr 08, 2007 8:46 am

Funny you should bring this subject up J.

Spent last weekend disking a couple of food plots at the camp. We mowed the tall grass first as it makes it a whole lot easier all the while looking for the bolt / broadhead I lost last fall after a complete pass through on the first buck. Must have spent 4 hours looking for it but came up empty handed.

I proceeded to disk the field with my buddies Expedition as the tow vehicle, his turn for wear and tear on the vehicle this year

Well, on one of my last passes I finally saw the bolt emerge from the dirt.........minus the broad head. I also found a flat rear tire on the SUV.

The tire repair shop found a 1 inch gash in it but no broadhead.

The Son of a Gun of a broadhead is still lurking in the field and it's my turn next year............

Grizzly-Papa

BOB VANDRISH · Post by **BOB VANDRISH** » Sun Apr 08, 2007 9:41 am

Just so that we are all aware,a magnet will not pick up or be attracted to aluminum or brass.
Inserts or nocks are either aluminum or plastic,so they fall in the same category.
If anyone is finding lost arrows that way,it is because they happened to go over the head of an arrow,and that would be unbelievable odds!
Broadheads and target points are made from ferrous metals and can be detected with a magnet.
A friend of mine has a hand held sweeping type metal detector that I intend to try,as I have lost a couple in a blueberry patch,where it is almost impossible to locate them.

JackZ · Post by **JackZ** » Sun Apr 08, 2007 10:29 am

It is unfortunate that most broadhead manufacturers only make stainless steel blades anymore. I have lost arrows and bolts in fields before and have found a few that others had lost. A carbon steel blade will rust away fairly quckly and render the lost head much less of a threat to tires people or animals. A carbon blade can also normally be made sharper than a stainless head, being another benefit to the hunter.

Perhaps we can urge manufacturers of heads to return carbon steel blades to the market.
JackZ

BOB VANDRISH · Post by **BOB VANDRISH** » Mon Apr 09, 2007 9:13 am

My hunting buddy got back to me with some information on his metal detector.
Apparently it can detect both ferrous and non ferrous metals to a fair distance underground and under water.
So that means that it will sense aluminum,and obviously the heads and nocks on carbon bolts too,if they are made of any metal.
I have asked him to let me how much these are worth,and I will share that info with the group.
He originally bought it to scour the beaches in Florida,looking for precious metals,I am sure!(and exercise,he says!)