do you reuse an arrow–

after it has been through a deer? Is a visual ck really good enough to ck the structural integrity of an arrow? Is it worth the $ of one arrow to dispose of it after it has harvested an animal? these are questions i ask myself every time i see a picture like this– and i am not saying that this why it happened, but it is a thought that crossed my mind–my guess would be that the arrow expolded after it was released do to a weakness of some sort.

The main reason I do not re-use arrows.

You never know and it is not worth the $10. IMO.

Imagine trying to climb out of your tree after that just happened and you have this damn arrow sticking out of your hand. Every step you grab on the way down is really gonna hurt-

Great reminder WF99. It’s just not worth it!

I never did. All of my shots were from a treestand which resulted in the arrow slammng the ground after it passed thru the deer. Carbon arrows especially always seemed to have some splinters or cracks in them.

That pic is a great reminder to always check your arrows, even brand new ones

i personally don’t use an arrow again if i harvest an animal. on the other hand if i miss i will put new blades in and reuse. i have a few friends that will reuse arrows until they can’t use them anymore. i can’t say one way is better then the other… i think it all comes down to personal preference.

I’ve seen alot of arrows get re-used. I am guilty of it too. But I have heard those stories of the arrows breaking. So maybe its good to see those kind of pictures.

I think theres a big diffrence between the arrows a guy uses. If I were to pick an arrow to reuse it would have to be aluminums. Carbons can splinter like in the picture above and I think if thier were anything structurally wrong with aluminums a person would see it at a close look. Carbons may look ok on the outside but the integrity of the fibers on the inside that can’t be seen may tell the story. I don’t know the actual technical info so it would be a good idea to check with a bowsmith.

But, don’t we all shoot arrows into a target over and over? I know some will say the target is different than the arrow striking the ground or a bone but the arrows also hit eachother when target shooting. Just a thought…..interested in what others think.

On the flip side, my coworkers wife works in neuro surgery…..she has seen an arm after one of these carbon arrows has shattered and I guess it is painful and nearly impossible to get all of the small fibers out.

An arrow that goes into a target is slowed down by friction loss.
An arrow that hits the ground loses its energy suddenly and transfers all that energy through the rest of the shaft in a violent motion.

So, there is a HUGE difference between a target and a solid object in relation to the impact on an arrow.

But, when I shot at the range, I still inspected all arrows after the shot if they came in contact with another arrow. That is another reason to practice with “spots” instead of trying to get a group where all arrows touched

Good points Wats!

Any time you suspect there is possible damage to a carbon arrow, grab the opposite ends and bend them in a good “U” and flex them good…The shaft in the pic is an inexpensive CX Terminator Hunter (the kind that splinters) and could have been anything including vastly underspined (ahh, the need for speed! )
Good quality carbons will not splinter as they are “wrapped” in a circular pattern around a mandril…or like ACCs and Full Metal Jackets…they have alum wrapped around the outside. They will snap clean, just as an aluminum will.
Use common sense and err on the safe side.

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Good quality carbons will not splinter as they are “wrapped” in a circular pattern around a mandril…or like ACCs and Full Metal Jackets…

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IMO, i think the full metal jackets are junk I have seen guys that have shot these arrows into targets and pull them out and they look like snakes!! I would not shoot them because of this obviously….

Secondly, i think that a lot of the arrows that explode happen when someone isn’t shooting a drop away rest. Obvioulsy the arrow is in contact with the prongs when the string is released and the arrow will not spin correctly if there are pieces of carbon peeled away from the shaft.

I would bet that a very high percent of the time, that this happens, it is from a underspined arrow. Like Tom mentioned. With these higher and higher IBO’s on the new bows, it seems the focus is on speed these days, with some pushing the limits of their equiptment to get the extra speed. I’m sure this happens more now than it has in years past. JMO

Ummm…yeah i re-use my arrows but i hope that doesn’t happen to me..

Personall after i use an arrow i prefer to pick up another one and replace it for the previously used one just because if the used arrow is weekend at all i am not going to have to risk it breaking, besides that would you rather pay 9 or 10 bucks for a new arrow or pay hundreds or thousands of dollars to get i surgicaly removed in the hospitall????????????