Ratio of broken arrowheads to complete arrowheads

[Good luck jack]

Hi All,

This may be a silly question, but when you hunt for arrowheads, on average, how many broken arrowheads do you find before you find a full arrowhead? Ill define a full arrowhead as 90% intact. Thanks everyone!

 

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[1320]

5:1 on average digging in rock shelters, some shelters 10:1

 

[coosakid]

5:1 on average digging in rock shelters, some shelters 10:1

Probably a good ratio for anywhere.
Your definitely gonna find more broke ones than whole.....
But if your finding alot of broke ones in one general area there's a whole one there somewhere

 

[quito]

sounds like a good ratio.

On another note, I bet I find 5 thumb scrapers to every broken point on my sites.

 

[arrow86]

Definitely a hard question to get an exact answer to .... if you count debitage / chips / flakes I would put it at probably 20:1 but If just counting actual point remains or knives like a base or tip it would probably be 10:1 for me anyways ...... but than you have those awesome days where you find 5 nice complete points and hardly anything else and that’s what keeps me coming back. Unfortunately it does seem those days are getting fewer and further between.

 

[creekhunter]

When I first got into hunting, my mentor told me "you find a 100 brokes to every whole one" Well I'm glad its not quite that bad, if the field has been plowed heavily then yes.

 

[1320]

sounds like a good ratio.

On another note, I bet I find 5 thumb scrapers to every broken point on my sites.

I have had similar results. Some of the Clovis sites are something like 10:1. I follow some shelter digging threads on other forums and rarely see a scraper posted....lol. The OP's of these threads post EVERYTHING found....lol. My guess is they do not recognize scrapers.

 

[1320]

When I first got into hunting, my mentor told me "you find a 100 brokes to every whole one" Well I'm glad its not quite that bad, if the field has been plowed heavily then yes.

I can understand the ratio's being higher in the fields that see routine plowing. Rock shelters are a blessing in that regard.

 

[IAMZIM]

I can only surface hunt, but for me it is around 10 brokes to 1 whole, but I normally walk miles when I hunt.

 

[ptsofnc]

8 brokes to 1 whole in fields. 4 brokes to 1 near perfect in creeks.

 

[11KBP]

8 brokes to 1 whole in fields. 4 brokes to 1 near perfect in creeks.

Finding more points that are complete is one of the reasons I prefer to hunt streambeds.

 

[old digger]

Around here it's like winning the lottery at times. The ''Indians'' were predominantly nomadic, and unless you can gain access to a specific kill site like Buffalo jump then your chances of finding complete points is much higher. But you have access to a site like the Mandan village that Larson 1951 had acess to then your chances are more than 50 percent.

 

[arrow86]

Finding more points that are complete is one of the reasons I prefer to hunt streambeds.

I’ll second that it seems finds in or near water source are always in better shape. I guess not surprising since the alternative is a field that’s been plowed hundreds of times

 

[filmiracl]

Some of you guys have far better broken to whole point ratios than me. I'd say I found maybe 20:1 or so but I only hunt by a river.

 

[rock]

Hi All,

This may be a silly question, but when you hunt for arrowheads, on average, how many broken arrowheads do you find before you find a full arrowhead? Ill define a full arrowhead as 90% intact. Thanks everyone!

Not a silly question at all. In the fields here the Disc will cut them into pieces so sometimes you dont have enough to know what it use to be so tips and bases are the best guesses. I find probably 25 brokes to every almost wholes and maybe 5 perfect pieces a year. I go at least 1 time a week and sometimes more depending on the days and weeks. Dont get discourage if you are finding broken ones it just makes the whole ones more special when you find them.

 

[pickaway]

When I first got into hunting, my mentor told me "you find a 100 brokes to every whole one" Well I'm glad its not quite that bad, if the field has been plowed heavily then yes.

Idk sometimes it seems like a 100 to one...

 

[quito]

Idk sometimes it seems like a 100 to one...

I hear ya!!

 

[undertaker]

Here in Vermont it depends on where you look. Plowed fields give up very few whole points and a lot of broken ones. Scrapers are abundant. Water finds seem to be my best finds even though I come across heartbreakers there to. If you stumble across untouched sites it can be the holy grail although I havn't been that lucky.

 

[monsterrack]

In my area I hunt both fields and creeks, but if I hunt a field I know my ratio will be 15:1 due to the plow. That's why I spend so much time in creeks or drains that have very little amount of rocks or sand in them. Doing this you have a better chance of finding whole artifacts and they are sometimes easy to spot. When hunting these clay bottom creeks and drains I would say my ratio is 2:1 and on a good day 1:1.

 

[quito]

In my area I hunt both fields and creeks, but if I hunt a field I know my ratio will be 15:1 due to the plow. That's why I spend so much time in creeks or drains that have very little amount of rocks or sand in them. Doing this you have a better chance of finding whole artifacts and they are sometimes easy to spot. When hunting these clay bottom creeks and drains I would say my ratio is 2:1 and on a good day 1:1.

Not trying to start an argument, but i am not so sure the plow is the culprit as much as we’d like to think. My understanding with the natives in this area, and likely other areas was that if their point suffered damage, they would unhalft the broken points back at home and discard them. Then put a new point on if they couldn’t modify the damaged point. We can find more whole points in water or gravel bars is because they were often missed shots that didn’t damage the point and the dart or arrow wasn’t able to be retrieved.. Watering animals were an easier target, and favorite hunting places were often at watering spots.

also, I find way more bases than tips, and imho that lends an amount of credence to this theory. Anyone else have similar results, more bases than tips?