Home › Forums › Campfire Forum › Howdy
-
AuthorPosts
-
-
Just thought I’d take a minute to introduce myself.
I wore out a little fiberglass recurve in the backyard as a kid, then took some archery lessons a couple of years ago. I’ve been “meaning to” get a traditional bow and start hunting with it since then.
Well, two weeks ago today the Big Brown Truck of Consumer Happiness dropped off my Samick Sage*. I’m blessed to work from home, so all I have to do to shoot is step outside. So in the last two weeks I’ve probably shot 1000 arrows. That would have been $100 worth of .22 ammo, $1000 worth of .308 ammo, and if I had tried to do it with my muzzle loader, I would have to quit my full time job. Plus it would wake the baby up.
I’m both pleased and frustrating with my shooting. It runs in streaks, but my bad shots are getting better.
I’m doubly blessed to live on 5 acres adjacent to a national forest in Southwest Washington. My wife and I bought this place two years ago and are slowly turning it into a permaculture homestead, so hunting with traditional bows just seems to make sense. Next year we are going to plant some Osage and Pacific Yew.
I enjoy the magazine and this forum. Thanks for having me.
Regards,
David
*A Sage still counts as “traditional” right?:D
-
Welcome. Sounds like you are on the right track. I think everyone would pretty much agree that you’ll have good days and then for no apparent reason, days that just go haywire. Bad days will get closer to good days. Have fun. best, dwc
-
Welcome, and congrats on the bow! I used to live on the Olympic Peninsula – wonderful country, and some fine hunting and fishing to be found around out there, as I’m sure you know.
Wose wrote:
I’m both pleased and frustrating with my shooting. It runs in streaks, but my bad shots are getting better.
Heck, I’ve been doing this for years, and your statement above still sums it up. I consider it a life-long journey…
Wose wrote: That would have been $100 worth of .22 ammo, $1000 worth of .308 ammo, and if I had tried to do it with my muzzle loader, I would have to quit my full time job.
Ha. I don’t even want to ponder the math on that when it comes to my .44 ammo. 8)
Wose wrote: Next year we are going to plant some Osage and Pacific Yew.
Very cool. Looking forward to some day seeing the staves that come from those plantings.
-
Welcome to the forum. I also enjoy shooting my 2 iterations of the Sage. One was sold as the Hoyt Huntmaster in the early 80’s and the other I recently procured to see how nice this latest version is and I like it. I now have more than one set of limbs and can convert from 40# to 55# on either riser. Versatile and inexpensive and shoots as good as a custom bow IMHO.
-
Duncan wrote: Welcome to the forum. I also enjoy shooting my 2 iterations of the Sage. One was sold as the Hoyt Huntmaster in the early 80’s and the other I recently procured to see how nice this latest version is and I like it. I now have more than one set of limbs and can convert from 40# to 55# on either riser. Versatile and inexpensive and shoots as good as a custom bow IMHO.
I’m quite pleased with it as well. I’m not a bow expert, but I’ve shot some good ones and I’ve shot some bad ones. I was willing to spend more money than I did on the Sage, but I don’t feel like I gave anything up. It doesn’t seem cheap or chintzy at all. I like the fact that I can change my draw weight, as you’ve done, or if I twist or break a limb they are replaceable.
-
Smithhammer wrote:
Very cool. Looking forward to some day seeing the staves that come from those plantings.
Yeah bud. I think bow building might be a retirement hobby for me. But I might as well plant the trees now…
-
paleoman wrote: Hey and welcome! Post pics too. I love to see where everyone comes and goes “out in the bushes”.
Thanks! I’ll do that. We get some cool pictures here. My wife was out in the driveway the other day photographing the Bald Eagles in the river canyon.
-
Thanks to everyone for the welcome. It’s funny how we stumble into things at just the right time in life. I found “Traditional Bowhunter” at the library, and found it to be in a different world than all the “Horn Porn” magazines. I realized bowhunting was very much more than a different weapons choice. It’s a different way of relating to the animals and the land.
This is an interesting little cyber hangout y’all got. I feel like a stranger in a strange land on many of the hunting fora out there on the internet. Here we have a bunch of hunters talking about Ed Abbey, Barry Lopez, land ethics, and etc.
It was the thread on “Empathy for Animals” that really got me though.
I’ve got quite few things swirling around in my head about my relationship to my land, and hunting. The discussions on here are helping me wring them out.
-
Welcome, David! Please post pictures of the yew and osage you’ve planted as it grows! The Pacific Northwest! My favorite place in the USA! You’re lucky to live there! See you around the site!
Alex
-
Welcome. I am reasonably new here as well and have already learned quite a bit. Unfortunately, my local weather is not cooperating (2 feet of snow on the ground and temps in the single digits) or I would be shooting outside too. I also have my office at home and would love to shoot my bow more but it’s just too cold. I think we have the same bow (at least that’s what someone told me). I have the PSE Stalker and that was my hunting bow this fall. No shots but some close whitetails. I have only been shooting trad for 3 years but never really shot a “wheelie bow”, just enough to know I couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn with one.
-
Welcome, welcome, welcome…
Keep in mind that the only stupid questions are the ones you don’t ask. If you do something stupid, please let us know about it, so we don’t repeat the blunder. There is enough experience here so that someone else has probably done the same thing and we can all laugh together about it.
Wish we didn’t have the 3 feet of snow (and more coming) so we could shoot arrows.
Expect to go snowshoeing this weekend, if you don’t hear from me I did something stupid, got lost, and froze.
-
Just got a 35# SAGE for my son he seems to like it.
Welcome to the group
-
Wose wrote: … Next year we are going to plant some Osage and Pacific Yew…
Plant the Osage in your yard and you may have good bow wood when your baby is ready to draw his/her first hunting weight bow.
Yew is another story. Plant Yew on the north side high up the mountain. Do it for your great grand children.
Welcome!
-
TMS wrote: I have only been shooting trad for 3 years but never really shot a “wheelie bow”, just enough to know I couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn with one.
You are a step ahead of me with the Wheelie. I’ve never actually shot one. When I look at one though, I start getting this pain behind my eyes. I used to be kind of a gear head, but as I get older, I’ve developed this fondness for simple robust technologies.
Good luck with the whitetails. I gotta be honest with you, taking a shot with a bow at a big game animal intimidates the heck out of me. I’m glad I can practice so much.
-
grumpy wrote: If you do something stupid, please let us know about it, so we don’t repeat the blunder. There is enough experience here so that someone else has probably done the same thing and we can all laugh together about it.
Expect to go snowshoeing this weekend, if you don’t hear from me I did something stupid, got lost, and froze.
Ok, I’ll bite. 😀
What I learned day before yesterday:
Shooting a judo point at a long low flat rock can result in an arrow skipping off and heading straight up in the air like a Saturn rocket. It was kinda cool but I probably shouldn’t do it again….
What I re-learned yesterday:
When I draw the bow, and then look at the target, most of the time the arrow will hit somewhere on the 18″ cube target, with the rest of the time going wildly into the bank.
When I look at the 2″ bullseye on the target while drawing the bow, most of the time the arrow will either hit the bullseye or some where right close.
I guess that Fred Asbell guy knew what he was talking about when he wrote that book…
Good luck not feezing to death. I have a Search and Rescue background, but you are a little out of my bailiwick.
-
Steve Graf wrote: [quote=Wose]… Next year we are going to plant some Osage and Pacific Yew…
Plant the Osage in your yard and you may have good bow wood when your baby is ready to draw his/her first hunting weight bow.
Yew is another story. Plant Yew on the north side high up the mountain. Do it for your great grand children.
Welcome!
Yes! The more research I do about Osage, the more excited I get about it for several reasons. You are right about the Yew being a gift to future generations.
I do know that it will grow hill, as there is one growing on a property across the road. I’d love to know how old it is.
-
Everybody else, thanks for the kind welcomes.
-
Wose wrote: You are a step ahead of me with the Wheelie. I’ve never actually shot one. When I look at one though, I start getting this pain behind my eyes. I used to be kind of a gear head, but as I get older, I’ve developed this fondness for simple robust technologies.
Honestly, I don’t think you’re missing much not having shot a compound. I really didn’t like my experience at all (only 4 hours). The let-off was a very strange feeling.
I know what you mean about “simple technologies”. When I first started hunting as a teenager, I had a neato whiz-bang deer rifle. Then I moved to a shotgun my father gave me. Then I moved to a flintlock muzzleloader. And then the trad bow. I’m sticking with the flintlock and the bow. Just makes a day in the woods more fun, for lack of a better word. Both are very effective on game but they each make me concentrate on doing my part correctly.
-
TMS wrote: [quote=Wose]You are a step ahead of me with the Wheelie. I’ve never actually shot one. When I look at one though, I start getting this pain behind my eyes. I used to be kind of a gear head, but as I get older, I’ve developed this fondness for simple robust technologies.
Honestly, I don’t think you’re missing much not having shot a compound. I really didn’t like my experience at all (only 4 hours). The let-off was a very strange feeling.
I know what you mean about “simple technologies”. When I first started hunting as a teenager, I had a neato whiz-bang deer rifle. Then I moved to a shotgun my father gave me. Then I moved to a flintlock muzzleloader. And then the trad bow. I’m sticking with the flintlock and the bow. Just makes a day in the woods more fun, for lack of a better word. Both are very effective on game but they each make me concentrate on doing my part correctly.
I’ve been thinking quite a bit on “resilience vs efficiency” which a bunch of ecologists and economists find are inversely related. I’m falling more squarely in the resilient camp these days. Rifles are more efficient, but I can grow bows in my yard.
Forgot to mention I’m gonna grow bamboo in addition to Osage.
-
R2 said: Be sure and take your bow and three arrows just in case..
Is that to do the 3 shots in the air, if I get into trouble? Not so sure you will hear them in TX.
Bamboo: Few years ago a friend gave me a bamboo plant, so I could grow my own fly rod. When I asked on a Fly Fishing Forum where/how I should plant it, I was told I could plant it anyplace I did NOT want it to grow, and it would grow like a weed. Actually, you want tonkin bamboo, which they grow in Vietnam. They also have it in Manchester Vt. Place called Orvis. Unfortunately, they make it into fly rods before they sell it.
In regards to the technical stuff: In the 70s/80s I was a systems programmer in a computer company. Long days in a locked computer room. Now I call my son out in Salt Lake when the TV doesn’t work. It’s not that I can’t figure it out, it is just easier to ask. Besides I’ve figured out so much of that stuff, forgot it in a month, and had to figure it out all over again.
-
Wose wrote: I have a Search and Rescue background, but you are a little out of my bailiwick.
Well, this is going to have to stop right now, or I’ll have to start worrying that I’ve been cloned:
I work from home.
I have a practice range a short walk from my garage door and can shoot several times a week, sometimes twice a day. (But something less than 1000 arrows are being launched biweekly here right now, what with the 2.5 feet of snow and temps near zero.)
We lived in western Washington for six years, and we’re planning on moving back and residing in Poulsbo or thereabouts within the next couple of years.
I was a SAR dog handler for many years, including three in WA.
So, welcome, but fuhgeddaboud hijacking the Enterprise! 😀
-
grumpy wrote: R2 said: Be sure and take your bow and three arrows just in case..
Is that to do the 3 shots in the air, if I get into trouble? Not so sure you will hear them in TX.
Bamboo: Few years ago a friend gave me a bamboo plant…
In regards to the technical stuff: In the 70s/80s I was a systems programmer in a computer company….
Tonkin Bamboo. I’ll have to look into that. I’ve been meaning to research what kind to use for bows.
I decided on a career change in my mid-30’s, because I was tired of dealing with violent, unpredictable people who had power and control issues due to early childhood trauma. I actually got a Computer Information Systems degree, and discovered along the way I don’t actually like computers all that much.
I still sit in front of one all day, but at least I don’t have to make it work…
-
eidsvolling wrote: [quote=Wose]I have a Search and Rescue background, but you are a little out of my bailiwick.
Well, this is going to have to stop right now, or I’ll have to start worrying that I’ve been cloned:
I work from home.
I have a practice range a short walk from my garage door and can shoot several times a week, sometimes twice a day. (But something less than 1000 arrows are being launched biweekly here right now, what with the 2.5 feet of snow and temps near zero.)
We lived in western Washington for six years, and we’re planning on moving back and residing in Poulsbo or thereabouts within the next couple of years.
I was a SAR dog handler for many years, including three in WA.
So, welcome, but fuhgeddaboud hijacking the Enterprise! 😀
HA!
My SAR experience was a little wetter (Coast Guard) but I found myself crawling through puckerbrush looking for people more than I would have expected.
GSD or Belgian? I’ve never been a professional dog handler, but do love a good GSD. We had to put one down (lymphoma) a year ago almost exactly. We’re gonna get a puppy next year when the baby is a little older.
You couldn’t get me out of the Northwest with dynamite. We really love it here. We’re out past Yacolt, if you know where that is.
-
Wose wrote:
HA!
My SAR experience was a little wetter (Coast Guard) but I found myself crawling through puckerbrush looking for people more than I would have expected.
GSD or Belgian? I’ve never been a professional dog handler, but do love a good GSD. We had to put one down (lymphoma) a year ago almost exactly. We’re gonna get a puppy next year when the baby is a little older.
You couldn’t get me out of the Northwest with dynamite. We really love it here. We’re out past Yacolt, if you know where that is.
Am I gonna find Youtube video of you rolling an MLB as you cross the Bar?
At age 19, I was thirty minutes from signing my enlistment papers for the Coast Guard when my parents talked me out of it. About thirty years later, my wife (not knowing the history) looks at me and says, “You know what, you would have been good in the Coast Guard.”
I worked two GSDs as SAR dogs and started a Malinois as my third, but he’d been abused before I adopted him and he ended up being my companion dog. My wife prefers the Malinuts and now has a five month-old puppy. There is nothing like a GSD for temperament (and nothing like that statement to get the debate roiling here …)
“out past Yacolt” = “we really dislike crowds”, for those who don’t know. You’d need a SAR team just to find that town. +1
-
grumpy wrote: No violent or unpredictable people, I became single parent in ’80s. Corporate america didn’t understand. “Why isn’t the kid with his mother?”
Man, I was lucky there. I went through some contortions when I was a single dad, but nothing quite like that.
Good on ya for making it work.
-
eidsvolling wrote:
Am I gonna find Youtube video of you rolling an MLB as you cross the Bar?
At age 19, I was thirty minutes from signing my enlistment papers for the Coast Guard when my parents talked me out of it. About thirty years later, my wife (not knowing the history) looks at me and says, “You know what, you would have been good in the Coast Guard.”
I worked two GSDs as SAR dogs and started a Malinois as my third, but he’d been abused before I adopted him and he ended up being my companion dog. My wife prefers the Malinuts and now has a five month-old puppy. There is nothing like a GSD for temperament (and nothing like that statement to get the debate roiling here …)
“out past Yacolt” = “we really dislike crowds”, for those who don’t know. You’d need a SAR team just to find that town. +1
I did take a funky small boat ride at Cape D, but no rolls. I was never stationed there, but did some water survival training there. I’m glad I joined the Coast Guard, and I’m glad I got out before my daughter got too much older. It’s a tough life if you have a family.
My last GSD was an ill-advised rescue. He got bloat and gastric torsion on the way home from the rescue. I’ve driven cars that cost less than that surgery. We then discovered he had an esophogeal diverticulum, which is a fancy way of saying “the dog pukes if you don’t feed him really small meals through out the day.” He also had been poorly socialized and despite bonding really well with us had some really serious stranger anxiety and leash reactivity. I was making some headway on that when he collapsed and we found out he had lymphoma.
Despite all that, I really loved that dog.
Next time we are getting a puppy from a reputable breeder. I can’t take a ride like that again right now!
-
Wose wrote: [quote=grumpy]No violent or unpredictable people, I became single parent in ’80s. Corporate america didn’t understand. “Why isn’t the kid with his mother?”
Man, I was lucky there. I went through some contortions when I was a single dad, but nothing quite like that.
Good on ya for making it work.
Doing it again with my granddaughter. Have had her since she was 4 mos. now 11 y.o. Single parent at 65.
Lot more acceptance now, in the 80s lot of people didn’t think a man could parent.
-
grumpy wrote:
Doing it again with my granddaughter. Have had her since she was 4 mos. now 11 y.o. Single parent at 65.
Lot more acceptance now, in the 80s lot of people didn’t think a man could parent.
Yessir I ran into some of that too. Some folks were dubious about the teenager sleepovers, which in some ways I can’t hold against them. Back in the 90’s I used to tote daughter #1 around in one of those front pack thingies, to frequent stares and the occasional snide remark. I was a younger man then and regretted that the front pack kept me from delivering a punch to the nose in response.
-
I had one of those papoose type things for my daughter, overheard a few remarks about safety and responsibility when I took her climbing/boldering, but never to my face, that was a few lbs. ago.
Mark.
-
Hey Wose,
Welcome to the fold. I came to trad archery after years of shooting wheelie bows. Finally it felt like the technology had killed the outdoorsman. Traditional archery rekindled the fire to be a better and more conscientious sportsman. When I found these guys, they were and have been an endless source of fuel for the flames. Genuine and great people all, and there’s always room for one more! Enjoy the journey… Forget the destination!
-
-
AuthorPosts
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.