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in reply to: Arrow Question #19804
Chris — I second both Mike’s welcomeand what he said about point weight. Most trad supply houses sell point “test kits” with a variety of weights, one each. Just keep going up until flight straightens out — you cannot have too much weight up front is my experience. Not only will it “unstiffen” your shafts, it will also increase accuracy and greatly increase penetration. I shoot 225 points with 100 insert sand 125 adapters from mid-50# bows. Dave
in reply to: Greg Munther interview #19799Thanks Joe and Kelly. When you have an interesting person to interview–and I’ve been lucky that way with all my TBM interviews–the rest is cake. People think I’m in great shape, but Greg is 3 or 4 years older and I can’t keep up with him quail hunting. Maybe if I had more practice, but alas we have no quail within striking range and my dogs are highly untrained. Anyhow, Greg is the genuine article, and that’s my highest compliment.
in reply to: Harvest is not a 4-letter word. #19527I suggest that everyone involved in this discussion who is open-minded and serious about the topic, whatever your views, read Bruce Smithhammer’s brief essay “The Words We Use” (the link is fourth post from the top in this thread) and then resume with that as a base. For me, it’s time for the evening hunt. Our garden is about ready to harvest. That’s my wife’s part. My part is to kill an elk, if I can.
As a comic aside, I can’t count the times in my life that I’ve told nonhunters, usually women, that I’m going hunting and they respond, “Good luck, I hope you catch something.” I just smile and say thank you. 😀
in reply to: worried about the bitterroot #19398Blacktail — BHA is the group for you. I am a life member. We are dedicated to protecting public lands fish and wildlife habitat and also fight any laws, local to national, that would harm that habitat and thus outdoor sport. Greg Munther is the chair of the MT BHA chapter and I think they have a website. The national site is http://www.backcountryhunters.org. I’m sure you could join and with BHA’s support start a local group for protecting whitetail habitat. TBM has run BHA ads in every issue for years and are big supporters. Good luck. dave
in reply to: How to ruin a hot spot #18286Must be an ATV trail nearby. That’s not a tree stand; it’s an elevated dance floor. This is a REAL problem insofar as there are no laws against it, yet it’s patently unfair and rude. Down in AZ where I hunt Coues on public land, the name of the game is ambushing water, of which there is very little. Last year when I got to my favorite water hole, where I’ve always sat in a simply brush blind that’s basically just a few limbs arranged to enhance natural brush and trees, there was a tree stand right out in plain site. After noticing for days that more deer than usual were coming in, and that they were using a different route than in previous years, I investigated and found a big pile of alfalfa. I was shocked to learn baiting deer is legal in AZ! As a hunting buddy noted, while we are free to continue hunting this place, anything we kill there can be considered to have baited in now, which taints is. Thus, this prime spot has been stolen from all ethical hunters who don’t choose to hunt a baited site. Not to mention the treestand placement dominates and makes useless my little brush blind. If this problem spreads to my only other location, AZ will lose my $350 annual tag fees and I will lose what has recently become a favorite hunt. Legal does not make a think right. Dave
in reply to: Treed-itional? #18277I’ll comment on two points brought up in this good thread. First, harking back to Bruce’s original take on personal equipment choice — like so many issues these complex days, the “what is traditional” question is to some degree just a matter of semantics. The subset of trad folks who choose to use only the simplest and generally oldest technologies, and to make as much of it themselves as possible — selfbows with sinew backing, dacron and even sinew strings, hand-carved wood arrows and flint points, and who sometimes enjoy dressing in skins they’ve prepared themselves — these folks, technically, are not traditionalists but “primitive” bowhunters. Often in discussions about these issues we neglect to separate them out and roll them into “traditional” as “extremists.” Second, what Mike said is the beating heart of the “what is traditional” argument and the only part that really counts; yet it often goes unrecognized. Whose business is it what other hunters choose to hunt with so long as it’s ethical and sporting? None of mine, even though I believe that the more shortcuts and crutches you use, the less you get out of hunting. Where equipment choice DOES matter is the politics of hunting seasons. Archery and BP seasons are long and early because they are considered by most states as under the category of “primitive weapons,” and thus inefficient. Gradually, as states succumb to techno-creep by allowing far more modern and functionally efficent weapons into nominally “primitive weapons” seasons — compound and now xguns in archery, and all manner of modern improvements in the BP world from inlines to sabots to modern sighting systems–the more hunters use these seasons and the more game gets killed, threatening the continuation of our privileged “inefficient weapons” seasons. Why is NRA a major supporter of xguns in archery seasons? See above: the more modern weapons we have in “primitive weapons” seasons, the stronger the argument becomes from the gun lobby to shorten archery season in favor of longer rifle seasons. This, thus, becomes far far more than merely a matter of what gear a person tends to hunt with discussion, morphing into a matter of the very survival of our traditional “traditional” seasons. And so far, bowhunters have remained largely asleep at the wheel insofar as speaking out in favor of keeping modern hi-tech weapons out of primitive-weapons seasons. This is not a mere matter of personal opinion, but rather a matter of the very survival of traditional bowhunting. So much of politics these days is insidious, that the majority, who aren’t paying attention, just don’t see it until it’s too late. Dave
in reply to: Wee little muleys #17239Bruce — I didn’t take the pic. A friend who lives near Denver took it from his back deck. I also cropped it a bit for posting here, which has the effect of making it appear closer. The original looks to be about a hundred yards, assuming he used 35mm.
in reply to: A new problem #17235I don’t know about Gold Tips, but most carbon shafts use push-in nocks. If so, drill a small hole down into the broken part of the nock and insert a screw to pull it out with. And to prevent future damage, don’t aim at the same spot on the target every time — move each shot to a different location. It doesn’t look as cool as having a tight wad of arrows, but it sure saves damage. Dave
in reply to: A hunting widow's philosophy #16120Nope, Mike, though she might well be thinking it! 😀
In fact she’s an angel for fixing great late dinners for a month each fall, even now with a broken wrist (her, not me).in reply to: My New Bumper Sticker #15938John — you can get the BHA bumper sticker by joining BHA: http://www.backcountryhunters.org.
in reply to: Harvest is not a 4-letter word. #15936George — I respectfully disagree, but am more interested in hearing what others have to say on this topic than in laying out my views. For now. Most important thing is not what we think about the various ticklish issues of hunting, but simply to think about them, and to think about why we think what we do, which too few among us do. Cheers, dave
in reply to: My New Bumper Sticker #15338Hey, that would look great alongside the BHA bumper sticker:
USE THE QUADS GOD GAVE YOU.
In other words, no wheels of no kind!
😆in reply to: My first Deer is down! #14217First bow deer — now that is reason to celebrate! I recommend a bottle of good cheap red wine with tenderloins, medium-rare. Maybe two bottles and two tenderloins. That’s a nice buck; my first deer with a bow was a doe and the second a button-buck, and I was over-the-moon with both. You’re way ahead of me. Congrats, dave
in reply to: Broken Collar Bone #11376No direct advice to offer here, except the “misery loves company” kind. Dr. Dave Sigurslid, who co-writes the TBM “Campfire Philosopher” column, gets the World’s Worst Timing award by badly dislocating his left shoulder a week before season opening–and yes, he’s left-handed. Hard as it is to do, he plans to take his own medical advice and lay out of archery season entirely this year, and perhaps your friend should do the same. My wife recently broke her right wrist, and she’s right-handed, and for that and previous bone innjuries his advice has been “don’t push your luck.” The risk is transforming a temporary injury into a permanent ailment. If a break doesn’t heal correctly and fully before stress is applied, it’s at risk of becoming arthritic for life. I don’t know how this applies to collar bones but I personally wouldn’t risk it. Doc Don Thomas is hunting bear in AK so we can’t expect his advice on this. Doc Dave plans to compromise by joining me in hunting camping and maybe sitting on stand a few evenings armed with a camera. If it every quits raining here, hard hard rain and stinking afternoon. Best luck to your friend.
in reply to: When a Sportsmans Elk Hunting Days are over #9113Old German: elch.
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