Working on this now.
This is I'll be Ready. Call me Striper's Mom
- Thread starter I'll be ready!
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You could start with a small show. Dip your toes in the water. See what happens.
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we hunt year round here.... .. wild hogs - feral pigs and sometimes feral goats... .. my dad and i are both licensed as invasive species control hunters........ his license includes hunting using archery and also dog and knife..... . but my license is only for archery.... my sister also has an archery hunting license ... she;s better at it than i am.... but she hasn;t been up in that rainforest for a long time... ...
i use to make a lot of obsidian and flint arrowheads for my primitive and native american arrows....... .. but the last sets of arrows i made have all been heavy duty traditional hunting arrows that i put steel forged broadheads on.... .. usually the double edged ones made by ace archery... .. or else medieval style arrows with long bodkins for range work....
i actually still have a few of the very first set of hunting arrows i made for my own use..... i don;t use them any more coz they were made for a bow with a much lighter draw weight than the one i use now... ... and they were also purple.. . .... very nice to look at.... .. but didn;t offer much in the way of camoflauge when hunting an animal that has near human eyesight..... . not to mention being very intelligent....
(this picture is very old.... some of these are now in a box of broken arrows i save... others were lost in the rainforest ... ..i still use the good ones for teaching new archers if they are using a bow of appropriate draw weight... but only if i can trust them to hit the target and not send one flying into the woods)
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Very Cool pic. One of my friend does archery with targets. I have only shot a couple of arrows in my whole life.
Those are cool arrows. You made them? Those are nice.
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thank you...... i made them by hand...(mostly)....... ..including doing the lashings by hand... .. trimming - sanding down and balancing the shafts by hand..... ..... those lashings are sort of rough done.... (or whipped as some people call it)..... not nearly as much thread as i use to lash fletchings down now days.. ....and the fletchings were bought from an arrow making supply company that buys feathers from turkey farms and then cuts them to length and dyes them..... ...the nocks and field points were all bought online too from archery supply companies...
i still buy a lot of the components from such companies..... however.... i have also made a lot of arrows since then entirely by hand... meaning i cut the shafts from wood re-purposed from other projects and structures - the most recent was wood from spars taken off a sailing ship. ... . that wood was awesome.... perfectly aged... easy to cut and sand... and the grain was straight as an... . ..well... an arrow.... .. ...
for those i use full length primary wing feathers from turkeys ...(I buy the feathers by the bag full from online sources or directly from turkey hunters) .... on those kinds of arrows i lash the full length of the fletching to the shaft and sometimes cut the nock into the shaft by hand across the grain.. then lash it too to strengthen it....if i;m only make a few.... ... but i;m not above using premade nocks bought from an archery supply house if i;m making a large batch of arrows.. ..... all my arrow shafts are treated with tru-oil... the very same kind used for gun stocks.... then waxed with a compatible gun stock wax.... ....
when i can find a picture of a recent set i made i will post it.... . and sorry for the length of this post.... if nobody has told you yet my posts are almost always long... ... in person i also talk very fast... (southern california fast)... thus i;m thinking even faster when i type something and my fingers are working overtime to keep up.. ...if it is too much let me know and i will cut future posts back a bit.. .. .. .
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i love teaching archery... .. it;s one of the ways i make money - besides making custom hunting arrows.... but between the 2 i love teaching archery more... ..... i am not a certified instructor but i work under the supervision of a competition archer who is fully licensed and certified... .. i take his extra students and the ones he can;t make time for....
i say "under the supervision of".. but he is hard;y ever there himself and just sends the students to me.... . for the most part i am on my own... ....most of the students i get are kids... sometimes adults .. so i have a large collection of small light weight bows with light draw weights all the way up to heavier bows almost as powerful as the one i hunt with to teach them with... .....i think at last count 27 bows in all.... ...probably close to 2000 arrows of different weights and spine strengths..... . and quivers they can wear so they don;t have to walk around the range with arrows in their hand..... or their blue jean pockets.......
Enjoying reading about the craftsmanship creating the arrows. The feathers, the weight of everything also archery and hunting. Still reading, about halfway I think.
I got a kick out of kids walking around with arrows in their jean pockets.i love teaching archery... .. it;s one of the ways i make money - besides making custom hunting arrows.... but between the 2 i love teaching archery more... ..... i am not a certified instructor but i work under the supervision of a competition archer who is fully licensed and certified... .. i take his extra students and the ones he can;t make time for....
i say "under the supervision of".. but he is hard;y ever there himself and just sends the students to me.... . for the most part i am on my own... ....most of the students i get are kids... sometimes adults .. so i have a large collection of small light weight bows with light draw weights all the way up to heavier bows almost as powerful as the one i hunt with to teach them with... .....i think at last count 27 bows in all.... ...probably close to 2000 arrows of different weights and spine strengths..... . and quivers they can wear so they don;t have to walk around the range with arrows in their hand..... or their blue jean pockets.......
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it was my very first archery student that was doing that.. ... he was small and i made 1/4 inch shaft arrows especially for his size and bow strength .... ....I got a kick out of kids walking around with arrows in their jean pockets.
but the problem was the only field points made for arrows that thin were super sharp.. ....i could forsee a disaster in the making when i saw him shove a handful of those into his front pocket... ..so i made him a back quiver out of the only suitable leather i had on hand at the time... ..
problem with that - it was full thickness saddle skirting i was using for bigger projects.... and even though the final result was a small quiver it was super heavy.. .. but he didn;t care... . he loved it....... his mom said it was lighter than his school backpack and she was happy with it too... ....
i didn;t make quivers for any other students... .. instead i bought a dozen cheap generic side quivers made of thick nylon with plastic golf club tubes in them to keep them stiff and to hold the arrows... they are made to hang off a belt..... . lancaster archery was having a clearance sale on them..... i still have them... i loan them to any student who needs a quiver on the range.... . .
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That's really cool. I bet your students really appreciate the extra effort you show them.
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i know that one in particular did... ... but he was my first student - (actually sought me out after seeing me on the range and asked me to teach him.).. and for a while i had no reason to think there would be any other students.. ... .... .but i wasn;t able to do as much for the students that came after as i was for the first one... .. ... though i probably did do more than other people teaching archery did... .....
most of those other instructors were teaching compound bow archery.. .. which is more of a science... and one that tends to be very persnickity... .lot of gadgets involved.. .. high tech components....technology has taken most of the hard work out of learning . ... very little conditioning or strength training required.... ..
but traditional archery is more of an art form.... you are basically shooting arrows with nothing but a stick and a string.... lots of practice and dedication to conditioning required...... i always try to teach my students to have an appreciation for all of that ... .... . and i think the kids learn it better than the adults do.... most adult students end up moving on to compound bows... . but most of the kids stay with traditonal archery even as they get older.... .i like seeing that.... .
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I think young folks pic up on anything easier then adults. Like music, sports or crafts.
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they do..... but so far none of my archery students have gone hunting with me..... . i;ve offered a few of them the chance to.. ... one of my friends has gone with me and i had a room mate a few years that went us all the time.... that;s back when my dad was a lot more agile and we could hike into dangerous remote areas...... .
but there is a different kind of hunting we all do... a fairly big group of my friends and i all go together.... and that;s reef hunting... . spear fishing for octopus and various other edible fish/creatures around the reefs... .. . my dad goes with us on that.... he serves as a look out for sharks and anything else that might present a danger....
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My daughter...the one who will talk to me...is dating an outdoorsey guy. I'm thinking of a beginner's archery set for Christmas. Any recommendations?i love teaching archery... .. it;s one of the ways i make money - besides making custom hunting arrows.... but between the 2 i love teaching archery more... ..... i am not a certified instructor but i work under the supervision of a competition archer who is fully licensed and certified... .. i take his extra students and the ones he can;t make time for....
i say "under the supervision of".. but he is hard;y ever there himself and just sends the students to me.... . for the most part i am on my own... ....most of the students i get are kids... sometimes adults .. so i have a large collection of small light weight bows with light draw weights all the way up to heavier bows almost as powerful as the one i hunt with to teach them with... .....i think at last count 27 bows in all.... ...probably close to 2000 arrows of different weights and spine strengths..... . and quivers they can wear so they don;t have to walk around the range with arrows in their hand..... or their blue jean pockets.......
That is absolutely cool!!
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if you are serious - i am glad to help you.... and anyone else who might be interested... .
i usually start girls from teenagers close to adult size - up to young adults - who have never shot a bow before... and might be slight of build.. with a PSE Snake... ..it;s the same bow jennifer lawrence used when she played katness in hunger games... except hers was painted silver.... ... .it;s fiberglass and ambidextrious - meaning it has an arrow shelf on both sides.... relatively inexpensive.... and draws 25 pounds at 28 inches - which is the average draw length of most people.... . and 25 pounds is an easy weight to manage not likely to cause injury... ....
3 rivers archery has a good youth arrow that is 28 inches long and can handle being shot from bows with peak draw weights from 20 pounds to 35 pounds.... . it;s about as heavy an arrow as i would shoot from that bow.. .and it;s put together already....but i use lighter weight eastman aluminum arrows in the 1800 to 1900 range that i fletch with feathers for the stronger archers i start on this bow.... .and arrows i make myself of 1/4 birch for those younger and smaller archers with shorter draw lengths... ..
for girls with more muscle and more athletic build i use the same bow i start boys from teenagers on with... .a bear titan.. .. it;s the same bow most highschools use for their archery instruction classes... . 30 pound draw weight at 28 inches... also ambidextrious and virtually indestructable..... same 3 rivers wooden arrows will work for this one but it will also shoot slightly heavier arrows spined for 30 to 35 pounds well.... .aluminum and lightweight carbon or fiberglass arrows made for bows of 30 to 35 pounds.... if someone can pull the full draw length on this bow and maybe a little further i have them use beman hunter junior arrows.. ..re-fletched with feathers.... they;re good for bows up to 40 pounds..... . ...
for a traditional bow it;s important to have the arrows fletched with feathers not plastic vanes.... the plastic fletching is made for compound bows mostly and tend to throw the arrow off when shot from traditional bows... ...... feathers give way when the arrow crosses shelf or bow hand then expand back again....
also it;s important to have field points on any arrow used at a range or for training... . never let a new archer attempt to use broadheads ... . they are banned at most archery ranges anyway..... but even using them in private just for practice has had a history of disastrous and even tragic results.... . they are made for hunting only and for experienced archers..... .....
in addition to a bow and good arrows she will also need an arm guard for the bow arm and a shooting glove to protect fingers that grip the bow string.... .i don;t let students shoot without those 2 things.... especially young ones.. ....painful bruises on the inner forearm and blistered fingers or fingernails ripped off can ruin enthusiasm for archery quickly.......
and she will need some kind of quiver or arrow bag to keep arrows in or contain them until ready to shoot..... all kinds of quivers are out there from the ground kind that are free standing to back quivers and side quivers..... you can even make an arrow stand out of pvc pipe if you wanted to......
I shot a bow without an arm guard once. Never again. I ended up with a perfectly rectangular bruise extending from my wrist to half way up my forearm.
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the PSE Snake - 25 pound draw @ 28 inches
the Bear Titan 30 pound draw @ 28 inches
both bows can be overdrawn to whatever an archers draw length
is without damaging the bow...... the further back they are drawn
the more power it will deliver - to a point... ... under drawing them
such as a smaller person with shorter arms would do will give the
bows slightly less power....
the Bear Titan 30 pound draw @ 28 inches
both bows can be overdrawn to whatever an archers draw length
is without damaging the bow...... the further back they are drawn
the more power it will deliver - to a point... ... under drawing them
such as a smaller person with shorter arms would do will give the
bows slightly less power....
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3 rivers cedar youth arrows 28 inch
