Just wondering how many of you use/ make whistling arrows? I'm looking for design ideas. The little commercially available ones are no good to me- I can't hear high frequencies any more at all. (The only way a smoke detector would wake me up would be to drip burning plastic on my face). I saw a clip of some people in Germany using heads that were probably three inches long and had a cool sound, but I can't find any info on them. Any of you good people care to offer some advice- or better yet, pictures? JayInOz

There's lots of youtube videos showing you how to make your own.

Some are an actual whistling point made from aluminum, or brass tubing, and some are a slip on plastic whistle made from different style plastic balls. Ping Pong balls work great.

I'm going to build some similar to an aluminum footing, and try them out one of these days.

Rick

Somebody on here once up on a time talked about drilling holes in aluminum shafts and making whistling arrows that way.

Stick a whiffle ball on your arrow!

They are good for buzzing curious NJ bears.

I make mine from glue on points and adapters. I shorten the adapter to about 1/4". Drill 2 holes on either side on a glue on point in the curve on the point. I start with about 1/8 holes and widen them till i get the tone i want. They work better and last longer than any of the commercially available ones ive seen.

I'll throw in a pic tomorrow.

JayInOz

There are these:

https://www.fenderarchery.com/collections/arrow-points-and- adapters/products/whistling-arrow-points

VERY tough. Less $ and significantly lighter than what 3 Rivers carries.

And adapters so they can be used as a "glue on" point on woodies.

https://www.fenderarchery.com/collections/arrow-points-and- adapters/products/point-adapters

Even with the adapters added the combination still comes out a lot lighter than the 3 Rivers offering. Either way much better cast.

Oh and figuring that you are in Australia because of your username, the lower weight might make a little difference shipping?

The "concern" would be if they whistle at a frequency that you can hear.

From playing around with whistling points, I have found that the practice golf balls, the little "whiffle balls" mentioned, do work very well at producing a whistle, but will cut your cast by nearly half due to LOTS of drag.

I also played with drilling holes in sections of aluminum arrow shafting. Way too fragile once you drill the holes. Only good for a few shots, and they crumple/collapse.

I made this about 25 years ago. 7/32" hole in a 30-06 case. Couldn't tell you at this time why that size hole. Not my original idea. Probably from a magazine article. I left the primer in. Never tried one with the primer removed. Haven't shot it in a long time, but I remember it was pretty loud.

Standard glue on point with broadhead adapter. Takes about 2 minutes to make one.

I cut the adapter to make an air pocket, then give the end a slight curve to help air flow. drill a hole straight through the the point and smooth it oit to desired tone. Add holt melt and done.

Oh, i lose 5-7 grains on the point. The cut adapter adds 25 grains. My 125 points in whistle form are 145 grains. I can drop another 10 grains if needed.

Thanks muchly for all the replies gentlemen. Lots of ideas to keep me busy for a while:) I'll be back! JayInOz

Ugly Coyote, how did you reshape the base of of the case?

Here are a couple of whistling heads heads I had in my collection. The top one is a replica from China of a Chinese war head. If you can imagine being on the receiving side of a few thousand of these screaming three blade broadheads as they are coming toward you. The black one was made in Germany. The red one is uses a cap from a cap pistol, it whistles in flight and when it hits the ground the cap goes off. The bottom is strictly a noise maker, it uses a shotgun primer that goes off on impact.

fewfeathers, that was a long time ago. However, I know I did not have a bench grinder at that time, but I did have a grinding wheel I could chuck in an electric drill. That, along with files and sandpaper.

You can't see it, but the part of the hole towards the mouth of the case, (black in the photo), is open, not solid. It does appear that I've drilled through solid brass.

Thank you, I'll play with it and see how it works. I'm going to try out Battoka's plan as well. JayInOz good thread, Fun stuff.

Glad you're enjoying it Fewfeathers. The trouble I'm having is that I can't hear the little whistling heads. Maybe a tiny chirp at release, but usually nothing. I want something with a deeper note and preferably the point protruding past the whistle tip, so it's not the whistle taking the impact with whatever I hit when I miss where I'm aiming:) These are fun- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EInteXOd_3o but I'm hoping for something a little more streamlined and durable- and a little less white plastic:) Really enjoying the posts though! Thanks folks. JayInOz

I tried one years ago. It made a “Ping” sound, but no whistling .

I can imagine that in medieval times the sound of whistling arrows coming in from the sky could be pretty intimidating.

Raghorn , I have one of those red whistle points bought at Kmart many many moons ago. Never knew it took a cap, now I gotta find it again.

Ugly Coyote, how did you keep the arrow from going all way into the .30-06 case? It would be interesting to hear the sound differences in different cartridge cases.

You can buy whistling arrow points on the big auction site pretty cheap.

reddogge, I'm sure I used some Bohning Ferr-L-Tite glue to install the cartridge case. It wasn't meant to be shot into a target.

Many years ago I used to go to an area where I could do some stumping. It consisted of lots of grass, low bushes and dirt. I would shoot the whistling arrow at a low angle so it would skim along the ground when it landed. So, in other words, there was no direct impact of the head.

I also shot an arrow, in the same manner, with the red plastic head shown above in Rahorn's post, minus the cap pistol cap.

Just came across this article in the March, 1948 issue of Archery magazine. This is where I got the idea of using a 30-06 case. As for my using a 7/32" bit instead of the recommended 11/64", I likely didn't have an 11/64" bit at that time, but I probably should have used a 3/16" instead. Who knows what I was thinking! Anyway, it worked.

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