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in reply to: Just finished new ERC longbow… #18507
You mostly answered your question. 😉 No stack, smooth draw. Very forgiving and accurate. And, with ERC, it’s just safer for the wood. It’s a great wood, but not real tension strong like hickory or elm. I build most of my bows from 66″-72″. Added a couple to this one though.
in reply to: arrow material #11216Dead horse?
in reply to: Off Season Gear Storage #7850Aside from some wool for cold weather, I don’t really have specific hunting gear. I have clothes that I wear year round that turn into hunting gear when seasons open. In the cold, top that off with wool layers. Those can go in a box in the shop corner. Otherwise, I shoot/practice with the same stuff all year.
in reply to: Hipsters who hunt #41121I have been shooting and holding arrow/bow building tutorials and general archery fun with a group of “Downtown Hippies” lately. They started off just shooting bows and having fun but now several of them are really wanting to start hunting. They like the idea of self-collected high quality meat, as well as the ethical considerations of taking personal responsibility for your food, etc. It’s really neat to see. I stay upwind when they start lighting up some of their herbs, but they are good folks who are legitimately interested in hunting, conservation, the outdoors, etc.
in reply to: Oldest Regular Equipment #39319I mostly hunt with my selfbows, but I hunt fairly often with my Bear Kodiak Hunter from the early 70s.
Now, if you were to extend hunting to include fishing (similar, in many ways), then I can reach back into the 30s and 50s with a couple of cane rods…
Home made longbows are all I use anymore. Or, I should say, so predominantly my main bow style that it’s essentially all I use. Wood bows. You’ll be fine. Use XXX brand very sharp broadhead and put it in the right spot. A little faster would be good but not necessary. As you get more experienced building bows, you’ll be able to get the straight longbows up to around 140fps or so, but it’s not completely necessary.
in reply to: Hildebrand #31466Concur. I use the Bearpaw taper tool, and was becoming pretty agitated at the amount of gouging that was happening. Then I realized I had been using the thing for five years or so without sharpening it. So I took the blades out and gave them a good work over the stone. It helped a lot. The tapers are much smoother. Not flawless, but they are much smoother and my heads mount fine. I wonder if maybe the bit of gouging that remains doesn’t help to provide more surface area for hotmelt or other adhesive to adhere to? Just a thought.
Anyway, I like the SS and will probably keep using it. It has a lot going for it. I’d LOVE to get some full length 23/64 to 5/16 taper, but I’m not aware of that availability.
in reply to: Hildebrand #31308I really like the SS I get from Hildebrand. And yes, the nature of the wood makes it tough to cut/mill I believe. You’ll notice the same thing if you use a taper tool like the Bearpaw or similar. But, it doesn’t effect the final product quality. Or at least, I haven’t noticed that it does. Very good shaft material.
in reply to: Machine-gun archery! #25395Wowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww…
in reply to: Green Fire #24798Neat. I was somehow unaware of the existence of this movie. Good tip. I’ll be checking it out. If I ever get to start an outdoor ed program in some area school, this will be good classroom material too.
in reply to: Success or not #21298Pretty much what Dave said. If I found one I after it was essentially a waste for my use (very little in nature is actually “wasted”, but I certainly can’t use rotten meat, etc), I would leave it, punch the tag, and only admit to it as a reference point for lessons learned. Not brag about it.
in reply to: Got another nice doe with ERC bow… #20494Blacktail,
It’s my favorite bow wood. I love it!…………….
Now, that said, it’s a d**m pain trying to fine some that will work. I have been looking hard for a long time and that was the only piece I have found that I wanted to try to make a bow from, and it still scared the crap out of me as I was working on it. I was as amazed as anyone when I called it done and started shooting it. Further amazed that it has been shooting hard for two full seasons and many, many thousands of arrows now. I keep expecting it to fail in the classically demonstrative ERC way any day now. But, so far so good. And if it goes now, it doesn’t owe me anything. It’s been really fun and really pretty for quite a while and a lot of use.
As far as working the wood goes, a bow of ERC should be either fairly long or fairly wide, and probably backed with something stretchy, such as rawhide or sinew. Hickory or other wood can work, but if that is the case it should be pretty thin. If you can coax a bow out of it, it shoots really hard per pound of draw weight. It’s a really really fine wood.
in reply to: Another miss. Input welcomed. #19172Pretty much the same thing. The first one of the season still gets me a little shaky. The longer you have to see it developing, the more it’s likely to happen. Keep working at it and try to stay calm. This is all part of the if not the main point of hunting the hard way.
in reply to: NPR on hunting… #63426Dave,
I understand. When I heard it begin I thought “Oh gosh, here it comes.” But I was very pleasantly surprised. I tried 21 times to call in, but I need not have bothered. I doubt I could have said any better what was said by both the callers and in-studio guests. True, it was not bow hunting specific though bow hunting did play a role), but it was excellent all the same. I was in line to pick up my daughter from school, and was cheering excitedly when I heard them make a statement or point that I have been espousing for years. It was like I was listening to my favorite team play a great game. I am sure the other parents were probably a bit confused, but I’ll take it.
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