Forum Replies Created
-
AuthorPosts
-
in reply to: Boom stick frustrations! #28730
I can sum up your problem in one word, pyrodex.
The ignition temperature of pyrodex is 800 deg, whereas the ignition temperature of black powder is 400 deg. In addition, black powder is not nearly so corrosive to the gun and your measuring tools as pyrodex. It is also less hydroscopic.
The list of advantages to real black powder is long. It’s list of disadvantages is short. Namely hard to get. Black powder is classified as an explosive (because of it’s low flash temperature), and so dealers have to store it in a case instead of displaying it on a shelf. Call around and I am sure you will find it at a good dealer.
in reply to: voodoo or what? #25527I second what eidsvolling said, twice. And I would add that what you are grappling with is real and not that uncommon.
Get the basics right, and the rest will come:
-good form and release
-tuned arrows
If you are not familiar with the basics of getting a bow shooting well with tuned arrows, Mr. Conrad’s book might help.
A two foot group should be easy to correct down to a pie pan group. Smaller than that, it takes a lot of dedication to practice.
Break your shooting up if you can. Look for things you think are not right. Then bring those things up. People here can help.
When you start out hunting with trad gear, your success rate will decrease. Eventually, it will come back some. But you will never experience the success possible with guns and compounds (contrary to what some of the talking heads claim). If your first purpose is to make meat, then you should do it with the other weapons. There is no dishonor in that.
I hope you don’t give it up. It is not easy. Sometimes I think traditional bow hunters do their sport a disservice by claiming that shooting a traditional bow is as easy as throwing a baseball. I know they are trying to encourage people to try traditional archery, but I think it may have the opposite effect because it raises expectations too much.
There is no greater joy than developing your skill to cast your arrow reliably and predictably to the target. That joy is based on the blood, sweat, and tears it took to get there.
in reply to: My Schulz! #24498I too like the old hill style bows. But I have never experimented with the concave grips.
What do you think of that concave grip?
in reply to: Question for Clay, et al #24491I second what Dave said. Tru-oil is too soft and makes the skin gummy.
As for not sealing the skins, I think that would be a bad idea. Mostly because the pattern and colors are enhanced by the finish (just like wood). Why go to all that trouble and not make it pretty?
in reply to: Fathers Day Eve story #24479Ain’t kids great? Good story. Thanks!
Where’d I get 425 grains from?
Everything looks right except for the spine of your arrow. If it was me, I’d go with a GT5575 arrow. Since your draw length is relatively short, you have plenty of room to work with.
Make a bare shaft. Glue all your stuff in the end. Then begin taking 1/2 inch at a time off the nock end. Just pull the nock, cut off, and reinsert nock. Repeat till you get good arrow flight. When you get closer, you can take less off…
If you try to make the arrows you have work, you will end up with an arrow that is way too long (not that too long is really all that bad) and way too heavy.
in reply to: best fletching jig? #14337So based on people talking up the bitz jig, I bought one.
I’ve always used glue and a jo-jan fletching jig. But I thought I’d try the tape / bitz routine and see what happened.
Here’s what I’ve learned so far:
– the bitz jig was a little cumbersome to get set up. the knobs to adjust the angle of the shaft are a little cumbersome. It would be nice if there were a way to do it without having to adjust both knobs at the same time. I found that if I adjusted one and locked it down, I couldn’t adjust the other end. No big deal, just inexperience I guess.
– I like the helical curve of the jo-jan applied feather better than the bitz. To me, the helical bitz feather is almost straight.
I think if I need to replace a lost or broken arrow, the bitz/tape combo will be faster and easier. But if I am making a half dozen arrows, I will stick with the jo-jan and glue.
in reply to: Safety Glasses #14332Duncan wrote: [quote=Steve Graf]I wish I didn’t have to wear glasses while shooting a bow. I really don’t need to where them, except for that pesky problem of seeing the target 😳
Ah, so next time we go carp shooting if I could hide your glasses I would have a chance of out shooting you? 😀
Lets go!…, If by outshooting you mean shooting more arrows out of the boat and into the mud then me, good luck! killer.
What’s your bow weight? What spine arrow? From your arrow weight of 420 grains, that suggests you are shooting a 40lb bow…
The only time I have seen a bare shaft correct itself (going from right to left, or up to down, etc) is when it is way out of tune with the bow. I am guessing you are shooting a shaft that is way too light for your bow, and way too stiff. You may want to try increasing your point weight in larger increments.
If you are shooting carbon arrows, you can easily go up 50 grains before seeing much effect.
in reply to: Safety Glasses #12561I wish I didn’t have to wear glasses while shooting a bow. I really don’t need to where them, except for that pesky problem of seeing the target 😳
R2 wrote: I may be mis-thinking but I thought that the paradox involved in arrow flight became a mostly porpoising effect with a mechanical release rather than the mostly fishtailing effect created resulting from a finger release. That might be a considering factor or maybe I’m barking up the wrong tree and that’s a problem here cause sometimes it’s far to the next tree 😀 Just my 2¢
Here in we discover what, to me, is the most beautiful aspect of the traditional bow: Total Harmony. The traditional bow is in total harmony with itself, it’s arrow, it’s archer, and its purpose. I can think of no other man made contrivance for which this is so.
I could go on for some time on this, but suffice it that I mention 2 examples, the one you Alluded to (Archers Paradox), and the string nocks at the ends of the limbs.
First Archers Paradox. The paradox referred to here is related to the observation of the arrow on the bow, while the bow is braced. Look down the arrow, why it’s all crooked off to the side! How can it go strait when it is shot! No Way! That is the paradox. It can’t be, yet it is.
How can this paradox be? Because of the harmony between the archer and the bow. The archers fingers grasp the string from the outside in. When the archer releases the string, the string is pushed towards the archer (taking the back of the arrow with it) as his fingers uncurl. This happy fact allows the arrow to flex and bend around the handle of the bow, and ultimately straighten out and follow the trajectory predicted by the line of the arrow as it sat motionless between the string and the arrow shelf, directly under the archers searching and confident eye.
Second string nocks. Every part of the bow works with every other part of the bow, so that it can perform it’s amazing job in the most simple, and beautiful way, only a traditional bow can. A string nock is nothing more than a notch cut into the side of the limb. Yet it holds the string fast, and reliably. It allows the string to move as it needs to when the archer pulls the string to anchor, or lets the string go so that it can take it’s curved path back to it’s brace height. All the while, it transfers the energy from the archer into the bow limbs, and then from the bow limbs into the arrow. A string nock is everything it needs to be, and nothing more.
Now I need a cigarette 😳
in reply to: How does your Garden Grow? #12146Hay Duncan! Nice to hear from you… Need any cabbage? I need to give the rest away before the worms make poop out of ’em.
in reply to: Squirrel State #12141I think the best places to hunt squirrel is in public parks. I remember some real beautiful black squirrels on the canadian side of the Niagara Falls 😀
Not sure what the regulations are concerning hunting squirrels in public parks 😳
Aside from tip toeing around peoples picnic baskets to hunt the little tree rats, I think you can find them about anywhere.
The coolest story I read about squirrel hunting was about a couple guys canoeing down a river in VA and shooting black squirrels from trees overhanging the river. Didn’t even have to get up to retrieve them. Just paddle on over. If the arrow didn’t dispatch them right away, the river would…
Sorry not much help in your planning…
David Petersen wrote: I second Steve on the likelihood of form, esp. release issues. I sometimes wonder if it would be helpful to use a trigger release for bare shaft testing. Has anyone here tried that? I just ordered a dozen shafts in three spines and am looking at some bare shaft tuning myself.
When tuning an arrow to a bow, what you are mostly doing is compensating for the archers paradox that is introduced by your fingers letting go of the string.
If you used a mechanical release, there would be essentially no archers paradox to correct for.
When bare shaft tuning, it’s important to have the bow set up exactly as you intend to hunt with it (string silencers, quiver with arrows, etc), and to shoot it in exactly the way you intend to shoot it when hunting : in order to tune the arrows for best flight.
I know you know this Dave. You are just testing me 8)
skinner biscuit wrote: Hello, been doing a little bare shaft tuning and I’m getting this result. At 10 yrds nock high right,15 yrds a little nock left, fairly level,20 yrds alot more nock left but level.Have I cut too much or keep cutting? If I cut to much, I’ll add more weight from 400grs to 425 and see what happens.
Now that’s some strange arrow flight. You sure that arrow ain’t possessed?
In my experience, a bare shaft will continue in whatever rotation it started in. Meaning if it comes off the bow nock high right, it stays that way, and gets more so. I can think of nothing that could explain how a bare shaft could go from high right to even left in 5 yards.
Are you watching the arrow in flight? Or observing how it rests in the target? If the latter, you may be getting a false reading.
It is best to get about 15 yards and watch the arrow in flight. When you get good flight at that distance, you can move back if you want. but being closer than 15 yards probably wont tell you much because there is not enough time to watch the arrow in flight.
Other folks simply draw (or tape) a vertical line on the target at which to shoot. If the arrow is left of the line, the shaft is stiff. Right of the line, weak.
If you get inconsistent results (sometimes right, sometimes left) that is usually a form issue. Make sure you are drawing the bow the same every time…
All of the above is based on assumption that you are right handed. Reverse for left handed. Thus if you are getting nock left at 20 yards, the arrow is still weak, and you can cut some more…
Hope this helps.
-
AuthorPosts
