[Charles Ek]

in reply to: Man Eaters of Kumaon #29595

It seems the services of the late Mr. Corbett would still be in demand:

Tiger Population Grows in India, as Does Fear After Attacks

Leopard on Loose Paralyzes Northern Indian City

[Charles Ek]

in reply to: A club for those of us without any back country #19009

David Petersen wrote: Might it have anything to do with quadrupling our population in those 50 years or so?

It, and virtually every other environmental issue, has everything to do with this.

I’m a BHA member living in NH and I support its nationwide objectives. But my fairly harsh advice to the original poster is the path I’ve followed for the last many years: Find a way to relocate out of the Midwest. The population density and the politics of resource management are antithetical to the experiences you’re seeking.

Gotta go find my Nomex now …

[Charles Ek]

in reply to: Anything Positive @ This Winter? #17736

I did go back once afterward to look for tracks, but it was probably still a little early. There’s a largish boar that used to hang out in the vicinity, but I haven’t seen any sign of him for a while. I don’t hunt bear, but I’m a huge admirer of the non-human kind.

Should probably mention that two of my four grandparents emigrated from Finland. The theme music for the video is “Finlandia” by Sibelius. Some of you might remember it from a different, somewhat more modern context …

[Charles Ek]

in reply to: Anything Positive @ This Winter? #17721

Smithhammer wrote: [quote=eidsvolling]For Smithhammer and the rest of you nuts:

Hey now – I’m nowhere near as nutty as that guy. 8)

And those of you that know me better not chime in….

Wait – is that you?

That would be me, in a paean to the Finnish ski troops who fought off a certain bear in the Winter War: Battle of Suomussalmi

[Charles Ek]

in reply to: Anything Positive @ This Winter? #17349

For Smithhammer and the rest of you nuts:

[Charles Ek]

in reply to: Anything Positive @ This Winter? #17321

Fallguy and Northerner,

I grew up in MN, where the family farm was at a location I’m not “Embarrassed” to mention and my mom remembered a -54º morning there. I used to camp a lot in the state parks in winter, at a time when I had them completely to myself after dark. One of my early inspirations was Calvin Rutstrum, whose name you might recognize from his books. Here’s an excerpt from “Paradise Below Zero” that has stuck in my mind from the moment I read it more than forty years ago:

“Along the various arctic coasts, the first major snowfall produces a sense of exhilaration in every Eskimo village — a jubilation that strikes young and adult alike. This, we may be sure, is no mere caprice of mood prompted by the effects of weather. For the Eskimo, snow foretells a major change in his mode of living — a sudden heightening of seasonal interest, the beginning of travel by dog sled or motorized toboggan, the visiting of remote villages and outlying trading posts.

Increased mobility obviously does not provide the only advantages to the seasonal change. The very essentials of snow and ice themselves brighten the life of the Eskimo and expand his scope.

When we compare the Eskimo’s response to winter in the arctic with the despairing attitude in metropolitan and rural areas of the Temperate Zone toward approaching winter, perhaps we need to examine rather critically the reaction to weather in general as it underlies our own overall mode of life.

. . .

Unfortunately, just about every aspect of urban existence is negative toward the advantages of winter. Superheated home, office, and factory require clothing adaptable to the indoors, with little conversion-facility to cold and snow. . . . And since the urban population lives in homes that are essentially machines , and their travel is primarily in machines, a snowstorm — natural and magnificent as it can be — instead of becoming an interesting phenomenon to enjoy, tends to foul up the mechanized order of life, until season after season, city life, maladjusted to winter, sags into a kind of chronic discontent.

Man has largely been fighting the natural elements instead of adjusting to them since he first wandered away form nature’s indispensable benefits. . . . He is not likely to exercise vigorously indoors, and if he does, under indoor winter conditions of extremely low humidity and unbalanced oxygenation, the exercise is of questionable benefit, if not harmful — at best a tragic and needless substitute for the refreshing outdoor life available to him by a few simple rules of daily application.”

[Charles Ek]

in reply to: Man Eaters of Kumaon #16642

donthomas wrote: If you want great American writing about hunting, go straight to Faulkner’s “The Bear.”

And for a whole lot more, as you are undoubtedly aware. Having read everything by Faulkner a few times, I’m unsure at this point what to advise someone who might never have read any of it and now contemplates “The Bear”. Perhaps this –

Leave “it” all behind, taking only a compass and a stick for the snakes as Isaac did, and just go into the woods with the bear, heeding Sam’s advice:

“You ain’t looked right yet,” Sam said.

He stopped. For a moment he didn’t answer. Then he said peacefully, in a peaceful rushing burst as when a boy’s miniature dam in a little brook gives way, “All right. But how? I went to the bayou. I even found that log again. I—“

“I reckon that was all right. Likely he’s been watching you. You never saw his foot?”

“I,” the boy said—“I didn’t—I never thought—“

“It’s the gun,” Sam said. He stood beside the fence motionless—the old man, the Indian, in the battered faded overalls and the five-cent straw hat which in the Negro’s race had been the badge of his enslavement and was now the regalia of his freedom. The camp—the clearing, the house, the barn and its tiny lot with which Major de Spain in his turn had scratched punily and evanescently at the wilderness—faded in the dusk, back into the immemorial darkness of the woods. The gun, the boy thought. The gun.

“Be scared,” Sam said. “You can’t help that. But don’t be afraid. Ain’t nothing in the woods going to hurt you unless you corner it, or it smells that you are afraid. A bear or a deer, too, has got to be scared of a coward the same as a brave man has got to be.”

The gun, the boy thought.

“You will have to choose,” Sam said.

[Charles Ek]

in reply to: Man Eaters of Kumaon #13943

There are two books that mothers should burn every time they find them on the premises. “The Year-Long Day” is one; the other is “Call of the Wild”.

Had my own mother heeded this dictum, she would not have been asking scant weeks after my wife and I moved to Alaska (the first time), “When are you coming back?”

BTW, the price was $8.95 when I bought it new. 😉 But of course gas was something like $0.599 a gallon at the time as well …

[Charles Ek]

in reply to: leather grips on longbows #60754

“It depends on what your definition of ‘longbow’ is.” 😉 I have leather grips on both my Hill-style bows and find them very useful.

“Many folks come to a Hill bow from years of shooting recurves. The two grips are entirely different, and trying to use a recurve style grip simply won’t work on a Hill bow. A recurve is usually nestled into the thumb joint with the wrist straight. This grip shifts the hand to the left (for right handed shooters), staightening the arm and putting the force in line with the long forearm bone. The balance of force is on the joint and arm bone, and a loose grip is both common and advised. With a Hill-stle bow, this grip will not work, and can cause hand shock and difficulty in controlling the bow. The appropriate grip for this style of longbow, which usually has a straight riser or one that has very limited shaping to it, is a grip that places the force on the heel of the hand, below the thumb joint. The arm is slightly bent at the elbow. The grip is defintely firm throughout the hand, but not clenched. This transfer of the force in the grip helps to control the bow and insures that it flexes appropriately for the design. The slight flexing of the elbow absorbs shock and, incidentally, reduces the need for an arm brace. Some longbow shooters do not use a brace unless they are wearing loose clothing.”

Proper Grip of a Hill Bow

[Charles Ek]

in reply to: Coffee Mug Thread #54602

Give me the simple things in life (and the digital means to make the point. 🙄 )

[Charles Ek]

in reply to: New longbow, I'm hooked #54593

Welcome!

Virtually every person I’ve encountered who remembers shooting a bow as a kid (even those who only did it a few times in school) looks back fondly on the experience. None of them were using training wheels when they did it.

I really believe there is something inherently pleasurable in shooting with traditional equipment. And it can’t be nostalgia for those people who know nothing of the history of archery. “It” is just there, whatever its origins.

[Charles Ek]

in reply to: 25th Anniversary Special #51580

Thanks, Mom! Time to re-up.

[Charles Ek]

in reply to: Home practice range #51276

Here’s my range behind our house. I have five lanes to shoot here, ranging from 16 to 22 yards (and some granite boulders to focus my attention …) I’m fortunate to have thousands of acres nearby for stumping (including some right in back of this range), so I use this mostly when I have limited time.

[Charles Ek]

in reply to: Arrow length as substitute for more FOC #43895

That is one heckuva handy response, and I’ll probably tape it to my bathroom mirror for a few weeks … or months. Thanks!

I’ve seen references elsewhere to the difficulties inherent in modeling arrow flight. Seems like some brain power and CPU capacity would be better devoted to that pursuit than creating yet another social media service. At least for those of us here. 😉

[Charles Ek]

in reply to: recurve bows #42831

I am quite surprised that an Aussie would have thought of a Winnebago and not one of these.

[Author]

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