Arrows Dilemma

[Phatmike10]

Hi, I bought some carbon ‘super club’ arrows from Merlin archery. I enjoy shooting with them and they are good value, the problem is that I can only use them for indoor shooting as our club doesn’t allow carbon outside because you can’t use a metal detector on them. Are their any Aluminium or Aluminium/carbon arrows that will feel the same and for around the same price?

[Quadratus]

EITHER a) Cut pieces of baking foil about 6 inches long and 1 inch wide, roll loosely and insert into shaft of each arrow. Put a spot of fletching cement on if you are worried about the foil moving about, although in practice, it doesn't. The foil makes them a little heavier, and changes the FOC slightly, but so long as you keep the size of the foil constant your accuracy won't be affected in any way. If you are shooting well enough to detect any changes to your tuning, I'm impressed. I have done this without problems several times and treated arrows are as easily 'seen' by the detector as any alloy/carbon shaft.

OR Persuade your club that, if they are worried about finding carbon arrows, they should invest in a decent metal detector - any but the cheapest will detect the points alone without any problems whatever.

Personally, I favour the latter approach....

[Phatmike10]

Thanks for the tips. I haven’t had much experience with a metal detector since when I was about 7 going round my mates house looking for treasure. I remember metal detectors being able to find all sorts of rubbish from 1p coins to an occasional ½ penny or even the tab off a coke can, that’s when you’ve hit the jackpot! You make a good point, I would have thought most detectors would pick up the arrow head?

[greydog]

A good metal detector will do the job, we very rarely lose arrows on our field and of those that do stray most are carbon/aluminium and pure aluminium arrows than pure carbons. That's mainly because there are a larger number of people shooting those arrows over pure carbons, but the carbon arrows haven't proved themselves to be proportionally harder to find, however if your club shares it's facilities with other sports, you may find it hard to convince your committee of that.
You could try backstop netting as a means of reducing the chances of losing arrows outside ?

[Phatmike10]

We don’t share with anyone, we have exclusive access. I’ll have to chat to them. Out of interest why is it that most people use aluminium/carbon or full aluminium arrows instead of carbon?

[greydog]

I guess alot of people start with aluminiums because they are cheap and relatively easy to spine, they are also a good indoor arrow and it seems that alot of beginners will shoot indoors or at short outdoor distances for quite a while before attempting anything that would need a lighter, thinner arrow.

Carbon/aluminiums are the main choice for outdoor as they are generally lighter than the equivalent aluminium arrow, they are thinner so less drag and have a smaller side profile, so less drift.

Full carbon has the lightness of a carbon/aluminium with some of the line cutting width of an aluminium (unless you are using very thin pure carbons) The problem with a light, wide arrow is wind drift at the longer range, but a light, thin arrow does not suffer so much. A thin pure carbon arrow is generally lighter than the other variants and so gains a speed advantage......if it's travelling faster then it's exposed to the wind for a shorter period of time and therefore shouldn't drift as much.........but that's a whole debate by itself, you might want to do a quick search on the forum as there's lots of info about that topic

[Merlin Archery]

Originally Posted by Phatmike10

We don’t share with anyone, we have exclusive access. I’ll have to chat to them. Out of interest why is it that most people use aluminium/carbon or full aluminium arrows instead of carbon?

Hi there. I'm glad you are enjoying the Super Clubs. I would be interested to know why your club doesn't allow all carbon shafts when they have exclusive rights to the field. Keep me posted. Thanks.

[Phatmike10]

Thanks Greydog for your post. With regards to the club not allowing carbon arrows, they say that the arrows can't be picked up by a metal detector. But indeed I have been informed by others including yourself (via email) that they can be detected.

[Jerry Tee]

Perhapps metal detectors are the wrong way to go does anyone have any ideas about ground penitrating radar, that should be able to pick up carbon arrows and as the arrows are going to be very near the top you should not need that much power.

[Schme1440]

Personally I dont seey why clubs with non multi perpous feilds have problems with carbon arrows. We dont at our club. I can understand if its also used for football or something. Why do they not allow carbon arrows but would allow wooden arrows? Some one tell me whats the difference in finding them? Yes they may be more visable because of trajetory and size and colour but if thats the only reason then why dont they bane certain fletching and nock colours which are not so easy to find in long grass?

Rant over.