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in reply to: snakeskin backing #23563
While it is an option, I do not recommend the plastic fake snakeskins. They are just vinyl tape and are shiny and not all that cheap. Nor do folks generally apply skins to the belly of a bow — which might or might not affect cast and performance; I don’t really know. You might ask about professional bow skinners in the Campfire forum, which a lot more folks visit. A rough guess is $200 per bow, skins included. I have two skinned bows. The prairie diamondback is entirely too light for good camo and I had to stain and refinish it. The cottonmouth is far prettier and perfect camo, but harder to find. Best luck, dave
in reply to: Footed shafts #23558Well shucks, why do they use barrel taper, which has generally been relegated to target archery while single taper is the standard for hunting? Strange …:?
A primary difference between grocery plastic and pallet wrap plastic is toughness and longvity. I’ve been shooting into the same burlap bag of heavy-duty pallet-wrap for years now. I have to rebag the burlap every year but the plastic just keeps going. I get my burlap coffee bags for 75 cents each at a local yuppie coffee roaster/shop, and the plastic for free from the post office. I lace the top together with baling wire and re-stomp the plastic every spring when I slip on a new bag. Damn pine squirrels “harvest” my burlap for their nests about elk season each fall, as I just have my sitting on a small pallet on the ground against a tree. Great for field points but no good for broadheads, which shoot through (at least with my Ashby setup) and tear up both burlap and plastic. In spring, I spray-paint a lifesize turkey onto the bag, and it’s easy to move anywhere in the yard for more realistic practice, horizontal or vertical. dp
in reply to: Footed shafts #21188I ordered a dozen from Whispering Wind recently and they were shipped the next day and arrived promptly. All are close in weight and spine and straight. I’ll fletch and shoot a few this week and let you know how that goes. Only problem is they’re 23/64 and I prefer a thinner shaft. Price was $90 a dozen plus $10 priority shipping, which is considerably cheaper than some others. WW uses laminated pine for the shaft and I chose Actionwood for the footing. WW shafts provide 25 to 50 grains extra weight at the tips, depending on what footing material you choose.
Bruce — what did you wind up ordering and how are they? Dave
I’m just back from another meatless but exciting AZ whitetail hunt and see more than a week has gone by since Daniel’s last post here. How goes it? dave
6arrows — I don’t know what you’re using now, but if sharpened well the Concords — and a growing number of similar heads (long and thin 2-blade, single-bevel, hard steel) will definitely put game down fast, and moreso if you have enough weight in your arrows and weight-heavy up front. The Tusker Concord is among the least expensive of the lot and a real good head, my opinion. Unfortunately, I just completed my second AZ whitetail hunt of the past month and didn’t get a chance to try one on these little desert ghots, but they blow nicely through an elk so would likely be in Old Mexico after shooting through a Coues. I intend to find out! dave
in reply to: Planning Alaska Trip #11355I have used both Illiamna and Ketchum. Good reviews on the first, bad for the second (didn’t even try to come close to delivering what they’d promised). Check references! dave
in reply to: adapter points #11351Cody — in addition to the aluminum adaptors themselves being a weak point, they introduce a long “lever arm” that magnifies the “weight” of the broadhead as it translates to the point where adaptor meets wood, greatly magnifying the impact pressure on angled hits. As with so much in discussions of gear, given a “perfect shit” — which includes an absolutely straight-on hit into soft flesh and no bones, we can say “Hey, they worked great for me!” But life — and in the case of bowhunting, death — ain’t perfect and that’s what we have to prep for as best we can. As one searching for high FoC woodies and the other benefits of screw-in points, I too was as disappointed as you, but as usual for me learned the hard way. The next experiment I wish some innovative manufacturer would make available to play with would be a combo WoodyWeight and screw-in adaptor. It could be kept really short and, made of steel, still add good front-end weight as a glue-on screw-in adaptor, while keeping the lever-arm effect minimal. We gotta keep trying! 🙄 dave
in reply to: adapter points #9821Cody — I have tried them — and threw them away. Yes they are handy but so far as I can determine come only in aluminum, adding next to no weight up front and adding a very weak link to what’s already the weakest part of a wood arrow. If they came in steel they’d be worth trying, but not the aluminums. I tried two brands, both much the same, worthless in my opinion. 🙁 Dave
in reply to: Avatar (The Movie) and Longbows #8752“Predator” — my favorite cult movie of all time. Its “so bad it’s good” qualities are so rich that I have to think the writer, producer and director were in on the joke all along. Gee, I wish I could make a bow that shoots plum through a big tree like Arnie’s! Must have had a LOT of FoC on that arrow! :lol::D8):roll: dave
in reply to: 200 grain El Grandes????? #7866Brett — thanks for this info. If they were available in left bevel, I’d order a dozen right now to go with my new footed shafts. With all the instruction available now on sharpening these excellent very-hard heads, via Ashby and Sharpster, that part is no longer a problem. But bevel-direction is. Eliminating that overlap will really make sharpening easier.
Now, does anyone have an update on STOS?
Thanks Daniel — lookin’ good so far. I have all the tools you list except saw blade and bits, and those are easy to come by. I shoot all left-bevel, for what that’s worth. If it’s not jumping the gun to ask — where do we acquire the proper thickness and hardness steel? Thanks, dave
Daniel — not at all to oppose Bert’s suggestion for an eliptical head in your build-along, but assuming you’ll build more than one design in the half-dozen, I second Clay’s suggestion to please go also for a max Ashby head, 3:1 with the 1 being less than an inch as a 3″ x 1″ head, while meeting the Doc’s optimal “mechanical advantage” in ratio, is just too durn big for most purposes. And how’s about around 200 grains and 150+R? Also, my second selfish request (feel free to ignore) is to do all of this with the least possible shop and tools you can manage. I suspect I represent many others insofar as I can barely scrape up a half-decent woodshop, and have next to zilch for metal-working tools or skills. Bench vice, electric drill and attachments, soldering gun (or metal glue?) and various hand tools like files; that’s about it for most of us. So the simpler the tools and skills required, the more accessible and useful your build-along will be. I know something of your expertise with metals, so having you offer to do this is a far greater gift than many may imagine, as Sharpster will testify. And you take great close-up photos!
OK, time now to butt out and go for a Mexican dinner … something likely hard to come by up north where you are, but for your sake I hope not! :D:D:D Dave
in reply to: This one really takes the cake! #62208Alex, now that’s a handsome mugshot! Unless my electro-magnetic field has somehow been “preveted” and thus I disremember, that pic was taken a couple Septembers ago during a long mid-day rest break atop a ridge where I assured you, and myself, that “we won’t disturb any elk here,” and consequently you had your boots off and I had boots, socks and shirt off and was sound asleep in the chilly sun … when several cows and a gorgeous 5×5 came up for a nice long visit, with me sitting with my back to them and you whispering, “Don’t turn around, don’t move,” then when they got bored and left you chasing after in socks. Yep, you sure know how to pick your guides and self-portraits! 😯 dp
in reply to: Holmegaard #61903Thanks much, Holten. Schematics are quite useful. Of course it’s the unique limb transition from flat to “vertical” that makes this design so attractive — and challenging to a first-time builder. I’m going to give it a try! Cheers, dave
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