[Stephen Graf]

in reply to: Fletch-tite ??? #140854

I looked at the Bohning website and it has some fletching instructions which state that if the humidity is 70% or higher, not to use Fletch-tite.  This is the time of year when humidity can be a problem…

Here’s the link: https://issuu.com/bohning/docs/fletching_instructions

Since the glue remained on the feather, it’s still my guess that the glue skinned over, or reacted in some other way with the humidity, thus fouling up the bond when applied to the arrow shaft.

[Stephen Graf]

in reply to: Fletch-tite ??? #140844

I too made the switch to tape several years ago.  As with all things, there are pro’s and cons…

On the pro side, it is easy to use, fast, and mostly reliable.

On the con side, it does pop loose under certain circumstances.  If the arrow gets left in the car and gets hot, or in high humidity during the summer, I have had problems with adhesion.  I have also had problem with the removable backing on the tape with a couple roles.  The backing didn’t peel off as one piece, but instead broke up into fine strips as I removed it.  Those 2 roles were a pain to apply.

You still need to put a dab of glue on the leading and trailing edge of the feather to keep it down.  For that I I use what’s left of my fletch -tite, or duco.  Whatever I grab first.

I doubt I’ll ever go back to glueing fletching.

Just wondering – can you tell if the glue remains on the feather, or the shaft, when it fails?  The only time I had trouble with Fletch-tite was if it skinned over before the 2 surfaces were brought together.  If the air is dry, and you wait too long after putting the glue on the feather before affixing it to the shaft, the glue may form a dry skin which will prevent adhesion to the shaft.

[Stephen Graf]

in reply to: Bear dvd set #140710

I’ve watched them a million times.  I like to watch them while making bowstrings or fletching arrows.

 

[Stephen Graf]

in reply to: Just joined and wanted to say hello #140675

You seem to have some good sense.  There is no better bow than the American Semi Longbow, at least in my mind.  Stick with it, you have chosen well!

[Stephen Graf]

in reply to: Grain scale ??? #140575

3Rivers has a good digital scale for a fair price.  I’ve had one for near a decade and it still works well:

https://www.3riversarchery.com/superior-balance-arrow-2000-scale.html

When I bought it, it cost the same price but didn’t come with the accessories.  What a deal!  I had to make my own arrow holder from some scrap wood, and buy the calibration weight myself.

[Stephen Graf]

in reply to: Aluminum bow #140533

I think maybe it was a steel bow?  Before fiberglass came along, there were several styles of steel bows.  The best were made in Europe.  Once fiberglass came along, the steel bows faded away.

[Stephen Graf]

in reply to: I'm Back… #140532

Bugspray and a thermacell patio shield.

Bugspray worked fine during the day when we were hiking.  At night, we’d fire up the thermacell and it would clear the area around our tents by the time we were set up.  Then we could have a nice sit and eat our dinner unperturbed by bugs.

The thermacell and the bug spray works against skeeters and black flies.  As for the ticks, the best defense is diligent awareness and a nightly inspection.  I had 2 ticks that I had to pull off during the hike.  Liam had a few more.

Some folks start out spraying pyrethrin on their cloths.  I think that might be a futile effort against the daily rain, sweat, river crossings, and camp washing.  Cloths are constantly wet, most of the time.

[Stephen Graf]

in reply to: I'm Back… #140498

We used glass fiber filters from 2 manufacturers.  Glass fiber filters consist of a canister stuffed with hollow glass fibers that have 1 or 2 micron holes that allow water to seep from the outside of the fiber to the inside of the fiber.  The ends of the fibers are all sealed together and empty out the good water side of the filter.  The dirty side of the filter brings water into contact with the outside of the fibers. These filters will remove all pathogens from the water except for virus’.  Virus’ are too small and pass through the pores.  These filters must be back washed regularly, not allowed to freeze, and not dropped to hard.  They are made of glass right?   So  The filters we used were configured a bit differently from each other:

1. 8L Platypus – this system consists of 2 4L bags, and the glass fiber filter, and a hose.  This was our main supply.  We could bring 8 liters of water to camp.  This would be enough to make supper/breakfast and fill our bottles.  On hot dry days, we would fill the bag again for a total of 12 liters.

2. Sawyer mini squeeze – This was a small glass fiber filter along with a collapsible liter bag that we used to filter water as we hiked.  If we crossed a stream and wanted a drink, or to fill our bottles, we used this quick and easy filter.

Having two systems optimized for the two different situations was convenient, but it also allowed us to have a backup.  If one filter failed, we still had water.  That said, we never had a failure.

I will probably stick the sawyer in my kit for back country hunts.  This will allow me to cut down on the water I drag along.

We used smart water bottles as our water bottles as they are easy to get, and light.  We went through about 3 of these on the trail.  The flip top lid on the smart bottle also perfectly matched the stem of the sawyer filter which allowed for easy backwashing.

[Stephen Graf]

in reply to: I'm Back… #140384

There was water EVERYWHERE.  From the bottom of the hill to the top of the hill and every spot in between.  That said, there were a couple stretches on the trail where we had to go 30 miles or so between creeks to fill our water bottles.  But that was rare, and we never got desperate enough to fill them from muck holes.

We saw quite a bit of bear poop on the trail in northern VA.  There is no hunting in the Shenandoah park, so the bears get pretty bold.  We had a couple bears hang out around our tents one night in that area.  Other than that, we had no bear contact.  We donated our can of bear spray to a south bounder somewhere in PA I think.

I was hoping to see some elk as we passed through NC and TN.  We didn’t see any, though we saw a few tracks.

As for lessons learned, there were a few.  We hunters could learn a thing or two from them long-walkers.  I may try to put some thoughts into article form.  If it doesn’t work out that way, I expect I’ll put it here on this forum.  Nothing is gonna get done in the short term though, till we get the kids back to school and I get the farm cleaned up a bit.

 

[Stephen Graf]

in reply to: I'm Back… #140362

Thanks for all the kind words!  Still haven’t figured out how to get the pictures off my sons phone and onto my ‘puter.  But here are a few.  Most of these are from the second half of the trail.  Still haven’t gotten the early pictures or some of the later pictures either.  I can post more if folks are interested.

When the temp was low, or the rain was hard, we had breakfast in the vestibule of my green tent.  Being the sophisticates we are, we referred to our meal as “breakfast in the green room.”  Proper attire required

Every now and again, I just had to draw my bow.  Well pretend anyway.  Here are a couple places that inspired me to cast an arrow into the void:

And here is a deer that doesn’t know how lucky she was.  Yea, cause it would have turned out different with a real bow.  Well, maybe not.

Here is what a LOT of the trail looked like.  You have to look really close to see through the water.  I think this trail might, more accurately, be called the trench foot trail…

Even though it felt like we would never make it, we eventually did.  If you keep putting one foot in front of the other, you can go anywhere.  It’s a powerful lesson.

[Stephen Graf]

in reply to: Smoking arrows ??? #140054

So in the Wilhelm film, they shoot the arrows into a hat from behind a rock.  Some interesting back story on that shot is as follows:

The fellow who throws his hat down had little faith that the brothers would hit it.  The hat apparently cost more than $100 (in those days, quite a sum).  At the end of filming the scene, there were at least six smoking arrows stuck in it 😎

Walt had his arm injured during WWI.

 

[Stephen Graf]

in reply to: I'm Back… #140052

We haven’t found a way to directly connect my sons phone to my desk top to download pictures.  So He is putting them on a google drive so I can get to them.  Long process with our country internet.  When that is done, I will reduce a few and post them here.

Did a bit of shooting yesterday, and nothing broke (on me or the bow), so it looks like I will be ready for deer season when it gets here!

I’ve been joking/threatening my daughter with hiking the PCT since my boy and I have been planning this AT hike.  From what I know, it sure is a trail through some beautiful country.  We met a few hikers on the AT who had already hiked the PCT.  They were unanimous in their appreciation for it.  Feeling as I do now (broke down from 2200 miles with a pack) I can’t imagine hiking another trail.

Whoops.  You said CDT.  That’s a doozy.  I met a guy on the AT who has hiked all 3 mentioned trails 3 times each.  Some people never learn…

[Stephen Graf]

in reply to: New books #136349

Here’s another book along the same lines as The Hidden Life of Trees.  Its Eager, the surprising , secret life of Beavers and why they Matter  By Ben Goldfarb.

I have not finished the book, and likely will not for a while, but so far it has taught me a bunch about the ecology and deep history of beavers and water and their impact on the fertility of the land.  It explained to me my intuitive affection for beavers and why I miss them in our back creek since the coyotes ate them.  Between the neighbors and the coyotes, it was a struggle to give them quarter.  The neighbors could be told to keep out.  The ‘yotes, not so much.  I will give this book to the neighbors in case beavers venture here again.

Be warned, after reading this book, it would be hard to raise your hand against beavers again.

[Stephen Graf]

in reply to: Glove vs tab… #136330

Making your own glove turns out to be a fun thing to do and really improves the fit and function, imo.

Store bought gloves never really fit your fingers right.  And the cost can start to add up.  I thought making a glove would be really hard, but it wasn’t too bad.

A couple finger stalls were made before I got the sizing/shape figured out.  But for the cost of a Saturday afternoon I had a nice glove made.

The glove I made is a hybrid between the neet glove and a hill glove.  What’s nice about it is that it fits MY fingers.  Having everything we need available to us at the click of a button helps us forget that if we do it for ourselves, we can end up with something better.

I have found that tuning my glove is as important as tuning my arrows, or my bow.  If you are bent crafty, consider making your own 🙂

[Stephen Graf]

in reply to: What ya got goin'? 2 #136250

I hear the electric utility companies are having a real hard time recruiting people to fill the lineman’s job as they retire.  There’s a can of worms, in so many ways…

My closest experience with lightening was in my 20’s as I was driving north on interstate 95 in Florida.  A bolt hit the median, rocked the car, and threw dirt up on the hood and window.  It was like a grenade went off.

[Author]

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