Monthly Archives: July 2012

ElkNut Outdoor Productions

by Starck Brothers


Whether you have been hunting elk for decades or are going to try it for the first time this fall, something can always be learned. In my opinion Paul Medel is one of the best out there to learn from, and in his own words, “I’ve always thought of myself as a giver and love sharing any elk info I have freely.” This couldn’t be more true, as I don’t know of anyone else that shares their knowledge like Paul does, and he knows a lot about elk. Paul Medel created ElkNut Outdoor Productions over a decade ago.

One of ElkNut’s more popular products is the PlayBook. This is a pocket-sized field guide about calling and setups for elk hunting. It is made to be taken with you while hunting so you can always have a reference of what you see and hear, and then have a good idea of what to try to do from there.

One of the products I have used for the past few years is one of their Chuckler bugle tubes with a mouth reed for bugling in elk. In my opinion there is no other type of bugle that is as realistic as this setup. It is well worth it to try to learn how to use a mouth reed to bugle, as well as cow call.

Just recently a ElkNut Forum was created. This is no doubt going to be a great place to learn and share valuable information about elk and elk hunting. Another good option for learning is to like ElkNut’s Facebook page. Every once in a while Paul will post tips and tricks about elk hunting.

So if you are going elk hunting this fall or plan to in the future, check out ElkNut. I am sure there is something everyone could learn from them.

-Ethan Starck
starckbros@adventurousbowunter.com

Tips from the old timer

by Dennis Kamstra

Previously published in the Traditional Bowhunter Magazine ,  Tips from the old timer is one of my favourites sections. Dennis makes a great work with these tips. Enjoy.

The Adventurous bowhunter team

Living in the Pacific Northwest, I have lots of experience living with rain.  I have tried more rain gear than I would like to admit.  I have finally settled on using the versatile poncho as my garment of choice when hunting in rainy conditions. This versatility is the main reason for choosing the poncho. Remember that our U.S. military spent a lot of money developing the poncho for use in field conditions.

I’ve used one on several occasions as an emergency bivi tent, by wrapping a small rock in each corner and tying off to any secure object.  Naturally, you have to tie the hood closed in rainy conditions; but once  this is done, I’ve found a bungee cord handy to pull the poncho into a tent shape.  In cold and rainy conditions (like Alaska) the poncho will capture more body heat when sitting in one place. In a pinch, the poncho can be used to capture rain water for drinking.  The poncho can also be used as a waterproof covering for your pack or to cover butchered meat. When dressing an animal, it is also useful as a convenient and clean  place to lay cuts of meat.  There is one little trick that you will have to master with a poncho and that is – Shooting while wearing one.  Most ponchos have vertical fasteners on each side, running from under the arm hole to the bottom of the hem. To shoot, simple unfasten the left side completely (assuming you are a right hand shooter- left hand shooters, unfasten right side) and throw the front panel of the poncho over your right shoulder (left hand shooters throw over right shoulder).  By so doing, your bow arm is left unencumbered which allows you to shoot without hitting any part of the poncho.  I prefer the fasteners to be simple snaps instead of Velcro in order to eliminate the noise.  I also prefer a poncho that is made with very thin veneer material which makes walking in one much easier.  Remember to choose one that is long enough to use as a bivi if necessary.

When hunting in hot climates, I prefer to sleep in a hammock.  There are several high quality “ultra light” backpacker hammocks available at any good mountaineering store. Be sure to try one out before buying. Getting in and out of these hammocks can take a little practice and the cheap ones are simply too narrow to be comfortable. Aside from the cooling benefits of a hammock, they can be very useful for other things: It makes a good food cache bag in bear country; it keeps you away from the ever present ants; in a pinch, it makes a serviceable tree stand; it can even be used as an emergency fish trap. I purchase mine in green or brown color (hard to find, so you might need to dye one) for use as a portable ground blind. By using four bungee cords to suspend the hammock and a few small twigs, it makes for a great blind when varmint calling or to bugle elk.  One helpful hint when using a hammock to sleep in-  You will hardly ever find two trees the correct distance apart to attach your hammock; so invest in some once inch wide nylon webbing with a mountaineering cinch clamp that will let you adjust the “stretch” of your hammock. Remember to pull the hammock tight between two trees because they will stretch once your body weight is in it.

Pic from Hennesy Hammocks

Someone smart once said “Cleanliness is near Godliness” . Whoever said this was probably a backpacker.  Personal hygiene can be very important when you are “fly” camping. Aside from the health and comfort aspects, feeling “clean” can add immensely to your mental attitude, which keeps you from heading back to the truck ahead of schedule. A hunting buddy introduced me to a very simple routine that can start off your day with a positive attitude.  I know this may sound dumb, but don’t knock it until you’ve tried it.  Boil some water as soon as you get out of your bag (you will need it for coffee anyway) and pour some boiling water on a wash cloth. As soon as you can stand it, drape the wash cloth over your face and thoroughly wash your face (if you’re really grimy feeling, you might want to hit a few other areas as well).  Try this at home and see if it doesn’t make you feel “different”.

N-Rit backpacking towel

Fast Flight strings- do they give any advantage?  Keep in mind that if you wish to shoot Fast Flight strings, your bow must be able to handle them.  Usually this means beefing up the limb tips. Don’t try Fast Flight strings on some of the older traditional bows you may be collecting!  I consulted my arrow making guru (Bob Burton of Whispering Winds Arrows) and he tells me that you should add 5 lbs. In spine weight of your arrows if you shot Fast Flight and that you can expect a “little” increase in arrow speed. I have all my bows made to handle Fast Flight strings and I shoot them for one reason- I don’t have to wear an arm guard. Since these strings do not stretch, they stop at the end of the string “throw”, which prevents the string from carrying forward into your arm.  In fact, I think it makes a convenient monitor for bow torque.  If you hit your arm using Fast Flight strings, you are gripping the handle incorrectly. With proper hand position and Fast Flight strings, you should never need an arm guard, unless you use one to keep loose fitting clothes out of the way. Add to this that Fast Flight strings wear like iron and I have to conclude that they do have advantages.

Dennis Kamstra
safariden@aol.com

BACK TO THE BASICS?

by Jorge Amador

José Rico, “Pope”, is a well know spanish bowhunter and more than a hunting partner for me. He has travelled bowhunting around the globe from many years ago, from New Zealand or Montana to the jungles of the amazonas river. He could eat burgers during all his lifetime and his skills finding, and using, bathrooms in foreigners countries is legendary.

Jorge Amador

Back to the bases?

As an old bowhunter, not for age but for years in the trade, I have seen how our sport has become more and more sophisticated. Bows with hundreds of fps, hi-tech gadgets and no-scent clothing seems to be the only uniform that a bowhunter can wear. And it is ok, but is not the only way to do it.

I hunt with rifle, shotgun and bow, and among my bows, I have a compound with which I have killed my share of animals, one longbow and several recurves that are my real lovers.During many years, I have been hunting wild boar and roebucks primary from treestands and stalking in good mixed agricultural land and bush country. Animals were on sight and, after sighting them, the stalk was on the way.

This year, I have re-learned an old lesson that had almost forgotten. I have been hunting in a primary wood, with big trees, wide extensions of bush and very few clears in it.This has brought to me to the bases of bowhunting: no treestands, no hurries, much listening, little walking and a lot of understanding the wild.

Spanish magazine, “Caza y safaris“

Over the years, there has been two readings that have been some sort of Bible for me.One is an article from a Spanish hunting magazine from back the eighties. A hunter called Freddy Wulff entered the wilds of New Zealand´s North Island in search of pigs and deer. It was not a trophy hunt but a survival one. Hunt to eat in deep woods.The other reading is a well known book from Glenn St Charles, Bows on the Little Delta, in which they hunt elk at the Olympic Peninsula much the same way than Freddy in NZ.

Pic from “Bows on the little delta“, Fred Bear and Glenn St. Charles

Why I love these readings? Because of the freshness and easyness of the hunt.

They go to the deep woods and look for the prey much more with their ears and noses than with their eyes. They have to understand and interpret the noises and hunt without seeing. What a hairy feeling when you hear the footsteps of an animal closing the distance with no clue of the identity of the owner of the noise except your knowledge that, if the noise is clear and dry, could be a roebuck but if there is some kind of gutural noise, for sure will be a pig. They can even smell the elk or the hog before seeing it! That’s a really close hunt !

With this in mind, I entered the woods before daylight. Having permission to hunt for roebuck and wild boar, almost every sound could come from a prey.Maybe because of the romantic appeal of Freddy Wulff or because from April to October I almost “live in shorts”, I was hunting with shorts, treking shoes, some kind of homemade gaiters not allow the dirt to enter in my feet, and…yes, a long camo longsleeve t-shirt that a wear surrounded with a belt in wich I hang my full tang knive and folding knive (I love steel). Add the binoculars, backpack ( Eberlestock Mini-Me) and that´s all folks!

The day was quiet and the ground, covered with dry leaves, allowed to hear even the slightest step on it (mines included). So the progress had to be very careful and slow. After no more than eight hundred meters I stopped to hear, just one more time, bow ready as the wood is dark and deep.Suddenly, I hear a noise. First is a trumble, then a step and later a clear animal running. The noise became louder and louder and I realize that I´m in the middle of a game track. Too late, a female roebuck is coming my way as a small freight train. I lever the bow and then she realizes that there is something in the middle of her way, turns a bit, going out of the track and, passing at no more than 5 meters from me, goes to a sudden stop at 10 meters, but behind heavy bush. Impossible to shoot as I just barely see the head. Then, she takes a step and I see the vitals. The arrow is on the way, but too high. At the noise, the animal begins a run surrounding my position and a loud barking concert is on the way. Neither Mozart could have made it better. What a voice!

To make things short, I played this game for 3 minutes and shot on more arrow, too high again, and all the playing at less than 50 meters. The animal never understood my figure as a threat.There was no kill but much hunting.

Using the same tactic of hunting with the ears, in a short period of hunting season, I have shot one pig and seen at less than 30 meters more than half a dozen shootable animals. Sometimes shot was not possible due to a last-second wind swirl or simply because the animal decided go the wrong way, who knows, but I have enjoyed the outdoors again in a simple manner that I had almost forgotten. Apart from roebucks playing the game of love less than 40 meters and piglets talking about nobody know what about at less than 50 meters.

Simple and basic. Who said that bowhunting was a complicated affair?

by Josetxo Rico “Pope”

High Speed Camera Tuning

by Pedro Ampuero

My new bow arrived a few weeks ago, so I have been focused in adjusting it perfectly.

One thing that I am doing to my bows recently, is using a high speed camera to see what is going on in slow motion. You can check how the arrow deflects, how the rest is moving, vanes contact, arrow travel,… its a helpfull information. For doing this you do not need to have a professional high speed camera, nowadays there are a lot of cameras that give you a lot of frames per second. The one on the  pic gives 1200 fps in video and 60 fps in photo mode.

My friend have the videos, I will try to upload them as soon as I see him again. Some of you may recognize in the pic Jose Duo with white shirt, professional target archer. Its nice to have his help when tuning the bows since he has a huuuge experience.

This is kind of what you can see..

Good luck all in the woods,

Pedro Ampuero

Outdoor Life Bow Test

by Starck Brothers

In the latest issue of Outdoor Life there was a bow test of the top bows for 2012. Here is the protocol that Outdoor Life used to test the bows: “The bows are weighed on a certified scale, and draw lengths are checked and adjusted as needed. Each bow is tested at a 30-inch draw length and 70-pound draw weight to meet IBO standards. Octane Hostage arrow rests are installed, as are knock loops. To eliminate human interaction during the tests for speed, vibration, and noise, the bows are shot from a Spot-Hogg Hooter Shooter with a Carter Insatiable release, which is triggered using a shutter-style cable.
Vernier 25-g accelerometers are installed on the riser. Once a bow is shot, vibration data is downloaded to vibration analysis software. An average vibration “score” is displayed in meters per second squared. The lower the number, the less vibration. Peak noise in dBA is measured by a calibrated Vernier Sound Level Meter. Again, the lower the number, the better.
Each bow recieves a score from 60-100 in 10 categories. Objective categories include weight, speed (shooting a 350-grain arrow), peak noise, and vibration. Subjective categories include fit and finish, ergonomics, solidness of the back wall, smoothness of the draw cycle, overall shootability, and Price/Value.
Scores in these subcategories are combined to determine Performance and Design scores (with the exception of Price/Value, which stands alone). The bow with the best Price/Value score is given our Great Buy award, and the bow with the highest Overall score recieves our Editor’s Choice award.”

The bow that won the Editor’s Choice award was the Hoyt Vector 32. It recieved 4/4 stars overall, an A rating for Performance, and A- ratings for Design and Price/Value. The thing that impressed me about the Vector 32 was the vibration and noise data. The Vector 32 had a value of 19.17 for vibration and 84.6 for noise, which were the lowest scores for those two categories. The next lowest vibration was 31.74 which was the Strother Wrath, therefore the Hoyt was significantly lower. The next lowest noise level was achieved by the Strother Wrath as well with a 86.8. The Wrath also had the highest kinetic energy at 20 yards with 88.7 ft-lb.

-Ethan Starck
starckbros@adventurousbowhunter.com

Don Goldston custom broadhead

by Jorge Amador

Don Goldston has work with the people of VPA to make a “perfect” buffalo broadhead for an incoming hunt, here you can read the details about this new custom broadhead. Thank you Don

The Adventurous Bowhunter Team

Vantage Point Archery made me some custom single-bevel heads. They have a unique “internal ferrule” design that calculates to be 8-10 times stronger than a normal ferrule. They should never break or bend at the connection to the broadhead. Ashby reported that he had a 16% failure rate there even with the best heads. This design should fix that.

The downside is that only .3125 diameter shafts will fit – but any arrow that can be footed up to that diameter will work. So far it looks like the Easton Axis series, Easton FMJ DG250, GoldTip Kinetic DG200, and the Victory VAP 250 will work out to fit. The arrow length will need to be 1/2″ longer to keep the back of the broadhead in the same spot. Since the arrow sticks up into the broadhead, the fulcrum is shorter and the tip is less likely to bend. The full-length rib from the ferrule forward does not hurt bend resistance at all, either. Smiler

Another innovation (VPA’s, not mine) is the offset blades. This lets the cutting edge be one single unbroken line all the way around the tip. This makes it easy to sharpen the tip, and makes it stronger, too. The bevel is 30 degrees to give good edge support.

The pics here are of the uncoated prototype

The heads weigh 273 grains, the custom Stainless Steel insert weighs 111 grains. A typical 2.5″ external footer will add 20-25 grains to that. The heads are 2.45″ long and 1.125″ wide. The max ferrule diameter is .375″, just like the traditional Grizzly Grande, and the ABS Ashby broadheads. Target hardness was R55. I need to test that.

The insert:

The ends are .204, the body .199 with .180 grooves. The ends set the concentricity, the undersized middle assures that the epoxy is thick enough to have some strength. The overall length is 2.025, with a body length of 1.700. They weigh 111 grains. Note the tapered support between the body and the threads – this makes the threads less likely to break even though they never take any strain during shooting or impact. This is the attention to detail that Jeff puts into every aspect of the machining. I gave him a cartoon and he gives me back a Mona Lisa!

Testing:

The arrows were all Gold Tip Big Game 200 Kinetic Pros footed with 2.5″ of 2014 and fletched with 2.1″ feather shields. Total arrow weight: 752 grains. Fired from my 101st Airborne, 73#, 29″ at 226 fps, for 86 ft-lb KE, .76 momentum.

The bones were fresh half-pelvis from mature cows and bulls (they were processing for ground beef.

The shot was on the money into the thickest section of a new pelvis

The bone was cracked from the near end for about 4 inches past the arrow. Actual penetration of 4.4 inches is shown, as the bone was still clamped on the .288 diameter arrow in spite of the .375 diameter ferrule that went through first. The bone was 2.4″ thick at this point.

When I sawed the bone down to the crack I could easily pry the bone away from the arrow, as it was held in place only by the connective tissue. I put the broadhead in the wound channel to show some scale. It was only when I was posting this picture that I realized I had it going backwards! The broadhead was completely pristine.

Testing at the biggest leg bone:

You can see more details at the Accurate Reloading Forums . Other great thread from Don show his testing broadheads results, check it Here

Jorge Amador