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Alex — I haven’t a clue about the dynamic spine calculator and have never even used used the term, much less the calculator, but have heard it praised by many here. I’m sure it’s a good thing, but totally foreign to me, sorry. Here is how I set up my arrows, sort of by brail: Get a test set of arrows with no more than 5# steps in spine. Last summer Fletcher sent me a set of 9 Sitka spruce spined from high 70s to low 90s, knowing from experience that I was going to need a lot of spine to handle a 300-grain head on a wood shaft (53# bow). All were already cut to my preferred length of 29.5″ and fletched. It took only minutes to figure out I needed 85# spine, with a latitude of 3# either side. Knowing that, I then had Rick (Fletcher, the Feathered Shaft) make me up a dozen finished arrows and every one shoots like it was radar guided. I killed an elk, heart shot at 20 yards, with one of those this year. Then I talked to Hildebrand, the major source for SS shafts, and they were able to scrounge around and find another dozen raw tapered shafts that fit the bill, and I built them from there. They too are shooters, with FOC 21-23%. The only number that came into this entire process was 85. You could do the same thing with carbon or aluminum shafts. More ways than one to skin a cat, like Daddy used to say. In sum, start with the head weight you want to shoot and work from there.
Alex — you are making FOC too difficult. You don’t need to use numbers at all, aside from two simple measurements: linear center point of shaft from back of head to bottom of nock … and balance point, which I find by balancing a shaft on the edge of a ruler turned on its side. Put a mark at each of these spots and measure the distance between them. Now go to the Ashby Library on this site and the FOC calculator chart, plug in the requested info and read your FOC. I can barely count my fingers, I’m that bad at math. But with the chart it’s a snap.
So far as the gentleman’s comment that FOC can’t be as important as perfect arrow flights … sounds like you’ve been reading Ashby. 😀 Perfect arrow flight comes first, as a wobbling arrow sucks at penetrating. Next comes arrow weight, then FOC, and of course you have to use a good “tissue dynamic ” (like aerodynamic but with muscle and bone rather than air) broadhead. It’s a combination of many factors but arrow flight is foremost and I’ve not heard anyone argue otherwise.
in reply to: TUFFHEAD Works–AGain #41001I just stuck some 225 Tuffheads on some old poc arrows I made years ago and don’t even know the spine. But they shoot great and at just over 600 grains total are pretty fast and should make good medicine for wee little Coues whitetails, if I get to go next month. Haven’t checked FOC but expect it to be in the mid-high teens, such I’m a bit under with FOC and total arrow weight the 650 grains and 20 percent FOC I use as a minimum for elk. But an elk is like half a dozen Coues deer so I’m confident I have plenty. Those sharp pointy things just want to penetrate and cut, as if they were carefully designed for the job. 😛 Joe will have a booth at Kzoo and I’m looking forward to meeting him.
Spine, on first glance, is irrelevant to FOC, which is simply a measurement of the balance point of an arrow in re its linear center point. Where spine becomes deeply relevant to FOC is that the more weight you have up front, the greater the foc (again, a simple matter of balance point). And to hang a lot of weight up front, you need high spine. For example, I am now shooting low-50s bows so would use something like 55-60 spine for a 125-grain head, which would deliver only normal (teens) FOC at best. But for the 300-grain heads I prefer, I need 85# spine for that same little bow, which setup elevates me barely into EFOC category (20+ percent weight forward of linear center). So the trick is to find the lightest possible shaft that can deliver the necessary spine, which is why carbons are untouchable in the EFOC arena.
in reply to: Slim pickins #40074Ralph — I once bow-killed two Canadas the same day in very similar “terrain” only without the road, as it was on the Navajo Res. in NM. I snuck up on ’em via an irrigation ditch with cottonwoods, something like the one on the left in this pic. Amazingly hard to get a shot when several hundred geese are all around you! So far so good, until I tried to find a way to make them edible. Yuck is all I can say, like spoiled liver. No offense to anyone who knows how to cook geese, but even the most avid goose hunter I know can only stomach the dark red meat as jerky. This puts them in the category of “rather watch and listen to them than kill them.” What a great evolutionary defense mechanism for your species, that nothing can stand to eat you. 😛
in reply to: Posting Pictures in the Forums #40070Scout, where and when in SoCal? I lived in Laguna most of the ’70s.
Rumor has it the Conrads are moving to Puerto Rico to start “Traditional Surfer” magazine. Second, third childhood and all that. 😆
in reply to: Back Quivers, let's see em… #39757Too lazy here to take a pic to post, and she ain’t purdy nohow, but I have a vintage Shakespeare back quiver with one special feature: snapped to it is a metal WS deer tag from 1966. I use it for rabbit hunting only, thus it’s a repository for all my dispensable arrows. I prefer a belt quiver for roving and ranges, and a bow quiver for hunting. I know some fellers have gorgeous, elaborate custom leather back quivers (that must weigh a ton even empty), and others with handmade fur and hide quivers, and also am surprised they’re not showing ’em off here.
in reply to: My toes are frozen……. #39755What Lya and Bruc say … plus you might try commercial hand and foot warmers. They are salt and iron shavings that react to exposure to oxygen and “fast rust” corrosive reaction, non-toxic, to create a remarkable amount of heat that lasts a long time. I am skinny, old, low blood pressure and my extremities have always gotten cold easily, esp. on long sits or in cold wind. When I have on all my clothing and am still getting cold, to a point it distracts me from concentrating on the hunt or drawing my bow smoothly, I sip hot tea from a thermos to stoke the interal core fires, and break out the Hot Hands warmers. They make them for wearing inside boots but not suitable for a lot of walking around. Odor-free.
in reply to: Elkhearts, old and new #38785Andrew — It strikes me that you have been burdening yourself with the two best-known “most difficult possible archery obstacles” — work UP to a Hill style, don’t try to start with one … and being overbowed. Natural, unstrained, thought-free shooting and accuracy absolutely must come first. If, after we have that mastered we can and want to move up in weight, and/or move to a more challenging bow design … well, running comes easiest to those who first learn to walk. I have always been challenged with similar urges, but happily not in archery. IMHO 😀 I envy how you are shooting now and encourage you to hunt with the same equipment.
A young man fears that if he doesn’t hurry, he will miss something. An old man knows that to hurry too much is to risk missing everything. 😯 COM
in reply to: Elkhearts, old and new #38669On another thread somewhere here–I can’t find it just now–someone said they had a JMA “American” on order, or already owned one. So I looked it up on the Java Man Archery website and it looks like a real dandy for super-traditional shooters. Looking at the photos before reading Gregg’s description of the bow, I thought “OK, a Hill-style bow with just a tad of reflex at the tips, which really doesn’t show when braced … this should really help with the traditional Hill-style problems of low speed, hand shock, and stacking.” Then I read the description and that’s exactly what’s claims for the bow. And for $550? Whoa! While I have the bow I personally want forever, I’m still curious and would love to shoot this straightforward longbow someday. Which leads me to ask Gregg, if you’re here, which model JMA bows you plan to have at Kalamazoo for folks to try out? Unlike spouses, we are free to declare our lifelong love for a single bow, yet enjoy test-shooting all the hot young beauties we can get our hands on. 😛 And why not? 😆
in reply to: Hildebrand #38660Kevin — When you say you “pressure turn” SS shafts, does this mean you are compressing the shafts? Why aren’t compressed shafts as available as they used to be? Too much labor, thus cost, involved?
in reply to: King Kong is Coming #38556Toldyaso! Toldyaso! How is business in the hog killing industry been of late? No recession, I hope. I’m not the only one who misses those great bloody photos of great bloody hogzillas. 😛
Keep on truckin’ …
in reply to: Posting Pictures in the Forums #38546A comment and a question:
I’m surprised there are any lions in TX, since they are given zero protection by the state, are not game animals, thus can be killed just about anyway you choose.
Question: I can no longer seem to post multiple photos to a single post. I have read the posting instructions and go through the procedure of attaching one, then trying to attach another after the first comes up, but it then deletes the first. What is the trick to posting several pics in a single post? And forgive me for not reading back through all the previous posts here, which may contain the answer. Thanks, Dave
in reply to: King Kong is Coming #38234Well, there’s nothing like a good cartoon thread to bait Kingwouldbe out of his lurker’s cave. I expect him to show up here any moment now …
in reply to: Phoenix Bow #37197Steve — Which one of the two animals in that first photo is the beaver? 😛
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