[David Petersen]

in reply to: Anyone ever use these heads? #34815

Sebastian — Welcome here, all the way from Finland. We are growing increasingly international. 😀 Safe to presume you have legal bowhunting there? Do you have to order your supplies from the internet, or are there trad archery shops there? Dave

[David Petersen]

in reply to: Hildebrand #34414

Thanks Steve. They had that one well hidden. I’ll get one coming with my next order. At that price it’s worth a try.

[David Petersen]

in reply to: Scent proof? #33456

R2 — I wonder how patchoulli oil would work for deer? I still have this “stuck in the ’70s” thing about hippie chicks. 😆

[David Petersen]

in reply to: Elkhearts, old and new #33454

Roger, your experience with the EH prototype echoes my own. Gregg says he’ll have that bow at Kzoo for folks who want to try this newest offering from JMA.

Meanwhile, I have my fingers crossed that I’ll receive my own Elkheart, serial number #1, by Christmas so I can take it to AZ the first week of Jan. to chase Coues deer. You know how that goes — once we decide to buy a new bow, we can’t wait to get our paws on it and thereby create a “need” that doesn’t exist. When I was regularly attending trad bowhunter events I found myself buying a new bow at every show … until I discovered Gregg’s work. Now I still buy too many bows, but they’re all by him. I think guys like you and me are his retirement plan. 😆

[David Petersen]

in reply to: Hildebrand #32185

Steve — I just looked and can’t find this jig in the online catalog. Does it have a name or number? Thanks, Dave

[David Petersen]

in reply to: Hildebrand #31384

Dan, you raise a good point about taper tools. I have found it almost impossible to taper SS shafts with a hand tool using a blade, without really goughing out the wood, making it hard to mount glue-on heads straight. Just today I resorted to turning my belt sander upside-down and eyeballing the taper as I sanded it down. It worked but is very imprecise. Short of investing in a professional sander tapering rig, which I can’t afford (I’d rather spend my tiny personal budget on hunting trips and tags rather than equipment I don’t use often), it sure would be nice to have some sort of inexpensive tapering guide that you could use in combo with a belt or drill sander. But I’ve never heard of such a thing. I’ve also not been able to find a hand bevel (blade) tool for 23/64, which the wood shafts I shoot usually are, since I’m fronting with 300 grain heads. In any event, unless someone invents a new arrow wood, it appears I’m stuck, good and bad, with SS forever, as I’ll never back away from heavy heads, having many times now experienced their superiority in making fast clean kills. I keep thinking that someone will figure a way to compress other woods, maybe even poc, to raise the spine, but I’m not seeing it. If I were younger and had the wherewithall, I’d devote myself to “inventing” a wood shaft that is very light and very stiff, as I believe there’s a big and growing market among shooters like me who prefer woods but, for the prey’s sake, are locked into EFOC. Fingers crossed.

[David Petersen]

in reply to: Oldest Regular Equipment #31374

My oldest equipment is … my body. 😛

[David Petersen]

in reply to: Brace Height #31372

Jeff — Welcome to traditional archery and this site. Here are a few basics of brace height: The lower the brace height you can get away with, the longer the power stroke thus the more thrust/speed to the arrow. So an unnecessarily high brace can rob your bow of its max potential performance. Too high and you get excess string noise on release and depending on the bow, hand shock. Too low and you get string slap on your forearm (thus, armguards). Each bow is different with long “Hill style” (straight) longbows having the lowest brace heights and short recurves the highest. I always recommend that you start at the midpoint recommended, in this case 8″ and see what you have. If no arm slap, take it down a bit at a time until you get slap, then go back up until it disappears. Others likely have more efficient and precise ways to go about it but this has always worked for me. And you know that with every adjustment to brace height you have to move the string nock position up or down. Tuning is one step at a time. First get your brace height by noting the points above. When that feels right, adjust your nock point so that the arrow flies straight rather than nock high or low. And with new strings it takes a lot of shooting to get them fully stretched (“fast flight” strings stretch far less) and so you have to keep checking brace height and adjusting everything until the stretching is done. For all new trad archers and bowhunters I recommend TJ Conrads’ “The Traditional Bowhunter’s Handbook,” which thoroughly and clearly covers all such introductory topics for tuning, shooting, and hunting. For such a simple weapon, the learning curve is considerable and as much instinctive as mechanical. Take your time and enjoy. –Dave

[David Petersen]

in reply to: Shrew Bows #30081

It’s my understanding that Gregg and Shrew owner Ron LeClair are working together to make sure that those already on the Shrew waiting list aren’t abandoned. I am guessing they will have a choice of either staying on Ron’s list for a Shrew, or getting on Gregg’s list for a Java Man. Gregg would be the bowyer in either case.

[David Petersen]

in reply to: Elkhearts, old and new #29934

Alex — The handles on the EH (Elkheart) and CH (Classic Hunter) are precisely the same if you have your eyes closed and grip them. There are very slight visual differences: Gregg has taken just a tad bit of the forward projection off the handle section, and the thumb rest is now a valley rather than a ridge/shelf and valley. When the two braced bows are laid one atop the other you see a small difference in where the limb tips align, reflecting a very slightly improved limb design(faster, quieter, smoother, all very subtle but there). For all practical purposes they look, feel in hand, and shoot the same. No radical change. In short, the EH in no way makes the CH obsolete, but rather complements it. The prototype EH I tested (read: played with for a week) was 51.7# as I recall, while my CH is marked 53# but pulls 54# on my scale. So let’s say the CH is 2″ heavier draw than the EH, yet the EH clocked some 2 fps faster in most cases, and the heavier the arrows the more the difference. Again, subtle improvements; it’s a new generation, not a new bow. I have one on order that’s nearly a twin to my beloved CH, with elk antler trim I provided. But rather than skins on the limbs for camo, this one will be a variety of “striped” ebony Gregg has recently started using that is very dark with a natural camo pattern and together with the matte finish does not shine or glint even in direct sun and thus precludes the need for any further camo, yet the wood’s beauty shines through. Gregg could stand to upgrade the photos on his website to better show the beauty and fine detailed work on his bows, and I’m sure that will come in time. Right now he’s a bit overwhelmed. Building bows, believe it or not, is a moonlight job for him. I can’t wait to hold and shoot my Christmas present to myself, whether I have any justifiable need for it or not. This is the only area of my life where I splurge a bit, other than giving to a growing list of nonprofits and charities this time of year, which seems to balance the scale. It’s all good.

[David Petersen]

in reply to: Blackbeard Bound! #29218

Etter — My apologies if I missed something earlier, but where is this island? From the name and photos (eerily beautiful)it’s obviously the deep South. I believe Blackbeard’s ship was sunk off the Carolina Outer Banks so am guessing that’s the area. Is there an actual history to go with the name? Congrats on your deer. The smallness you speak of is a biological effect called, no surprise, the island effect. Populations stranded on islands with no major predators gradually switch their adaptive evolutionary strategy from Bigger is Better to “more of us can share this place if we’re small and have smaller needs, and since no monsters are chasing and eating us, we can get away with being wee.” The FL Keys deer, smallest deer species on the continent, is the prime example. I doubt smallness makes them any easier to hunt. Certainly the Sonoran Desert Coues whitetail, smallest deer in the interior West, is the most difficult animal I’ve ever hunted and makes an Iowa or Kansas cornfield buster book look like a dummy. Sounds like a fantastic annual adventure for anyone within reach of the place. And maybe you’ll find some buried pirate treasure. 😀

[David Petersen]

in reply to: Elkhearts, old and new #29143

Paleoman said: “I think some of the screen names around here would be attention gutters…” 😛 Absolutely, “attention gutting” is my fear too (as in more enemies than friends), but Mr. Coffey clearly is a gambler. 😀

[David Petersen]

in reply to: Shrew Bows #29057

Carey — Check out my “Elkheart” post on the Campfire thread and you’ll see that you’re not too late after all.

[David Petersen]

in reply to: Hildebrand #28794

As it happens I just got a dozen Sitka spruce from Hildebrand. Service was excellent–Neal went out of his way to chase down what I needed–but several of the shafts have small flaws from milling, which apparently is a problem due to the grain structure of this wood. I am currently finishing them and applying four-fletch and have fingers crossed they will shoot the same as my first dozen SSs. It’s darn hard to find wood shafts weighing under 400 raw and with a spine of 85.

[David Petersen]

in reply to: Hardwood shafts? #28790

Steve (and anyone else interested in “footing” wood shafts) — I’ve been making arrows and shooting a new bow and haven’t gotten around to the wrap-on footing project yet, but have decided to try using string-serving thread, since I have a roll of it in green. I’ll likely coat it with the thinnest possible layer of SmoothOn.

Meanwhile I have done a lot of “testing” of Sitka spruce shafts I “painted” with SmoothOn to 4″ below the head — in fact I smeared it on with a popsickle stick and it smoothed itself out nicely, as the name implies. I wrapped masking tape at the point on the shaft I wanted the treatment to stop, and also to protect the point bevel. And the results? So far I can’t break these arrows! Using 175-grain Ace blunts (heaviest I have on hand) I’ve taken countless shots at stumps and trees of every variety from every angle. Some of these trees are fire-hardened so that the arrows bounce back almost to me. This would definitely ram the point and insert into a carbon shaft and splinter it (I know from experience). But not only didn’t the heads break off these test woodies (which is the whole point, to protect against shaft breakage), but the hard impact failed to smash the glue-on heads down onto the shaft. I think the thin layer of SmoothOn right behind the point is acting like a “support collar” to absorb the shock. Short of shooting one into a rock wall, which couldn’t be a whole lot harder than the burned trees that bounce arrows, I don’t know if I can break one of these guys. Near as I can tell with calipers, the coating is about 1/32″ thick. While I have no way to measure spine here, flight characteristics are unchanged. While the coating is getting a bit cloudy with curing and use, it is still basically see-through invisible so doesn’t spoil the looks of the arrows. It should work with any wood shaft.

One thing I failed to do was measure shaft weight and FOC before and after applying the coating. I’ll do that next time. So far so good and I now feel safe to shoot another elk with wood shafts and heavy heads and not worry about breakage behind the head, like happened this year.

[Author]

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