[Jason Wesbrock]

in reply to: Thinking about trying wood arrows #33713

Sorry I may be a little late on this one. You state you have a 31 ½’ draw. As someone who draws 32” I can see one problem you’ll likely face right away, that being arrow length. Most wood arrow shafts are 32” long. Once you taper the front for a point you’re down to 31”. That leaves you ½” short. This isn’t much of a problem if you’re shooting a target point. You’ll just draw the back of the point into the riser a bit. But once you put a broadhead out there you can’t do that anymore. The back of the blade will hit the riser, and that’s if it doesn’t cut your hand first.

You may want to see if you can find some arrow shafts longer than the normal 32”. Hopefully someone here can point you toward a source. I used to just foot the end of mine with walnut to make then 34”, but that was extremely time consuming and the arrows ended up being way too heavy for my tastes.

[Jason Wesbrock]

in reply to: Wolves relisted #33592

In WI they start the season on 10/15 and run it until either 02/28 or until the quota is filled. This year they hit their quota around 12/05 and closed the season at that time. Firearms deer season starts statewide the Saturday before Thanksgiving until the Sunday after, so I imagine the majority of wolves killed by hunters (as opposed to trappers, who kill the largest percentage) happen during those nine days.

I know a friend of mine has property in the western part of the state, and every season at least one person in our hunting group has a bow range encounter with a wolf. Although, I don’t think anyone’s had one that close yet this year. The neighbor to his north still sees them quite frequently along the edges of one of his farm fields, so they’re apparently still living in the area.

[Jason Wesbrock]

in reply to: Storing and/or Displaying Your Bows #33580

I used to hang them on nails in my basement, but since I redid that space I’ve taken to the same approach as Bernie. The ones I rarely use are hung horizontally on the floor joists that make up my basement ceiling. Beyond that, my go-to hunting bows are on my bow rack, and my target bows are usually in their cases.

[Jason Wesbrock]

in reply to: Wolves relisted #32811

dwcphoto wrote: Badgers, Wolverines, Gophers… say what? dwc

College football. Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Michigan.

[Jason Wesbrock]

in reply to: Wolves relisted #32593

Wisconsin has reached its quota for each of the past three seasons, the overwhelming majority of which was from trapping.

Total licensed kills according to the WDNR:

2012, 117

2013, 257

2014, 154

[Jason Wesbrock]

in reply to: Chek-Mate bows???? #29346

My understanding is the same as yours; Marc bought the company and soon after dropped contact with a lot of dealers. I’ve bought five of their bows over the years from three different dealers, none of whom carry their bows today. From what I’m told, they’re still in business, although I have no idea how a person would go about buying one of their bows.

they were, and maybe still are, excellent bows at a great price. But I’ve heard far too many horror stories from their now-former dealers to trust them with my money again.

[Jason Wesbrock]

in reply to: Arrow Weight & Paradox? #25261

Actually, their bows can handle a lot lighter than what they shoot. Is memory serves, they’re usually around 7 gpp. Regardless, a lighter static spine requires a lighter point, which puts you right back to the proper dynamic spine.

[Jason Wesbrock]

in reply to: Arrow Weight & Paradox? #24371

Very interesting discussion. I just wanted to add something about the theory that carbon arrows only flex once and then they are “out of paradox.” Yes, I am familiar with the old marketing videos done by a few manufacturers in an attempt to prove their products are best. But if you watch enough coverage of Olympic recurve archery, you’ll see a lot of slow motion scenes from behind the archer toward the target. Those arrows, both solid carbon and carbon/aluminum types, oscillate a long, long way down range — far past what most would consider normal hunting distance.

[Jason Wesbrock]

in reply to: Practice for Form #20423

I didn’t watch the video, but agree with the others regarding the value of shooting at a vertical line. Folks have been doing that as a walk back tuning method for 30-some years that I can remember, and somewhere along the line it morphed into a form training exercise. I consider it kind of a hybrid blank bale method.

With blank bale, all you are doing is ingraining the feeling of the shot into your subconscious. It’s a valuable tool, but where it falls short for me is the lack of quantifiable results to determine consistency. Targets don’t lie; if you group well you are shooting consistently. Blank bale offers no such feedback.

Vertical misses (up and down) are caused by one set of problems; horizontal another. What shooting at a vertical or horizontal line allows you to do is isolate one set of variables at a time. If I’m having problems with vertical head position, high and low grip pressure (heeling the grip), maintaining my bow arm through the shot (dropping my arm), or sliding down out of my anchor, I shoot at a horizontal line. If I’m having problems with balanced expansion through the shot, grip torque, plucking the string, or string blur (horizontal head position), I shoot at a vertical line. It’s no coincidence that the target backstop in my basement had a big giant + on it in blue painters tape.

[Jason Wesbrock]

in reply to: Where is your anchor? #11385

Bruce,

Much agreed.

[Jason Wesbrock]

in reply to: Where is your anchor? #11356

It’s important to remember that where your string hand ends up is part of your follow through, which should never be an action in and of itself. Follow through should be nothing more than the natural reaction to a properly executed shot. It’s a subtle distinction I see people frequently missing.

Some folks are so hung up on their hand coming to rest on their shoulder that they shoot the shot with their normal dead release, pause, and then purposely pull their hand back and touch their shoulder. This is not conducive to accurate shooting because the archer is more worried about how they look at the end of the shot than they are about hitting their target. Follow through is something people use to gauge whether or not the rest of the shot was done correctly. It is never something that should be done consciously.

[Jason Wesbrock]

in reply to: Where is your anchor? #10646

I shoot with a very high anchor, above my upper jaw. Without string walking it gets my point on down to 40 yards with my hunting bows, 48 with my target setup.

(Photo courtesy of Jeff Sanchez, Bowdoc Archery)

[Jason Wesbrock]

in reply to: How many bucks? #52305

Illinois allows two antlered bucks per season, all weapons combined.

Wisconsin allows one per season on an archery tag and another on a gun tag.

[Jason Wesbrock]

in reply to: Arrows and Snow #48753

Steve’s advice is spot on. Like in his area, the best time to hunt squirrels around here is usually during deer season. As a result, I resign myself to hunting them earlier in the year during less optimal times. This time of year I get the joy of watching them from my deer stand without constantly trying to figure out how to close the distance for a shot. They are a fun animal to observe, especially the morning I saw a fox squirrel and a roosted hen turkey try to occupy the same tree limb. The turkey won that round.

As far as arrows are concerned, inexpensive and effective are my priorities. I use the cheapest wood shafts I can find and homemade heads consisting of a blade inserted into a .38 casing. My squirrel arrows cost me around $1 each to make, and I consider them one shot projectiles. When I opt for commercially made small game heads I use Ace Hex Heads. The combination of sharp edges and a blunt face is quite deadly.

[Jason Wesbrock]

in reply to: Garbaging for Bears #48307

colmike wrote: And, from my experience when we as ethical hunters, with trad bow, condone behavior that can be confused by ANY as unethical–then we –as a group have an issue that needs this discussion.

That’s a pretty broad scope and would cover literally everything up to and including hunting as a whole. With respect to the issue at hand (baiting for bears) the people of Maine just had that discussion. They agreed to keep it.

colmike wrote: PS. j-perhaps you could update your profile with picture and location. If not I will ignore subsequent posts.:D

You can already find my photo, profile, and location information on the main page, upper left hand corner under the heading “About Us” in the “Meet The Folks” link. I’m right between Denny and Connie. 😉

[Author]

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