Trad Gang

Don't laugh; I've actually found lost arrows with a y shaped tree branch, the same as I use for water dowsing (witching). I swear on my best bow. If you can witch water give it a try.
Bob

If you don't use blunts or judo points hang an old blanket behind the target and let hang and the bottom lay forward like a big L . If you miss it should slow the arrow down and it wont get buried.

i actually found one this year that i shot at a turkey about 25+ years ago,that was kinda neet to see that old aluminum arrow....

My dog has found a couple for me.  Just tell him to "fetch it up" and sometimes he will - if he feels like it  :)   Always wondered if the water witching stuff would work, I might have to give it a try next summer.

OK pete whats the water witching stuff?

The first thing I do is cry. Then I go get the twins then cry some more if they can't find it.

I lost an arrow in exactly the same way and I've been looking for it for two years now, every time I hunt where I lost it.

It baffles me and I can't help but spend a little time at it each trip. Must have slipped into a crack in the earth!    

Use another arrow to rake the ground in the area you suspect the lost arrow, perpendicular to it's path. You will hear it "tap" when the tip touches the lost arrow. Works well when arrows are laying under cut grass.

QuoteOriginally posted by smilinicon:
Use another arrow to rake the ground in the area you suspect the lost arrow, perpendicular to it's path. You will hear it "tap" when the tip touches the lost arrow. Works well when arrows are laying under cut grass.

Same here. But like said before, don't take your eyes off where it went and stay in line with it as you walk up. Sometimes they'll skip out of the grass and back into it way down range.

When you come here to learn how to make a string I can show you how to make an arrow while we are at it.  At less than a dollar it will not hurt so bad when you looses one.

A little trick I use is to go back and recreate the shot with a judo point.  Then search in line with it forward and backward with an old arrow or rake.

That said I still can't find one I lost in my backyard this summer and I've looked a dozen times now.

I have a German Hunting terrier that is about 99% on finding my lost arrows in the grass.  saves a lot of money, but I usually have to reflectch after she finds it.(she likes to bite the feathers)

Someone here advised reflective tape behind the fletching and shine a flashlight in the area after dark.I still have a good aboyer brownbear/ easton shaft lost out there with reflective tape and if anyone finds it I still want it! Anyone know of a source for reflective knocks?

I find mine all the time sitting on the riding lawn mower. It amazes me how a straight line in nature stands out!

A ski pole makes a good arrow finder, also.  (Cross-country better than downhill because of the tip shape).  Drag it lightly in two foot perpendicular paths to the arrow's flight.  

Where my target hangs there are dozens of 6" to 12" pieces of barbed wire just under the surface.  (And old shotshell brass, nails, .22LR bullets and brass, lead shot, slugs, fence staples, everything but valuables).  Must be someone hacked a strand or two of wire up on a brush-hog some time past.  I have two metal detectors and neither is of much use finding the arrow tip.  An aluminum shaft would be cake because you could select out iron.

use your lab retriver use turkey fletch or apply bird scent . mine breaks wood arrows i think for some strange reason he likes the smell of poc.  my best arrow finding dog was a brit he would point lost arrows.

Lost arrows make me crazy! The last time, I went to the skeet house at my club and grabbed a fireplace poker, then furrowed the ground in front of the archery targets every couple of feet for about twenty feet in both directions until I found it. Lots of roots. Anyway, a stout hook set on a broomstick would make a fair tool for finding arrows, and I've been meaning to make one. Usually I try to focus on the spot where it hit the ground and try finding it before I shoot any more. A very good incentive not to miss.

When shooting at a tennis ball, I have already put a hole in it, knot a cord and push it thru so I can hang it in front of my bale target.

No lost arrows.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFW2dZ3Y2m8&feature=related

After seeing the arrow bounce off of the tennis ball, I discovered that my point had gotten dull, so I filed it a bit to redeem myself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6vfRzyhoxE

Maybe it would be a good idea to replace the tennis ball with a basket ball. If that fails there is always the medicine ball. Just kiddin.
Larry

My target butt is in the same situation as STUMPKILLER'S.  I have a metal detector, but trying to find the tip on a carbon arrow is almost impossible with all the barbed wire, and other junk buried back there.
I did find one a couple of weeks ago.  It had a judo point on it, and it was laying in about 2 inches of snow just behind a large bush.  My only guess is that it got hung up in the bush, and fell out with the snow and wind.  Go figure.

Use the Force, Mike.

Use the Force ...

++M (sorry, can't resist^^)

My GSP (Gullivor) is an arrow finding machine...it actually becomes a chore keeping him still when you're shooting as he's hoping w/ every shot that it doesen't stick in that 3D target.....He runs down range w/ every shot and looks at the target in disgust when it's sticking in it.
When it's not...I walk him down and say "Find"...and he goes to work.  Give him time and he'll pull the shaft from the grass reathers first and run it to you.  He's a piece of work!  Best way I've found yet!

When I loose them I figure maybe a cedar tree will sprout there. Hasn't  happened yet though.

Thanks guys ya'll are some funny son off a guns I'll say that. And thanks to my old buddy Pac  might get to learn how to make me some arrows. Thanks guys, Hay Pac, be looking for a letter in the mail  thanks Mike

Once I shot a follow-up for a hint where the first one went -- yep, you guessed it -- lost em both!  My favorite way is to use another arrow to slide under the grass and lift. I've found lots of arrows that were otherwise invisible.

When in college a very long time ago my dad loaned me one of his metal detectors. Like was said above, they can find the point (some can find aluminum but aluminum is often tuned out of the machines to save hunting pull tabs).

Surely a dog could be trained to find arrows?  Of course a fellow would have to admit to a lot of missing to make such an investment in time.

I should have read all these posts first -- indeed some fine hounds are arrow finders. I had to run my dog off when shooting, he whined. Now my son's dog is doing the same thing.  Maybe I grind my teeth when I shoot? Or maybe, these 56-year old ligaments make noises only man's best friend or an MRI can hear?

I have always had great success with my labs and I have never tried putting scent on them because I don't actually plan on missing.  I wave another arrow's fletchings under the dog's nose and get them excited.  Then get them looking with their nose to the ground.  Doesn't hurt to practice it with your dog before it's really needed.  Mine did it with very little effort.

For me the hardest ones to find are the ones that have gone further than I thought or even thought possible.  So I like to stick an arrow in the ground where I am standing and then lob an arrow past where I think the arrow is.  Then I have two points to reference to it keeps me on track.

I lost one in the woods today behind the house. Had to break out the back pack blower. About five seconds of running the blower and the arrow was found.  :)

I got an old broomstick that I broke the threads off of and bolted a coat hanger on it. Works great. I have found all of them so far. It is about ten years old. Gary