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in reply to: Where have all the Grizzlies gone? #63627
Clay — I agree with Mike that the Tusker is a good head. And it’s semi-crude looks make it appear almost as a trade head, which should sit well with your primitive preferences. I’ve killed elk with them and they’re the cheapest quality single-bevel I’m aware of. Brown Bear is also excellent and I recently found out that the stiff price increase there is due to them having their heads sharpened by KME so they can sell them hunt-ready. KME gets $5 a head for that and in my experience it’s well worth it. Meanwhile, I’m going with the new Tuffheads, which also are professionally sharpened though not by KME (it’s the SteelForce folks, I think). The promising new Werewolf heads are supposed to be factory super-sharp as well, though anything but primitive looking. That seems to be a trend, professional sharpening, and a good one despite the cost, since until now the various and growing number of single-bevels often have had slightly different bevel angles, like the older Grizzlies at 23 degrees, and now with the professional sharpening they are becoming standardized at 25 degrees as recommended by the Ashby study. Nobody I’ve talked to has any idea about what’s happening with Grizzly. They’re still running ads in TBM and it doesn’t make sense to just shut down a company that surely could be sold for a fair price. Yet, as you say, where have they gone? and for how long? If anyone knows I’d think it would be Dr. Ashby or Sharpster at KME and I haven’t heard from either of them on the mystery. dp
in reply to: How’s the outlook for deer in your area? #61746I won’t know until I go up and scout timberline, tomorrow or the next day. I won’t likely even know then, since they’ll be bedded. Big muley bucks are always there this time of year. We rarely see big bucks way down here in the lowlands (8000 to 9500′ where I usually hunt elk) until early rut, which is late Oct. earliest. Not as many does around as usual, likely because we have a couple of lions hanging about the deer go elsewhere. In 30 years here I’ve not once found a lion-killed deer here. Did once find a lion-killed 6×6 bull elk, but that was over in the Lizard Head Wilderness.
in reply to: Quick question on Vapor Carbonwood arrows? #61529Eric — Since nobody else so far is speaking up, I’ll offer what little I know of the Vapors. A while back I got 6 from a friend and fletched them up and I really like their looks. I’d love to hunt with them, but they’re a bit underspined for my bows and can’t be shortened any more and I don’t want to sacrifice FOC by going down to a lighter head. So I can’t really help you much. I too heard they are no longer being made, and have to wonder why.
in reply to: Keep Your Cooler, Cooler! #59328Hey Mr. K — ain’t seen you around these parts for a while, welcome back. What is bowshooter.com and how’d they come to be sending out Robin’s tradbow.com “tip of the week”? Life gets confusing sometimes, don’t it. Love your tag quote; very reminiscent of “subvert the dominant paradigm.” First! time I saw that bumper stucker I had to look up paradigm, which I thought must be an alpine grouse. 😀 Now, I’m not sure whether I’ve become the subversion or the paradigm. 8)
in reply to: Does anybody really pay this much? #59009Patrick — Is that you in your new avatar photo falling from the sky? 😆 There’s an old pilot’s saying I’ve always embraced: “Never jump out of a perfectly good airplane” (or helicopter). And let’s not forget Chef in Apocaplyse Now: “Never leave the f—— boat!”
in reply to: Millennial mark #58839Well put, Steve.
Great quote, Bruce. Where’d you find that? 😛
Jaybuzzard — You gotta watch out for those brothers-in-law, an infamously shady lot of ne’er-do-wells. I envy you your connection with a bowhunting father. All my dad enjoyed was work and worry. And now, he’s just as dead as if he’d made a good time of his life and mine.in reply to: got hunting land today!!! #58830Sam — perseverance furthers. You WILL kill a deer with your stickbow soon, clean and fast and fair. Took me four years of hard trying to get my first one, a whitetail doe. All these years later I’ll never forget the ancient, instinctive, ineffably great feeling in my heart and guts when she ran out of sight then I heard a commotion in the dry hardwood leaves, then silence. It’s good good good! Dave
in reply to: So dang funny!!! #58821Yes, but “Can you hunt deer with one of them things?” 😛
And Bruce … Chuck Norris? I didn’t know you could sink so low. 😕
in reply to: Homemade Broadhead Targets #58816Wildschwein — Actually, Santa Claus is a promotion. Once, a reporter who interviewed me said in his story that I had an “elfish” look. That was years ago and I hear they’re about ready to release what’s left of him from the hospital. 😛
in reply to: Homemade Broadhead Targets #58073Absolutely! Sand more so than clean dirt, but both dull broadheads and wear the finish off shafts. Easy solution: designate a couple of heads and shafts for practice and tuning. Since there’s no need to resharpen, you won’t have time in this life to shoot those arrows enough to lower the head weight enough to affect accuracy.
PS: This is really weird! The new avatar photo — I don’t even have it in photobucket or on the Gravatar image list … yet here it is, risen from the bowels of my computer somewhere, 20 years old. I can only wish I was still that lean and mean. Lean has gone to bony, and mean, only in my heart. 😈 I keep trying to post a close-up shot of a bull staring at the camera, but apparently my computer is haunted.
in reply to: Homemade Broadhead Targets #57982As stated in previous threads of this nature, I’ve long favored the burlap bag stuffed tight with heavy plastic — for field points. But that set-up won’t stop my current broadhead set-up and I’m stuck with pulling arrows through when shooting woodies and mostly also with carbons since they penetrate so deep the fletching winds up inside the bag and can’t be pulled back out. So, as Ed and others said, it’s back to the sandpile. Steve, it’s hard to imagine why local ordinances would keep you from putting a pile of sand in your own yard, but equally good is clean dirt (that is, no rocks). Maybe that will get you around the silly rule? I had good luck brieflyh with a foam block target from Walmart, which it turns out is composed of thin sheets of foam layered together, like a stack of typewriter paper. You shoot into the solid side with field points and edge-on, so that you’re shooting “between” the layers, with broadheads, which makes ’em real easy to pull out. It cost $37 and I shot it out in no time … so back to the dirt pile again for me. It never lets you down though it’s not much fun when wet.
in reply to: got hunting land today!!! #57750Sam — While baiting may make things more convenient and certain, and in some places where it’s legal “everybody does it,” an animal killed over bait is exactly that and no more. Far more satisfying is to keep it all natural and test yourself. That way, when you succeed, you feel so much better about your accomplishments as a true hunter and about yourself. And as others have said, it appears you don’t need any artificial help with this honey hole. Enjoy! Dave
in reply to: Does anybody really pay this much? #53584Good discussion fellers, and once again I admire that here we are able to absolutely disagree with one another without attempting to destroy the other guy’s preferences as worthless, much less feeling the need for personal insults. Thanks, amigos.
To add to an essential point that Ed mentioned, re the high cost of specialized machinery for single-bevel broadhead-making, please consider this: Any time a “new” technology comes along, requiring substantial investment in new machinery to make a product for a fledgling market, it’s a big gamble for the makers any way you cut it. Aside from the extremely high level of time-consuming hands-on attention to every single head, they are forced to charge higher prices to recoup their investment in specialized machinery and top-end materials, and the financial gamble becomes even greater. I believe that in most cases these folks are charging as little as they feel they can in order to re-earn their investment, without pricing themselves out of the market. So, while some people will always try to “make a killing” on everything they sell, we should realize that this is not likely the case with the new flock of high-end broadheads. The Ashby data created a demand for these things in some of us, which we translated to the marketplace, a portion of which continues to blow hot air attempting to dispute decades of solid scientific research, while other are responding to our demands for the most lethal possible heads. While I sure can’t afford them on an income of Social Security and a very little bit of writing, I nonetheless do the best I can to support these valiant efforts by buying and shooting and testing most of these new heads, a batch or two each year. I owe it to the manufacturers who are listening, and thus to the future of bowhunting. I also feel I owe it to the elk, which are tougher to kill by far than moose and I am led to believe the only tougher animal on our continent is the Kingwouldbe-quality monster hog. So I do it for the elk, and for myself because I wounded and lost a few in the early days and at my stage in hunting and life have some dues to repay in that category. But as I’ve said before, if I hunted only deer and small pigs and was scraping for gas money, I’d have to stick with something cheaper. Right now the one good workable compromise I’m aware of is the Tusker Concord. Not the very best, but damn good and a comparative bargian. Hey, Steve, Sr. — that’s almost as pontiferous as you. 😀
in reply to: Kingwouldbe & Tuffhead #52633Uh, would someone kindly explain to this slow old guy what A&A fletching is? Who sells it, etc. Guess I’ve been napping. 😳 I’ve never had a problem with elk jumping the string; they’re remarkably calm unless alerted and I try to keep my shots under 15 yards. But I’m too embarrassed to admit how many shots, 20-25 yards on average, I’ve put over the backs of Coues whitetails as they ducked and spun when I released. Specializing in elk can make a guy lazy, which is why I’m so enjoying chasing whitetails again. Thanks, dummy Dave
in reply to: More wildlife pics #51224It’s all fun. After I posted the pics above, I haven’t gotten another one, of anything (that is, some six weeks). It’s not unusual not to have elk here in late summer, as they mostly are higher, but I’d expect the bears to keep swimming and am yet to get a pic of a deer. That lion I got in the fist batch of cam pics may have something to do with the dearth of deer. Oh well, the cams come down in another week, or will get moved closer to home where I don’t hunt. Sure has helped me get through a boring summer and motivates me to take long walks at midday on hot buggy days when I wouldn’t otherwise. Much like hunting in that way. If I knew I had a hot spot that was being regularly visited, I’d set the cam for video. I’ve watched bears splash around in spring pools several times but a video would be cool. dp
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