stone tip durability

[shackleton]

I'm considering building my first arrows with stone tips.I'll be purchasing the tips which are a little pricey.That said how well do tips hold up under normal practice?
Thanks.
Scott

[Hawkdancer]

Scott,
There is a thread going in either Flintknapping or Bows discussing that.  I'm not using stone at present, so can't really weigh in, but I would probably try to match them with a set of bone points for practice.
Hawkdancer

[Pat B]

Every arrow I make for hunting gets shot just to be sure it shoots well enough to hunt with. Usually I only shoot it once then it goes in my quiver. I use a rubberized foam target to shoot into and know the point will not break or chip from shooting this target. Stone is strong but brittle and can't take any lateral forces so shooting an arrow with a stone point more than once can be asking for trouble.

[Tracker0721]

Yeah I use practice heads that are about the same weight and than shoot my real deal heads just once or twice into a soft target to make sure they fly well. I’ll also take a couple little sharpening flakes after if needed but that’s all they get shot. You can fill a 38 shell casing with lead to match the weight of your tips and that usually works as a pretty good blunt/practice arrow. My target is a couple pieces of that thick blue foam. Pain to pull arrows out though so I’m on the prowl for something better.

That said, I posted a picture in the flint knapping thread titled head weight and that arrow had just shot a grouse out of a tree and landed in the ground. My other arrowhead broke hitting a boulder but that’s quite a hit for it to still be in one piece. I broke it trying to get a rabbit or something later on. No doubt they’ll cut through a rib.