There are many ways to cut feathers before fletching an arrow, but this tip will also work when cutting feathers that are already on the shaft. Sometimes it is necessary to trim them to a lower profile for arrow flight on a windy day, or you may decide that you like a banana [...]
Sometimes we find the lifestyle and sometimes the lifestyle finds us. A brief survey of our contributors (and our readership) would confirm just that. Fortunate is the archer born into a bowhunting family who most likely tightened their toddler fist around a kids’ bow before age two. Others find an introduction to bows [...]
The small skiff motored ahead through an increasingly stiffening headwind as the archers strained to see through the choppy surface and murky depths. Suddenly, one of the bowmen shouted “RAY” and pointed starboard with his arrow. Almost drawing simultaneously as the skiff turned sharply toward the ray, two arrows cut the water just as [...]
For years I tried to find a lantern case that would protect my old Coleman Model 200A lantern. My father gave me this lantern over forty years ago, and it is dated as being made in 1957. The original metal cases are hard to come by, and expensive. The plastic cases of today [...]
Lots of hunters I know use surveyor's tape to mark the last known sign when trailing a wounded animal, but there's a better alternative: toilet paper. TP has several advantages in this situation: It's easy to attach to leaves and branches, even if your fingers are too cold to tie a knot. Just [...]
You’ve done your shooting homework by establishing a repeatable, torque-free grip on the bow and locating an anchor point that places the nock under your dominant eye, aligning your draw arm elbow with the arrow. You’ve mastered the proper method of pulling with your back muscles and following through after the shot. The [...]
I was cow-calling for a bull elk one September day deep in the bottom of a canyon. While there was daylight on the canyon rim 500 feet above, evening had come early to where I sat. I was well hidden in a little copse of saplings that grew by a meandering, almost silent [...]
I was working at my desk in mid-June when I got a call from my friend Virgil Vosse, who owns North Archery, from France. He said that he was one of four Parisian artisans who were being interviewed for a documentary to be aired on France’s largest television station. The kicker was he [...]
There are lots of hypotheses on how to determine the sex of a deer or elk from its footprints. The following technique was shown to me by my tracking mentors, and I have tested it on hundreds of deer, elk, hog, and a few bighorn sheep trails. When I encountered the trail of [...]
Paraffin wax, generally found near the home canning supplies, is an excellent thread-lock and “anti-seize” lubricant for steel or aluminum threads that are in contact with aluminum or brass. Most carbon and aluminum arrows have aluminum or brass inserts to add weight. Steel target points, field points, broadheads, and even aluminum screw-in or [...]
