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Lumenoks, Lumen-Arrows and F.A.S.T.

Lumenoks, Lumen-Arrows and F.A.S.T.

By Bill Krenz

The bow, a new hot-rod model, was seriously fast. The mule deer buck, a tall and heavy 4x4, was just 45 yards away.

I’d been stalking the buck for over 40 minutes, utilizing the dark pines at timberline to mask my dawn approach. The buck was feeding unaware, and I was as close as I was going to get. My laser rangefinder confirmed the distance twice.

At full draw everything looked perfect. I’d practiced this shot hundreds of times on my range. As I settled into my anchor, I was already thinking about how I’d pack the buck off the mountain, which was probably my first mistake. My second mistake was underestimating the buck’s senses. A fraction of an instant before the shot, I saw the buck tense. Then the arrow was gone, racing toward the buck.

Conditions contrived against me––it was dead calm and I think he heard the shot, the sun was not yet quite up and the light was adequate but not great between the trees and my arrow was scorching along at 320 feet per second. The net result was that I didn’t see the arrow in flight. The buck whirled in the mountain gravel. Then he was gone down the mountain and quickly out of sight.

For the next three hours I searched for my arrow, for blood, for tracks, for anything. I eventually found his dim departing tracks, but little else. After much effort and consternation I finally had to admit that I’d missed him completely. But I really had no idea if the shot had gone high, low or wide. In those conditions I just hadn’t seen the arrow. Oh, how I wished I’d been shooting a Lumenok.

The idea of a high-visibility lighted nock wasn’t brand new when brothers Eric and Curt Price developed the amazing Lumenok way back in 1998. At least one other had been offered before. But the Lumenok proved to be the very first lightweight, uncomplicated and truly foolproof lighted nock for bowhunters. It worked, it worked simply and reliably and it opened up a whole new world for bowhunters.

Plenty of legitimate bowhunting shots are made in dim-light situations at dawn and dusk, where even slow arrows can be tricky to see and fast arrows all but disappear in flight. That makes it surprisingly difficult to clearly identify hits and even misses. A brightly glowing Lumenok clears away the fog.

Lumenoks are available for a wide array of today’s hunting arrows, and installation is easy. Simply pull the existing nock from your arrow and slide a Lumenok in its place. Each Lumenok consists of a standard-looking plastic nock with a tiny light-emitting LED buried inside. That diode is powered by a tiny battery. There are no complicated switches, magnets or moving parts. Two tiny stainless-steel contacts are located just below the shoulder of the plastic nock end of the Lumenok. To prepare the arrow for shooting, the tight-fitting Lumenok is pushed into the shaft so that those contacts don’t quite touch the shaft end. In that secure condition the arrows are quivered. When an arrow is shot the Lumenok is pushed by the bowstring just a tiny bit deeper into the shaft causing the prongs to contact the electrically conductive carbon arrow shaft. This completes a circuit between the two contacts to provide power from the battery to the LED, which brightly lights the nock. To turn the light off, simply pull the snug-fitting Lumenok back out of the shaft a very tiny amount to break the circuit and conserve the battery. Each Lumenok has a total battery power of up to 40 lighted hours. Within that period a Lumenok can be turned on (shot) and off as many times as you would like. Some Lumenoks even feature replaceable batteries.

Today’s best, strongest carbon arrows have a very high carbon count and work perfectly with Lumenoks because the carbon is so electrically conductive. Lesser “carbon” shafts, however, may contain varying degrees of common fiberglass, which is not conductive. Fortunately, Lumenoks are available for both sorts of carbon shafts. Even better are Lumen-Arrows.

Lumen-Arrows are 100-percent carbon arrow shafts. They’re tough, lightweight, fast and especially accurate. And because they are 100-percent quality carbon, they work perfectly with Lumenoks.

Lumen-Arrows are straight within .003, are offered in three spine sizes (300, 350 and 400) and are available with Bohning Blazer Vanes or as bare shafts. I recently fletched up a set of 300-spine Lumen-Arrows for my bow. They fly great, are tough as nails, deliver the sort of pinpoint accuracy I demand and they’re equipped with Lumenoks so I’ll never not see or not find an arrow again. On top of all that each Lumen-Arrow is precision squared on the nock end to promote optimum accuracy and improved Lumenok function. That last feature is something few other factory-cut arrow shafts offer.

How squarely any nock fits into an arrow shaft is crucial. If the nock end of any shaft is cut at even a tiny angle, the nock will not seat properly and accuracy will unquestionably be reduced. At the same time such a crooked shaft cut can also decrease Lumenok function.

To eliminate those not-cut-square evils, discriminating archers are now reaching for a new tool called a F.A.S.T. (Fletched Arrow Squaring Tool). Developed by Eric and Curt Price, the F.A.S.T. is a simple and yet effective tool designed specially to allow you to accurately square off the nock end of fletched and unfletched arrow shafts. In just seconds any shaft can be made perfectly square with the F.A.S.T., and that will boost both accuracy and Lumenok function.

On top of a western mountain or deep in an eastern whitetail tangle it’s a great idea to see your arrow all the way to the target. Simple, lightweight, reliable Lumenoks enable you to do that on good days and bad. You can see your hits and your misses. You can quickly find your arrow. And for a perfect all-carbon shaft that is a spot-on match for a Lumenok, consider Lumen-Arrows. They’re fast, accurate and durable. And finally, to improve the accuracy and Lumenok compatibility of all arrow shafts, invest in a F.A.S.T. The Fletched Arrow Squaring Tool takes just seconds to use, but few things you can do to an arrow shaft deliver such huge benefits.

Lumenoks, Lumen-Arrows and F.A.S.T. have become essentials for success-oriented bowhunters far and wide. For more information on Lumen-Arrows, Lumenoks and F.A.S.T., log onto lumenok.net or call the Burt Coyote Company at (309) 358-1602. For helpful information on how to get the most from your Lumenoks, check out the “How To” page on the website. K

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