Just wondering if anyone else uses a walking stick while out hunting. I used a six foot one last year, thanks to a major back problem and found it is one of those things I will now carry. Very useful in walking up hills and down them. And was wanting to see some of them if anyone does, i need to make me a new one with spirit and need some ideas....
One of the best walking sticks you can make is from a snakey piece of OSAGE, they are tuff and really pretty with the bark striped off and a coat of Spar varnish is applied. Yiou will not be disappointed.
Another is Diamond Willow from Alaska if you can find any or know someone who lives there. It is a White wood with the dark Diamond along its length at various places....ONE SHOT... :D :D :D :) :)
PS: I have one and use it often while Hunting down in the Missouri Ozarks.
Mr Vic, I made this stick from a serious piece of Hickory. It is just shy of 5' including the acorn on top. It is a bit on the heavy side, but I know you are a big guy. I would be willing to gift it to you if you are interested.
(http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f196/jjeffer/stickfinal01.jpg)
Jeffer, now that is a serious walking stick. Awesome workmanship as well. The Acorn has many meanings in Life and I would be honored to accept that. I will PM you. Thank you very much !
this place (and the actions of its members) just floors me ...... JJ, :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
Here is a thumbstick I use, it works great for support up hills, then with it's alpine spike on the bottom, it can be stuck into the ground and become a bow holder
(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2236/2308673520_4c3c4ee4b4.jpg)
(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3183/2308673676_f1e2bbc5b4.jpg)
all the best
Joe
here is a 68" tall sapling I got for work one day ( Had to pull up a dead tree ) The hand wrap is from my Shrew bow ( I like the bare wood feel ) the Feather is from a wing a friend sent me & there is a small piece of a buck tine from a buck I shot in PA.... My last firearm hunt that I took a deer with....
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y16/mysticguido/101_0429.jpg)
I agree with BobW..........this site is amazing!!
:clapper: :clapper:
I use one made from a high altitude Quakie for sheep hunting. Probably the only reason I haven't hurt myself going down the mountain. Don't use it for anything else, but that time may be coming.
Your a good man Jerry Jeffer!
I used a walking stick while traversing the mountains with a rifle hunter last fall. My knee has been bad for a good 35 years; and this year it swelled up like a tick.
I was really surprised at how it helped me go everywhere on that bad knee.
I would suggest anyone with old parts like knees and hips; use one. :campfire:
When in Alaska a few years ago, I brought back home a couple of the "diamond willows" and made into walking sticks.
(http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d108/lwscott/stick-1.jpg)
(http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d108/lwscott/stick-2.jpg)
As we age our ability to maintain that youthful sense of balance tends to fail us. I seldom use one while hunting, but a walking stick does help while packing out the meat on a packframe.
Here's mine. (Tree huggers turn back now) I made it from a hickory sapling, taken from an area I used to bowhunt while in college in the mid '80s. These days, it's not used for hunting so much as it is used during my scouting/backpacking forays.
Like my Widows, it has been used, abused and enjoyed.
(http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj306/northernmichigan/IMG_1028.jpg)
The notches represent the number of times I turned Cindy Crawford down. Or, they could represent the sum total of all the antler points on all my bucks. Or...I'll never tell!
(http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj306/northernmichigan/IMG_1030.jpg)
Taken in the Porcupine Mountains of Michigan's Upper Pennisula.
(http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj306/northernmichigan/Hiking-1.jpg)
how do you carry the bow and the walking stick at the same time?
Mark
When carrying my longbow, it IS the walking stick. :cool:
Isn't that the reason for tip protectors? :goldtooth:
Diamond willow is the best lightest and strongest and also some of the most pleasing to the eye you will ever find I also use mine for snowshoeing :bigsmyl:
I have a couple of non-descript, more or less straight sticks, from maple and birch saplings taken from near my cabin in the northern part of the state. I, too, have a bad knee, and a stick really helps when walking in the woods and scouting. Definitely necessary when I backpack in to hunt. I also use them to tend the campfire so all of mine are charred on the tips. I always keep one handy in the back of my pick-up. Even use one in the city when I walk my dog.
The stick that I use is made from vine maple it is about one inch at the large end and has 27 groth rings I can lay it across my sholders and pull down for all I'm worth and it doesn't bend. It's hard not to like something that you know will never let you down.
Thanks Fella's very interesting knowing others use them with success...and the ideas, and decorations. going to be a large part of my hunting in the next fifty years. (I hope) thanks.
This is mine, Mr.Vic. Not sure of the main wood but the vine that did the twisting (being from around here) was probably either Honeysuckle or wild grape. I found it in the torn up woods near here after a hurricane. I like to say that I made the cane - God made the stick. I don't use it hunting - yet - but I do use it every morning for my rotor cuff therapy exercises, and will use it for hunting when and if. I recessed the top and epoxied the antler bur on, then recessed it a little and epoxied the Bloodstone on. The wraping cord is a synthetic and the little SS spearhead is a charm I picked up a half dzn of, at a yard sale. I put one on the Barb Knife that Adkmountain Ken was having folks carry for a while and then pass on, (think it's back with him now) and I also put one on a Wing Bone Call I made for my bowmaking mentor, Mike Brooks (retired USN).
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/ber643/Cane001.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/ber643/Cane002.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/ber643/Cane003.jpg)
i know that a walking stick should be a stick,
i made mine out od i"clothes rod
wrapped about 5' of rope for a handle and emergency rope tied a whistle to it for noise if i get lost
Make some neat ones out of Osage that dosen't quite want to be a bow. Some with Character and Spirit may turn out heavy, but thats because of their will to be something useful! The are several of mine floating around out there. I try not to take pics. of them, 'cause I'll want to keep 'em all! They made to be turned loose!
ber...there ya go braggin' again!
Love Ya!