The box came down out of the rafters in a cloud of dust that made me choke a little. It was one of those boxes of stuff like we all have… we know we have it but have long since forgotten what all might be inside.
In my case it was a box of arrow shafts… nothing unusual about that. I have several just like it laying up there in the dark and dust. I’d say I’ve got at least one arrow from every set of arrows I’ve ever made and that takes in 50 years worth of arrows and only three sets of those were made by someone other than myself.
Mostly they are bent and broken pieces recognizable but mostly just worthless. I didn’t expect much when I opened the end of that old Acme arrow shaft box and slid the contents out onto my workbench. To my surprise the box was full of old “kill arrows” for lack of a better term.
Mostly they were XX75 2219 aluminums in anodized camo and Autumn orange. A couple of old 24SRTX shafts were mixed in and still shining all silver and unanodized. What a pain those had been to prep for fletching.
What was once a canary yellow Microflite #8 fiberglass lay there all aged and dirty. I can relate!
Then I saw it. There in the pile was a very special arrow indeed and I recognized it immediately.
It was a tiny 9/32” Herter’s aluminum shaft that I’d spray painted black on the foreshaft and white on the cap. Three white shield cut feathers adorned it.
The nock end had a dainty little white speed nock, though I’m sure it was a Herter’s brand nock. At the other end the 5-degree insert wore a “Head Shrinker” which mated the larger diameter Bear Razorhead with the little shaft.
If you knew what you were looking at, you could just make out dark smudges in the white paint and around the nock. The dried blood, which had coated the arrow, hadn’t lasted well over the years at all. The arrow had been coated with paste wax as was my habit then and is still. It must have kept the blood from lasting.
Topic: Just got my first deer..... again!! (Read 1451 times)
