[Stephen Graf]

in reply to: Bison and bunnies #25007

Smithhammer wrote: …If any candidate had the political spine to run on a platform of eliminating entirely our vast and crooked system of subsidies and loopholes, and going to a flat, across the board tax, they’d have my vote.

Amen.

[Stephen Graf]

in reply to: Bison and bunnies #21533

OSQUINT wrote: It would be interesting to see how folks reacted if all states shut down grazing rights on public land for one month each year and opened that time for hunting beef. Government would benefit from tag sales and families could be fed with freshly harvested beef. Cattle industry would be required to move their animals to private land or lose them to a legal hunt overseen by the professional game management organizations our taxes and hunt fees pay for. HMMM-maybe beef would begin to taste good again!!!

I like it! The cow hunt. For myself, I prefer the taste of venison to beef. My kids have never eaten beef. When they smell it cooking they complain that it stinks.

[Stephen Graf]

in reply to: Ragg bag filling #20455

R2 wrote: I kinda figured Tweety had enough problems with Sylvester.

But with me shooting he’d more than likely be fine. 😀

One advantage of being a poor shot, is that you don’t have to invest in too many target faces, dots, or tweety birds. I’m proud of my bulls eye conservation efforts too 😳 🙄

Good Quote! Whatever Carl says, goes double for me.

[Stephen Graf]

in reply to: The Endless Loop #20451

I’ve read Harrison’s book through many times. There is some good stuff in there. But I cannot figure out what his beef with flemish strings is. It’s a bit irrational. In fact, he says he will not honor a bow warranty if the bow was ever strung with a flemish string.

And his claim of 10 plus fps increase in speed is suspect and can be easily verified / rejected by 10 minutes chronograph work.

Let me just observe that if this was true, no bowyer would sell his bow with a flemish string.

[Stephen Graf]

in reply to: Bison and bunnies #20448

325 Bison vs 4200 cows. That pretty much sums up the ratio of common sense to greed.

[Stephen Graf]

in reply to: The Endless Loop #19386

I think what Jason said was spot on. I’ve not had much luck with endless loop strings because they have never been the right length for the bows. Even when they come with the bow. So I’ve must made my own flemish strings.

The jig for a flemish string is easier to deal with (says the guy who never used a jig for endless loop strings) and keep next to the TV with the ball of fast flight string, wax, yarn, scissors, 8 roles of serving, ruler, sharpie, lighter, and Fred Bear video collection 8)

I’m getting ready to make a new string for my winter project bow. I may get it tillered out today :D. According to my calculations, this 55# bow will shoot my 650 grain arrows over 750 feet per second 😯

[Stephen Graf]

in reply to: Ragg bag filling #19381

David Petersen wrote: …But none of the commercial foam targets I’ve bought lasted anywhere nearly as long as burlap bags stuffed tight with heavy postal plastic…

The best thing I’ve found to stuff bag targets with is the old block target material. I cut it into strips and stuff it in the sack.

I use bird seed bags for my sacks. I leave them out all year and they last several years before having to stuff the old bag into a new bag.

Best bags are the slick plastic coated bags. Last a really long time. I put a couple spray paint dots on the bags. Or use the tweety birds already on the bag 😯

[Stephen Graf]

in reply to: Lars Andersen–a great Dane! #18297

Well hmmm. I read the geek dad article and was getting ready to be disappointed with Lars. But I have to say I found the article rather disappointing. I was expecting claims of faking. While the article claimed there were probably many misses not recorded, the author did not claim actual fraud.

I thought the author sounded a bit shrill, and maybe a bit jellous. Additionally, if you are going to call someone out for being wrong it’s important not to be too wrong yourself. I thought his discussion of archers paradox was pretty far off the mark. He also stated that an arrow without a point wouldn’t travel very far. Another inaccuracy.

While I am sure there were plenty of misses left on the editing floor, there were plenty of sequences with multiple hits at pretty far distances too.

Whatever it took to make that video, my hat is off to Lars. While archery may have been about survival at one time, now it’s about having fun and improving yourself. Lars looks like he is having fun. The author of the geek dad article didn’t help anyone, including himself, with that article. I respectfully suggest that folks are taking the video too seriously.

[Stephen Graf]

in reply to: January hog with a few pics #16066

you’re tearing me up man! Looks tasty! I’ve only hunted in swamps like that once. Spent most of the time lost and confused.

Just got back from an unplanned weekend of duck hunting at the coast. Crazy numbers of ducks. Bad weather. High tides. Cold Cold Cold.

The sunset Saturday night was like nothing I’ve ever seen. Seemed like a big orange explosion on the horizon that lasted several minutes. Took pictures but of course it didn’t even come close to capturing it.

Duck for supper.

[Stephen Graf]

in reply to: Spine weight increase for woods #8636

Lovellj wrote: Steve,

Thanks for the input. What weight bow are you shooting those arrows with?

I set them up with my 55# American Semi-longbow, but they also fly well out of my 48# bow of the same design.

[Stephen Graf]

in reply to: Spine weight increase for woods #8154

I too have recently gone back to wood. I don’t have a lot of experience with it yet, but here’s what I can say.

Firstly, Ashby says that the most important factor for good penetration is weight. 650 grains minimum. So I take that as the guiding principle.

Secondly, You an do some stuff to increase your FOC, like tapering the back of the arrow.

So I have tried several hard woods but ended up with douglas fir shafts in a about 70-75 spine range. I think they are around 29″ BOP and I have a 200 grain point on them. (190 grn with a bit of lead added). Total weight about 650 gns.

I will either tip them with tough heads or abowyers to hunt with.

You can get spine weights as high as 100 from surewood shafts. But chasing high FOC with wood is a fools errand.

My advice is to build a heavy strong shaft that will shoot at least 160 fps and flies straight and true.

[Stephen Graf]

in reply to: Arrow Speed/Weight Set Up-Opinions #8148

Hmmmm… Firstly, this advice is worth exactly what you paid for it.

In my experience shooting wily and nervous whitetails that have been dog hunted for 400 years (the south 🙁 ), your odds go way up if your bow shoots at least 160 fps.

If you had some kind of super heavy extreme FOC arrow that would maybe compensate for a bad hit, then maybe. But the arrow you specify isn’t really all that heavy. It doesn’t meet the Ashby 650 grain threshold for bone busting.

It also really depends on what your goal is. If you are willing to wait all season for a 10 yd or less shot and can go without meat otherwise, then ok. If you need to feed the family, then I think you might need a faster setup.

I own a 50lb Northern Mist longbow too. But I could never get the performance out of it to justify using it. I imagine in much higher weights, 70lbs plus, the bow does fine. But in lower weights, it’s just too slow.

I was shooting a 600 grain arrow out of my Northern Mist and getting in the mid 130’s. This should not be taken as a disparaging comment about the bow. It has many great features. Speed is just not one of them.

What I did learn from the Northern Mist bow, and maybe what you have learned too, is that you like the american semi long bow. There are many other makers out there.

Before you buy, you can always press them for real performance data. Ask them at what speed their 50b bow will shoot a 650 grain arrow. As I said before, my threshold is 160 fps. In fact, I will sacrifice some arrow weight to get that speed when shooting deer.

My 48lb home made american semi long bow drawn to 28 inches, will cast a 620 grain carbon arrow 163 fps. Four deer are in the freezer this year, taken with this bow.

You asked a good question. I hope I have answered it in kind. There are those that will claim speed is irrelevent. I am not in that camp.

[Stephen Graf]

in reply to: Now that it's over #63490

[quote=Iron Bull]Which one Steve……Round-Up or Ranch Hand….:shock:…

If there’s a joke here, it went over my head 😳

I was referring to Round-Up and the company that produced it, Monsanto. Back in the day, Monsanto also produced PCB’s and told the world there was nothing wrong with it. They seem to be inordinately attracted to yucky stuff.

[Stephen Graf]

in reply to: Why would my upper limb snap? #62503

If the limb fails during the draw, it is almost always at the base.

If the limb fails during the shot, it is almost always at the tip.

Limbs usually fail during the shot because the arrow weight is too low, or the arrow nock fails, or the bow was dry fired.

Did the bow fail during the shot?

What is the weight of your arrow?

The bow weight is 30 lbs? Seems it would be hard to have an arrow less than 300 grains.

My guess is the arrow was not nocked correctly and the bow was inadvertently dry fired. Indicated by the arrow not reaching the target, or barely reaching the target.

This usually results from a loose fit between string and nock.

Happens to all of us.

[Stephen Graf]

in reply to: Now that it's over #62496

colmike wrote: …Oh yeah don’t use roundup on your weeds–bad stuff. Pm me and will give you an Eco friendly alternative. Remember that orange stuff we used on the jungles over there:evil:

Glad you said something about that… Nasty stuff made by a company that specializes in nasty stuff.

[Author]

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