arrow visibility

[jape]

Seeing as how I am still only getting within three foot or so of what I aim at, I am hobbling around the nearby bush shooting at pretend things to have some pretend fun instead of shooting at cereal packets. I wasn't expecting to see anything, it is so dry and crunchy but I actually nearly trod on a rabbit yesterday, frightened meself to death and dropped me arrow while it covered thirty metres in a split second then opened up a cosmic wormhole and totally disappeared but thats another story. Didn't know they live miles into the bush.
A three foot miss on one plane can extend a few bloody yards in another, thus I need arrows that show up. I thought mine would be OK, light wood with two white and one black fletch, however it is surprising how many white or near white things there are around. Quartz, der.
What other colours stand out in reality in the aussie bush? Despite what i thought, yellow isn't so good, nor is red i find. Do I just go fluoro orange or pink?
jape

[Stickbow Hunter]

I only use white fletches and I can see them well and like the look of them on my arras.

I guess fluro colours may help you and that is a big MAY!!!

I think as you shoot more you will find it doesn't matter what colour fletches you use because they all seem to be able to hide exceptionally well, even on a mowed lawn.

Jeff

[Mick Smith]

Like Jeff, I like white fletches the best. They stand out pretty well in most conditions and they're definitely the best when you're shooting in poor light conditions, like at dusk and dawn. Your arrows stand out like tracer bullets and every other colour just disappears into the gloom.

I like the look of them as well.

Mick

[GrahameA]

IMHO

Crown the shaft White for at least 6" - 9" is even better. Go with Hot Pink fletches. Don't shoot near pink flowers.

So far I have found nothing that stands out as much as hot pink. However if you are directly behind the arrow you are effectively looking down the shaft which can be somewhat difficult to see.

[perry]

I have found that bright feathers alone are not the whole answer , I crest my shafts in a 3 or 4 inch section about half way down the shaft , crown dipping would be usefull in conjuction as well . Several patches of colour seem to draw my eye much better . regards Perry

[jape]

Thanks folks, sounds like six inches of hot fluorescent pink is the go then!
Some of my misses bury themselves up to the neck and as i live in a quartz area, every couple of inches i see my glowing white arrow, i think ..... except it is always a shining quartz pebble - no gold in them yet unforunately.
so white is definitely out but i will stick to it for targets and so on.
It can take me five minutes of circles and some backtracking to get the line again and a good few curses to find it.
I used to tie a trailer of four foot of red string to my crossbow bolts years ago back in the english woods but some of them still buried themselves under the leaf litter and got lost. Don't think it helped accuracy much.

[Mububban]

My mate had white fletches on his crossbow bolts, we shoot at each other in WA red/brown dirt and gravel and he had a bugger of a time finding his bolts coz all the leaves, dry grass and dirt are about the same colour and the white fletches were hard to spot. So he bought a spray can of fluoro pink paint, sprayed the whole shaft and fletches pink, and he hasn't lost one since

[Stickbow Hunter]

sounds like six inches of hot fluorescent pink is the go then!

jape,

I believe you shoot under 50lbs so I would think that six inch fletches will slow your arras considerably. Depending on your draw weight I would use 4" fletches with 5/16" arras or 5" with larger.

Jeff

[Richard]

Anna and I have had this problem losing arrows in the undergrowth.
Our respective colours are now canary yellow and royal blue fletching and cresting for my arrows, and orange fletches with orange and blue barred cresting for Anna's arrows. We have using these colours for a couple of years and the only real time we had any problem was in autumn
Sometimes it does'nt seem to matter what colour you fletch or crest your arrows tho, some of them just want to stay lost.

[jape]

Sorry Jeff, I wasn't clear enough, I meant six inches of pink spray in a couple of places on the shaft. The fletches are two white with black cock and I can't afford any more yet so they will stay. They are the bigger shaft, in a light wood from Sven, with 5 inch fletch. You are right, they catch on the bow a bit and fly slower. I have one four inch shield cut arrow on the smaller shaft and with my 43 pound bow it bends as it flies away and wobbles but actually seems more accurate than the flatter trajectory of the larger arrow. Mind you, my form is so bad I cannot really tell yet! I am hoping to get down to the Geelong shoot soon and watch the masters at it.
jape

[woody]

Its been my experience that the best color for finding arrows in all light conditions would be orange.

To my eyes at least

For a bright arrow, that wont alert game, red is also good, as it looks grey to a "color blind" animal.

[Griffo]

I've noticed that about orange too Woody.

[Mububban]

My combat arrows are 2 orange and one blue, and I've never had any trouble finding them (apart from the waaaaay off target shots at a running target for example), especially with translucent orange nocks that glow in the sun.

[yeoman]

But then, a combat arrow has a massive plug on the end whih stops it from burying itselof under the grass, eh?

Dave

[Troppo Sticks]

If you have ever hunted the Top End flood plains sqelching around in mud up to your knees it doesn't matter what colour you use, as those arrows bury deep and out of sight into mud or grass that is a couple of meters high. A fluro nock however is perfect that's all you see against the hog as it does its job. I wish that some one would invent a beeper signal on the arrow that would reply to your whistle. Plain wood shaft with red and white fletches for me, but I must have a go at cresting so will have to decide on a colour to paint the rear end of the arra.

[Mububban]

True true, but it's all about tailoring your arrows to your environment. I also use blue and orange on my target arrows and they also prove easy to find whether on the green grass of an oval or the red/brown dirt at Gidge. And combat arrows can be shot way further than you'd take a shot at a live target because we're lobbing from long range whereas if you're hunting you want to get as close as possible.

But then, a combat arrow has a massive plug on the end whih stops it from burying itselof under the grass, eh?

Dave

[Tuffcity]

Another option is to glue a strip of bright marabou around the shaft between the nock and the fletch. Has no effect on flight but really stands when you're hunting around for arrows as you're usually trying to see them from only the nock end anyway.

RC

[Griffo]

What's marabou?

[GrahameA]

Troppo

A prediction from me. Within 5 years you will be able to RFID's that fit inside your arrows shaft - or stick on for us other arrow type shooters - and you will be able to track as them as long as you are somewhere reasonably close. You could do it now but the cost is still a little high for the transmitter/receiver.

Luke

Marabou as in Marabou festhers. You can buy lengths of it especially for fitting to arrows. You tie just behind the flectches and it puffs out when the arrow hits the target. Scroll down this page:

http://www.gatewayfeathers.com/accessories.htm

They call it "Arrow Tracers".

[Griffo]

Cool, thanks Grahame

[greybeard]

Hi Grahame,
I can remember buying tracers in the late 70's. We used to call them 'bunny fluff'. A few club members tried them but at the end of the day they weren't worth the throuble. Just another American fad.

Daryl.

[GrahameA]

Hi Darryl

IMHO the simplest answer to this issue is don't miss the target. Unfortunately you have to go through the missing stage to get to the non-missing stage.

The tracers, or whatever, are handy when you are looking directly at the nock. Personally, I have never used them other than a couple I made for a trial.

[GrahameA]

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