Clean Up

[beachpeaz]

After you succesfully kill, what do you do with your arrow?  Nothing?  Just Rinse?  Soap?  Bleach?

 

Just curious.

[phade]

Lick it clean.

[beachpeaz]

Lick it clean.

 

lol, yeah, thats what I do.  I was wondering what normal people do though....

[Cabin Fever]

Lick it clean.

LMAO!!! 

 

I just wash it off with water, take a few test shots to make sure all is well, install new blades, and it'll be good to go!

[mmkay]

I usually take these steps:

 

 

(a) Retrieve

 

(  b  ) Wipe clean

 

(c )Redeploy

 

(d) Repeat

 

Edited August 7, 2013 by mmkay

[phade]

Water and paper towel, give it a once over and some flex test.

 

One area I didn't always check out are the inserts...some BH can "push back" and damage the insert. I have had this happen with some mechanicals and also some fixed blades with weak washers that lock the blades in. The blade pushed back into the washer and indents the insert. Happens when one blade or one side barely connects with a bone of some sort like the tip of a shoulder blade.

[Five Seasons]

just water and a paper towel for me. The one of the fletchings  get a sharpie mark too.

[ants]

I clean it with dish soap and water , then I retire it. I should start to reuse them though.  I have them laying all over the garage, the  shed and camp....My friends all reuse theirs

[papabear]

I clean off with dove dish washing soap  and then use for a practice arrow

papabear

[RangerClay]

Good question.  Don't make the same mistake I did.  Make sure that when you clean it up that you remove the broadhead and oil the threads.  I didn't do this and blood or moisture caused my broadhead to seize up.  After trying everything I had to heat the arrow and pull the broadhead and insert out.  I managed to save the arrow.  Also be careful of getting your lighted nocks wet. I had a Nocturnal nock that wouldn't relight after being rinsed.

[Fantail]

If there's no damage it gets rinsed off, head removed then cleaned up. Usually set aside until I can put a target point on and make sure things are good. Or set aside to get refletched, I've also retired a few to go with a mount / euro.

[beachpeaz]

all very interesting comments.  I am surprised at how many of you don't reuse them. 

[WNYBuckHunter]

just water and a paper towel for me. The one of the fletchings  get a sharpie mark too.

 

I do the same. Water and paper towel, flex test it and then add another dot to the cock vane with a sharpie.

[WNY-Hunter]

Lick it clean.

LMAO, too damn funny !

 

I just put them back in my quiver for the next deer.

[Danny]

retire it, or check it real good for integrity, passing through an animal is not the same as sticking in a block target

[landtracdeerhunter]

Retire it. Not worth having one blow up in my face. I don't trust carbon arrows, that have passed through the body of an animal.

[asav2013]

Take broad head off replace with new one, back in the quiver see how many things ya can kill with the same arrow ,

[genesee_mohican]

1) clean with soap and water.

2) inspect carefully for damage.

3) if no damage, test fire many times

4) reuse

[beachpeaz]

again, all very interesting.  Being somewhat new to bow-hunting, was curious.  I could see that with an aluminum arrow, but didn't see that with a carbon arrow.  I figured they were either broken or fine, but no in-between (the advantage of using a carbon arrow over aluminum).

[WNYBuckHunter]

I figured they were either broken or fine, but no in-between (the advantage of using a carbon arrow over aluminum).

 

They are, all you do is give them a visual inspection, flex them and twist them, and as long as there are no cracks, chunks out of them, and they dont crunch when you flex/twist, they are fine to reuse.

[beachpeaz]

They are, all you do is give them a visual inspection, flex them and twist them, and as long as there are no cracks, chunks out of them, and they dont crunch when you flex/twist, they are fine to reuse.

 

That's the school of thought that was given to me that I live by.  I check them all the time, even after shooting targets. It sounds like some people have had issues with them blowing up during the process of shooting though, which then got me overthinking that maybe I need to retire my arrows every time I shoot something....

[apoallo]

I just make sure arrow is still good then reuse later. I like the blood stains on them. Kinda like a second trophy ..... Idk

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[kzcycle]

I've always reused them if they seem structurally sound.

The guys that own the lease we go to in Texas don't. They keep each arrow in the antlers of the deer that it killed. It looks pretty cool. They do mostly euro mounts and the main room of the camp house has at least 30 euros with the arrows resting in the horns.

[Nomad]

Thanks for the reminder, got this one fom last year to wash off . Blood an dirt ! Just the way I like it.

[Doc]

Any arrow that has killed a deer, is spin-tested in my arrow-straightener to check for straightness. I use aluminum arrows, so most of the time the arrow is snapped or bent into an "L" shape .... lol. If I get a pass-thru, there is no telling what on the ground I might have hit (stumps, roots, rocks). If it stays sticking out of the deer, it whacks the trees along the way, which even in the best of cases can't really be all that good for the arrow. I've got so many arrows that I can afford to retire each arrow that is shot at a deer. I bought the arrows back before manufacturers wanted to get rich on each dozen. They didn't really cost all that much back then. I used to buy just the shafts and the components and build them myself.