Recently, while building arrows for my eldest son who kept his promise that he would explore the bowhunting lifestyle after he completed his PhD, I re-read the back of the Judo point package: “CAUTION: Do not launch this arrow toward others. It can be lethal and has been known to kill deer and antelope.” Okay, so the Zwickey company had to take care of the CYA lawyer-speak with the first cautionary sentence. However, the second sentence certainly speaks volumes—evidently some folks have pulled the wrong arrow from their quiver in the heat of the moment and sent a Judo-tipped arrow at a large mammal. All’s well that ends well with an innocent blunder if the animal succumbed to the shot but the scenario could go south quickly with a non-fatal hit.


Find a traditional bowhunter and you will undoubtedly find one, or maybe two, Judo or blunt-tipped arrows in their quiver. I always take a practice shot before leaving my stand or ground blind and I really enjoy stump shooting my way back to the truck or camp. And often, I find my accuracy is far greater than when shooting at a bullseye or foam. I thought this was unusual but in a passing conversation last summer with G. Fred Asbell at the Compton Rendezvous, he said he’s heard the same from many, many other traditional shooters. Apparently, there is something to be said about the relaxed focus of wandering the woods and selecting random grass clumps, pinecones, stumps, shadows, and leaves to drop the string on.


However, in a hunting encounter with the aforementioned deer or antelope we certainly want to pull the correct arrow from our quivers and avoid potentially disastrous results. I have two simple solutions to keep my arrows separate but together. You can simply reverse the Judo or blunt-tipped arrow in your quiver, so the nock/fletched end of the arrow is placed at the hood of the quiver. There is no danger in an exposed Judo or blunt arrow on the bottom of a bow quiver as there is with a broadhead. My second method is to fletch my Judo arrow a different color than my broadhead arrows. It’s an easy reminder when one arrow is different than all the others in your quiver. This is also most helpful if I am carrying my arrows in a hip quiver and cannot reverse my Judo arrow.