Contributors to this thread:
Arrow that is? It seems arrows & broadheads can be a spendy item, even inserts are not inexpensive! What does your single arrow average out to?
Here's mine!
Arrow, VAP Elite V-1 shaft - 11.50
Titanium Steel insert - 4.00
2" Blazers - .50
Iron Will this year, retail each- 33.00
Total - 49.00
ElkNut/Paul
I'll never tell. My wife may read this someday
Lost one this year to a deflection and was upset at the time. After seeing yours, not so painful!
Got a good deal on tapered shafts from an outfit selling them out at around $40 a dozen so $3.33 for the shaft.
Wrap - $1.33
Feathers - $1.50
Cutthroat broadhead - $18.67
Total - $24.82
About 1/2 of yours, Paul!
Bake, I think there’s some kind of joke about “if I die, don’t let my wife sell my bows/guns for what I told her a paid”
Easton FMJ 300 shaft, blazer vanes, and RAD Rival 100's run me about $30 per arrow.
$27. Years ago when I was a youngster and arrows were $3-4 and broadheads were 3/$15 a cousin I hunted on offered me $5 per armadillo. After the first armadillo ran under a fence, broke my aluminum arrow and ran off with a broadhead, I told him he was going to have to raise his price. Last armadillo I’ve shot, I began trapping them. ;)
M.Pauls, Lol!
Tavis, I never added the stuff up until my Son said to me after the shot that it was a mighty expensive miss! (grin) He was only referring to the broadhead but then I got to adding it all up, geez whatever happened to a 5.00 setup!! (grin)
ElkNut/Paul
Axis pro Brass inserts German kinetic
Too much...
That broadhead really jumps the price for sure!
May have to shoot up my old Suffers, Grizzlies, and Zwickies that were probably under $3 each back when I bought them! Or even some of those expensive Magnus heads that were probably closer to $4 when I bought them.
They have killed plenty of stuff over the years for sure and have probably depreciated down to about $0.10 or less by now...
M.Pauls. . . I have told my wife that joke. She's under strict instructions not to sell any weapons or gear. Daughter, Nephews, and cousins can have them, in that order.
But she has been ordered to sell mounts and my hunting library. and I told her those dust covered books and mounts are worth more than she thinks :)
Ya they sure do! I had to try them though! I too have quite the selection of various heads but since getting away from Trad stuff I've narrowed down some of my favorites for the compound! Some less expensive than others!
ElkNut/Paul
Bake, you're way too young to be thinking along those lines! (grin)
ElkNut/Paul
Arrow cost?
The perfect fitted arrow setup = Priceless
Ask me what I would pay to get that one shot...
...now my arrow is cheap lol but in real dollars, an FMJ, blazers and the 150 solid Iron Will adds up to a pretty penny.
Easton Gamegetter 400- $4.15 (with nocks and inserts installed)
Vinyl arrow wrap- $0.50
Fletch Fletch 360 4 vanes- $1.25
Magnus Stinger- $10.00
Total- $15.90
Is this like golf? Does the lowest score win? ;^)
LOL- Bear Metric Magnum arrow $1.75. Thunderhead 125-$3.50. As an aside...Last bow I bought, American, solid wood, 55#, 55% letoff $145.00. (Just in quick memory, I know I killed four mule deer, two elk, two bear and don't know how many whitetails, before I went high-tech.)
Where did we go wrong???
I’m with Bake.
Ain’t tellin’ !!!!!
WTF... I'm not playing this game. As a connessiour of fine arrows (i.e. "Arrow Whore"), I find the mere question of arrow cost quite offensive. I like building arrows, I like shooting arrows, hell, I like just looking at arrows. Arrows are the personalization of archery. Many shoot the same bow, BUT...Arrows are individual. Different makes, different lengths, different spines, different fletchings, different inserts/outserts, different nocks, different wraps, different broadheads... etc.
I LOVE ARROWS. My name is Andy Cobb and I am an "Arrowholic".
This is why I buy a lot of thing in quantities when I find something I like that works. But it still added up to a lot more than I thought it would.
Arrow Cabelas SST 240, AFC 2400, Easton PC 6.1 = $0.49 (I bought 14 dz off Ebay). I now have over 400 arrows and 30 dz broadheads as I stocked up on them before Mike sold off his traditional broadheads a few years ago.
Broadhead adapter = $1.00
Wrap - $1.33
Feathers - $1.50
Magnus I, 4 blade broadhead - $3.00
Total - $7.32 (Not counting glue for feathers. insert and nocks)
Scoot, you don't know the extent of the affliction. I just grabbed a couple handfuls of arrows and a quiver or two from my office & hunting closet for the photo. I have many more squirreled away, not counting the barrel of aluminum stuff in the shop.
I LOVE ARROWS.
"Be the arrow."
Easton FMJ 340 $12.50, Muzzy 100 grain 3 blade $6, lumenock F $9. Grand total is $27.50. And I still shoot grouse when I can, but only on the ground:)
A dozen CX arrows from camofire, tipped with VPA 3 blade is less than 20 dollars an arrow, and kills things just as dead as the setups that are 2 or 3x the price. Guess I'm not paying top dollar, I'm not a "serious" hunter. ;(
All i know is if I made hand hewn matching cedar shafts....they would be a lot more expensive at my labor rate than the Axis I shoot now...... I know my hand sewn tipi at even an avg hourly rate is more expensive than if I were to buy one. I bet some of Ghost Birds arrows above are the same [beautiful I might add]
BUT, That is sometimes what it takes to get truly custom. I couldn't find a 12 sided tipi [stronger,less sag] in the fabric and design I wanted...so i HAD to make it. Arrows are a bit like that......
oh.. what a fun game.. Victory VAP TKO ELITE - $14 Insert - $4.00 (SS) Vanes - .64 (AAE 2.3 Plastifletch max- 4 fletch) wrap- $1.08 Broadhead (think I'm going with ST Viper Tricks) - $10 grand total- $29.72
Gkostbird, WOW, those are some pretty sweet arrows! Tough to apply a price to sentiment!
ElkNut/Paul
I bought Beman ICS off Ebay for $24.99 per six fletched. That equals about $6.15/arrow.
6 packs of innerloc 125 grain broadheads for $29.99 off the auction site. That is $5/head.
I'm at $11.15/arrow
goldtip 300 blemished 5.00 blazers 0.50 muzzy 5.00 10.50 not bad but still hate loosing or breaking them
Easton 5mm FMJ. 8.45 Blazers. .38 Iron Will V100. 33.00 Total. 41.83 5 in quiver. 209.15 OMG
Gold tip blems = $5.00, feathers = $1.35, Zwickey = $3.16, broadhead adapter = $0.54, Total $10.05.
I've killed stuff with cheaper woodies but in the long run carbons are so durable they end up costing less.
Geez, we're all over the board here! (grin) Thanks a bunch for the feedback!
I like using very good stuff when possible but I too have taken elk with 10.00 setups. For me those days are in the past! I guess I don't mind spending a few bucks on my passion! I know a lot of stuff will put bulls on the ground but when push comes to shove I like knowing my equipment is doing all it can to go to bat for me, may just be a mind thing but like cnelk says that feeling can be priceless!
ElkNut/Paul
I don't use my $10.00 set-up because its cheap. It just works out that the set-up I want to shoot only costs that much. :^)
I started in Archery/bowhunting in 1956. I have 8 family members that are also involved in some part of archery or bowhunting. I shop & buy ALL the time "on sale". I build arrows for everyone in the family. I use Aluminum (Platinum + & XX75s) for myself & my total cost per arrow is less than $4,50 + BH $2.50=7.00 (Rocky Mountains, $100 per dz I bought for $30 dz just b/4 they sold the co) . My kids use Carbons & my average build cost for a Dz is $46 less hunting tip. Mind you, I buy Vanes by the 100 or more & on sale when I see them as well as feathers & nocks. I just bought 200 blazers that had no name on them (reject because the name didn't print $10 delivered). I saw $80 Dz Carbons on clearance for $28 dz & bought all they had left 4 dz. One year I bought XX75 camo aluminum arrows on clearance for $12 a Dz. Me & my brother bought them all, 14 dozen. I bought 10 Dz Aluminum camo Super lights shafts for $240 delivered. I sold half on ebay & got all my money + 5 free Dz for myself. I just can't bring myself to shoot a $15 or more arrow. My on sale ones serve us very well on targets & hunting.
wow 50 bucks an arrow, holy cow!!! Mine range anywhere from5-8 bucks.
China bamboo shafts, $1 each. Self made adapters $1 each. Feather fletch $1.50 each. Creating .50 each. Horn nocks .50 each. Steel Force broadhead $5 each.
About $10 an arrow. Saluki recurve $1100 each.
Easton Axis Pro (.001) shafts, Brass HIT insert, Blazers, Wraps, Slick Trick Braodhead. Somewhere around $23/arrow.
Same as you except valkery and cutthroats, so 8 to 17 or so dollars less
Thanks guys! I sure thought there would be a lot more arrow setups in the 30.00 to 50.00 range. Apparently not! I guess most our money is in bows & clothing/gear!
ElkNut/Paul
About $20 each depending on which heads. First year hunting with carbons. Got a couple hundred arrows stashed, mostly home-rolled woodies.
About $20 each depending on which heads. First year hunting with carbons. Got a couple hundred arrows stashed, mostly home-rolled woodies.
Most of my money is spent on trips
I’ve shot a lot of arrows into animals, mostly deer, with trad bows and compounds. What I’ve found for most of my hunting is, any carbon arrow from a decent manufacture does the job. The only thing to fail is broadhead and the shaft mushrooming. But, If I do my job, that is just campfire discussion. If I don’t, I’m not real sure how buying a “better” broadhead or arrow is gonna fix that.
Use what you like. But dollars spent does not equate to the degree of passion one has for bow hunting.
I bought 4 dozen arrows about 6-7 years ago, not even sure what they cost. do I get to average this out over those years? I do have to buy new arrows this offseason. Sticking with the VPA broadheads, one goes through many deer.
To an extent it does! It's no different than a guy who plays sports & wants to be the best he can be whether it's Hockey, Baseball, Football, etc. He seems to upgrade his gear to the best he can afford & every year it seems there's something he feels will improve his game.
It's the same with us hunters. We improve from our Danner boots to Kenetrek, Crispi, Zamberlans, etc. We improve our Clothing, Optics, Bows, Arrows, etc. The more passionate we are the more we are apt to up our game that we love so much. These things certainly motivate me & others to a degree, it all boils down to each individual but we all seem to grow every year in one way or another! I know my gear helps me to be a more confident hunter, I've weeded things out over the years & replaced with things that improve my abilities & odds. Works for me! (grin)
I should clarify I'm referring to Elk, not so much for Deer, I have no passion there! (grin)
ElkNut/Paul
What? Danner boots aren't top of the line?
Lol! -- I started out shooting good ole 2117 aluminum arrows but don't shoot them any longer either, come to think of it my 1st compound shot a blistering 175 fps or so, don't use that any longer either! Man what's this world coming too! (grin)
Ya, different strokes for different folks, guys it's all good!
ElkNut/Paul
I know some guys that spend thousands each year on gear they use twice. They have a passion for buying gear, not so much hunting. I also know a few guys that spend nothing each year but tag dollars and hunt every day.
vonfoust is right; everybody is different (thankfully) and everybody has their own preferences. For many of us, the gear is as much fun as the preparation, and almost as much fun as being out there. Others don't have as much fun with it. Some would rather pay $80 for a 24 of craft beer, rather than $18, and pay $20 for an arrow rather than $50. It's all good, and it's what makes capitalism work. Interesting post, Paul. I think most of us didn't do the math on purpose. Grouse meat is kind of tough anyway.
Don't do math, as in $80 for a 24?
James, very true! But you know there are guys that still shoot aluminum! With the cost of aluminum these days not sure if they're still a bargain?
Who made the first carbons, Gold Tip maybe?
ElkNut/Paul
Paul, I shoot XX75s out of both my recurves. They are still very affordable, I think about $8/shaft CAD. At the lower speeds I don’t feel they are a compromise in any way. I have never bent one unless I hit something where a carbon would have likely broke. And all my practise is shooting random stuff in the grass etc. I realize at 300fps, a carbon would be superior for durability
Matt, yes sir that is affordable! That's an awesome Moose I see you took, what size shaft were you shooting?
I took this bull here with XX75 2117 aluminum with I believe a Wensel Woodsman 3 bladed head, I'm fairly certain it was the last time I had used aluminum arrows.
ElkNut/Paul
Paul, I thought Beman made the first carbon arrow. Imported from France if I remember right.
Samers there Paul, I killed that bull with a 2117. I’ve since switched my moose arrow to a weighted 2018 coming in around 650 grns. The 2117 with 100 grains up front is at 515 grns and has been put to use later in the fall. It’s is a perfect flat shootin whitetail arrow out of my 54# Tall Tines.
Jim, you're probably right! Gold Tips were no more than a guess since they've been around so long! Thanks!
Matt, thanks! Mine was 500 grains! Since that bull I took several others with trad but went to Beman Classics .500 spine with 200 grains up front for the same 500 grains. Are you hunting elk with the same setup?
ElkNut/Paul
I remember shooting carbon arrows back in the 80’s and glass arrows that I think were from the 70’s.
I think those old carbons were called “Graflex” or something like that. Had one break and run into my wrist once and quit using anything but good woodies or aluminum.
Used to send all my aluminum arrows to get swaged to be able to glue on my broadheads like on woodies. Would have to dig around for the ones that worked best but remember them weighing in at around 425 grains. Killed a bunch of critters with those old aluminums. Maybe more with the woodies than the aluminum ones.
Still have a set of Herter’s glass arrows with Bear razor heads on them in my arrow box (minus a few that blew up, got lost or got broken on critters). Great pig arrows! Heavy and tough!
We have anew high water mark. the $560 / dz grizzly sticks with $100 /each bishop heads it's a cool $1,760.
Throw in 12 fire nocks............... because who wouldn't want to see a $150 arrow in flight.......... and you are sitting on a cool $1,825 for a dozen
Shaft-7.89 Cutthroat-18.67 26.56
Shaft $11.33, broadhead 9.00=20.33
Bou'bound, seriously? If so I'm shooting bargain stuff! Ha Ha!
Matt, thanks!
Tavis, ouch! That would suck. I do recall something about that name, maybe grafoly or graphlex or something! Ha!
goelk, snuffer, thank you!
ElkNut/Paul
Never actually calculated this before.
I bought 10 dozen Carbon Tech Whitetail shafts when on sale, don't recall but somewhere arount $3 each.
BH Slick Trick Viper 125gr $10 each.
Blazer vanes $0.50 for 3.
Nocturnal $8 each, although I don't always shoot lighted.
Wraps 6" wrap cut in half to make (2) 3" wraps for Blazers $0.50 each
Total $22 per lighted hunting arrow, which puts a dozen at $265.
Without lighted nocks it's $14.00 and $168.
Some of the components get re-used: nocks, broadhead ferrules; so my actual cost is somewhere in the middle.
And as others have mentioned I typically stock up when I find items on sale.
I find it easier to cope with my addictions if I don't bother adding chit up...........