[tombow]

in reply to: Osage Orange sources #45656

Mr. Clay Hayes,

I have seen your videos, as well as hundreds of others on YTube. They are great and chock full of valuable information. I haven’t been even considering the “bow from a stave” route until I get a successful build or two under my belt. My latest project has been a wood-drying box which is almost finished. I have a hickory board which I have tapered the limb thicknesses down but have left at full 2″ width so far. Once I get the box ready to go I will dry the wood a bit and get some bamboo backing and dry that a bit also before going further with the bow build. Thank you all for your responses and Best of Luck to you.

[tombow]

in reply to: Osage Orange sources #39881

Ben,

I have no doubt that what you say about MO-Jam is true and I wish I could get down there for it but it just isn’t in the cards right now. Vacation time is tight as we are headed for Alaska in August.

Question for you and anyone else: Has anyone purchased Osage from Missouri Trading Company? They seem to have reasonably priced, ready to be worked Osage kits and I was wondering if anyone has first-hand knowledge of these kits?

Thanks again,

Tom B.

[tombow]

in reply to: Osage Orange sources #32207

I just got a line on a “serious” wood store that I thought had closed. No Osage available, but hickory. I’m going to visit there today and see if I can get some better-grained hickory. They also have a few exotics that I will look at but I need to keep an eye on how much I’m spending on another attempt. I’ve already put just a few dollars on the bows that would not be. so I am being cautious. I just picked up TBB 1, The Bent Stick and Dean Torges’ “Hunting the Bamboo bow” DVD and have learned what I have been doing wrong….I think. Anyway, it is time to be more careful and give ‘er another go. I’ve seen what I thought was good tiller in my attempts but have pre-stressed the wood too much resulting in breakage. ‘t ain’t easy, is it.

[tombow]

in reply to: Filled My Buck Tag #42823

Great shot, nice deer and great meat for the freezer. When the opportunity presents itself for the right shot angle and you make the shot you should be proud. Congrats and best of luck to your daughter.

[tombow]

in reply to: Totems #44879

There ARE others who are as I am. I don’t have any direct associations between seeing an animal and then realizing good luck that has happened after seeing said-animal. If there was one I would have to pick, it is the Pine Marten, I have gotten inspected several times as I sat in a tree.

This thread brings up several thoughts: I too have always had great respect for the Native American vision of our connection to the earth and the animals, plants and nature all around us. As I gaze around the house, there are Eastern Wild Turkey feathers accenting wall hangings and art in every room of our house and there are wing feathers in the shades of both our trucks.

As I have noted and said many times, there is something unique about the thinking of those who are chosen by the stick and string simplicity of what is defined as “Traditional” archery (Original Archery, no?) and I swim well in the deep pools of earthly knowledge that are offered to me by others of my ilk. Sharers of the connection between ourselves and our environment, collectors of associations between ourselves and animals around us. Heady stuff for sure but I feel these connections within myself. Thank you for the opportunity to feel the kindred spirits which have been around me but unrealized.

Best of Luck, may each hunt, each shot, each effort you make relating to archery and your love and respect of nature bring you satisfaction and peace.

[tombow]

in reply to: Tuffhead testing #44858

Ah the best laid plans of mice and men…..with a clever dog by their sides to wreak havoc upon those plans. Good luck with attempt no. 2. Best of luck and good health to your wife and wee enfants.

[tombow]

in reply to: 23 days! #44816

yes, Yes, YES, my brother! I am here in Proctor (Duluth) and I feel what you are saying for shore! But the bittersweetitude of it is that I WON’T get to hunt opening day, for the first time in many years. Last year was my first full-on trad year and my success was unbelievable, never had more pleasure out of archery before or success in the woods as I had last year. Here’s wishing you ultimate good luck! You can do it and you KNOW you can so get out there and do it. I also went with woods last year. LOVE wood arrows. Crap, you got me all stirred up! Hey, Best of luck! Enjoy every second.

[tombow]

in reply to: Starting point #23070

Calculators shmalculators. Numbers don’t take into account inherent differences in release, grip, follow through, etc. They might be okay for measuring grain weight and dynamic spine of finished arrows but nothing beats putting the wood to the test and letting IT TELL YOU what works best for YOU and your bow. The 225 gr. brass field points are good but I have lost a few in range targets because of the slight diameter differences in point and shaft. Okay, I might need to perfect my glue bonds a bit but using the field points to find the right shaft makes broadheads alot easier. yup, get the test set. Warning: you might become a woodophile once you start shooting wood shafts. Sumpin bout ’em. Best of luck.

[tombow]

in reply to: Starting point #22142

I am shooting a 53 @28 Whip and using Sitka Spruce shafts with 225gr Tuffheads. The shafts are from Hildebrand and are 70-74 spine tapered shafts. I tried the 80-85 spines and a full length shaft proved to be about right but anything shorter was too stiff more me. I shoot 3 under and draw just a hair over 28″. When I got the 80-85’s I made the “learning guy” mistake of immediately cutting them down before shooting a full length shaft. I worked my way through the dozen shafts a few at a time and each length from 29″ up to 32″(full length) went from WAY TOO stiff, to a bit too stiff, to barely too stiff to okay. I was looking for an arrow about 29″ BOP length and the 70-74’s proved to be just right. Talk to Neil Hildebrand (Hildebrand Arrow Shafts) and he should be able to give you not only an education on woods but provide you with some good shooting shafts. I put a light coat or two of stain to bring out the grain, then 3 coats of Wipe on Polyeurathane and the shafts are almost too pretty to shoot. But once you shoot one, it’s hard to NOT shoot ’em!

Best of luck!

[tombow]

in reply to: Game points for FOC arrows #31517

I am shooting 225gr Tuffheads and the Hex Blunt at 225gr is great. My other method of matching BH weight has been Woody Weights and a 125 gr. Blunt. My suggestion is to try Woody Weights if available in 75gr and the 225gr. Hex Blunt to bring you to 300 grains. I have had no failures at the joint between the W.Weights and the blunt and they have been shot plenty!

That’s my cent ‘n a half on the subject.

[tombow]

in reply to: Best Fletching Cement? #16105

IMextremely valuable Opinion, I have been using Loctite Super Glue Gel and having great results gluing feathers to vinyl wraps, straight to carbon shafts and to painted wraps on wood shafts. I see know reason to spend beaucoup bucks on high $ “Goat glue. Been using the LSG gel for years and bash feathers with blunts (sometimes) and the feathers rip before any quill separates from the shaft from poor glue bond. And the gel is very easy to handle when applying to the feather. Doesn’t take much and the stuff is cheap (just like me!).

Giver a try, ya won’t be disappointed. Cut that 20 minutes down to 20 seconds per feather.

[tombow]

in reply to: Yea,,, I know I'm pushing the limits #12825

Troy,

First: WOW! I too appreciate fine wood working. Put me on the list of “would like to build my own bow” guys. For me, the biggest mystery is the lay-up of laminations which result in cool patterns such as the “comb” pattern seen on your detailed limb pics, as well as the curved lines. I realize that it’s a matter of how the limbs are shaped out of the squared up laminations. Pictures just don’t give enough clues to figure what the original lamination sequence was vs. actually being able to have the bow in your hands, turning it over and see where the lamination lines go. For those of us who haven’t made the attempt at building our own and don’t have much wood working experience, we can be easily baffled.

You, sir, have some skills when it comes to building bows which are true functional works of art. Many would be proud to have that bow in their collection. It is interesting that it is unbacked, how is the performance, does it miss backing or do you notice anything lacking?

Again, love the looks of that bow.

[tombow]

in reply to: Anyone eat coyote? #63757

OK, another quarter-cent…

Just did a search on T-Gang and came up with no real recipes, a few “cook it with a boot, throw yote away, eat boot” recipes, but no actual real recipes where the writer was serious about eating it. The meat apparently is stringy and “nothing smells worse than a skinned coyote”. I’m guessing that any recipe that would turn out edible would involve making the actual taste of the coyote meat disappear, ie: spice the ca-rap out of it and how ya don’t taste no yote!

[tombow]

in reply to: Anyone eat coyote? #63739

I would have to ask the same question about wolves. MN and WI just finished their 1st season of wolf hunting and I just have to wonder about the meat if it was eaten or disposed of in some other way. I would have to guess that the coyote diet, as with all animals, would effect the taste of coyote meat. I firmly believe that coyotes do scavenge all kinds of stuff that other animals would stay well away from. In a heavily populated (coyote) area I see gut piles reduced over night to a little green puddle and nothing else, which tells me they are eating everything and anything. Perhaps this explains the “sour meat” smell resulting from your cooking test. But then again, some people eat cheese that smells like heavily used gym shoes sealed in mason jars with a little water, that were buried in warm sand for weeks. Not my cup, but far be it from me to say that it isn’t food to someone. Who knows? Maybe coyote has great immune system building powers for humans, based on all the stuff they eat which would kill lesser animals.

Best of luck. I think I will stick with venison and leave the dog-like critters alone. That’s my cent and a half on the subject. NNNNNext.

[tombow]

in reply to: Review of 2" Rayzr Feathers… #30454

2blade,

re: your question from way back in december.

The cutter I am using is made by Fiskars, the scissors people. My wife bought it at a craft store. It has a small plastic handle which holds a cutting wheel at the end and is probably intended for cutting paper. I use it for cutting out vinyl wraps from a larger sheet of adh.backed vinyl and for cutting feathers. The high point of the feather is about 5/8″ when cutting 3″ out of 4″ or 5″ feathers. Personally, I am starting to lean back toward full lengths feathers, but as I said, if the spine of the shaft is correct, I think you can use just about any feather you want. I have been told that parabolics tend to make less noise in flight than shield cuts, which was tested “blind” by having one person shoot while another person was standing behind a building next to the arrows path and just listening to see if they could hear a difference. But I am too busy focusing on where the arrow is going to shift my focus to arrow noise. Again, interesting stuff to think and talk about, though.

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