My busy season has had me much more busy than I would prefer and I haven’t updated in a while because I felt like I didn’t have time to make a proper post.
Most importantly(to me) my arm, wrist and hand have healed to the point that I no longer feel any pain or discomfort and seem fully functional for the time being. For the past 4 weeks, maybe 5, I’ve essentially had no sensation that would suggest anything bad had ever happened. Hopefully that will persist for most of my remaining life. I don’t think strength is quite where it was, but that’s more an issue of taking it easy for a while than of damage or lack of healing.
On the bow front, I’ve broken five, including one that I had probably taken over 1000 shots with in the past decade, which I really hadn’t expected to break. I’ve been storing them outside, and we’re in one of the driest summer of the last decade, and think that had a lot to do with it. My thinking, however is that if I’m going to be hunting in fairly warm dry weather, my bow should be able to handle it and keeping it in a controlled climate might mask any weak points. Maybe I’m wrong. Anyway, I’ve been mostly shooting a bow that’s somewhere around 60-65lbs that I built about ten years ago, and a bow that i finished a few weeks back that came in about 52lbs, but has more set than I would like and seems to be shooting an awful lot slower than I would have guessed it should compared to the heavier bow. I shot over a chrono one afternoon, but A) it was a little cloudy, and B) trying to shoot through it was messing with my ability to shoot. I could step to the side and hit the target, and then try to shoot through the chrono and I couldn’t even hit foam. The one shot that hit foam, and seemed fairly centered didn’t get a reading.
. Could have been the clouds. I don’t really want to hunt with either bow, but if I have to, the heavier one seems to be the better option. If I have to, I can definitely lighten it up a little. I have some hickory that looked straighter at the lumber yard. It’s rough on the edges, and when I sawed out a billet, the grain wasn’t as good as I had thought it was. I’m going to try to get a bow out of it, but I’m not terribly confident. I also have some 12/4 ash that I can definitely get some bows out of, but ash is so brittle that I was saving it for a last resort.
On the arrow front things are looking pretty good. I’ve been shooting some 31” aluminums that I already had, and they work fine with field points. Definitely too short for broadheads, but they made me think that I can get away with 32” long shafts, which really opens up a LOT more options. My initial research was indicating that a .250 spine was about all that would work. That was partly based on using 33”-34” arrows, and a 1.25” wide handle. I’ve been leaving the handle 1.5” wide, and using 32”-32.5” arrows for calculations. Using the spine calculator at 3riversarchery it looks like I can get can go as low as a .340 spine at 52lbs and .300 at 60lbs. Depending on the insert I can use the .340 or .300 at 52lbs, and .300 or .250 at 60lbs, and again, since I can use a 32” shaft, there are a lot more .250 spine options than before. I ordered Easton Bowhunter shafts in .300 and .250, and Gold Tip Warriors in .340(the Eastons were out of stock), and a half dozen pre-fletched Black Eagle Vintage arrows. I also ordered two different cuts and lengths of fletching and a jig, some brass 6.5mm inserts, two dozen 125-200gr inserts from ethics archery, along with a 200-300gr field point test pack. My plan is to use low temp hot melt to temporarily install the 200gr inserts and vary the point weight until I’m in tune. I aldready had a test pack of field points from Grizzly stick, so, combine with the 200-300gr pack(which includes some 15gr washers) I should be able to start testing very close to the equivalent of a 315gr head, and factory aluminum insert, all the way up to a 315gr and 200gr insert. IF THE SPINE CALCULATOR FROM 3Rivers is correct, I should be in tune with the .340 spine arrows with factory inserts, or .300 spine with 100-125gr inserts from the 52lb bow, and with the 60ish lb bow(I need a better method of check draw weight) I should be pretty close to in tune with the .300 spine arrows using factory inserts and .250 spine arrows with 100-125gr inserts. According to the calculator, FOC should range from 23.5-28 depending on the setup. That’s much higher than when I was trying to use 33”-34” .250 spine shafts. That’s the other nice thing about 6.5mm shafts, they’re lighter than 4mm and 5mm shafts. They probably aren’t as tough, but 150-165fps shouldn’t be as hard on them as 180-260fps like other guys are likely shooting. If there’s a setup that a lightweight arrow shaft is strong enough for, it would have to be a heavy, cut-on-contact broadhead moving really slowly.
I’m still going with the 315gr Ashby from GrizzlyStik. I wish it was harder and made from a different material. I don’t like the screw on ferrule Iron Will uses. I looked into Cutthroats and VPA also. Why Cutthroat did you flute the ferrule? If they hadn’t done that, I’d probably use a Cutthroat in S7. The VPA looks excellent, but 50RC? Really?
I don’t know what to think about my shooting. I’m definitely not shooting enough, but things should slow a little bit in the next few weeks. I get 1-6 three shot groups per day 5-7 days per week, but it’s a rare day that I have time for 18 shots. I have a target set up at 18yds. At least half of days, I get at least one group about the size of a softball, but I usually completely miss the target at least once as well. Hopefully that will improve. I suppose it indicates that occasionally I’m doing something consistently.
