Danny Runyan thinks he has the answer for every archery hunter’s worst nightmare — a wounded animal that can’t be found.

Runyan, a construction worker who lives in Grantville, has a patent pending on a device called an Electronic Tracking Broadhead.

“I’m anxious to see what the response will be,” Runyan said. “Everybody I talk to says, ‘Where can I buy it?'”

Right now you can’t buy it anywhere. In fact, there isn’t even a prototype because Runyan and a marketing firm he has hired currently are testing the waters.

Basically, Runyan has come up with an electronic tracking device the size of a BB that will fit on the tip of one of the three prongs of a broadhead.

That device would transmit radio frequency signals to a hand-held directional receiver equipped with lighted arrows indicating which direction the wounded animal has fled, and a transponder that beeps louder the closer the hunter draws to the game.

“I’ve been working on it for 21/2 years,” Runyan said. “I’m an avid hunter, and I’m really tired of losing an animal due to a bad shot.”

In archery hunting, it is much more difficult to make a mortal shot than it is for a firearms hunter, so archers often spend hours searching the woods trying to find the stricken animal, often unsuccessfully.

“I’m hoping to be able to market it by this hunting season,” Runyan said, “but chances are it won’t be until next year.”

As Runyan sees it, an archery hunter will be able to purchase a package that contains three tracking broadheads and the hand-held receiver. A battery would have to be purchased separately.

No price has been set but, says Runyan, “I’m going to make it affordable, not a high-dollar item.”

The current retail price of a package of three conventional broadheads is between $30 and $35 so the cost of Runyan’s invention most likely would be under $100.

“It’s something I know and something I’m extremely comfortable with,” Runyan said.