[Charles Ek]

in reply to: Campfire Cooking #35343

Ramen with a can of chicken added. Dinty Moore stew if I’m livin’ high on the hog. 😆

No more sardines or kippers in the tent, even in winter: It’s winter – what could happen?

[Charles Ek]

in reply to: Grizzly b'heads giveaway #34552

PM sent.

[Charles Ek]

in reply to: Grizzly b'heads giveaway #34526

I will send you $50.00 to be donated to the Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, or the land conservation organization of your choice, if you agree to send me one package of six. (I doubt I would ever need twelve.) I will also pay for shipping.

[Charles Ek]

in reply to: Lets sit on our kills #30093

Occasionally the Conrads and their partners in this venture shine very brightly. Well, actually pretty much all the time, including when they own up to being mere mortals. 😀

[Charles Ek]

in reply to: Coyote/Wolf hybrids #26188

Thanks so much for the tip on this! I’ve been following the progress of the genetic studies by the featured researcher and others for several years. (If anyone wants copies of the scientific articles I have, shoot me a message.)

When I first arrived in New Hampshire in 2001 from Alaska, an animal ran across the road in front of me one evening that had me wide-eyed. I grew up in Minnesota, which has big gray wolves and small Western coyotes. I’ve also lived in Alaska, which has even bigger wolves, and now the small Western coyotes to an increasing degree.

This critter was tall and downright lanky compared to the coyotes I knew well. Since then, I’ve seen them on many occasions. There was one particular mostly black male that used to hang out on land where I hunt. He was a bold guy, and one evening I found evidence that he had been trailing my wife and her dogs. As it happened, I arrived as she was coming out of the woods. I could see in the snow as I progressed back along her route, with the wind at my back, how he had turned off to the side when he became aware of my approach.

I don’t shoot canids, a fact that saved two of these animals one day when they passed twenty yards from me while I held a shotgun and deer slugs.

[Charles Ek]

in reply to: New acronym or catchphrase needed for improved lethality #26177

Smithhammer wrote:

I also see too many people who seem to think that our entire history begins and ends with certain notable individuals of the 20th century, and that whatever they did is the ‘end all, be all,’ rather than making the effort to grasp the much broader and varied history of our sport across millenia. If one only pays attention to the former, then the idea of what is ‘proper and traditional’ is quite limited. Expanding beyond that quickly drives home the point that what is ‘proper and traditional’ in bow and arrow design has varied greatly over time and place – including the not-so-new ideas of EFOC, reflexed longbows, minimal fletching, etc. We aren’t discovering anything new here – we’re just applying new terminology to old concepts (and in some cases, re-learning those old concepts) that have been well understood in various parts of the world since long before Saxton Pope picked up bow.

If there ever were an individual who was devoted to exploring changes major and minor when it came to traditional bowhunting, it was that guy with the fedora from Michigan. Pretty ironic that people would be citing him as a reason to stop examining possibly better ways to do this.

[Charles Ek]

in reply to: Empathy for wildlife #16739

adirondackman wrote: I think that Empathy comes from the respect that we have for the animals that we hunt and the reason that we hunt them.

+1.

And this: What some call empathy here would be a very familiar sensation to people whose very existence depended on finding and killing animals, namely those bowhunters who preceded all of us on this continent and the ones on other continents. It’s not my intention to co-opt any group’s sacred traditions, as is done so often these days for good and bad reasons. Let me just put it this way:

If you weren’t feeling this “empathy”, after having spent so much time among and studying all animals – not just our prey – I’d think there was something wrong with you. As there is in fact with the great majority of people, whose ties to the natural world are infinitesimally weak if not altogether absent.

[Charles Ek]

in reply to: Another Noisy Recurve #16259

Etter1 wrote: The hunter is a fantastic bow. Try yarn puffs over cat whiskers. IMO, there arent any better string silencers.

You probably haven’t made the acquaintance of these:

Musk Ox Bow String Silencers.

I have used them for a couple years. I’ve had numerous favorable comments at 3d shoots on how quiet it made my bow. Liked them so much, I bought a ball of musk ox yarn from Canada to make my own. Have them now on all my bows. They’re very light because of the properties of the musk ox wool.

[Charles Ek]

in reply to: Number 1 destination for first day of hunting this fall? #62982

AlexBugnon wrote: … the New Jersey hunting regulations book is like a penal code book. By the time you finish reading it, and understand it, you won’t feel like going hunting at all anymore!

If it’s any comfort, the AK regulations demand the same effort to understand and stay legal. (But the cervids are a tad larger and the bears a tad more fearsome …) 🙂

[Charles Ek]

in reply to: Seat for ground hunting #60637

The hammock seat arrived today. WOW!

After a few minutes of playing around with it, I went from out-of-place, six-foot biped to forest predator with the click of a buckle (gotta work on muffling that.) First twelve shots left me smiling. I definitely feel more like part of the woods, and like many others I can attest to its comfort.

Thanks to all who recommended it here.

[Charles Ek]

in reply to: Number 1 destination for first day of hunting this fall? #60484

Cladinator wrote: I’m not interested in tree blinds. I’d like to set up hasty ground blinds but I’m more interested in roving.

I’m not trying to hijack the thread, but would this be proper etiquette if hunting on public land?

Travelling lightly with my bow, quiver, arrows, and binos along the ground sounds like great fun to me.

The last thing I want to do is cross into an area where a hunter is already set up and patiently waiting for his chance to make a kill. As a new bow hunter I’m unfamiliar with etiquette. Thanks.

You are perfectly fine doing this. It’s probably what the majority of people on this forum do regularly, including yours truly.

I do actively try to make myself aware before and during the season of where others are likely to be hunting and to avoid intruding there. If I see someone heading out or coming back, I’ll strike up a conversation and explain that I want to avoid intruding. Sometimes they’ll open up, sometimes they’ll think I’m out to steal a treestand – which I never use.

Have a good time!

p.s. Interesting guy you chose to quote. (I work professionally as a translator of the Scandinavian languages.) I’ll steer clear of you if I see you with an axe in your hands. 😉

[Charles Ek]

in reply to: Buying used recruves and longbows #54323

Critch wrote: I’m not in the bow business…it’s just that I see some of those classic bows out there and then I get the itch…

+1, on all points. I threw that in as a caution to anyone hoping to make some extra money. There are some great bows to be had now at reasonable prices and less.

[Charles Ek]

in reply to: Food for a Backpack Hunt #54319

I just stopped the video when he said his day starts with a Mountain House breakfast product.

I’ve eaten the stuff, I’ve sold it and I know people like it. But it is much more expensive (and, not infrequently, far less satisfying from an eating perspective) than learning how to use commonly available foodstuffs and reusable packaging.

My advice is to take to heart the lessons of the National Outdoor Leadership School on this subject. No, I’m not a devotee graduate, or a paid endorser. I’m just a fan:

NOLS Cookery

And a day without oatmeal first thing in the morning is a day spent in town for me. Well, actually, I eat it in town several times a month as well.

[Charles Ek]

in reply to: Buying used recruves and longbows #54298

Smithhammer wrote: [quote=colmike]

Seriously, though – if you can’t inspect the bow personally, then at least purchase from a reputable seller (personally, I’m leer of used bows on eBay, for example – you may not have any known history of the bow). And don’t be afraid to ask for additional pics of the bow, if needed. Trad archery shops like Rocky Mountain Specialty have an extensive selection of used bows and stand by what they sell.

OTOH …

I’ve bought four bows on eBay without having handled them first. Three were exactly as described and are shot several times a month each. The fourth is on its way to me now.

Lots of folks have had lots of luck buying used bows this way, and sometimes a person gets burned very, very badly. I won’t buy anything on eBay without the Buyer Protection Plan in force for the item. I look at the seller’s photos more intently than your proctologist looked at your last colonoscopy. I do a lot of research on the history of how the bow has performed through the years. I skip anything that doesn’t give me a warm fuzzy.

YMMV, in a big, big way. 😉

I should add – prices are sliding downward right now like you-know-what through a goose. Buy a bargain to shoot, but don’t expect to make any money off buying and selling used bows for some time to come. The bloom went off these particular tulip bulbs quite a while ago, and vultures like me have been having our pick of tasty morsels. 😈

[Charles Ek]

in reply to: Ethical Shots #50467

Fallguy wrote: The neck shot was the meat hunters shot of choice with a rifle because of the shock damage to the spinal cord that dropped them on the spot.

Been there, done that with a rifle at 35 yards while I waited for a buck to come around a corner. But I would never attempt a neck shot with a bow.

[Author]

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