[Ptaylor]

in reply to: New Bow #48689

Bob,

The growth rings on this tree were really tight, and compared to white woods (and even the limited osage I’ve worked with) it was much harder to distinguish the winter and summer growth on this piece of yew. I had to go a little deeper than I wanted because I cut through one growth ring trying to remove the sapwood. I’ve seen some good yew bows with sapwood on them, so I’m going to try a couple like that as well.

One of the trees I cut down had uprooted and was sticking out perpendicularly to the hillside. It was about 10″ in diameter, and I cut through from the top until there was about 2″ of only sapwood holding it together. So just for fun I decided to jump on it to see how strong the sapwood was. I was standing on the tree and jumping and the sapwood never even cracked! It just flexed and held the weight of the tree and me jumping on it. So it seems pretty strong.

Has anyone else left the sapwood on their yew bow?

preston

[Ptaylor]

in reply to: New Bow #48138

Thanks fellas. She still hasn’t passed the test of a few hundred shots, so hopefully she’ll make it through that and be ready for hunting season.

preston

[Ptaylor]

in reply to: "The Untamed" – film #48060

Clay,

That’s great! It’s hard to capture that magical essence of interacting with wildlife in wild locations, but your video seems to be doing just that. I’m looking forward to the finished product.

preston

[Ptaylor]

in reply to: New Bow #47774

One of the knots in the limbs

[Ptaylor]

in reply to: New Bow #47770

Unstrung

[Ptaylor]

in reply to: New Bow #47769

The files were too large for the pictures, trying again…

[Ptaylor]

in reply to: River Monsters #44417

The Natives, up here on the coast of Northern California, love to eat lamprey. Like their salmon, they smoke it in the smoke shack, or just cook it over a grill. I have never fished for them or eaten one. However, in my zoology lab we had one dissected, and they are basically a tube of guts with a thin layer of meat and leathery skin. It didn’t look like their was much of a meal on them. One of these days I’m going to give it a try though.

[Ptaylor]

in reply to: Cottontails! #37045

Steve,

In California wild hogs, coyotes, and black-tailed jackrabbits are open all year. Turkeys definitely have a season, spring and fall. Cottontails have a season, but I did not know about that property damage exemption.

preston

[Ptaylor]

in reply to: Stalking #37042

Hello Folks, This is my 1st post, just joined recently.

My favorite method of hunting is to find a fresh track, follow it to the animal, spot the quarry, and stalk in close. I have been successful getting close to animals like this on mule deer, black bear, and feral hogs. However, I’m a terrible shot, still working on the “pick-a-spot” thing, so I missed all the animals I managed to stalk in close enough to shoot at. My best opportunities where the animal is totally unaware of me and I can set up a good shot scenario came from ground ambushes. For me it depends on the substrate and weather. If the ground has less debris, or is wetter then stalking is easier. Likewise, if there is some weather, then I can close in on an animal with more success due to the background noise. During the hot, dry, still early season in the west I usually start with ambushes and move to tracking/stalking when the weather shows up.

Interestingly, I spend more time in the offseason tracking/stalking animals and watching them, which helps setting up ambush locations later. Ambushes seem (for me) a better way to get a close shot, but stalking is much more fun!

preston

[Author]

Posts