Home › Forums › Campfire Forum › Keeping Trim during the Holidays…

Viewing 8 reply threads
  • Author
    Posts
    • Stephen Graf
      Moderator
        November 17, 2018 at 5:14 am
        Post count: 2429
        #134754

        With the big holiday meals looming in the near future, my mind naturally drifted into thoughts of shooting arrows…  I got to wondering about the energy we expend shooting arrows.

        Instead of doing the calculations myself, I lazily (it is that time of year) went for the calculators available on the google machine.  I found that my arrows have a kinetic energy of about 30 ft*lbs.  At this point I was getting really excited.  How many shots would I have to shoot to burn off that turkey dinner?  Could I have an extra piece of pie, knowing I had a plan in place?  Am I not the smartest archer ever to live?  Dang I’m good…

        Then, after a few more sips of morning coffee and throwing the cat off the couch again, I pull up a conversion tool to convert ft*lbs to calories.  Oh, this is gonna be great…

        Well, hmmm….  It looks like my 30 ft*lb shot generates, wait for it,….  .00972145 calories per shot.  Yep, that’s right.  I would have to shoot approximately 112 arrows to burn one calorie.  Who knew?

        Yet another lesson my bow has taught me.  I have spent most of my life working with energy and talking about it in terms of calories, ft*lbs, BTU’s, etc.  Part of being a good engineer is having an intuition for the magnitude of things and how they affect each other.  I should not have been surprised by these results, but I was.

        It takes almost nothing to push an arrow through a deer.  But wait, check this out…

        A good deer rifle will blow a big old nasty hole in a deer, right?  Say that rifle has an energy of 1000 ft*lbs.  Man, that’s a bunch.  But wait…  That converts to about 0.324 calories.  And now consider what that means in real terms…

        The energy imparted by that big old deer rifle of yours is still only about one sloppy lick on your snickers bar.

        Speaking of…  I guess it’s time for breakfast.

      • Ralph
        Moderator
          November 17, 2018 at 4:58 pm
          Post count: 2580
          #134761

          Driving home from the hunt today, listening to country music, slurping on a coke and eating a Hershey bar.. That count? :-))

          By the way, cold, windy and unfruitful hunt….

           

        • Raymond Coffman
          Moderator
            November 22, 2018 at 7:03 am
            Post count: 1235
            #134803

            Happy Thanksgiving to all ya all out there.

            I hope you have a great day with Family And Friends !

            Happy Arrows ! I know I will shoot a few today.

            Scout

          • David Coulter
            Member
              November 22, 2018 at 10:24 am
              Post count: 2293
              #134805

              Good start Steve, sounds like you burned more energy throwing the cat off the couch than shooting your daily practice. Just take anlook at the build of your average world class target archer, not even including trad archers, to see they aren’t burning at the same rate swimmers, for instance. Maybe old time Nascar drivers would be a closer comparison. As hunters we’d be better off dragging a deer into the woods every time we hunted as well as the few times we drag one out.

              Happy Turkey! This is my favorite holiday. It’s like Christmas without the hype. Peace to you all. Dwc

            • Ralph
              Moderator
                November 22, 2018 at 4:05 pm
                Post count: 2580
                #134807

                Whoops!!!

              • Stephen Graf
                Moderator
                Moderator
                  November 23, 2018 at 4:50 am
                  Post count: 2429
                  #134809

                  David,

                  I like your idea of dragging the deer into the woods!  I think you’ve hit on a new product…

                  A big rubber deer (painted camo of course) used to practice our dragging form and get exercise so that we’re ready for that “buck of a lifetime”

                  The advertisement could be somebody that looks good in yoga pants dragging it around 🙂

                • David Coulter
                  Member
                    December 30, 2018 at 7:05 am
                    Post count: 2293
                    #135487

                    Well, it’s almost new year and i definitely put on a few pounds. Seems there’s a constant buffet of treats around and my resistance is quite limited. I haven’t dragged a deer in or out of the woods so that plan isn’t helpful.

                    Good luck to everyone in keeping your resolutions past the end of February! All the best to ya, dc

                  • Stephen Graf
                    Moderator
                    Moderator
                      December 31, 2018 at 5:13 am
                      Post count: 2429
                      #135746

                      Well my boy shot a deer last night (gun) and gut it, dragged it out, and skinned it.  It’s hanging in the cooler now.  All I had to do was hoist my beverage in salut!  Definitely not a calorie burning operation for me.

                       

                    • Ralph
                      Moderator
                        December 31, 2018 at 3:48 pm
                        Post count: 2580
                        #135750

                        I guess we can think thin and see how well the power of positive thinking works. 

                         

                        But……………if the power of positive thinking worked that well, I’d never have another arrow in the dirt or stuck in a tree or running around loose in the bush………………………..

                    • Author
                      Posts
                    Viewing 8 reply threads
                    • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.