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Barnett Hedhunter 22" shafts - Warning

3.7K views 6 replies 2 participants last post by  bowman extreme  
#1 ·
Felt I should mention this.

I bought a whitetail str online and my wife bought one locally, Both came with the 2 arrows. Both of mine were broken and one of her arrows were as well.
Thankfully, I always bend my new arrows. Fortunately/unfortunately, When I purchased my bow, I also bought a 5 pack of the same headhunter arrows.


When inspecting these, I found one had a crack as well. two of the arrows were dated 3/19/2017. The other one was dated 3/1/2018. The fourth one (from the new box) I could not see the date code.


Just putting this out there because I would want to know if someone had this experience. I already bailed on these arrows and purchased others to use in the future, so lesson learned and I'm moving on. If you are reading this and have a recommendation for (what you believe) is a worthy bolt, please let me know.
 
#2 ·
Lever Action:
There are two brands of Head Hunter arrows.
One is listed as Barnett Head Hunter with the "Easton" label. Going from one batch to another
the weighs are very inconsistant as Easton appears to have used different weight inserts.

The second brand, built by Barnett, is the Barnett Custom Head Hunter (no Easton label). The
information Barnett sent me in early 2017 is at that time they were building their own arrows.
These arrows are very rigid, high quality and providing your bow is well tuned extremely accurate.
They have the flat sided nocks.

I shoot the 20" Barnett Custom Head Hunter arrows in my modified Barnett Ghost 410, tuned to
shoot a 412 grain arrow-point combination at 430 feet per second.

The seller on the EBay advertising these high quality arrows that I purchase from goes by (alfstackle04).
He sells 20" and 22".

As a further note: I have two sets of arrows for my vertical bow with Easton labels. One set has
the cock vane to the left. The other set can be shot cock vane up or down. The reason for the
different cock vane position (even if you were to have them custom built) is the type of arrow
rest one uses.
The problem with these arrows, the cock vane is not installed in the proper position. It appears
to me Easton, is importing these arrows where they are built under poor quality control.

As for only two arrows, Barnett has cut back from three: either to reduce costs, or are realizing many
buyers are going to custom built arrows.

All the best.
 
#4 ·
Take a look near the nock area to see if there are any marks on the nock or shaft where the cock vane faces downward.
If there is any marks, these arrows could have been previously shot as demos when some one tried out a crossbow.
Barnett rail was built too narrow for the arrows that are used, forcing the string to press down on the rear of the arrow
shaft-nock which causes these marks.

I do a lot of target shooting basically using the same 4 arrows unless I damage a vane. These arrows have thousands
of shots on them. As mentioned they do have that wear mark on the nock and on the arrow shaft due to the string
not centering in the nock properly.

If you bought locally, and have not already done so, I would be returning them.
Thanks for the up date.

All the best.
 
#5 ·
The two that came with the bow was shipped direct from Barnett as were the 5 bolt pack.
This is according to Amazon. Not saying, just saying.

I threw the broken bolts out. I did shoot a turkey with one this evening and it performed great and while it did loose a vane, the shaft was just fine after the fact.
Maybe it's just my luck that I could buy bolts and get 30% of them broken on delivery. I have that kind of bad luck :D
 
#6 ·
Here are a few things you may have noticed:
1)the box the bow came in if direct from Barnett should have had the factory staples unless some one opened it.
This would also apply if a crossbow was purchased from a dealer or big box store and the box had not been opened.

2)was there any damage to the exterior of the box? This would happen when shipping.

3)was there any packing, bubble wrap etc. around the crossbow, arrows or scope? I have received Barnett crossbows,
still in the factory stapled box (unopened) with no packing. One, an arrow had punctured the scope box and then the
lens cover.

If 1 & 3 were not as I listed, I would contact Barnett, explaining how your order was placed and ask the reason
if a difference was shown.

Here is a contact by email: KPecora@planosynergy.com

This telephone number may also work: 727-234-4999 Ext. 4983

All the best.