One thing I discovered years ago when I first started using lighted nocks on my arrows, and later bolts for crossbow, they often bury deep under leaves and the first few tenth's of an inch of soil, crossbow bolts more often than my normal archery arrows. You will never see those with your naked eye. Good night vision when it is actually dark, and I mean light amplification night vision, not digital, will pick up a faint flashing glow from those mostly buried arrows, Just another expense.....But I already owned high end night vision so it wasn't an added expense.
I get that, my first time pulling out the night vision was well over 6 hours after I shot a deer, deer was shot around noon or just after.. After dressing the deer and hanging it, temp was in the low 30's, I went back to look for the arrow and could not find it. A few hours later after dark, grabbed my night vision and went to look for the arrow. Instantly saw a very faint flashing glow from the lighted nock standing where i was when I shot the deer. Never would have found that arrow without it.
I'd suggest a hi-vis reflective arrow wrap. It's the same 3M reflectivity type of stuff as they use on safety vests. A light grey, almost a white color so it shows up brighter on forest floors. Then when hit with a flashlight in the dark they glow.
1 Dozen WHITE REFLECTIVE ARROW WRAPS + EXTRAS!!! *Multiple Sizes Available* | eBay
Hit them with a flashlight after dark and they light up like a highway sign at night in your headlights! Makes finding that arrow after dark a whole lot easier! I ALWAYS throw in an extra wrap or two with each order as well!www.ebay.com
A lighted nock won't work with an airbow because of how the arrow is loaded and propelled.
lancasterarchery.com Lighted Nocks
Track your arrow path in flight, clearly see shot placement, and aid in your recovery efforts. Choose from options designed for compound bows and crossbows at Lancaster Archery Supply.
Probably depends on what area of the country you are in and skill of the user with the detector. Any area of the country that has been populated by more than a few people per square mile at most, the ground is full of targets, 99.9999999999++++ percent trash. A good(expensive) detector and a skilled person can identfy the majority of the trash hits and ignore it. I lost my keys in the woods dealing with a huge hog I shot. I looked for hours, gave up and called a locksmith to come to the woods and make me a key for the truck on the spot, that gets expensive. I had other keys on the ring, luckily most had duplicates back home, but not all. A friend was an amateur metal detector guy with some rather expensive equipment. He came down the next weekend and within 30 minutes of looking, he gave up due to the huge amount of very strong hits from trash in the ground. Hits as strong as my new keyring dropped on the ground and covered with leaves, he used that to tune his detector to get rid of a lot of trash hits. He left the detector with me set to ignore the smaller hits and I spent hours looking, at least with keys dropped, you don't have to dig, it will be just under leaves. This in the middle of nowhere, 12 miles to a town of around 250 people, 35 miles to a town over 5k people, over 45 miles to a town over 10k people. I never found them, until before the next deer season. A friend and I were scouting pre season, he bent down and picked up my keys laying on top of the ground. The remote even still worked after 7 months laying in the woods in the weather.
Good dog. We have used a friends dog many times, unfortunately his dog is just ok. He will get bored and find new scents to chase if he doesn't find what he started on within a few minutes, about 8 or 9 minutes at most before he gives up and finds something more interesting to him. He is just a pet that does it naturally, no real training, but some half hearted. Luckily, that is long enough to find the majority of deer down that couldn't be found. As a puppy, his owner had him at the hunt camp all the time and would take him down trails of deer he shot and knew where they were, gave dog a treat after getting to deer. Wasn't long before the puppy was pulling on the leash down trails instead of being led and shown blood to sniff.
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