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in reply to: Too old to hunt? #26961
Woodbows — great to have you here! I don’t know if you build or buy “wood bows,” but I’ve done a lot of both over the years, including building at least three dozen wood bows, most of which shot at least a couple of shafts before blowing up. 🙁 Now, after a few years’ time out, I’m hot to start scraping yellow wood once again. Cheers, dp
in reply to: most challenging animal to hunt? #26920Recurve Man — I agree that squirrels a darn tough game, but not because they’re so difficult to “hunt,” but rather darned hard to hit and really hard on arrows to boot.
T — I sure can’t argue about turks, but I have killed them with a trad bow, a few times … and try as I may I’ve not yet killed a pronghorn or in a decade now even had a half-axxxed shot op. But then, as you won’t hunt turks from a manufactured blind, I (like you) won’t hunt pronghorn from a pit blind next to a cow pond on private land. To own his each.
We won’t even go back to the girl-hunting years. Talk about impossible! 😛 But like all true hunting, an honest effort itself is a triumph, no matter how consistently we “fail.” — anon
in reply to: New TBM, question for Don Thomas #25456Chris warns us against “complicating the obvious and trivializing the momentous.”
Brilliant! That’s the most succinct summary of “modern” bowhunting’s problems I’ve yet seen. 😀 dave
in reply to: Kicking the New Year off Right #24414Good job, Derek! I too have had excellent results with Brown Bear heads.
When I was growing up in OK, there was no such thing as feral hog hunting anywhere. Although the cause endless problems for habitat and “real” wildlife, I wish I had some around to hunt. One day I’ll make the trip and do it, another late-life first in hunting. For now, I’ll be making my first javalina hunt this month. I’d much rather it was feral hog, for eating quality. Congrats, dave
Blake — is that a new Eclipse logo? In any event, it’s cool. 8)
I’ve never had “target panic” on targets and can’t even comprehend how it happens, even to very experienced shooters. However, after 50+ years of trad bowhunting I still occasionally get target panic, or buck fever, or whatever, on live game. And the more impressive the animal I’m aiming at, and/or the more rushed I feel for the shot, the more likely I will “panic” and not make full draw. Happily, I make my own arrows and have found that if I position the feathers just so they audibly contact my beard/mustache, it provides a “click” I can hear but the game cannot. Many ways to skin a cat, including letting it go. dp
in reply to: Another volunteer for the Ashby study #23342Thank you, David for another excellent hunting story and detailed explanation of arrow effect. This is the only place I like seeing blood in kill photos … and yours are the bloody best! 😈 Are those big old boars edible? Keep ’em coming. dave
in reply to: Dave,how was your Coues deer hunt? #23327Wayne — Like most hunts, it went … way too fast. I spent 12 days on the road, 9 of them camped alone and hunting every day. Yet again I “failed” to kill a Coues. But I’ve never had so much fun in failure. First morning a nice buck came to drink within range, but facing directly at me, sitting in a brush blind. I was at half-draw and just waiting for him to finish and turn broadside, a moment for the climax, when a flock of mallards scame jetting in the slapped down on the small pond right in front of the buck. Several other bucks came by that day and the next, but all were out of range. The weekend came and with it a swarm of local hunters so I moved to a more remote spot for the next week. First day there I had 7 deer come in, including 4 bucks, 3 of which were nice. Being new to tree stands I failed to clearn enough limbs in front of me and was plagued all day by bucks standing where I couldn’t shoot. Only chance I had there was two bucks standing in a window through the limbs. But while one drank the other watched, seeming to look right at me, then they swapped places. I’ve seen elk do this also. At day’s end I cleared the offending foliage … then the rest of the week no more shootable bucks came by. I did have the privilege of photographing a big flock of Gould’s Mexican turkeys, very rare north of the border. And the last day a batch of javalina came in and I could have shot the biggest, if I’d had a tag. The whole time it was very windy and sometimes cold. Nights alone were very long but I got into the rhythm of it right away and caught up on my reading. I’m returning mid-month for a second try. It has become a quest. And this time I’ll have a pig tag also. Odd to be an old man and have whitetail hunting as a new experience! Thanks for asking, dave
in reply to: Appropriate discussion? #22064“Stuff” DOES happen. Obviously. But we should not take it lightly. I have wounded and lost game animals, and it haunts me. But by retaining that hollow feeling of failure, even if just a little, I make better decisions later on.”
Right on!!!
in reply to: Digital Issue #22063Dave, unless someone else has tried it, that’s a question for Robin, and I’ve copied your post directly to her. I’m thinking she and a few members ran precisely that experiment not long ago, but don’t recall the outcome. It’s a world I’ll never know. dp
in reply to: Let's build a selfbow #20032Michael — Chad Sivertsen, a very experienced and expert MT selfbow maker, should be able to answer that question for you. As a CO bowyer I don’t mind at all ordering osage to work with. dp
in reply to: How do you get these amazing hunts #20030The formula outlined by ssumner1 pretty much worked for me. Which is to say, as I got more financial footing, I’ve been able to hunt more and farther afield, within the realm of one who’s “peak earning years” never quite made middle class. Can’t say why but I’ve never had an urge for foreign hunts or exotic game, except for Alaska and after two caribou and one moose hunt there, I’ve had enough of that. Rather, now in my senior years as a bowhunter and having concentrated most of my adult life on hunting elk and to a lesser degree mule deer, which are my neighbors, I am currently experienced the joys of re-learning the skills of whitetail hunting. In that light, trips to AZ and WV, so far, have scratched my itch for new landscapes. To each his own. While a foreign hunt can be an exceptional adventure, too many these days are going the way of high fences and/or expensive outfitters, wo that the “hunter” in fact does little but take the shot. It’s entirely possible to have a greater hunting adventure in your local woods, if you do every part of it, start to finish, yourself. And then, there’s always the backpack, which turns any hunt for any game into a challenging adventure. To each his own. dave
in reply to: Beginner Basics #20024Jody — let’s see some photos of you shooting that new Bear. Bear was always the bow I wanted most as a kid but could never afford. Since that I’ve owned two Kodiak Magnums, very short, and I loved them except they stacked. Enjoy. dp
in reply to: Top 5 Bows #176201 — Shrew Classic Hunter
4 — Osage selfbows I made myselfin reply to: Broadheads #17618Yes, I agree with Smithy above: a long/narrow two-blade with a Rockwell hardness of at least 50, single or double-bevel. You should look at the Brown Bear, Tusker Concord, Grizzly, and STOS to name a few that make the grade. Shoot the heaviest head your arrow spine can handle. And indeed, read Ashby. dp
in reply to: Predators and A Hunter's Conscience #17051J — I hope not. I much like what you just had to say.
I’m just back from 2 weeks camping and hunting desert whitetails in remote AZ near the Mex border. Coyotes were my nightly entertainment. One morning a 35-pound yote came in and playfully chased off a ton of longhorn steer at the pond I was ambushing, then he/she drank with joy and the gusto of a life well lived, like me at happy hour. Another morning a family/pack of 3 came through and the last one sat down “Santa Fe style,” and barked and yelped his/her heart out for a good long while. “Oh, the joy!” In their turn, the deer still came. Why would anyone want to trade away the special thrill of being in the wild presence of coyotes or wolves or grizzly bears, for a few more deer or elk? I hunt to experience wildness, within as well as without. It’s all good by my dim lights. Up with diversity. dave
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