Working on this now.
This is I'll be Ready. Call me Striper's Mom
- Thread starter I'll be ready!
- Start date
You could start with a small show. Dip your toes in the water. See what happens.
- Joined
- Jan 30, 2013
- Messages
- 4,261
- Reaction score
- 2,485
- Points
- 113
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)
Last edited:
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.
- Joined
- Jan 30, 2013
- Messages
- 4,261
- Reaction score
- 2,485
- Points
- 113
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.. .. .. .
- Joined
- Jan 30, 2013
- Messages
- 4,261
- Reaction score
- 2,485
- Points
- 113
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.......
- Joined
- Jan 30, 2013
- Messages
- 4,261
- Reaction score
- 2,485
- Points
- 113
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.... . .
Last edited:
That's really cool. I bet your students really appreciate the extra effort you show them.
- Joined
- Jan 30, 2013
- Messages
- 4,261
- Reaction score
- 2,485
- Points
- 113
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.... .
Last edited:
I think young folks pic up on anything easier then adults. Like music, sports or crafts.