check your arrows shafts ...

[JuliW]

Last year my life partner and I were doing some trees tand practice and while he was shooting from the stand he had an arrow (carbon, GT) blow up and pierce the fleshy part of his thumb. He was very lucky the damage was not major. Until that time we really didn't check our arrows regularly...Of course that incident did make us a little more aware and we are now pretty religious about going over our arrows regularly.

today we were practicing and after the first round I went over my arrows (don't do it every time, but at least 2 times a week, maybe more now!)..This showed up...
I feel fortunate that I thought to go over them. Not sure what prompted me, except perhaps God and gut feeling.

[anchskier]

Good reminder. When I was getting into archery shooting, I had one instance where I didn't catch that the arrowhead came off in the target. I was shooting a handful of arrows at a time, so didn't really look at each one. Just pulled them out, walked back and started shooting again. I was more focused on the target and the sights than the arrow. When I shot that arrow, it went all over the place, but amazingly still hit the target. I think the only time it was in anywhere near on track to hit the target was at the last second. Ever since then, I make a concerted effort to ensure tips and nocks are all properly in place and snug and will slide my hand down the shaft to feel for scratches or other problems. I also make a point to only shoot a few arrows at a time to reduce the instances of damaging one arrow with the next.

[Halibut Chaser]

I have gotten in the habit of only shooting 4 arrows for practice and as I pull the arrows I look them over and run my fingers along them just to check them out. On shots that put arrows touching or very close I usually do a double take on them. I've kind of gotten to where shooting is a relaxing thing so I don't rush it.

[winibezold]

easy trick for carbon arrows is to flex them and listen. a cracked arrow will "crackle" and you'll know the sound whn it happens. easy and fast way to check for fractures and splits

[JuliW]

Interestingly I flexed this arrow and did not hear any crackly noise (after I saw the 'crack')...perhaps I was and/or have not been flexing the arrows with enough force???....another trick is to run a cottonball down the arrow shaft. any minor imperfections will snag up on the cotton.

[winibezold]

yeah, the flex test would probably only indicate a splintering. the crack wouldn't give off that crackle effect that a splinter/seperation would.