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in reply to: Quality, yet affordable knife suggestions? #21888
I’ve never spent $300 for a knife. Actually, I’ve never spent a fifth of that for one either. Any of the locking folders from Shrade, Buck, or Gerber will work just fine. They make nice fixed-blade knives too.
in reply to: Harvest limits #19283In Illinois, resident bowhunters can take two antlered bucks and unlimited antlerless deer per year. In Wisconsin they are limited to one antlered buck, although they can take a second by bowhunting with a gun tag during gun season thanks to the lesser weapon rule. I think the CWD zone may still be unlimited antlered deer via ear-a-buck regulations, but I’m not sure. I haven’t hunted there since 2010. For all intents and purposes, antlerless deer are unlimited in most of the state.
two4hooking wrote: I have spend the last 3 weeks shooting about an hour a day. Just working on form and my anchor/ release. Sometimes with eyes closed….sometimes open but trying not to aim. Going to keep it up for another week and start tuning my broadheads. We’ll see if it pays but I suspect it will.
I can’t see how it wouldn’t pay off. Concentrate on the fundamentals and accuracy will follow. That’s why I spend as much time at short range working on form as I do with a target in front of me. 😉
in reply to: grouse and woodcock #16406I killed quite a few grouse in Ontario several years ago with Ace Hex Heads. They would be my first choice should I hunt grouse again.
in reply to: Remove inserts from carbon shafts #12818dwcphoto wrote: I use that yellowish hot glue and gently, gently, heat a field point screwed in until I can pull it. Works well. dwc
That’s the same way I glue mine.
Arne nailed it, as usual. There’s a world of difference between simply flinging arrows and actual practice. I’d go even further by stating that “flinging arrows” is counterproductive to improving one’s accuracy. Engraining bad habits in the name of watching a bunch of arrows fly is not something in which I have any interest.
Some weeks I may shoot scarcely a hundred arrows; other weeks I may shoot closer to a thousand. I try to spend a fair amount of time at our local archery club since it’s only about ten minutes from my house. Sometimes I shoot indoor paper rounds at 20 yards (Vegas 300 rounds or 450 rounds) to gauge my improvement (or decline) in consistency. Other times I’ll do indoor walk back drills where I hang an NFAA indoor 5-spot target, and shoot in five-yard increments from 10 to 30 yards until I hit the bullseyes. The idea is to get through clean in five shots.
Our club also has a field range, so I spend a bit of practice time on those too. If I’m trying to really fine tune my bow and myself, nothing works as well for me as field archery. Twenty-yard shots seem easy after spending time on an NFAA 80-yard walk-up target.
For working on distance estimation and picking a shot (both critical for bowhunting, in my opinion) I head to the 3D range. My routine there is to estimate the distance to a target, shoot it twice, range it to confirm my estimation or see where I misjudged, and shoot it one more time. Not only does this practice pay off for me at 3D shoots, it helps a lot when putting meat in the freezer.
The previous routines notwithstanding, I spend most of my practice time in my 13-yard basement range working on nothing more than the fundamentals of shot execution. A couple weeks ago I noticed my bow hand was a little weak on my follow through, which was causing my groups to open up side to side. So I stayed away from the archery club and stayed in my basement working on proper expansion through the shot. Last Saturday morning our club was hosting an NFAA field round so I decided to show up and support them. My basement practice paid off; I shot my personal best half round score of 248.
Regardless of whatever practice routine you find works for you, make sure you take every shot seriously. Sloppy practice yields sloppy results. Putting your total concentration and effort into every arrow you send downrange will pay huge dividends when you trade your field points for broadheads and scorecards for deer tags.
in reply to: Bow to heavy? #59183If I can’t hold a bow at full draw for at least 10 seconds without collapsing and still execute a proper shot, it’s too heavy.
in reply to: String Leeches Vs. Beaver Balls #41172I used puff type silencers probably 20 years ago. They work, but they’re kind of like tying little parachutes onto a string. I’ve found half sets of rubber cat whiskers are just as effective but don’t rob performance like puffs.
in reply to: Don Thomas Spot On! #41167The neighbors to the south of our Wisconsin property are a very nice older hippie couple. They are into organic gardening, free range this and that, and foraging off the land. They are also not very keen on the idea of hunting, although they have given me permission to track and recover animals should they cross the property line. Despite our differing ideas about many subjects, we all get along very well.
Both neighbors have free reign from my wife and me to pick blueberries and black berries on our property, and to hunt for mushrooms. Shortly after we bought the place, the lady in the couple told me she likes to pick a wild mushroom called Boletes that apparently grows in the area. I’ve been looking for them ever since, but only found one dried up mushroom a couple years ago.
Yesterday I was shooting on our archery range in the yard when I set down my bow and noticed several pounds of Boletes just inside the edge of our pines. I picked and sorted them into two equal piles, and gave half of them to our neighbors. They were so thrilled they invited me to come back later for dinner, which happened to include some of the mushrooms. Ironically enough, the topic of organic food came up, which included a few comments by me about how meat doesn’t get any more “organic” than wild game.
I now have an unsolicited standing offer to hunt their land whenever I want. I don’t think I’ll accept, but it’s nice to see someone who was once somewhat against the pastime have a minor change of heart.
in reply to: Tuning issues #37146South Texas,
It’s very rare when I offer any advice that deviates from Arne’s, but in this case I’ll stray slightly from his suggestion. The first thing I do when tuning is take care of my nock height. The fact that you cannot tune out a nock high situation tells me you have some contact issues with the shelf, and that can make tuning for spine difficult as well. I used to have a real problem getting rid of nock high arrow flight off the shelf until I had a discussion with Ken Beck a few years ago. He told me how to fix the problem in a matter of a few minutes.
What sometimes happens is the arrow nock slides down the serving slightly upon release. When that occurs, the back end of the arrow contacts the shelf and bounces upward. Since the nock slide is erratic, you really can’t predict it and set your nock locater accordingly. Here’s how you fix the problem once and for all. This assumes your shelf has a nice radius to it, as opposed to those wide, flat shelves that can on a lot of bows back in the 60s and 70s.
Start with an intentionally high nock setting, such as 3/4”. Put a second nock locator under your arrow, leaving a gap about the size of two wraps of serving material. The second nock set prevents the arrow from sliding down the serving, and the tiny gap prevents the nock from getting pinched at full draw. Your arrows should leave the bow nock high at this point. Lower your nock sets about 1/16” at a time, shooting as you go, until the arrows leave the bow nice and level. Once you fix the shelf contact issue, you can then move on to tuning for arrow spine.
in reply to: New arrows- spine help. #36521Aaron,
Gold Tip 1535 shafts have a static spine of .600. If they shoot well for you with normal inserts and 145-grain points, there is no way an Easton Gamegetter 500 (which is a 2016) will tune properly with a 125-grain point. I understand getting a good deal on arrows, but if they’re the wrong spine it’s no bargain. That notwithstanding, if you’re dead set on using them, I would highly suggest you leave them full length and start with a point weight of at least 175 grains (you may have to go heavier or lighter from there). Bare shaft tuning will tell the tale on what it will take to get them shooting well for you with your bow. The best any of us can do is get you in the neighborhood. Good luck.
in reply to: bowfishing reel question? #33807You can always pick up a tape-on reel. Ebay is full of them dirt cheap. If you bought a hand wrap reel that screws into a stabilizer hole, you can make a simple mount with a bolt through a piece of scrap wood that’s taped to your bow.
in reply to: Great nock set #33380I saw this video when he put it on Facebook a few month ago. It’s a great example of how a simple approach is often best. I use a very similar nock set on my target bow and it works very well.
in reply to: Maximizing my moose mojo #20134Good luck to you in the drawing. I hope you get a tag and fill it with the biggest bull you’ve ever seen.
in reply to: Anyone die-cut their own feathers? #17867I chop two 4″ parabolic cuts from full length feathers. For squirrel arrows I can usually get a 5″ and 4″ cut.
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