[Charles Ek]

in reply to: Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness Hunt – Sept. 29 – Oct. 5, 2019 #136687

It might become a tradition to be repeated. Or not, if the hunt members mutiny at the possible paucity of deer in the area …

[Charles Ek]

in reply to: What ya got goin'? 2 #136566

After back-to-back -30 nights in January and record February snowfall, it felt pretty good to open the 2019 3D season yesterday at the Iceman 3D Shoot and Weenie Roast in Floodwood, MN:

[Charles Ek]

in reply to: 60 birthday #134629

Alaska has what are probably the most complex hunting regulations of any state in the U.S. The full text (all 144 pages!) is here: http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/static/applications/web/nocache/regulations/wildliferegulations/pdfs/general.pdfF74FDB2F65C807FCFCB03DF37273ACC1/general.pdf

As a nonresident alien, you must be accompanied in the field by a licensed guide for any big game hunting. Your best approach is to spend your time right now finding the guide you will want to use. Any guide worth hiring will inform you of virtually everything you need to know. You should ask other bowhunters (on every bowhunting forum you can find) for references for Alaska bowhunting guides that they have personally used. Not names they’ve heard of – names of people they have hired and used.

[Charles Ek]

in reply to: Old photos #134478

July 9, 1944 – members of the Duluth Archery Club on a roving course. The picture was taken by Willard “Buck” Doran (who in 1943 made the bow I’m shooting in my avatar pic). From left:  Ray Walline, Dick Emerick, Norman Ek (my father), Bud Emerick, Herb Gooch.<span style=”-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);”> </span>

[Charles Ek]

in reply to: What ya got goin'? 2 #134214

Glad to hear you’re done with the hurricanes.

White Bear Lake is very familiar territory. My family sailed, swam and picnicked there constantly when I was a kid, and my wife and I lived there for several years.

[Charles Ek]

in reply to: What ya got goin'? 2 #134187

Update after an absence:

My wife retired and we moved to my hometown of Duluth, MN, this summer. This past Thursday I slept in my truck and hunted my late grandparents’ farm in Embarrass, MN for the first time in my life. Did I mention that in the midst of a monster storm, things got real quiet during the night, just as I hoped?

 

[Charles Ek]

in reply to: Books for Traditional Bowhunters #132959

Can’t believe this hasn’t shown up yet:

(For those who don’t know –  The book describes the author’s career as a Pacific NW and Alaska bowhunter. Along the way he also found the time to run a top archery store outside Seattle, establish the Pope and Young Club, introduce Fred Bear to bowhunting in Alaska and encourage a guy to follow his dream of publishing a traditional bowhunting magazine …)

[Charles Ek]

in reply to: What ya got goin'? 2 #132391

At the risk of boring those who have already seen it, I’ll tell the backstory of this bow again.

My dad got me started in archery when I was a kid. We shot field courses together but never hunted. I was never able to draw this 48# bow as a kid before I drifted out of archery.

When he passed away in 1998, the bow and another one of 40# were left for me to take over, as my sisters had no interest in them. The two bows were left unstrung for the next ten years.

I took up rifle hunting in 2006 after many years as a volunteer SAR dog handler (an activity which consumed thousands of hours). In 2008 I looked at the bows and decided to see whether they could be used for hunting. I found some online advice about bringing old bows back to life. After ten years of just looking at them, I was fully ready to accept the risk of breakage in exchange for a chance to shoot them.

One (made of lemonwood) did not survive being drawn the first time despite some gentle coaxing beforehand. The other one (probably hickory) HAMMERED the first target it was pointed at in earnest, and it shoots as sweetly as any bow I’ve held since. It has been shot on a regular basis for the past ten years. That bow made me into the trad bow fanatic I am today.

I’m hoping to kill a deer with it here in Minnesota this year, now that it’s 75 years old. It’s had one chance at a turkey in NH that I muffed, but that’s another story.

[Charles Ek]

in reply to: What ya got goin'? 2 #132389

(Reply deleted to repost as a new comment.)

[Charles Ek]

in reply to: What ya got goin'? 2 #132375

At the end of May, my wife retired, we sold our home in NH and we relocated to Duluth, MN, where I was born. (Couldn’t convince her to move a third time to AK.)

Next Saturday I’m attending a 3D shoot to be held by the Duluth Archery Club. Wish I had someone recording their reactions when I show up to shoot the course with a selfbow made by one of their founders for my father in 1943.  🙂

[Charles Ek]

in reply to: Chasing Solitude – moose film #132354

Just read your excellent article in the new issue of TBM. You had me at moose + AK.  🙂

Gotta go now – off to see a man about a DVD.

[Charles Ek]

in reply to: Stump Shooting #130412

Most of what I’d say has been covered. I will add that the Bunny Buster rubber blunts from 3Rivers are frequently kinder to my arrows than even the Judo point (which I love otherwise). I’ve stopped using “The Hammer” for anything other than hunting small game because it causes arrow-wrecking ricochets with distressing frequency.

And beware of rocks disguised as mossy logs, says the voice of experience …

[Charles Ek]

in reply to: How Much Straightness Is Needed For Wood Shafts? #130411

After the Surewood shafts arrive, you’ll have more time for shooting, since you won’t be spending any time straightening. Not an exaggeration, and the thing that cured me a few years ago of buying anybody else’s shafts.

[Charles Ek]

in reply to: How Much Straightness Is Needed For Wood Shafts? #130410

“If I can see the bend by looking down the shaft, I get it out.”

This. The rest of the straightening is something you do when EVERYTHING else in your setup has been taken care of and there’s too much snow to go shoot some stumps.

[Charles Ek]

in reply to: Good Compass #127580

Just watched the video. It really needs the addition of at least a short reference to the necessity of accounting for declination. I understand he’s got that covered elsewhere, but people may very likely watch this one and not realize that what they don’t know will get them lost.

[Author]

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