[David Petersen]

in reply to: new guy string ? #60053

Welcome Pete. Hard hand shock can also be caused by the string being significantly the wrong length. I’d start by trying to determine the recommended brace height and making sure your current string is in the sweet spot.

[David Petersen]

in reply to: The 2013 Season Bulletin Board #60042

Since we all love hunting pics, I don’t believe I’ve posted this one before. It was taken two weeks after general archery season closed. That day the middling 6×6 had 23 cow. Next day he had 46. A week later too many to count, around a hundred. Either there’s a real shortage of really big bulls here this year, or this guy has amazing social skills. Hard to see the tops of his antlers, but the bull is to the left. During bow season T. Downing called him into 50 yards of us, but since T is not an unethical long-shot jerk he stayed safe and soon returned to his cows and resumed his sore-throat bugling. At that time, mid-Sept., he had only 8 cows. The poor guy must feel as ahagged-out by now as a high school football hero. Right or wrong, after all the time I’ve watched and listened to and photographed this bull and his metastasizing herd recently, and after all he’s accomplished, I really hope he isn’t killed from a long impersonal distance by a rifle hunter who didn’t rub the skin off his knees and hands earning the honor.

[David Petersen]

in reply to: The 2013 Season Bulletin Board #59998

Ralph, not only do whitetails and muleys interbreed, but it’s a contributor (one of many, among which research shows that predation is generally a minor contributor) to the gradual decline of mule deer throughout the West (habitat destruction is the major cause). Thing is, whitey bucks out-rut muley bucks even when the muley is bigger than the whitey, thus whitetail bucks often breed with muley does but muley bucks rarely breed with whitey does. The offspring, “half-breeds,” lack the most recent, thus most fine-tuned survival adaptations, thus are more prone to dying young without reproducing. For instance, muley-whitetail mixes neither run flat-out like whitetails nor stot like muleys, but have a less efficient run The only way to save the distinct muley species in the wild over the long haul is to isolate it from whitetails and to protect the western habitat it is so well adapted to. Lots of luck with either goal, given human greed in the first case (development) and the popularity of whitetails among hunters in the second instance. (I live in an area with no whitetails and would eagerly welcome them here if I didn’t know what I do about the negatives of cross-breeding on shared habitat.) While mule deer and the little Coues Sonoran Desert whitetail share extensive habitat, they don’t seem to do much interbreeding and I wonder why. I haven’t really researched that corner of it yet, but two likely ingredients are the notable size difference in favor of the muleys, and an altitude preference that puts the Coues higher than the mule deer (just the opposite I would expect), though considerable overlap remains. In any event, nice buck, Ralph. Symmetry and other markers of “sameness” have never interested me artistically as much as one-off individuals.

[David Petersen]

in reply to: Single Bevel #57363

Without naming names, there is one popular single-bevel out there that has really soft steel. Look for heads in the 53R range. Other issues include shape and size, with long narrow heads being better penetrators that maintain more twist when penetrating tissues than do shorter wider designs. The thicker a single-bevel, the wider will be the bevel shelf and the more consequent torque, so thicker is better than thinner. A couple of otherwise great offerings are simply too expensive for the average hunter. And while this problem is gradually disappearing, some heads still come far short of hunting sharp, and with hard steel this can be a real problem. So, as with bows, knives and other tools, while there are many good choices available, the one that stacks up closest to the Ashby research “winner’s list” is Tuffhead. If you’re using carbon shafts I recommend getting most of the weight from the head rather than beefed-up internals. While I’ve had great results on elk with the 225s I know shooting nothing but 300s for elk. I personally would not use the 190 for elk because it’s thin, though I’m sure it’s dandy for deer and other mid-sized game. These are one very interested and I hope open-minded man’s opinions based on extensive personal experimentation (I won’t call it research) and years of studying and testing Ashby’s research results. Tuffhead sure ain’t the only game in town, but at this point, all things considered, it strikes me and many others as the best broadhead investment we can make for lethality, MA and structural integrity. And better yet, it’s a Ma-Pa operation, not some huge industry.

[David Petersen]

in reply to: Furthest shot on game? #56637

What Mike said in his last paragraph, yes!

[David Petersen]

in reply to: Our Own Worst Enemy #56632

In addition to all the above good advice, I would write a letter to the editor, to your local biggest newspaper, making it clear that you are a real hunter and that people who commit these horrible acts are not hunters at all, but lowlife losers and scum with guns (and tragically often, bows). Thing is, anti-hunters fail to make distinctions and anyone who kills wildlife under any circumstance, including poaching and canned shooting “preserves,” all get classified as “hunters” and in this way even the best among us share the blame for the worst among us. Be sure to let the public know that true hunters detest these scum more than anyone else and do all we can to stop them. If the bear killers happen to read such letters, it might make them think twice next time, and at the very least lets them know what we think of them. To remain silent is to invite outsiders to set public opinion, and we always lose. Sorry you’re having to deal with this.

[David Petersen]

in reply to: Arrow Shafts #55163

Shane, Ed is right of course, and one-piece “internals” are becoming easier to find. So far as internal weight, that’s another area you’ll need to experiment with. First, you need to determine preferred broadhead weight, shaft weight, and the max total weight you feel confident shooting. A bit of simple math will then tell you about internal weight. Obviously, the lighter the shaft and the heavier the front weight, the higher the EFOC and the more deadly your setup. But weight definitely comes first in my experience. Right now it’s popular among carbon shooters to use all manner of internal weight setups in order to make up for lower head weights. I see that as a mistake, since in general, using the Tuffhead as prime example but many others as well, the heavier the head the more mass it embodies and thus the more strength. I’ll take my front weight, as much as possible, in the head, not internals. It’s also simpler that way, and simplicity, as per centuries of scientific endorsement of Occam’s razor, is almost always best.

[David Petersen]

in reply to: Arrow Shafts #53193

Ausjim nails it. I have spent a lot of money and time trying to get a good wood shaft behind a Tuffhead 300 that offers optimal weight and EFOC. And I’ve about given up. Lighter shafts are weak, and heavier shafts are so heavy you wind up with too much total weight and low FOC. So for practicality and simplicity, I recommend carbon. Even there I keep it simple as possible. I shoot a #52 r/d longbow, so close to you, and have excellent luck with cheap CE 300 shafts that weight about 350 grains, with steel internals, netting around 28% EFOC. For elk I like around 750 grains but usually wind up closer to 800. This setup is more than you need for deer, but as Doc Ed says, there’s no such thing as overkill when your top goal is a fast (in sight) kill, guaranteed recovery and max humanity and respect for the prey. Many ways to skin this cat but I’ve played around a lot and this has been my go-to elk setup for years.

[David Petersen]

in reply to: "The Good Hunt" update #53175

Kirk and Mike — I just talked with BHA national and they are doing a major upgrade of the website (much needed!) that could be done by next week and will contain what info is available on the 2014 rendezvous, then upgrade it as things finalize. They will let me know when it’s ready, and I’ll let you know. For now, all I can say is that it will be in Denver in March. Details such as speakers, programs, etc. have yet to be decided. Clay Hayes’ film is supposed to ready by spring also, and though this is purely off the cuff, I assume it may also be shown there since he’s closely associated with BHA. Thanks for your interest in the film and the rendezvous. Dave

[David Petersen]

in reply to: "The Good Hunt" update #52063

Kirk– Not a public theater, but as part of the rendezvous activities at the rendezvous site. That’s all I know–that the producer has agreed to let it be shown there even if it’s not yet commercially available. I really know little about that end of things, just being the pretty (camo striped) face. 😆

[David Petersen]

in reply to: troubled grizzly #51188

Doc — Yep! 😀

[David Petersen]

in reply to: troubled grizzly #50850

In the early years, IMHO, the steels that came with KME sharpeners weren’t sufficiently aggressive. Ron is now offering his own line of stones and steels and the coarse are far more aggressive and can eat steel of the hardest heads. Before I got a new set of the improved steels, I broke off a mill cut file to the proper length to use in the stone holder, and that worked fine. The real problem when you have heads with uneven bevels that have to be worked aggressively to true-up, is that you lose a lot of head weight real fast and come out with weights all over the place. So I say that the best starting point for really sharp heads at the right angle and consistent weight is to ask around and find when brands are closest to the mark out of the package. By the way, for single-bevels it’s the KME knife sharpener you want, not the broadheads sharpener, again IMHO.

[David Petersen]

in reply to: Tuffhead testing #48977

Jim and Mike — Concrete block is best either slow-cooked in a stew or as jerky. 😛

[David Petersen]

in reply to: Tuffhead testing #48817

Ed, yes, tapered wood shafts always and only! So please remind me, if Forgewood and hickory were second, what was the best hardwood you tested re breakage resistance? As I recall from reading the reports, Forgewood was the best … but I can hardly recall my own name on some days anymore. 😳

[David Petersen]

in reply to: Tuffhead testing #48544

Great work, Jim, thanks. That first pic, from the video, is really cool. A glancing hit to a heavy bone joint on a large animal is about as tough as the challenge comes. I find it tough to envision that any hardwood shaft with a glue-on point could be stronger than a properly set-up screw-in with carbon … “proper” meaning steel internals. At first glance (pun intended), it seems either the glue joint would fail, or the wood shaft break behind the head, due to the abrupt transition from head to wood … while a screw-in has about an inch of insert and screw shaft plus carbon shaft–three layers, if you will–to distribute the blow across. But if Ed’s research showed that to be the case, then it may be time to give up on EFOC with wood shafts and go for something really heavy and strong, like hickory, which is where I began this adventure of learning many years ago, full circle.

[Author]

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