Bow Hunters: Come on in!

Watchful, I know what you were getting at, but I wouldn’t use the term dry fire. Dry firing i.e. pulling the string back and releasing it with out an arrow is a good way to destroy the bow (either kind traditional or compound). One time probably won’t make the bow come apart, but I have heard stories of bows spectacularly self-destructing from dry firing. If you don’t have an arrow knocked then let the string back to its resting position carefully. I don’t know where Hotrod is located, but most sporting goods stores with a decent archery department and all the archery shops around here have a lane or place out back you can try a couple of shots.

Todd
 
Watchful, what about the various release devices is there one you would
recommend? Especially for a novice which one would be easiest to use?
 
Fixer, what kind of bow are you shooting? What type of shooting? Hunting or target/3-D? Try some at an archery store and see what is comfortable. I have a release for my compound that is very much like a trigger, so it’s very easy to shoot and since it is wrapped around your hand and wrist with a Velcro strap it seems to help with the draw. The down side is that it’s like wearing one of those carpel tunnel wrist supports so you can’t do much with your hand when you are wearing it, gets uncomfortable after awhile and the Velcro makes it too noisy to take on and off all the time while hunting. I use a glove with my recurve, but this No-Glove http://www.3riversarchery.com/Product.asp?c=1&s=53&p=0&i=5402 looks interesting, no glove, tab, or release, just put that on your string and shoot. Any one tried it?

Todd
 
Nabok said:
...I wouldn’t use the term dry fire.
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Good point, Todd! This is especially true with compound bows, but I've never quite understood this traditional prohibition with recurves and longbows. Seems that the arrow borrows only a little bit of energy from a bow... so that if a true dry fire pounds 100% of its own energy back into the limbs, firing an arrow pounds 99% of the energy into the limbs. It theoretically shouldn't make a lot of difference.

Nevertheless, the rule is the rule, and I also obey this one (even if the physics doesn't check out for me). I should not have specified "dry firing" but "test pulls."

Nabok said:
I don’t know where Hotrod is located, but most sporting goods stores with a decent archery department and all the archery shops around here have a lane or place out back you can try a couple of shots.
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This is true: and a superb point. Fewer and fewer "unqualified" retailers are getting out of the archery business, leaving only the good ones. There's a good chance Hotrod is a short drive away from just such a range.

fixer27 said:
Watchful, what about the various release devices is there one you would recommend? Especially for a novice which one would be easiest to use?
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This is a great question, but one I'm not qualified to answer; I defer to Todd's response. I don't use any release devices but use the two-finger + thumb draw and release. Thanks, Todd, for helping out.
 
Nabok, I am just doing a little target shooting with maybe a 50 pd fiberglass
bow. What I am looking for is a "T" handle with a button release.
 
Fixer, I’ve never used that type, but I’ll give some advice anyway. ;) Find a store that has a decent selection of different types and will let you try them out. Also keep an open mind what I recommend or a salesman is pushing or your favorite bow hunting writer uses may not work at all for you, but a piece of gear or technique that you can shoot bulls-eyes all day with I might not be able to hit the broad side of a barn with.

Todd
 
Could you guys educate me on arrows? Whats the difference between heavy/light... what makes an arrow fly farther than another, basic crash course?

Thanks :D
 
I have read just enough about light vs. heavy arrows to be really undecided. It seems to some extent another Ford vs. Chevy, .45 vs. 9mm, plain vs. serrated edge etc. argument. I suppose the place to start, at least if you intend to hunt is with your state hunting rules, here in Idaho for big game the combined arrow and broadhead must weigh at least 400 grains. I remember when carbon arrows came out and it seemed everyone wanted as light an arrow as possible because it would shoot flat, but then various gadgets to add weight supposedly to increase penetration started to show up on the market. Now there is a company in Alaska offering carbon/synthetic arrows that depending on the type of broadhead used weigh up to 850 grains or more for big, big game like bears, moose and African game. What I did when I started was take the recommended set up from the archery shop and then tried a couple different weights of field points, but ended up back at what I started with. Again if you plan to hunt you will want to consider a field point in a weight that you can also get broadheads in, while there are field points as light as 75 grains I don’t remember any broadheads that light, and looking in the catalogs most broadheads seem to start at 100 grains and you will probably find a better selection when you get to 125 grains.

Todd

Watchful put up some good links while I thinking about this. Most of those links seem to be in the weight doesn’t make to big of difference to penetration camp. I have tended to ignore the argument, as long as my arrows are legal and shoot well I don’t know that it matters all that much.
 
looks like this thread took off on its own. there are a lot of sites out there for you, here are a few of my favorites.
http://groups.msn.com/ferretsarcherywebpage/shoebox.msnw
http://www.compulink.co.uk/~courtney01/combrogi/longbow.htm
http://www.mindspring.com/~bowyer/steps/index.htm
sorry i was gonna post some pics of the longbow i made last year and the bow i just made for my buddy to. but cant seem to put any pics on here. i would check out ferrets web page 1st he has a lot of info. the section on board bows is really good and thats where i started. tried to catch up on the thread, you can probably make a self bow out of a board of hickory for about $60, the cost of the board, and a few simple hand tools, like a block plane, a couple of files, or a rasp. The one thing to make sure of is that the grain runs down the board straight. As few runoffs as possible. sorry not used to typing this much will post back got typers cramp
 
Thanks for the links guys...

I'll read through them over the next couple days :cool: Lots to think about!
 
Nabok said:
I have read just enough about light vs. heavy arrows to be really undecided. It seems to some extent another Ford vs. Chevy, .45 vs. 9mm, plain vs. serrated edge etc. argument.
Click to expand...
Ultimately it's an argument of energy. Lighter arrows travel faster, but have less mass. Heavier arrows travel slower, but have more mass. Bottom line energy on impact is just about the same.

Sure, there are definite differences...but none discernible without some means of measuring the kinetic energy on impact. From our point of view, the arrow hits the target and goes in. So I think Nabok is exactly right: it boils down to preference.
 
Watchful said:
Ultimately it's an argument of energy. Lighter arrows travel faster, but have less mass. Heavier arrows travel slower, but have more mass. Bottom line energy on impact is just about the same.

Sure, there are definite differences...but none discernible without some means of measuring the kinetic energy on impact. From our point of view, the arrow hits the target and goes in. So I think Nabok is exactly right: it boils down to preference.
Click to expand...

Thats good to hear...

If its just preference that means I can make up my own rational as to which is better ;)
 
Update:

Hooked up with a hunters education group/club...

Took a hunters saftey course, planning on hunting license in a few weeks...

Went to the range for the first time, did some shotgun/rifle shooting... Bow hunting introduction hasnt been scheduled yet!

I havent given up! :D
 
Hotrod said:
I'm wondering about hunting with a Bow, but more about the bow than the hunting! Have any of you guys made your own bow? Any tips or great resources to read about how its done?
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i made my own longbow from some shaggbark hickory. get a 6"-8" log of suitable bow wood and get a 1 1/2" wedge from it and that is the stave. make sure you have a nice sharp drawshave and a flat and round face spokeshave. try and keep and even taper down the limbs. go very slowly! when your done working for the night put some grease or oil on the wood to keep it from drying and cracking. im sure you know about tillering and such.

if your wondering how to test the pull weight just put bar weights on the bow string while its sitting on the tiller, and mark the draw length. however much weight it took to reach that point is the draw weight.
 
does anyone know if it is illegal to use lashed points for deer hunting in ohio? ive used them for turkey before, and ive seen them for sale in primitive hunting magazines. anyone know what the law says?
 
I don't know if anyone mentioned this because I haven't read the entire thread yet but if you are looking to learn to make your own bows & arrows you might want to check out Earth Walk Northwest (www.earthwalknorthwest.com). Frank Sherwood is a master bower and bowman, primitive and modern. They give classes every year on bow making from finding the right wood for the bow/arrow shafts to carving the bow and even knapping arrow heads from chirt or obsidian. The bow making classes are about a week long at around $600.00 for the 7 days and are held in the Washington area. Frank really knows his stuff and his wife Karen Sherwood is one of the top wild eatable plant people in the country.

Ric
 
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