[David Petersen]

in reply to: Otzi Exhibition #29524

A good site reflecting the most current knowledge on the old guy. I saw an excellent dvd and the current thinking is that he was not shot by a band of hostile attackers, as has previously been portrayed, but rather shot in the back at close range by a “friend.” The mystery should continue to unfold. Thanks for posting!

[David Petersen]

in reply to: shaft sleeve fit problem with Tuffheads #29283

Thanks for the suggestions and yep I figured it out to my satisfaction, as per photos in the 2013 hunting gear thread. Simply by gently filing a bevel on the back edge of each 2″ aluminum sleeve I feel no bump when drawing an arrow over the rawhide-padded shelf and am quite pleased with the way they shoot. Finger crossed that 2″ will be enough to prevent breakage like I suffered last year an inch behind the head, and am fearful may be a character of Sitka spruce when shooting heavy heads. The arrows are built and at this point I’m committed to using them this year, though if I suffer another breakage I fear that’s the end of my spruce experiments, which will be a damn shame since the shafts are so light and can produce such a strong spine that they allow EFOC and an ideal overall weight, comparable to carbon. Thanks again.

[David Petersen]

in reply to: Shot Placement #28531

Hi Rash and welcome to Tradbow. We have some great shooting experts here, though I am not one of them. From my experience shots like that result from not canting your bow enough, or canting too much. You might play around with that until someone with more knowledge shows up here. Dave

[David Petersen]

in reply to: Noteable Quotes! #28228

I got to see Prine at a small LA club (Troubadour) back in ’73. He came out with two bar stools and sat on one with a pitcher of beer on the other. I was in the front row by the stairs to the stage and when he came back after a break he was so drunk he stumbled on the bottom step and had to grab onto me to keep from falling. That’s my best and only Prine story. My favorite is “Illegal Smile.” I don’t know if he is a trad guy, however. 😆

[David Petersen]

in reply to: Hammerhead test #27130

This question comes up fairly often. I bought some and played around with them a few years ago when they first came out, and determined I won’t trust them to hunt with. Even with a good metal-to-metal glue bond, which can be a challenge, the problem remains that you now have lengthened the head and put a lot more weight forward of the shaft attachment. This creates a lot of added torque and greatly increases the chance of breaking the shaft right behind the head with bone hits, which I did repeatedly when test shooting at an angle into fire-hardened trees. That’s my concern and I don’t see any way around it, as convenient as it would be if it worked reliably. Like all rules there are no doubt exceptions where people have made clean kills with WWs, but I’m yet to hear anyone describe hitting heavy bone at an angle without shaft breakage. At that late stage in my hunting career I have zero tolerance for wounding and losing animals, so perhaps I’m “overly cautious,” though that seems an impossibility when we’re sticking arrows into living beings.

[David Petersen]

in reply to: Hammerhead test #26011

I’m afraid I know nothing about it, though I agree that on the surface it sounds like a good idea, as does compressing shafts. But the latter is so expensive I don’t even know where to buy them any more, and I’ve not heard of the former being tried. I’m sure others here know more.

[David Petersen]

in reply to: 2013 hunting rigs #25272

Alex — Why isn’t this pic in the “dirty old hats” thread? 😛

I’m calling this year’s elk rig the “Tradbow combo,” since it’s composed of parts and knowledge from several members. I love to barter, especially with overly generous folks who let me come out way on top. 😆 To wit:

Osage selfbow by Clay Hayes, 54# draw and seemingly very fast (I will get it chronographed this week). Zero stack at 28″, quiet and no hand shock. (If you ever get a chance to attend one of Clay’s selfbowyer workshops you’ll be learning from the best.)

Arrows are Sitka spruce, self-knocked with spline inserts as explained in Steve Graf’s Tip of the Week and wrapped with deer leg sinew collected by Smiley1. Shafts finished with Tung oil and fletched 4×3 with wild turkey feathers collected and processed by Steve Graf. Tipped with 300 grain Tuffheads (please forgive the foggy photo) and 20 grain, 2″ aluminum sleeves from 2413 shafts for a total weight of 662 grains and 26.72% EFOC (the best by far I’ve been able to get with woodies).

Knife (sticking in tree) by Sinawalli, with sheath currently being made by Duncan.

Now if I can only find an elk to help me blood and honor all this special gear!

[David Petersen]

in reply to: Hammerhead test #24223

Yes, hot-melt glue is the standard for attaching heads to wood shafts. While not as easy as screw-in, it still allows you to change points, target to broadhead, etc., at will. In a pinch you can do it in camp with a cigarette lighter. What glue-on does not allow that’s easy with screw-ins, is the use of various weighted internals. Thus, with screw-ins I start with a 300-grain head and there’s almost no limit to how much heavier I can make it with internals. My current elk heads are 450 total. But with a woodie, you can’t go much beyond the weight of the head itself (that “much” being, in my case, the 2″ aluminum external sleeves which weight 20 grains).

[David Petersen]

in reply to: What is Traditional Archery? #23167

Increasingly, I try to nominally broaden the topic beyond traditional archery and bowhunting to “traditional-values hunting,” in order to point out the observable fact that there are folks of every “weapons” persuasion who value the hunt more than the kill and wish to set themselves a real challenge by keeping gear as simple as possible and “doing more with less.” For me, that sums it up so far as gear, which is as far as most folks ever take the “what’s traditional” discussion. But to be a traditional-values hunter there’s one more element, far more important than what gear we carry, and which determines how we use the gear we choose, and that’s respect for the animals we hunt and for ourselves as hunters and humans. It just so happens that a clawing lack of respect is far more evident in some weapons choices than others and none moreso that the hi-tech, light-arrow, longer-the-shot-the-better mentality of the compound world. These aren’t bad people, they are merely shallow-thinking slaves to the bidding of industry and industry’s paid media flunkies. The traditional mind is a mind that likes to think for itself as well as do for itself.

And brother Ray, I must respectfully disagree with your “we must stick together (with never any detail on how far the “we” extends) or the antis will get us. Just pick up a copy of Bowhunter magazine and you’ll see who the enemy is and why we can afford to have no part of them. But that too is an old and apparently unresolvable discussion. Though I will say this and take it as you wish: If the only hunting available was hunting that embraced the hi-tech compound worldview, I’d be an anti-hunter. There is simply no respect anywhere in there, and in any aspect of life without respect, there can be no positive outcome, no gain in knowledge or integrity or good in the world. Stupid is evil.

[David Petersen]

in reply to: feathers #23044

Bruce– I’m shooting 4×3″ with the same offset I used with 5″ feathers, as it’s built in to my Bohning fletching jig. While I left helical behind eons ago, I do like offset because spin is good. It’s not among the “if I can do without it, that’s good” issues of life, IMO. I’m just curious why you prefer straight other than “they fly just fine”? 😯

[David Petersen]

in reply to: Holy Moly! An uneven new bow. #22877

A total disaster! Return it for a new bow or full refund with no further ado.

[David Petersen]

in reply to: Where to start for an elk hunt? #22871

Dave, you’ll hear all sorts of ideas on this, and folks do sometimes make clean kills on elk with toothpick arrows and wimpy bows. But having wounded too many when I was younger, these days I want to be positive of a clean humane kill no matter where the arrows hits — heavy front ribs or shoulder are the usual suspects. Also, with bow speeds varying as much as they do these days, poundage doesn’t mean what it used to. My personal rule, shooting an efficient r/d longbow, is minimum of 50# at 28″ or equivalent with an arrow weighing minimum of 650 grains and as much of that as possible up front. Also, even though clean kills are made with multi-blade heads (folks tend to report when their gear works great but quickly forget when it doesn’t), about everyone who has tried it on animals reports my own experience of superior penetration with a good single-bevel two-blade, both in bone and soft tissue. That’s my best advice on gear. Don’t hesitate to postpone your hunt a year if you’re not completely confident with your gear and your shooting. And if you haven’t killed a deer with trad gear, I strongly recommend you get that under your belt first. A bad experience by unprepared folks has put more than one beginner off of trad, when there’s no need for that with proper tuning, gear and prep, always erring to the “over prepared” side.

[David Petersen]

in reply to: Camera mugger — caught in the act! #22676

Preston, you’ve nicely summarized the very heart of the devil that’s poisoning bowhunting today–the industry is making all this garbage NOT to enhance lethality, but to sell more stuff to innocent people who don’t know the difference. And the media, basically every last mainstream commercial bowhunting publication except TBM, plus almost all the hunting videos on TV and off, jump on the profit bandwagon and flog the same junk. A person, let’s say a young man, starting in archery today simply is overwhelmed by the hi-tech media barrage and is lucky to even know that trad exists. As they mature as bowhunters some catch on that 70-yard shots with toothpick arrows and switchblade heads isn’t a very effective way to put meat the in freezer and convert. I really don’t care what sort of “bow” a person shoots, so long as he keeps his shots close and uses a heavy arrow with the right broadhead … I try to view hunting from the animals’ point of view. If it’s really fast and humanely lethal and a very high chance that every arrow we shoot at animals will kill fast, then it’s OK by me. But it’s nearly impossible, it seems, to live in the compound world and hunt with traditional values, though a few manage it.

That’s precisely what I’m going to do with the cam when I put it back out — take some strap-on tree steps and put it up high and out of sight of bears and out of reach of humans.

[David Petersen]

in reply to: Oil rub arrow finish? #21976

Kevin — I already have a jug of Tung oil finish, and really like the way it went on and looks on the spruce arrows I’m currently building. Yet to see how well it stands up to target wear, rain, etc. When that’s gone I will try teak next time around, as, if you recall, I asked about the finish on your shafts, it had such a lovely warm glow that I couldn’t tell for sure if it had a finish or they had just been carefully burnished. Then, last, I’ll try Danish and will have gone from knowing nothing about any oil finishes to having tried and compared them all. But that’s a few dozen arrows and a few wood bows down the line.

[David Petersen]

in reply to: Bucket list hunt #21909

Doc Ed– I’ll bet Kingwannabe would welcome you on one of his giant CA chaparral hog hunts … next best thing, seems to me.

Dare I say that I have no bucket hunt wishes left? Coues was on it but now I’ve done that. Feral hogs are attractive because they’re so good to eat and from what I hear a very challenging hunt if done fair chase. But several of the states where they thrive are on my no-go list for forget that. I’ve never in my life taken a nice big whitetail or muley buck, so I guess that would be it. Although the second Coues, small as he is, is a 4×5 and a pretty nice buck for that midget whitetail race. Neither have I taken a pronghorn buck but I don’t want to ambush them over water and I’m getting too old to crawl miles over cactus and rock. So I guess I can say I’m satisfied as it is, but will be most grateful if I can take an elk this year with the Osage selfbow Clay Hayes built for me. That would be a first.

[Author]

Posts