[Ed Ashby]

in reply to: My Setup Adequate for Elk??? #31639

Mike, there’s not really much to add to what Dave said. Your setup will work fine ‘as is’ but you could improve it by shifting some of the arrow’s weight forward. As long as you stay around 650 grains minimum total arrow weight, the more FOC you can get on your arrows the better penetration you will have once a bone (should you hit one) is breached.

I rate elk as the toughest of the North American game to put down (with the exception of a really HUGE hog). Percentage wise it is likely that more bowhunted elk are hit and not recovered than any other NA species. Moose and the big bears are far easier to put down than an elk. There’s no way for your arrow to have too much penetration potential when hunting elk.

Ed

[Ed Ashby]

in reply to: Tuffhead update #30576

Dave, go back to the source. Joe has brass field points in weights to match the Tuffheads.

Ed

[Ed Ashby]

in reply to: Got some Tuffheads #28273

Dave, at 1 1/16″ wide by 3 3/16″ long the Tuffhead is EXACTLY the same dimensions as Harry Elburg’s original 190 grain Grizzly. The dimensions of the 190 Grizzly got changed after Harry sold the company. I still have several of those original Elburg broadheads and I consider them to be the best Grizzly BH’s ever made. That’s one big plus for the Tuffhead; no doubt it has the right profile!

For most folks (who don’t have them living in their yard) an elk hunt is usually a costly affair. The cost of using a great broadhead is a small expense when considered against the total cost of the hunt, and will look like a bargan to anyone who ends up hitting an elk with less than ‘enough arrow’.

Ed

[Ed Ashby]

in reply to: Back vs. Bow Quivers #26970

Here’s a photo of me with a mule deer doe, circa 1961. The quiver is an original St. Charles, which I still have. For those too young to know, the St. Charles is the forerunner of the Cat Quiver. The bow is a Pearson Mustang 74#.

Note the pointer arrow. This deer was taken with a prototype of the Pearson Deadhead. Here’s a close up of the broadhead.

I like this style quiver back then, and I still like them!

Ed

[Ed Ashby]

in reply to: Back vs. Bow Quivers #26742

I’ve always prefered to stalk, still hunt or spot and stalk rather than hunt from a stand. I prefer the cat quiver, stalker quiver or a back quiver (pretty much in that order) over a bow quiver. I used bow quivers for a while but don’t like what they do to the balance of my bow. Contrary to “conventional wisdom”, when stalking I find it easier to move through heavy brush with the back and stalker quivers than with a bow quiver. In a back quiver I also prefer a side draw model.

Ed

[Ed Ashby]

in reply to: FastFlight Strings #24821

When I started experimenting with thin strings I found a need to close virtually every nock I used with them. The method I came up with is similar to Don’s in that it uses heat. However I used a heat gun and, instead of closing around the string I used a small stick of the correct diameter. Here’s a photo:

This photo was when I had first started using this technique. I noted that I sometimes was not getting an equal amount of bend on both ears of the nock so came up with a change that works great, and is the method I use now. Instead of using a round stick to form the heated nock around I take a bamboo chop stick and carved it down to a semi-teardrop shape with the widest portion being the diameter of the string and the tapering tail of the teardrop slightly smaller. Heating the nock and forming it over this teardrop with just finger pressure gives perfectly formed nocks that are uniform from one to the other.

Ed

[Ed Ashby]

in reply to: The Good, the Bad … and Me #21206

George, that’s what I’m trying to do. I don’t know if living out here is going to help with the physical healing but it’s already doing wonders for the healing of my spirit!

Ed

[Ed Ashby]

in reply to: Doc? David? Everyone? You seen these? #21201

Steve and Mark, thanks for the well wishes. I need all those I can get! My body hurts terrably most every day but being out here I feel a lot better than I have in many moons. Never closer to God than when I’m in the wilds. I need His help too!

Ed

[Ed Ashby]

in reply to: Doc? David? Everyone? You seen these? #20667

Thanks Robin, It’s awfully good to be able to be back. Eight surgeries and a course of radiation treatments in less than a three year span is more than enough for me. I sure hope there aren’t any more!

Ed

[Ed Ashby]

in reply to: How much is too much EFOC? #20556

To the original question, there appears to be no upper limit to the beneficial effects of EFOC on both arrow flight and terminal arrow performance. I’ve used EFOC into the low 30% range, and now consider 30+% FOC my goal when building new hunting arrows. The PNG natives use unfletched arrows having FOC’s from the high 30% range to the mid-40% range. that’s how they get good arrow flight without fletching, and they consider 25 yards good shooting range.

Ed

[Ed Ashby]

in reply to: The Good, the Bad … and Me #20541

Steve, unless I’m mistaken that’s a Goshawk broadhead. As a bit of history, the Goshawk’s construction was Harry Elburg’s inspiration in how to make the Grizzly. The Grizzly uses the same 2-halves stamped, welded and then tempered construction that the Goshawk has.

As another bit of rather unimportant history, as a youth the Goshawk on a solid fiberglass fish-arrow shaft was my favorite armadillo arrow. Killed literally hundreds of armadillo with that near-indestructable arrow setup. We did a lot of the armadillo shooting at night and I had the shaft wrapped in a spiral of reflector tape. Made a spectacular sight bobbing through the bush!

Ed

[Ed Ashby]

in reply to: Doc? David? Everyone? You seen these? #20522

I can only HOPE that I’ll get to try out the Tuffhead this year. There’s plenty of animals here on the property, but none really worthy of a challange to the broadhead’s potential. Haven’t seen a hog nearly big enough yet. To top that off, I’ve only gotten so far as to get a target stuffed and ready to use; haven’t fired an arrow on the property yet.

My recovery is far from complete and, unless things improve a lot, I won’t be able to do any stalking, which is my favored way to hunt. Now, I would be able to shoot some animals right off the front porch. In just a couple of weeks the animals have come to accept me sitting on the porch in the evenings, and some have fed up to within 10 feet. They even ignore my scent now, and that of my pipe. I can even go in and out of the cabin without spooking the deer out of the yard BUT … I won’t even attempt a shot until I have myself back into shooting form where I can be certain that the arrow is going pretty near where I intend … not to say that the animal will still be in that exact spot when the arrow arrives. And I need time to work up and tune the arrows … and have more than a few rather urgent things that neede doing on the property here.

All that notwithstanding, I’m might glad to finally see a heavy, glue on broadhead with these design features. It should help a lot in getting the EFOC I’m looking for. We’re making substantial progress in the options available in great single-bevel broadheads.

Ed

[Ed Ashby]

in reply to: EFOC with Wood? #55489

Yes, building out the sideplate allows a weaker spined shaft to tune, regardless of the shaft material. A couple of my bows have no arrow shelf at all, using a peg rest instead. That includes the 94# longbow that I’ve used to take the majority of my big game with in the last 25 years or so.

We’ve become so accustioned to arrow shelves, and even near or true center shot bows, that many have forgotten that bows didn’t have arrow shelves until ‘modern times’.

Ed

[Ed Ashby]

in reply to: Fixing what isn't broken #53808

M, all I can tell you is that the more you tinker with different arrow setups the more arrows you will need to tune, and the more arrows you tune the more you will learn about your bow and what makes an arrow work well from it, with you own shooting style. Knowledge, of any type, is a worthwhile thing to pursue, and I think it helps keep one’s brain working … and that, in and of itself, is worth the effort.

Try a bit of work with the Ultra-EFOC arrows. I think you will be impressed. You can start by just going down to a lower GPI shaft, something like the GT Ultra Lite. Once you get it bare shaft tuned you’ll need to work on finding out how small a fletching you can use, and you can experiment with the sound level of different fletching shapes at the same time.

Ed

[Ed Ashby]

in reply to: Appropriate discussion? #53794

King, I didn’t even know that was on YouTube!

Ed

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