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Making "Traditional Archery" Equipment
BakuMax
Member Posts: 15 ✭✭
Hey,
Any of you guys do anything in regards to "traditional" bow-hunting? Anyone make their own arrows (or have tried to)? How about making "self-bows" out of one piece of wood? I've been making river-cane arrows with turkey fletches and cut-and-filed broadheads. More recently, I've been out in the woods (really out in a big desecrated cemetary with lots of trees) and have been cutting fairly straight little branches, drying them, then skinning off the bark, trimming off the little knots and trying to straighten them out for arrows.
Just made a little bow for a kid, along with some short arrows, and the bow seems to work real good for something just a little better than a toy, but it has a bit of a "twist" when you draw it. I'm reading all I can about doing this stuff. It fills in the time on cold evenings in front of a roaring TV set (with nothing good on). We do get some pretty funny Arabic commercials sometimes, though! Wish I could insert a "video clip," but it would be too fat.
I'd like to hear what you might be doing or have done in the way of making your own gear.
By the way, please tell me how to insert a photo. I tried clicking on the "Insert image" button, but it didn't seem to do much for me.
Do no harm.
Any of you guys do anything in regards to "traditional" bow-hunting? Anyone make their own arrows (or have tried to)? How about making "self-bows" out of one piece of wood? I've been making river-cane arrows with turkey fletches and cut-and-filed broadheads. More recently, I've been out in the woods (really out in a big desecrated cemetary with lots of trees) and have been cutting fairly straight little branches, drying them, then skinning off the bark, trimming off the little knots and trying to straighten them out for arrows.
Just made a little bow for a kid, along with some short arrows, and the bow seems to work real good for something just a little better than a toy, but it has a bit of a "twist" when you draw it. I'm reading all I can about doing this stuff. It fills in the time on cold evenings in front of a roaring TV set (with nothing good on). We do get some pretty funny Arabic commercials sometimes, though! Wish I could insert a "video clip," but it would be too fat.
I'd like to hear what you might be doing or have done in the way of making your own gear.
By the way, please tell me how to insert a photo. I tried clicking on the "Insert image" button, but it didn't seem to do much for me.
Do no harm.
Comments
Why do they make it taste so good and put it in them little bitty cans- Dad
At times, days in the field are more than sport, more than adventure. They are nothing less than a gift to the soul.- John L. Moore Buckmaster magazine
Where is ?
Baku
Azerbaijan
What is an NGO ?
1-Powder
2-Patch
3-Ball
4-Remove the Rod
5-Do Not Forget the Cap.
An NGO is a "Non-Governmental Organization." Usually an NGO is a humanitarian aid, assistance or development organization. Some examples are the Red Cross, Save the Children, Doctors Without Borders, etc. Our NGO is "Global SourcNet Azerbaijan," and we are engaged in computer and English training to help young people enter the international job market so they can compete with the rest of the countries of the former Soviet Union and Western Europe.
It is interesting and challenging work. Not something for someone who is particularly ambitious and wanting to make lots of big bucks, though. It is a great job for someone like me who has "been there and done that," raised kids and now is ready to return something of what God has given him so that others can benefit from it.
My wife and I have been doing this type of work for over 5 years. It can be a little exciting sometimes. I've been arrested by the KGB in one country and interrogated for hours. They wanted to know if I was a spy! (I had a video camera and got too close to the "secret" KGB building.) We have the opportunity to get to know foreign countries from the inside out, not like tourists. I've tried to teach people some of the old skills their grandfathers knew...like saddlemaking for example. The horsemen of the mountains used to ride and shoot "Turkish" type bows from running horses. Not a bow to be seen now. Their grandmas used to make handmade "Persian" rugs from their own sheep's wool, dyed with natural dyes, and most of them have lost that skill too. Still, they are fascinating people here. And that's just the mountain folk! We will be living with country people out in farming country.
The traditional archery came up when I couldn't find anything to shoot with. I just started fooling around with things and somehow or another came up with workable arrows. Before I could even get the wood for a bow dry a friend brought in two bows from the USA, so I am in business now as far as target practice goes. As soon as we relocate to the country I can start hunting Jackal and fox.
Do no harm.
Will you still have internet when you move to the country??
There are some books out there on making traditional bows and arrows. You might want to seach for experimental archaeology on that subject.
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. Benjamin Franklin,
In the truest sense, freedom cannot be bestowed; it must be achieved.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
The mountains are within walking distance (but better if you have a horse), and there are deer up there I've heard. Don't think they are very big. These mountains are pretty small, like the Smokies, but not so many big trees. There are black bear there, and plenty of wolves. We'll have a little 4-WD "jeep" called a "Niva." It's Russian, and gets good mileage. We can get up into the little mountains quickily for a weekend trip. I want to do that a lot.
In the summertime, the big sheep herders walk as far as 17 days from the town to the high Caucaus Mountains for summer pastures (about 100 miles as the sheep walks). I'd like to take that trip just one time and see what the hunting possibilities are. Perhaps the Summer of 2006.
Hey, a question here about dogs. Do dogs help or hinder deer hunting? What about hunting wolves or coyote/jackal? (I just saw a "Discovery" show that said they were different...shows you what I know!) They have really nice, big, nasty dogs here. They aren't too many generations away from wolves, and they use them mostly for sheep protection. They chop off their ears flat against their heads and crop their tailes short. I'd not do that if I got a pup. I don't imagine a dog is a good thing when bow-hunting, but I wanted to check. I would be afraid they would chase the deer off and you'd never get a shot. Might sound dumb, but since I've never killed a deer with a bow, I wouldn't know. I've used dogs with squirrels and a muzzle-loader, with rabbits and with quail and pheasant, but that was a little Brittany Spaniel about 20 years ago. My wife wants a dog, and if we can use it for hunting, that is better, but if not, we might just settle on something that is smaller and barks a lot at intruders. Some people here (like other places) will break in and steal from you sometimes, but if you have any sort of noisemaker around, especially one with big teeth, they will usually stay out.
I'm going to see if I can find a program that will let me attach photos. Sometimes we get some good ones around here.
I'm going to the village tomorrow and deliver some stuff to a poor family. I'll get back here in a couple of days.
Do no harm.