Metal detector

[cbp125]

I am no archer, or metal detector but in electronics you can buy copper tape or copper paint like nail varnish, other metals are also made in tapes or varnishes as well as I cannot remember if copper would be detected but I think it would. If so you could run the copper tape along one side of the shaft or use the metalic nail varnish stuff to paint a bit on.

Also as a backstop you could try hay bales, they are slightly more expensive this year due to poor harvest but as they rot away your could add them to your garden

[grenfell]

Can you get hold of some debris netting that scaffolders use to catch the arrows behind the butts? Would it even work I wonder? I have some on the allotment, keep meaning to take the longbow up for a play...

If you are thinking of the green nylon(?) stuff then no it doesn't work. We tried it some years ago with no success.

[cbp125]

I had a long discussion with a friend of mine who I know from electronics hobbies, about your arrow question. It turned out he is a designer and manufacturer of metal detectors....... so....

Arrow heads are difficult using metal detectors, however my idea of using copper tape to mark your arrows would work well, he did however correct me in that the copper tape should not run along the shaft but around the shaft forming a ring.

He explained that they work by transmitting and recieving a wave out of phase to itself, and the presences of metal introduces an eddy current changing the phase indicating the presence of metal. He stated that using a circle of copper would induce a higher eddy current than a horisontal line of metal.

Hope this helps, his company is C.Scope if this helps

[Nurseandy]

Thanks for the pointer CBP. I think I'm just going to accept the fact I'm going to lose some arrows. A 70lb compound bow shoots a looong way if you miss the target and from 75m away you have no idea where the arrow went