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in reply to: Resealing shafts? #63438
Ralph, you’re getting silly … what sort of pain drugs they have you on? :P:lol: Are you from CO or WA?
Seriously, if you have a dip tube it takes all of 2-3 seconds to refinish an arrow as far up the shaft as needed. Don’t even take the point off (unless it’s a big blunt or broadhead). And the finishes you use with a dip tube in generally last many many times longer than spray poly. I know, having built dozens of dozens arrows finished with spray, brush-on and wipe-on. Then I parted with $8 or whatever the dip tube cost, and never looked back. Dipping is the pro way to go, though I must admit that too many coats of some finishes, specifically gasket lacquer, can lead to circular cracking after a lot of shots.
Ah, but in writing all those words above I am ignoring Occam’s razor. Maybe better to just spray and go. If you don’t “build” your own arrows from raw shafts it’s hard to justify buying a dip tube. But then, if you’re not building your own arrows you’re missing one of the great little joys of off-season archery and bowhunting … you don’t see many super-serious fly fishers who don’t at some point start tying their own flies. The savings are significant, but it’s mostly just fun.
Damn but I’m getting to be a windy old fart. But since Steve Sr. has disappeared (already!) again, someone needs to fill in I guess. 😆
in reply to: You make your own bad luck #62443Sorry you struck out, Charlie. But hey, you stuck with it to the bitter end, which is way more than I can say for myself. All the best turkey spots around here are overrun with shotgunners, so I don’t go there. My “private” places have few to no birds. I used to take turkey hunting SO seriously–measured by sleep lost, miles walked before daylight, even backpacking in blizzards … then I decided the meat wasn’t worth the motion. Now it’s a “gentlemen’s” outing, meaning I only do it when it’s easy and I’m in the mood.
However, if I lived in a hot turkey area with good uncrowded places to hunt and multiple tags available, all of that would change.
Better luck next year, or this fall (which I find more productive for trad bowhunting).
in reply to: Trout Unlimited #62116Here’s more info, from TU’s Dave Stalling in MT. I just signed the petition and it took less than a minute.
URGENT: IF YOU LIKE WILD SALMON PLEASE ACT TODAY! (And Please Share and Forward)
Seven rivers feed into Bristol Bay, Alaska. One of those rivers, the Kvichak produces more sockeye salmon than any other river in the world. Another of those rivers, the Nushagak, is among… the top two producers in the world of chinook (king) salmon. Overall, Bristol Bay’s rivers contribute half the world’s supply of wild sockeye salmon.
Bristol Bay and its healthy sockeye fishery supports 14,000 jobs across multiple industries and generates more than $1 billion in revenue and value every year.
This is one of the last healthy, functioning salmon strongholds left in the world supporting a healthy, sustainable economy.
A massive mine proposed in the headwaters of the Kvichak and Nushagak rivers — one of the largest open-pit mines on earth which could generate up to 10 billions tons of toxic waste — could ruin these fisheries forever. Even without a catastrophe or series of harmful spills, up to 87 miles of salmon streams and up to 4,300 acres of salmon habitat will be destroyed by the proposed mine.
There are only three days left to persuade the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the White House to take action to forever protect the Bristol Bay from industrial scale mining. PLEASE check out this link and take action TODAY. Help protect Bristol Bay and our salmon runs.
Wild Salmon are growing more scarce, and are far more important, than anything that might be gained by the proposed mine.
PLEASE act today! Thanks. http://www.capwiz.com/savebristolbay/issues/alert/?alertid=62627501&type=CUSee More
in reply to: Close encounters and backup #62104Guys, I guarantee you the bear spray works on people, having accidentally sprayed myself twice over the years. 😆 It’s far, far nastier than the CS or CN you may have been exposed to in military training.
in reply to: Trout Unlimited #62100Shane, you are right that politics is off limits here. But this isn’t politics, it’s basic survival sanity. AK BHA is also involved in this important fight, and TBM openly supports BHA (Larry Fischer is on the national board). The very least we can do is to sign the petition and pass it around for others. It’s totally appropriate here.
in reply to: FOC Evolution… #61326Bruce — You’re looking good there! But to generalize your specifics, I since getting great flight, EFOC and most any arrow weight you want is easy as Grandma’s pie with carbon shafts. For elk, pump it up another 50 grains total(assuming best broadheads) and you’ll be a singularly murderous monster. (Which I hear you already are on upland birds.) For anything less, smaller “big” game, you’re already there.
One point you make is well worth repeating and emphasizing for the Ashby uninitiated, to wit: adding more point weight does not necessarily lead to “submarining” arrows, but rather, most often, to even greater accuracy. I don’t see any trajectory difference from my low-50# bows until I get beyond 800 grains. With more powerful and faster bows the front-weight limit should be even higher. Add small branches, wind, bone hits and other unknowns to the mix and the impact-accuracy gains are even greater.
But then again, it’s happy hour (when I should always put a lock on my computer … just ask our Beloved Webmother, assuming she’s back from surfing in Costa Rica) so I could be entirely and utterly wrong. But then, so long as we’re casting beyond the quiet water, it’s all an adventure and thereby good, enit?
in reply to: How does your Garden Grow? #61160Well, we caught the culprit who was eating the strawberries before I fenced in the garden, and drinking the outside water dry each night. Everything is safe in our yard, unless you’re a yellowjacket.
in reply to: "The Good Hunt" film trailer #60163Dave — Fellow “old hippies”? Who you calling OLD!!:lol:
While I was never quite sure what a hippie was,I sure knew and appreciated hippie chicks when I saw them. And living in SoCal through the ’70s, during and post Marines, I knew a few! In fact I married the best of ’em. But alas, across our years here her hair has gone straight and mine has finished falling out(from eating too much elk?) and she has become a Mountain Gal who shovels snow off the roof at midnight in blizzards. And no complaints from me! Best of both worlds, then and now.
Labels: always fun to play with, never wise to take seriously.
in reply to: "The Good Hunt" film trailer #60012Thanks, guys. Dave — The film will be sold on DVD, eventually, but I’m not sure about the details — this is Christopher’s film and I’m just the pretty face. 🙄
Here’s what I think will happen: When the film is finished, which will comprise a main feature of about an hour and as much as two hours of extras, Christopher will send DVDs to all contributors who have one coming, but it won’t be commercially available until some time later, after he has run it through the European and US nature documentary festival circuit. I think he’s also interested in getting it on TV at least in Europe. (It’s English and subtitled for other languages.) Then it will be available on DVD, whenever that is, maybe early next year I really don’t know. It’s not a commercial project beyond his need to earn back the tens of thousands he’s invested in it beyond generous contributions from individuals, TU and BHA.
On books, I just posted the new one, “Going Trad,” to my book site and expect copies from the printer any day now to ship out. TBM will also be selling it through the magazine and all the other usual suspects, amazon, local bookshops, etc. This one is a lot like Man Made of Elk insofar as it “goes hunting” rather than philosophizing about hunting … that one will come in a few months. 😯
And now the big writer and film star needs to go shovel dog poop, wash the dishes, and put plastic over the greenhouse frame. 😮
in reply to: How does your Garden Grow? #59772Steve — Your garden is SO far ahead of us, it’s disgusting. And Jody in AR is already eating strawberries. Here at 8000′ we only got our garden planted last week so everything is in infant stage. Last year we had to replant three times due to late frosts, so this year I installed a greenhouse frame that we can put plastic over for cold snaps. I also have to double fence everything–a heavy fence for bears and deer and a smaller fence for chipmunks and squirrels. I left a pot of strawberries, in flowering stage, outside the fence one night and the deer ate them all. But it’s something worthwhile to do when you can’t be hunting or fishing or camping. You are the real deal in self-sufficiency; I am just a dabbler.
in reply to: Memorial Day #58958Bruce — I believe your Leopold quote, more than any of the hundreds of bits of wisdom he left us with, summarizes hunting’s challenge today and tomorrow. When I was growing up in Okie, we referred to this day as “Decoration” day, when all dead loved ones were remembered and their graves decorated, not just veterans. So today I salute and thank Also Leopold, the best of us so far.
in reply to: Into The Wild #58956Ralph, is this your first stroke? :P:lol:
in reply to: Colorado BHA needs 2 volunteers at CTAS shoot #55570Steve — Thank you for doing this. Most of our state archery and bowhunter groups are purely social and take no part in conservation issues. If we want to continue enjoying quality hunting on public lands, those lazy days have to end fast. Alas, I will be far far away at that time. I encourage anyone who can, to help with this. It’s a small sacrifice of great importance.
Might as well also invite anyone who will or can be in the Durango, CO area June 7-9 to drop by our fourth annual CO BHA rendezvous. It’s camping and lots of fun. You don’t have to be a member to come see what we’re about.
http://www.coloradobackcountryhunters.org.
Hope to see you there, Steve.
in reply to: using test weights #54615Biscuit — I love your Dad’s quote! That’s what the “trad life” celebrates.
I use the clamp that came as part of my el cheapo Bohning fletching jig, so don’t fully understand your question. Clean parts with acetone or rubbing alcohol before gluing, including heat gluing. Thanks for keeping our suppliers precisely honest!
in reply to: Close encounters and backup #54589Preston–thank you! Your combo of presenting documented research and your own obviously extensive “pucker-factor” experiences, as opposed to mere opinion, really helps those of us who are seriously trying to find the best way to feel safe in bear (etc.) country, rather than merely gain support for what we intend to do anyhow (aka in psycho-speak, “decreasing cognitive dissonance”). Canada’s Stephen Herrero, the top N. American “bear attacks” expert, concurs with you and your sources re the high effectiveness of spray and the low effectiveness of firearms.
But that said, I openly admit that the only time I’m scared of bears is in a tent at night. In grizz country I rarely sleep at night. Thing is, no way in heck you can use bear spray in a tent, unless you want to commit suicide by pepper spray. And those few bears, so happily so very rare, who are intent on getting you (or most often your food or stinky clothing in the tent with you) don’t come through the front door but whack away at the side of the tent. In such cases it would be really nice to have a firearm under your pillow to whack back with. Just be sure it’s not a “friend” whacking your tent and growling in the dark as a “joke,” as once happened to me as a kid. To again quote Doug Peacock, his advise is to use the biggest tent you can pack, and sleep in the middle of it. He never carries a gun but keeps a big knife, unsheathed, under his pillow … “Not to stab at a bear with, but to slice open the tent on the side opposite of the bear in order to have a way out.” Doug also says sleeping in a tent is far safer than without a tent.
And one more thought: A few years ago, when I occasionally was working for the LA Times, I did a story on some good friends of mine, locals here and he’s a trad bowhunter, who were floating a wilderness river in ANWR, AK, and came upon the scene of an obvious recent bear attack. What a story! The same bear that had torn up a camp and killed both the residents, chased my friends 5 miles down the river and nearly got ’em. Turns out that a man and woman who were doing everything right re camping in bear country, nonetheless were attacked in their tent in the night by a big brown that ate the woman and was working on the man (or vice versa, I don’t recall) when my friends floated by. When the “rescue” people finally arrived, in the remains of the tent they found a lever-action rifle with the lever open, suggesting that the man had tried to lever a round into the rifle in self-defense during the attack but was too slow. This suggests that to be safest, to either have a round in the chamber (and a 12-bore with 00 buck is far superior to a rifle in such close-range situations), or perhaps better even yet, a heavy-caliber handgun, esp. a revolver, that you can use with one hand in a tight fix in the dark without thought about a safety, etc.
If I’m tent-camping in AK I do generally keep a firearm in my tent (I’ve enjoyed three such trips). When hunting or otherwise walking around in daylight there, I don’t need that heavy weight on my hip or shoulder and feel much safer with just bear spray and my bow and my natural senses. In none of those trips to bush AK, by the way, have I ever had a bear problem. In many, many camping trips to Yellowstone and Glacier country, always specifically deep into grizzly country in hopes of seeing and photographing bears, not a single bear problem. In 32 years of hunting and camping, often without even a tent, here in the Rockies, and with more close black bear encounters than I can recall, not a single problem. With close to three dozen elk and deer, all or part of which I had to leave out overnight, not an ounce has been lost to bears. That said, I did once have a young black bear slap at me through a screened bedroom window here at home. It was my fault, as such things usually are.
In the end, this recurring conversation is both practical and a beam of light into the human psychology … which is why it’s always interesting. I would consider it a blessing to die that way compared to other more usual ways … just no time soon. 😆
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