So January is over and Christmas seems a long time past, I hope you had a good festive time.
As January and February often sees us all short of a penny or two, with a corresponding tightening of the purse strings, I thought I would post what might be a money saving idea for my fellow archers. I want to talk about arrow pullers.  You know the things that give you a better grip on the arrow when pulling them from target bosses or 3D targets.

Arrow pullers come in all shapes, colours and sizes, varying in cost from under a pound to several pounds. Like everything some are better than others, but all share one thing in common, they can be easily lost either on the range or wondering round the woods.

Anyway onto the money saving aspect. When wandering around our local Lakeland store looking for jars for Sharon’s mass production of home made jams and preserves, I came across this non slip cloth sold on long rolls. It can be easily cut down to smaller lengths and cost just under six  pounds for a roll 30cm x 3 metres  (that’s about 12 inches x 10 feet). Normally it is used to cover work tops, or  in caravan drawers to stop contents moving.

I thought this could be used as a cut price arrow puller for newbies. So I cut a few lengths down to about 15 cm x 15 cm (6 inches x 6 inches”) and gave it to some people to try it on one of my coaching days at the wood and I was quite impressed. It worked well for all types of arrows (wooden, metal or carbon) providing an improved grip on the arrow to help drawing, it also worked in the wet weather we had. .
I can see the benefits of this for coaching sessions and for newbies as it keeps cost down and doesn’t matter if the pieces are lost or misplaced. It can be stuffed into a pocket or easily attached to a quiver making for an inexpensive aid to drawing arrows.

Sharon also finds using an arrow puller easier as she suffers from dry skin on her hands that can make drawing arrows difficult in cold weather, especially metal arrows, as it proves very hard to get any traction.

I tend to advise archers to use an arrow puller when drawing carbon arrows in particular, simply because if your hand slips down a damaged shaft when trying to draw the arrow it is very easy to get carbon splinters into the hand and carbon splinters are not easy to remove.

I’ve learnt that cheaper versions are available from discount pound shops that work as well. When talking to one fellow club member I discovered he uses it as flooring for his pens holding young chicks to stop them sliding and falling over.
One last thing as I  almost forgot,  Happy New year to all readers and followers. Might seem a bit late but I realised that in my first post of the year I’d forgotten to wish it to you. Sorry, must be my age catching up with me. For that reason I’ll wish you a happy Easter now.
As always thanks for reading.