[David Petersen]

in reply to: woodies 101 #40808

Hey Clay —

Good videos, thanks for posting. I watched all three but you weren’t quite finished with the arrows. For instance you didn’t show wrapping the self nocks. I’ve made self nocks on several batches of arrows but the only ones I was totally happy with were compressed oak, which is so darned hard I didn’t have to wrap ’em at all. Otherwise I use fake sinew and dip it when done. But it’s nearly impossible to not get a little bump where it’s tied off, and I worry the wrap will not pass over a shelf as smoothly as a plastic nock. But then some plastic nocks for glue-on are big gat things that would be worse. Anyhow I’d like to see how you do it. Is a part 4 forthcoming?

Question: What sort of saw is that you use to cut the nock notch? It’s clearly a round cable type blade maybe in a coping saw frame? I either use a hacksaw or the band saw then widen it with a thin file. Your way looks faster and cleaner.

Last question: The fletching glue you’re using has a creamy color like wood glue rather than being clear like all fletching cements. What’s the deal there?

Thanks again, Dave

[David Petersen]

in reply to: On The Wild Edge #39316

Steve — Good to have you back … and Clay Hayes too. Two missing persons found! Stick around this time.

As it happens, “On the Wild Edge” has been out for a few years. After a long spell of no new books, I have one coming out next month, sort of a sequel to “A Man Made of Elk,” called “Going Trad.” And another one yet, a lot more serious in subject, “The Good Hunt,” mid to late summer. After that my bucket is empty of hunting topics but I’d like to do another book on elk natural history, management, politics, etc. We’ll see. Writing keeps me from going even more insane than already in winter. Rest of the year I’d rather be outdoors doing anything, even napping in the shade, than indoors doing anything. Well, almost anything. 😆

[David Petersen]

in reply to: What to know about Stalking #38610

Ralph — Aren’t range cattle fair game there? Everything else is! 😛 Here, we call them slow elk …

[David Petersen]

in reply to: Naming your bow #38423

Alex – thanks for the reminder. I’ll put SST on for dinner tonight! 😀

[David Petersen]

in reply to: Helms Deep arrived today… #38420

Tex — yessir, ain’t those zebra Forresterwood shafts “too cute to shoot”? Several of his darker red-brown woods are the loveliest shafts I’ve ever seen. No need even to stain them but just a bit of oil rub. Only downside, for me, is that they’re heavy. For some folks like heavy arrows with no concern for FOC. For that preference these are the best I’ve seen, and I try most everything that comes along that’s made of wood. Anxious to hear your test reports, either way.

[David Petersen]

in reply to: NO MEATHEADS yet? #38411

Hey Sr. — Always good to hear from a friendly ghost! 😆 Yes, I have Meatheads and love ’em. Ain’t killed anything with them yet, but it’s not the killing season for me. Maybe I’ll accidentally fall on one while out for a turkey walk, and then will have a more informed report for you. Welcome back. Dave

[David Petersen]

in reply to: Question For Troy & Dr. ED? #38207

Hey King, there you go again thinking outside the box. That will get you in trouble every time.

My tip for improving pass-through odds: shoot smaller hogs that aren’t so far from one side to another. That’s how gramps always did it! 😆

[David Petersen]

in reply to: What to know about Stalking #38198

In both this thread and Dr. Ashby’s related thread, it would help to clarify terminology so that everyone is on the same page, to wit: Traditionally, “stalking” is short for “spot and stalk” and denotes the situation where we have spotted game from a distance and attempt to close on it into shooting range. Meanwhile, sneaking around hoping to spot game before it senses us and flees is traditionally called “still hunting.” I’ve never liked that term as it implies, well, stillness, as in sitting in ambush. So I always use the more descriptive term “sneak hunting.” None of which may matter to either of these threads if what we’re talking encompasses both situations. But I’m a word guy and can’t help myself. 8)

[David Petersen]

in reply to: Naming your bow #38192

Shane, naming bows is fun, but perhaps best left unwritten on the bow itself, as Alex’s posts suggests … so you can change the name if you like. Also, in most cases having a pet name, or your name, as in “custom built for John Doe” inscribed permanently can lower the resale value. Like most, perhaps, each bow I buy I swear will be my last, the keeper and perfect bow to see me to the grave and be passed on in my will. But so far that’s never panned out. Either I see a new bow design I fall in lust with, or more recently and most often, as I age and fall out of trees, etc. I am gradually losing strength and forced to move to a lighter weight bow. So for most of us, we will sell most of our bows at some point and most of the time having a name, ours or a nickname for the bows, permanently marked on a limb can lead to less value. On the other hand, we’re all in this for fun and spend money constantly having that fun, so if it’s fund to name your bows, maybe it’s worth the potential decreased value. When I was building wood bows I named every single one, as they weren’t up for sale.

[David Petersen]

in reply to: On The Wild Edge #38186

Gee whiz thanks guys! To have my stuff mentioned in the same vein as “The Tiger” is high praise, as that’s among my all-time favorite nonfiction books.

So that no one is confused to think “On the Wild Edge” is a hunting book–it’s not. While it does contain some hunting and talk of hunting, it’s basically a memoir about having chosen a simple, self-sufficient material lifestyle and a free-thinking intellectual approach to life and the ups and downs of this ongoing choice. In this book, thus, hunting plays a similar role as heating only with wood I get myself, building our cabin myself, etc. I wouldn’t want anyone to buy it and be disappointed, as it ain’t no “Man Made of Elk.” Thanks again for your (im)moral support. Dave

[David Petersen]

in reply to: Helms Deep arrived today… #36011

Big congrats, Alex! Your melodic prose reveals a man utterly free of cognitive dissonance re this purchase, and deeply smitten at once with love and lust. Ho, those ARE some gorgeous curves. I feel a bad bout of coveting coming on. 😀

[David Petersen]

in reply to: Stalking #35901

I fear you are correct, Ed, and some reasons for this loss have already been posted, above. Even for those of us who have access to big enough chunks of undisturbed hunting habitat (on western public lands that increasingly means “beyond the sound of motors and the sit-down hordes they bring to places they don’t deserve to be”) there are also the old “traditional” concerns of landscape type and game species. I have had success stalking whitetails in the hardwoods, but not in the desert. Elk are relatively easy to stalk, if they’re not in huge herds. Stalking is the only way I’ve hunted pronghorn (blew one myself and had illegal motors ruin two more) …and so on. No stalking turkeys for me, though Alex Bugnon can pull it off. Moose are cake once you locate them. I always hunt elk from the ground, but most often in ambush. I think the areas of your greatest experience, Africa and OZ, lend themselves to stalking both in habitat and game more so than most of N. America? It is unarguably the purest, hardest and thus most reward hunting there is … assuming we have the right animals in the right terrain to make it even remotely possible.

[David Petersen]

in reply to: Bear kodiak magnum brace hieght? #35580

Start at 8″ and you may have to take it up a bit from there.

[David Petersen]

in reply to: Ghillie Suits #32248

Some love them. I don’t. They are expensive, cumbersome, get snagged on the brush as you try to walk, can create too much visual action if the “tags” are long and the wind strong, are hot, take up a whole pack to stash, etc. The concept is good for snipers who mostly lie still on the bellies and crawl slow like cold snakes, but not for upright hunters. I’ve always done fine just dressing to blend in, staying in the shade and not moving at all with game in sight. I can’t recall a single time I’ve ever been sight busted after I’ve set up. Just this spring, however, I bought a big piece of light camo mesh netting — I’m thinking about $10 at WallyMort–which is multi-purpose and for my needs superior to a Ghillie in every way and just a wee fraction of the cost.: First, it weighs nothing and compresses so well that it’s hardly anything in the bottom of a day pack, or rolled up and strapped outside. You can hang it on brush or from tree limbs to make a fast good impromptu blind. Or you can sit down and wrap it loosely around you, covering your entire lower body up to under the arms so it doesn’t interfere with shooting, as some Ghillie’s can. With all the wrinkles and folds from wrapping it loosely around, it takes on a really natural blend-in appearance from a distance that I think is more invisible than a Ghillie, like a clump of brush. It’s as close to a Ghillie as I’ll ever feel the need to get. And it’s not at all silly.:P To each his own, of course; that’s what keeps the hunting industry fat and rich … all the stuff they’re so good at convincing us we “have” to have.

[David Petersen]

in reply to: My Elkheart has arrived!! #32025

I wish I’d waited until Gregg found this new wood (whose perfect camo pattern and colors have a lot to do with the way he cuts it to get that effect) before I’d bought my own Elkheart. But I was anxious and wanted the first production bow in that model. Now I may have to sell it and get back on the list again. If you back that photo off so that it’s smaller, as to replicate what a deer might see from 20 yards, they absolutely disappear. The darker one on the right is prettier, but the gray on the left is downright invisible. Can’t wait to see it in person. You’ll never be able to put it down in the woods or risk never seeing it again. 😆

[Author]

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