[Stephen Graf]

in reply to: Warm September #52383

Last year I was mowing the grass a few days before Christmas. As a kid, mowing never went past the end of September or early October.

Aside from temperature, there is wind. I have felt that it is getting increasingly windy around here. I googled “Is there more wind” and found several references to a big up-tic in windy days and wind speed since 2000.

Interestingly, I just read an article about deer/elk populations in north america which had a graph showing the population from before the low point in 1900 to the peak in 2000. The overall population is down 18% from the peek in 2000 (which is still below the pre-settlment populations).

Wind disturbing rut? High temps disturbing rut? And finally, wind making my arrow miss the deer? – Archery related 😀 😳 🙄

[Stephen Graf]

in reply to: What ya got goin? #52316

That must have been one long snake!

Good looking bow Cameron.

[Stephen Graf]

in reply to: Re-Thinking old Thoughts on Woodies #41700

So far, No broken arrows with the fiberglass “footings”

I beat them against a bunch of rocks in Colorado. The worst that has happened is that the blunts need to be replaced, and the nocks blow off the back of the arrow. The nocks actually break apart from the impact.

Here’s an arrow from last night. The arrow smacked rock. No worries, the squirrel was unharmed, as usual 😳

In the picture you can see how the brass was folded over on itself, and the lead in the end of the point swelled out as it was crushed.

Dang tough to bust an arrow….

[Stephen Graf]

in reply to: The Hidden Life of Trees #30629

Thanks Mike, that was a really good talk! This understanding has been slowly developing for 20 or 30 years now.

Hopefully we can learn to live more gently, and less blindly, on our pale blue dot before it’s too late.

In the end though, the universe will go on no matter what these greedy little bald monkeys do to this rock 😯

[Stephen Graf]

in reply to: What ya got goin? #22183

Regarding the snakes – to me that looks like breeding behavior. When snakes mate, they coil around each other and stand up like that. Eventually their vents come together, and well, you know….

I would say those were a couple of amorous snakes, not fighting snakes. That’s the way it looked to me anyway. Maybe a couple young bucks that got kicked out of the love nest 🙄 😳

As for the inter-species question… I’ve seen rams humping billy goats and visa versa. Not a big stretch of the imagination.

[Stephen Graf]

in reply to: The Hidden Life of Trees #62597

Soil science has advanced quite a bit in recent years…

The symbiotic relationship between fungi and plants is starting to get mapped out pretty well. Fungi mycelia can spread out really far from a plant (tree or otherwise) and bring all sorts of organic and inorganic nutrients to the plant. In exchange the plant provides sugars which are the result of photosynthesis, a capability that fungus does not have.

Dirt is not just a media for roots, it is a living biome at least as complex as the world we live in. What’s more is that while the soil really doesn’t need us to survive, we cannot survive without it.

So the next time somebody calls you a dirty old man 😯 you can say thank-you with confidence 🙄 😀

[Stephen Graf]

in reply to: What ya got goin? #57511

Deer me, I can’t bear the suspense 8) 🙄 😀

[Stephen Graf]

in reply to: The Hidden Life of Trees #51769

Me too!

One of the reasons I started shooting the Norway Spruce arrows that come out of Germany was to support their much more healthy attitude towards the land.

Aldo Leopold spent time in Germany learning sustainable forestry.

I’ve always felt trees have spirit, and personality. You can see it in how they’ve solved the problems of growing of their particular piece of the land.

[Stephen Graf]

in reply to: Shaft Friction #45852

Blood is pretty slippery.

If your broadhead ferrel is as big or bigger than your arrow, you are good to go. If the opposite is true, lubrication will not help you.

[Stephen Graf]

in reply to: What ya got goin? #45840

He’s a cutie-pie!

If he’s not careful, you might turn him into pot-pie 🙄

[Stephen Graf]

in reply to: Broadheads For Wood Arrows #41194

Where to start….

First, I’d like to say that the following comments are not intended to reflect on the effectiveness of the STOS broadhead. It has a stellar reputation and I salute the company that makes them. And I would like to add that I commend anyone and everyone that takes the time to experiment with their gear instead of just winging it. So good job John!

OK, so I have a couple comments about John’s post…

First, to continue the theme of strictly empirical analysis and the conclusions that result from it, the only thing you can claim from your results is that the STOS broadhead penetrates OSB the best. Unless, of course, you have some experiment that proves that OSB exactly simulates an animals body.

The way we compensate for variation in results is by maximizing the data we collect. The more “real world” data we can collect, the better it averages out and the truth emerges. I would trust the massive amount of real world data that Dr. Ashby collected (warts and all) over some sanitary lab experiment done on some proxy material, the equivalency of which has not been established.

And finally, to continue the theme further…. I expect that had you tested your OSB square against a blunt, the blunt would have blown right on through it better than any broadhead. But I believe we can all agree that a blunt would be the least effective point to use on a deer sized animal.

Back to the drawing board 😳 🙄

[Stephen Graf]

in reply to: Home page article #40358

I didn’t like his treatment of those he didn’t agree with by calling them a “crowd”. You can disagree with people and say so in a philosophy paper, but you should leave name calling out of it. While “crowd” isn’t overtly insulting, it does have connotations that the word “group” does not.

While I would like to say the author is on the right track, his perspective on game animals is still stuck closer to Teddy Roosevelt’s “wildlife resource” end of the spectrum than to Aldo Leopold’s “land ethic” end of the spectrum.

I can’t support the previous statement with quotes from the article. I just get the feeling from reading it. It feels he doesn’t have empathy for what he is saying. It feels like a clinical treatment of something that should have metaphorical treatment.

These are superficial criticisms to how he delivered his message. My final comment is GOOD JOB!

[Stephen Graf]

in reply to: Broadheads For Wood Arrows #31162

What, Stos going out of production? Dang.

Thats the second broadhead company and 2 bowyers this week that I’ve heard are calling it quits.

Y’all better start gettin’ them young’ns shooting! I know I’m trying best I can around here. Giving these PVC bows away has been a real boon. But the results, in broadhead sales, won’t be evident for at least a decade….

I keep two bows, a half dozen arrows each, and all the tack necessary to outfit a kid on hand at all times now. If a wee one comes over and shows the least bit of interest, he/she will leave completely outfitted for mischief 😯 😳 🙄

[Stephen Graf]

in reply to: ARE YOU READY? #28399

Good luck with the freezer grumpy! We have two chest freezers in the basement.

Is it a frost free chest freezer? regular chest freezer? Upright?

Here’s a helpful hit for our newest member of the freezer club: Freezers are happiest when they are full. When the freezer is full, it will cycle less, which is good for the compressor unit. It will also hold its temperature better in case of a power outage. As you won’t likely fill the thing up right away, you can add containers of water (not full so they don’t split when freezing). As you add food to the freezer, you can remove the containers.

[Stephen Graf]

in reply to: PSE Black Mamba arrows #63002

While EFOC is best for penetration, a heavy arrow of normal foc is a close runner up.

Knowing how I like to muddy the waters, I’ll add a little mud now….

I have found that while EFOC arrows fly like darts, they don’t necessarily fly like arrows. What’s the difference you ask?

No matter how bad my release is, or how much torque I put on the grip, the EFOC arrow will fly straight. But straight where? Sometimes they go in very unexpected directions.

In short, their beautiful flight has the ability to mask problems, which makes it hard to solve them.

Why? I don’t know. But I will make an observation that might have something to do with it: As the mass of the arrow gets concentrated farther and farther forward, the paradox nodes must get much closer together and moved forward too.

In the extreme (where 100% of the mass is in the point, and the arrow is massless) the nodes would become one and would be way forward.

If you are unfamiliar with the nodes I speak of, google “easton tuning guide” and read it.

Easton says the direction an arrow travels in can be determined by drawing a line through the nodes. Just like looking down the sights of a gun. Continuing this analogy, long guns are easier to aim than pistols. Why? a large part of the reason is that the front sight and the back sight are much farther apart. The farther apart they are, the less error in aiming.

I wonder if the same principle doesn’t apply to arrows? The farther apart the nodes, the more stable the direction of flight as the arrow leaves the bow?

Just wondering out loud what it all means. It would be interesting to find out why, having the full knowledge of efoc available, guys like Byron Ferguson don’t shoot them.

There is no doubt that EFOC arrows fly farther and hit harder than normal FOC arrows. But do they shoot as accurately and as forgivingly as 15% EFOC arrows?

It would be interesting to see a study on that.

[Author]

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