OK, so I've lost a few fliers at the range. Those 80-yard field targets are tough. Those 40-yard 3D deer keep ducking the string on me! My expensive arrows are getting swallowed up by the knee-high grass, burrowing underneath. Who uses a metal detector to find arrows? How good of a metal detector will I need? Can I get a cheapie entry-level unit and get by? What should one know about these before picking one up, as they relate to finding arrows? I'm using carbons with standard steel field points. Thanks for any advice.
You should be fine with anything that beeps when metal is detected....but if you went expensive, you could make your money back charging a finder's fee for your buds. :D
Trouble here is that it's an old farm place with tons of old metal junk in the ground. With aluminums it was no problem because I could discriminate out the iron and it would sing out near the alu shaft. With carbons, once they're under the grass, they're just plain gone. A metal detector set to accept steel/iron will beep about every three inches around here. Usually what you pay for with an expensive detector is the ability to discriminate coins out of aluminum and iron junk and extra depth, and neither of those is important for finding arrows. Some of those Chinese dectectors that copy the Tesoro circuits are pretty decent machines if you don't have a prob with the politics of buying Chinese stuff. Look for the cheap ones with the good reviews on Amazon.com.
Oh and there's the phenomenon of "iron masking" where a piece of brass or aluminum that's right next to iron will be masked out by the iron and won't show up if you have iron discriminated out. So even though you probably have aluminum or brass inserts in your carbons, they will still most likely show up as iron even on an expensive detector. Again, impossible to pick out of the ground junk around my property.
One of the kids has a $75 metal detector we bought her from Radio Shack. I use it CONSTANTLY to find my arrows. (My target is up against the "tall grass" in the back yard)
Works great. I can pretty easily find wood shafted arrows, just picking up the metal point.
Aluminum arrows are a piece of cake, super easy to find.
A guy at work is really into metal detecting for old coins and stuff, he paid $250 for his unit.
Again, my cheap radio shack unit works great.
She's long gone, but I only lost 1 arrow in years of shooting on Adak and it was due to a black lab named Bou. This included non-flu flu arrows sent after flying ptarmigan. She would find anything with feathers.
If you have access to a retriever, give her a try. Might be surprised
When I had my flatcoat retreiver I would put bird training scent on the feathers. The dog would always find the arrows I lost out back and stump shooting.
SL
I have one from wally world that has saved me enough money to pay for it. Like they said even the cheapo's will work, just gets a little rough in an area with a lot of ore in the ground. Also make sure you keep fresh batteries so you don't have to stand directly on your arrow to find it.
Check out www.arrowrecover.com (http://www.arrowrecover.com)
Small metal detector designed for arrows. Fits in your pocket or quiver and screws onto the end of your arrow. Don't have one but they sure do look like they would do the job.
I use the kids $14 metal detector from Target. It is in the kids toys. I let my boy find them. It is a great game for him.
Thanks, everyone, for the input!
I used the old cheapy dector dad bought me from Radio shack.Now we use the Minelab.
This is one of the main reasons I started off with aluminums.LOL