Hunting Washington Forum

Big Game Hunting => Bow Hunting => Topic started by: lokidog on February 11, 2012, 01:46:41 PM

Title: Finding arrows
Post by: lokidog on February 11, 2012, 01:46:41 PM: Anyone ever found an arrow they missed a deer/elk/bear with from a previous season?

Weathergirl and I went for a walk today. As we passed through the neighbor's yard, she stated how annoying it was that she never found the arrow she shot at a deer three years ago (first one she ever shot at with the bow). As she released the arrow, it sliced the edge of the blind window, she forgot that the arrow was lower than her sight line, and it went flying off target and disappeared. The crazy part was that there was a barn behind the deer standing in mowed grass so it should have been easy to find. I always figured it had popped out into the woods nearby, so we walked behind the building and looked around a bit. Not seeing anything, we walked back over to the barn to check on a door that has been blowing open lately. As I walked along the side of the building, I saw some color, looked down and there was her arrow buried in the grass alongside the building.

Woohoo, it's like finding a $10 bill on the ground. :chuckle: And, she doesn't have to worry about that arrow laying out there anymore. :tup:
Title: Re: Finding arrows
Post by: poohdog on February 11, 2012, 02:10:49 PM: My hunting partner missed a bull in a steep clearcut once and two years later I was walking thru the cut and found it laying on the ground. It was about 100 yards from were the bull was.
Title: Re: Finding arrows
Post by: D-Rock425 on February 11, 2012, 02:26:42 PM: Ive found some old arrows un the woods but never one of my own.
Title: Re: Finding arrows
Post by: jstone on February 11, 2012, 02:47:46 PM: For years i have been thinking of going out and looking at my area and looking for mu arrows. need to get off of my but and look.
Title: Re: Finding arrows
Post by: 300rum on February 11, 2012, 03:07:22 PM: I found one after two years. I looked and looked with the Bino's as I went by the area from time to time. One day I looked and there it was! I don't know how I didn't find it that fatefull day or the other times I walked by. I pulled it out of the punky tree and the broadhead was in perfect condition. I tought that the blades would have rusted. :dunno:
Title: Re: Finding arrows
Post by: lokidog on February 11, 2012, 03:25:25 PM: Quote from: 300rum on February 11, 2012, 03:07:22 PM
I pulled it out of the punky tree and the broadhead was in perfect condition. I tought that the blades would have rusted. :dunno:

I guess they really were stainless blades. This one looked like it had just been shot, no fading of the fletches, rust or anything wrong with it.
Title: Re: Finding arrows
Post by: danderson on February 11, 2012, 04:04:22 PM: I been pretty fortunate the last 3 or 4 years, I havent missed, the last dozen arrows lasted at least 10 years, It pays to wait for a high percentage shot.
Title: Re: Finding arrows
Post by: Angus on February 11, 2012, 04:18:27 PM: Last day of the season a few years ago I got back to my truck and noticed I only had 3 of the 4 arrows I typically carry in my quiver, I had made a 2 mile loop and had no idea where I could have dropped it. Following season I hunted the same area and found the arrow less then 50 yards from where I had parked the previous season.
Never found 1 that I lost after a shot.
Title: Re: Finding arrows
Post by: pianoman9701 on February 11, 2012, 06:25:54 PM: I went scouting last July. Put my eyeglasses hooked on the neck of my tshirt and thought right then, "put them away". Didn't. I lost them. Searched for about 3 hours with no luck. Prescription; really expensive. Two months later while hunting, we pulled over to the hillside I lost them on and went to look for them. I hiked up about 1/4 mile and went right to the place i thought I'd lost them and there they were; laying lenses up like I'd placed them there. Now, I have two pair. It was awesome finding them. Needle in a haystack stuff.
Title: Re: Finding arrows
Post by: Kowsrule30 on February 11, 2012, 06:32:13 PM: I've found a bunch from whoever missed and or hit but didn't recover the arrow..... Not any of mine being I don't archery hunt..... But a few friends of mine arrows have ended up in my hands after a few years of laying there.... Hell last year I found 4 complete arrows and one broken shaft with a Tekken broadhead....... One was actually sticking out of a tree..... It looked fairly fresh and figured I wouldn't be able to pull it out.... Actually had MD hair dried on it still..... A little pull with a twist and it popped right out..... With a field point on it..... :yike:
Title: Re: Finding arrows
Post by: Eli346 on February 11, 2012, 06:49:14 PM: I lost a gold chain swatting at a bee (I'm allergic) out the window of my truck. It went into the tall grass on the side of the road and disappeared. I looked for about 10 minutes but to no avail. They cut the grass about 4 months later so I thought I'd look again and after a few minutes I found it. Cleaned it up and still wear it. I also lost a wallet, cell phone, and keys on a hunt through the woods one day. It was in the salal and I didn't realize I had ripped open the cargo pocket on my pants on the way down the hill. I backtracked and although it took me a couple of hours of meandering I found them all in the same place. They kind of fell into a neat little pile. That was really lucky!
Title: Re: Finding arrows
Post by: Snapshot on February 12, 2012, 09:52:39 AM: About eight years ago I went "back home" to hunt on the Great Plains with my more mature and wiser brother who still lives in the old home town. About twenty-six years had passed since I'd last hunted on those naked hillsides. We hunted employing the exact same routine as my late father and I had done during my formative years, and that my brother and dad had done during the years they hunted side by side after I'd moved, married and settled elsewhere; sneaking up to the edges of deep washouts to check every known shaded deer bed during the hot hours of the day in late September and early October. Those bed locations of course had not changed over the decades that my family had hunted that hillside.

On that day in 2003 bro and I snuck up to shaded bank that holds a couple of beds in a draw that contained the only tree, a very old cottonwood, on the whole north facing ridge. I can picture it as I write because I saw it at least a hundred times as a boy. A couple of deer exploded from the beds and I drew on one of them to be ready in case she stopped. She didn't. After my heart settled down I looked down and there lay an old arrow. A rusted bear broadhead on an aluminum shaft, feathers long gone. Bro looks at it and says, "That looks like one of mine. Or maybe dad's."
Title: Re: Finding arrows
Post by: JohnVH on February 12, 2012, 10:25:14 AM: lumenocks, helps you find them back.
Title: Re: Finding arrows
Post by: 300rum on February 12, 2012, 06:11:54 PM: I once shot a bull, waited for 45 minutes then began to track. He was broadside at 25yds, showing his left side when I shot. The first 50 yards there was only blood on the left side of his tracks, nothing on the right side. I guessed that the arrow was still in him and I didn't get a pass through shot. At about 50 yards I found blood on the right side too. 10 more yards and the blood was gushing on the right side. 10 yards after that and I found him.

I never found the arrow. By the tracks I would have thought that the arrow was pulled out by brush while getting hung up? I looked for quite a long time, looked down hill from where I shot. Never found a thing? I guess it was a pass through but I would have figured I would have found something on the right side sooner.
Title: Re: Finding arrows
Post by: 724wd on February 13, 2012, 07:37:24 AM: my first archery deer, i zipped an XX75 camo hunter through him at 25 yards. not a good shot, so i waited a long time before moving, hoping he'd lay down and die. it was almost dark when shot him, and when i looked for my arrow, it was no where to be found.

next spring my two year old and i were turkey hunting in the same area. thought, "Aw hell, i'll just go take a look." 30 steps towards where the shot was, there's my arrow, laying on top of the pine straw, neat as you please. :tup:
Title: Re: Finding arrows
Post by: Hornseeker on February 13, 2012, 07:49:42 AM: In 07' my buddy shot a bull and killed him, but never found the arrow. in 08' we went back into the same spot to see if we coudl get a nice repeat. We were checking out the bones from his elk and walking around looking at sign and talking about the kill from the year before, when we found half of his arrow... a little while later we found the other half... Not sure how the arrow broke in half and both halfs ended up out of the elk??? :dunno:
Title: Re: Finding arrows
Post by: Snapshot on February 13, 2012, 08:39:48 AM: Quote from: 300rum on February 12, 2012, 06:11:54 PM
I guess it was a pass through but I would have figured I would have found something on the right side sooner.
Two possible scenarios come to mind.
The first: Poke holes clean through a bucket somewhat up its side and start filling the bucket with a hose; water won't come out until the bucket fills to where the holes are. Same exact thing happens with the chest cavity of an animal.
The second: The arrow blocked the exit hole until the elk pulled it out and tossed it with the flip of his head or it hooked on a branch and was catapulted away from the trail.
Title: Re: Finding arrows
Post by: Snapshot on February 13, 2012, 08:51:25 AM: Quote from: Hornseeker on February 13, 2012, 07:49:42 AM
Not sure how the arrow broke in half and both halfs ended up out of the elk??? :dunno:
I've seen the exact same thing.
Title: Re: Finding arrows
Post by: Johnb317 on February 13, 2012, 10:45:03 AM: I kind of worry about stepping on a 'lost' broadhead.
I've lost some target shooting where I believe the arrow submarined into, and under the ground.
luckily with two elk - found one resting in the sage brush (full pass through), and the other sticking out of a tree.
One reason I'd vote for legalizing luminocks....
Title: Re: Finding arrows
Post by: lokidog on February 13, 2012, 10:56:01 AM: Talk about submarining... I once shot a porcupine (that I intended to eat) at point blank in a salt marsh. I rolled him over to get my arrow, and no arrow. I dug over six inches down with a stick and never did find it. I had missed a couple elk in the area before and could never figure out where my arrows went. I guess the ground there just swallowed them up.
Title: Re: Finding arrows
Post by: Snapshot on February 14, 2012, 09:03:22 AM: Quote from: lokidog on February 13, 2012, 10:56:01 AM
Talk about submarining... I once shot a porcupine (that I intended to eat) at point blank in a salt marsh. I rolled him over to get my arrow, and no arrow. I dug over six inches down with a stick and never did find it. I had missed a couple elk in the area before and could never figure out where my arrows went. I guess the ground there just swallowed them up.
And each time you gave an arrow to the marsh you made the arrow gods very happy. That is probably why they placed the porcupine there for your sustenance.
Title: Re: Finding arrows
Post by: lokidog on February 14, 2012, 09:08:29 AM: Quote from: Snapshot on February 14, 2012, 09:03:22 AM
Quote from: lokidog on February 13, 2012, 10:56:01 AM
Talk about submarining... I once shot a porcupine (that I intended to eat) at point blank in a salt marsh. I rolled him over to get my arrow, and no arrow. I dug over six inches down with a stick and never did find it. I had missed a couple elk in the area before and could never figure out where my arrows went. I guess the ground there just swallowed them up.
And each time you gave an arrow to the marsh you made the arrow gods very happy. That is probably why they placed the porcupine there for your sustenance.

I don't mind offering them up, IF they have blood on them. It's losing the clean ones that is annoying! :chuckle:
Title: Re: Finding arrows
Post by: Snapshot on February 14, 2012, 09:12:56 AM: Well, that is the nature of the sport. :tup: