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in reply to: Osage Orange sources #31181
Tom — I have built some three dozen backed board bows, most from Osage backed with pignut hickory or bamboo. While a few of the lighter-draw bows remain in use, most broke and didn’t take long to do it. For shorter hunting-weight bows (50-55# for me), I’m done wasting time and money on boards. Among that lot I built a couple of selfbows, and both came in too low poundage for hunting … but refused to break. That’s one guy’s experience–board bows OK for lighter draw weights and longer lengths, but inferior with shorter stronger hunting bows. The longer the bow, of course, the less likely it will break at a given poundage. But I find long bows awkward, at best, for ground hunting in forest and brush. If you do it, I’d back with bamboo rather than hickory. The building is fun no matter the outcome.
in reply to: "Meathead" weight consistency. #31175Same experience here, David. I’ve been shooting Vintage’s various heads — 300, 225 and Meatheads — for years, and have yet to find a single head more than 2 gr. off advertised weight, and that’s rare. And they’re sharper out of the package than I care to try and improve on–not just sharp, but with mirror-polished bevel shelves. I just strop ’em and ready to go. Meanwhile, other name-brand heads I’ve tried vary as much as 20 grains per six-pack! and have deep machine grooves, requiring a lot of sharpening which invariably leads to lightening the heads and spreading their weight ever farther. Consistent weight, the correct steel hardness, and truly sharp … why anyone would buy heads today that don’t offer these basics, beats me. Yet they’re everywhere. Your setup sounds great for weight and FOC. But I would politely suggest that you go with at least the 225s for moose, as those giant deer are full of big bones and the extra thickness and strength of the heavier heads could be a win-lose difference. I shoot 300s for elk, though I had great luck with 225s as well, bone hits and no failures.
in reply to: Paint instead of wraps? #30531I don’t own a Blitz (prefer the cheaper and simpler Bohning), but the standard angle for 4-fletch is 90 degrees. They fly great that way, and you needn’t worry about a cock feather or looking at the arrow to nock it. FOC aside, I’m a late-life evangelical convert to 4-fletch. I find you get more steerage from less feather and weight. Four-fletch are also easier on the hand if you shoot a stickbow with no shelf, etc. So far as visibility, I have always vacillated between bright for visibility and dull for camo. Maybe my little longbow is faster than most others, which I doubt, but frankly in a hunting shot, considering the deep concentration involved in the shot, which is frequently in low light, and all the other distractions, I can rarely see the impact point anyhow. Of course if several inches of arrow were sticking out, it would be different. But since adopting almost all of Dr. Ashby’s research recommendations, that no longer happens, as they all disappear in a nano-second while passing through. Keep playing around with it, it’s all fun.
in reply to: P&Y changes mind #30500David … I’d say that you, and others here (almost everyone who cared enough about this topic to comment here, in fact), have drawn that line you ask about, at least for ourselves. And “self” is where anything of value must begin. Alas, most protestations against negative change get swept under the rug of “progress,” corporate profit and advertising, group-“think” and “It doesn’t directly impact my life, so why should I get all wrapped-up about it?” Yet, win or lose, I like to think that someday, someone will look back on all of this and note with sad pride that “At least not all of us were silent lambs or failed to think, and care, beyond our own situations.”
“When Hitler attacked the Jews I was not a Jew, therefore I was not concerned. And when Hitler attacked the Catholics, I was not a Catholic, and therefore, I was not concerned. And when Hitler attacked the unions and industrialists, I was not a member of the unions and I was not concerned. Then, Hitler attacked me and the Protestant church and there was nobody left to be concerned.”
–Pastor Martin Niemoeller (1892-1984)
in reply to: Carbon Express Heritage 250 too weak? #28306Fish — I am perplexed along with you. I shoot CE250s out of low-50s# fairly fast bows, with 450 grains up front. I also shoot off the shelf, etc. Mine are cut to 29″. I’d think you’d be well in the ballpark. Might have something to do with amount of centercut? If anything I’d guess the 250s are overspined for your draw weight and way-low point weight. Just for chuckles you might try much heavier heads to see if that helps. Others here will know more.
in reply to: P&Y changes mind #28301That’s a good question, Ralph, helping to focus the discussion. In my mind, it’s not lighted nocks, per se. Rather, supporters of any and every little bit of legal advantage they can gain over wildlife will use this decision to howl at their state wildlife departments “If P&Y says it’s OK, then it should be OK with Colorado!” or whatever other state that now prohibit electronics in archery seasons. It’s a chink in the armor. It’s symbolic and, in chemical terms, a potential catalyst for more and more chipping away at fair chase and challenge in hunting. It’s a step in the wrong direction and no matter how small and seemingly insignificant each such step, they count up and, like creeks feeding a river, can eventually coalesce in a devastating flood. Electronic devices have no place in traditional-values hunting, esp. when they’re attached to weaponry. Negative change tends to be insidious, sneaking up on us a wee bit at a time so that it’s hardly noticeable until it’s too late … like the strip-malls that now define America, coast to coast. Too many people fail to look at the big picture and the long run. P&Y should know this and the fact that they caved, aside from boding poorly for the future of trad bowhunting and fair chase, is yet another strike against their already floundering credibility.
Ralph, I love your end-quote! Of course, one can be a total jerk by “being himself.” Yet all my life, the most of the worst I’ve encountered are mere rubber-stamps, unthinking spineless products of commercial culture. That drive to individuality, I believe, is why so many exceptional folks wind up “going trad.” And also why we so often differ (politely, of course) with one another. 😀
in reply to: "The Good Hunt" film update #26834Wojo — I have always assumed there will be a DVD for public sale … otherwise it’s much ado about nothing. But again, I’m just the pretty face (except the scenes with Carolyn).
And welcome to tradbow.com.
Good stuff, Clay! For me, it’s the best, that is most useful, since your original one on tarp tents. You started out being good at this stuff, and you’re getting better all the time, including voice/delivery and entertaining inventiveness. Confidence comes with practice and confidence is the mother of creativity.
Where do you find those big heavy blue trash bags? After discovering Peter Storm raingear, that’s what I carry as it’s very compact and light and I can hunt in it. And I can sleep in or on it. But you can’t use it for a lean-to. I wonder how much wind your shelter can stand? Seems it would be a function of the weight and toughness of the bag/tarp, and how well the duct tape holds the corners. Could you not also use the standard trick of putting a pebble in each corner, folding the material back over that and tying the ground line to that?
Keep ’em coming. Aside from being cheaper and more reliable, woodscraft, doing more with less, is just flat sexier and more fun than storebought junk and battery-powered technology. I wish our younger hunters could all be exposed to this sort of info, on video and in the field, and thus find enlightenment before they’re too old and stubborn to change. Thanks!
Jim, since you raised the topic, don’t expect another book from me anytime soon. I have one I’ve been working on for nearly two years, unable to decide what to do with it, and of course I’m not writing at all for now, just treading water and breathing deep. However, and in spite of swearing I would never put out an e book, I’ve just had four existing titles converted to e books, specifically for readers outside the U.S. As you know, to mail a book anywhere in the world costs about twice what the book costs. Who can afford that? That’s why I did it. The four are Ghost Grizzlies, Elkheart, Heartsblood, and Going Trad. These are the ones for which I retain full rights. The others are with various publishers and I have no control over their fate.
Roosevelt’s interest is greatly increased beyond his adventures and political and conservation wisdom, by the fact that he was also flawed and at times, re hunting values, hypocritical. That does not detract, but simply adds another dimension to the man … much like my hero Edward Abbey, who could never quit falling in love/lust. Saints are morbidly boring compared to real live people.
Hammer — Yep, history is writ by the victors. Viewed from the pov of how various nations treated their own citizens–the ONLY valid measure of a civilization in the long run–there were no clear-cut good guys vs. bad. The cocky flaming arrogance of the French military back then does not elicit a charitable view. Meanwhile, get cross-wise with the King or Church in England, and you’d be partially drowned, partially hung, eviscerated carefully so’s not to fully kill you, then drawn and quartered. True heroes and unimpeachably “right” causes are darn hard to find, eh. The history of civilization is the history of politics and war. Not much else. We be lucky to be here, now, and the world would be far better off if we still fought our endless wars with bows and spears.
in reply to: The Untamed #24706Mike, a couple hundred of us saw it at the BHA annual rondy in March … it easily earned a standing ovation and made more than a few eyes damp.
in reply to: P&Y changes mind #23653Jason: We stand for something, or we stand for nothing.
Mad Dog et al., the tech threats to ethical, meaningful, worthwhile and defendable hunting also include a slug of junk which, because it’s not weapons technology, P&Y etc. will never have to reject or accept, yet it’s out there. For example … http://www.hecsllc.com/
in reply to: P&Y changes mind #22764Joe– 54 years of being “kept straight” by a devoted and long-suffering wife! You lucky dog! I’ve been single, I’ve been unhappily married, and for 36 years I was very very happily married (screaming fights included!). I highly recommend the latter. And if she puts up with being a hunting widow for many weeks a year, you/we are doubly blessed.
Your points about the gradual transition from traditional hunting values to what the new “hunters” want, in P%Y and other hunters’ groups, foretells the end. Trophy hunting is damn, double-damn, hard to morally justify at its best. Add in a big slop of cheater technology and it goes to hell instantly. Is that what the leaders and supporters of P%Y, both past and present, want for the group and for hunting? Populism can take us up or down. I admire your spunk to stay in and fight for the right thing. While you’re at it, can you convince them to remove all hunters’ names from “the book”?
Simple, clean, easily defendable to open-minded nonhunters, unimpeachably moral and ethical, and preferably local. That’s the only defendable future for hunting … and for the world. It can be done, but our groups–groups that we found and support and personally identify with–with a few sterling exceptions, are now true hunting’s enemas (sic). We would be far better off without most of them.
in reply to: P&Y changes mind #22630Maddog — No, you’re not alone, in spirit anyhow. Indeed MT is doing good work. I was hoping MT’s sportsman-led banning of canned shooting farms would start a trend across the West, but not so. A friend and I made a major effort to get a similar movement going here in CO a few years ago, and failed miserably, in large part due to hunter group apathy and outfitter opposition (they don’t want to upset the traditional ranchers, aka Farm Bureau, Cattlemen’s Assoc., etc., upon whom more are becoming dependent for staging their “hunts,” increasingly on ATVs rather than horses). So MT is way ahead of the rest of the West in that arena.
I’m not a trophy guy so never cared much about what P&Y or B&C does … and lost all interest and faith after P&Y allowed 80% let-off for compounds. Yet they are an influential group and allowing lighted nocks is a downhill first step toward getting more states, like CO, to allow them. You can always withdraw your support and tell them why. Get enough people doing that, and I’ve seen it work wonders. I’ve always figured that a lot of the serious trophy guys cheat like hell anyhow and use whatever gear they like, then lie about it. It’s a distinct and visible personality type that both craves “recognition” and will cheat like hell to get it. SCI is full of ’em.
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