HH bug got me ... Part One!

[David Mitchell]

Just toooo many choices in beautiful woods to build bows from.  Seems they keep finding new stuff I never heard of.  Hard on the old wallet.

[mikebiz]

Beautiful Big Five RLA.  Never seen anything like it.  

So I started a thread today about a string issue and thought I would ask here too:

So I just received a couple of new strings for my D-style longbows from Josh (Oliverstacy). Josh makes a beautiful string that is meticulously crafted. Anyway I ordered a string for my David Miller Old Tom. It's 64" string follow.

I bought the bow used and it came with a string that was not original to the bow. I measured that string and it was 60.25" long, loop to loop. So that's the length I gave Josh, which he then built and sent to me. Perfect. After messing around with brace height I was able to lengthen the string about 0.5", to 60.75", but I'm out of twists, so I can't go any longer. At this point brace height is at its lowest, but it's only 6.25"

My problem is after doing some research I have found that 64" Miller's tend to like a 5.5"-5.75" brace height. I know do your research ahead of time. But that is pretty low, even for Hill bows. Right?

So the million dollar question is: How long should the new string be to achieve 5.5-5.75" bh? I got a response from Josh, but he said to throw it out there just to make sure. Thanks.

[swampthing]

Not low at all for that bow. NOT AT ALL. My 66" Old Tom ran 5.5" My 68" Old Tom liked a 5.75" BH. I would say your 64" would be about right with a 5.5" BH, and not a bit more!
 String wise, I would say a longer string is in order, 61" should put you where you need to be, 14strands of B-50 will make it quiet and would be my choice. Howard Hill Archery bows, that are typically braced higher, use  4" shorter than amo to get it to the 6.5" or so most "run" at, with your shorter+stringfollow Miller the 1" longer string will get you where you need to be. 5.5"

[Nate Steen .]

I like braceheights around 5 7/8 - 6 1/8 on my bows, 66"rs

[bayoulongbowman]

ditto what Dave said!!!!!!!

[arrow flynn]

little over 6 on my sunset hill seeing the shoulder doc soon hes going let me know i may have to switch to lefty my hunting partner a compound shooter bought my backup sunset hill after a year of trying to talk me into it and more than a few beers hes a former recurve shooter he said he going to hunt with it .

[mikebiz]

Originally posted by swampthing:
" . . . 14strands of B-50 will make it quiet and would be my choice."

Hey swampthing.  Thanks for the info.  My strings are 8-strand D-97 padded to 14 at the loops.  That said do you think i should add a little length due to lack of stretch?  

Thanks for all the replies so far.

[StanM]

Just picked up a 70" Big Five marked 43# @ 28" from the classifieds.  Actual weight is 46#'s by my scale.  Perfect for now as I rehab my shoulder.  Ran a few arrows through her, and so far we like each other.  Will need to play around with it some more tomorrow.

Ulimately, I will get back to 50#'s so I can hunt elk with a longbow again.  When that time comes I'm hoping to order another Sunset Hill (had to let my first go, just couldn't shoot it at it's weight  :(  )

In the meantime, I've got some bamboo and some osage and am really wanting to make a bow like the one Tracy (K.S. Trapper) posted over at the bowyers bench.  It's a pretty spot on copy of the American Longbow that John Schulz used to advertise in the Traditional Bowhunter magazine.

I'll try to take some pics of the new to me bow this weekend.

It still erks me every time you guys make me go look at one those bamboo backed works of art. I just cannot believe I did not buy a all wood Schulz years ago when I had the chance. there was a fellow with some nice looking all bamboos at the coon Rapids shoot. first my wife said no way, then she changed her mind. but I was to late his table was gone and i never found out who he was. Now I am thinking again that I need one of those new all tonkin bamboo Millers. I may need an intervention with the wife. She does not seem to see that bare spot on my bedroom wall that says all bamboo bows go here.  That right we have separate bedrooms, mine has guitars, canoe paddles, more bows than a sporting good store, fishing rods, several hundred arrows and a strange smell.  We cannot harmonize when we snore.

[GRINCH]

Pavin now thats funny.  

[swampthing]

I've heard the D97 stretches more than the D10 especially when made "skinny." So I would not account for "lack of stretch" with it. I had a 10 strand padded to 16, of D10 mind you, and it was perfect as it came, maybe a 1/4" of stretch or so but that was it. Although it was much quieter than 18 strands of FF, it still had a "pitchy" "thwip," to it. That sound made me just go back to B-50. Had a little more thump with it, of course, but b-50 is like a coach, reminds you to keep that bow arm bent.

[JCJ]

Originally posted by pavan:
It still erks me every time you guys make me go look at one those bamboo backed works of art. I just cannot believe I did not buy a all wood Schulz years ago when I had the chance. there was a fellow with some nice looking all bamboos at the coon Rapids shoot. first my wife said no way, then she changed her mind. but I was to late his table was gone and i never found out who he was. Now I am thinking again that I need one of those new all tonkin bamboo Millers. I may need an intervention with the wife. She does not seem to see that bare spot on my bedroom wall that says all bamboo bows go here.  That right we have separate bedrooms, mine has guitars, canoe paddles, more bows than a sporting good store, fishing rods, several hundred arrows and a strange smell.  We cannot harmonize when we snore.

That guy who displayed at the Rapids shoot with the Schulz/Miller natural copies was from Rice Lake, WI. I looked them over pretty good and they were not of the build quality caliber of the originals or Millers. At least not to my eye.

JCJ, thanks for your honest input. I will have to get in touch with Miller sometime and see what his time line is. But just to be ornery, i am thinking that my no glass pignut hickory is going hunting today. It bothers me how good it shoots, I would bet that the all bamboo Miller shoots better.

[swampthing]

You would win that bet all day.

[Rik]

Before I share an elk tale with you, I need to make my official entry into the small-game photo contest.

Nate said it had to be with wool and plaid, but he did not say there could be no camouflage in the photo, so. . . here's my entry.



As you can clearly see, I am wearing a nice plaid, and a fine tweed from the Jonathan Richard Company, in Ireland. I throw myself on the mercy of the court.



As for the elk season, I don't even know where to start. Maybe last year would be a good point to begin this tale. As there is a limit of eight photos per posting, I will have to ask your forgiveness as I break this tale into several parts. Here goes. . .

Last year was the hottest September in Idaho's history. It was also one bad year for elk hunting. The hot weather turned the bulls inactive during daylight hours. Suffice it to say, it was not a fun year to be hunting elk in Idaho. I only called in three bulls to bow range, that was the worst I have ever done.

Fast forward to 2011. A nice, long, cold winter. An even longer, cold spring, and a short summer. Everything was on track for some great September weather.

A week before the season, my wife and I packed our camp way back in, three hours from the road, with no trail through nasty deadfall the entire way. But there were elk there.







Well, that's where things began to go south. Someone turned up the thermostat, in a BIG way. 2010 was the hottest September on record in Idaho, but 2011 blew that record completely away. We even had the hottest day ever recorded in September----101 degrees. For those of you who have hunted an elk or two, you know what that kind of weather does to the elk—they go nocturnal. Can't blame them, I wish I could have gone nocturnal as well.

[Rik]

The first morning of my three-week hunt, Tracy and I were just putting on our headlamps and getting ready to leave the tent when the wolves started howling, right above our tent. That seems to have been the starting whistle for the worst elk season I have experienced in 30 years. It all went downhill from there.

A week later, Tracy had had enough of the heat and the dust and the long, grueling hikes in killer heat, so I packed her back to the trailhead and she headed for home.

I eventually hunted five different mountains, from five different camps, hiking as far as I could, just trying to find some elk that would bugle in the heat.

[Rik]

By the middle of the third week, I had found exactly three bulls that would bugle, but all three had large herds of cows, and the wary eyes of the cows kept me from getting any closer than 100 yards. There was not even one satellite bull anywhere to be found. That is something I have never experienced, where there are herd bulls and cows, there are always satellite bulls around, and they are the ones that tend to come a runin'. Not this year.

Still. . . the scenery was spectacular, and there is no place I'd rather be than in the high country during September. It's gorgeous up there!









Finally, my body was worn down to almost nothing, and I was barely running on fumes. It was down to the last two days of the season.

I turned on the tiny AM radio I pack along to get weather reports, and heard the fateful forecast-----two more days left, and each would be hotter than the rest. Temperatures in the 90s.

Well, I gritted my teeth, moved to yet another area, slept under the stars without a tent, and headed out long before daylight. A bull answered from way way to the south, and my grin could not have been bigger.

I moved to about 150 yards from him and played the bugling game back and forth, and he moved closer, to around 100 yards away, then held up in the dark timber on the top of a tiny ridge. I saw movement through the timber, got ready, and saw a small spike walk into the open. In 30 years, I have yet to kill my first spike, and I want one bad.

He was 80 yards away, feeding slowly and ignoring both me and the other bull. 10 minutes later, he was 40 yards away, but there was far too much brush for a shot, and he slowly wandered away, feeding casually, and apparently, completely deaf.

By then it was one hour past sunup, and blazing hot. Time for the elk to bed down, and that's what they did. There were other hunters hunting this area, and I can't abide hunting where there are other humans, so I loaded up, hiked back to the truck, and drove to a mountain about two hours away for the last day of the season.

I again slept under the stars with no tent, and it was so hot that night that I had to sleep on top of my summer-weight sleeping bag, it was far too warm to even throw the sleeping bag over me as a blanket. This did not bode well.

I woke two hours before daylight, a hot wind was blowing. I was angry, worn out, and just about the saddest bowhunter on earth. I took a long drink of water, shouldered my pack, and headed for the top of the mountain. There was no trail, I was just booney crashing, following the small beam of my headlamp. After three weeks of daily hell hikes, my legs were screaming a rest they would not get. I caught myself staggering slightly several times, I was beyond worn out.

This day turned out to be the longest, toughest hike of the year, eight hours of leg-killing hell. But it was worth it, damned well worth it, as it turned out to be the best bugling day of the season.

Two hours after leaving the truck in the dark, I was approaching the top, and it was just light enough to see. That's when I walked into an unseen herd of about 30 cows. There was no bull with them. From what I have seen this year in Idaho, the bull-to-cow ratio is way off. This elk zone used to have a bull-to-cow ration of 48 bulls to 100 cows. The competition between bulls was amazing, and that made them easy to call in for a fight.

Then the U.S. Government introduced Canadian gray wolves, and I believe the wolves have killed many of the bulls off. In this year's hunt, I have seen a bull-to-cow ratio of right around one bull to every 30 to 40 cows, and I have seen many large herds of cows that don't even have bulls, because all of the bulls already have their own herds of cows. I would be interested to see what you other guys who hunted Idaho experienced regarding the bull-to-cow ratio this year. Even though it is anecdotal information, I am still curious if this was the same in other parts of the state.

When I jumped the herd of cows, I also heard a faint bugle about a mile away, many ridges to the west. By the time I got close, I realized there were five bulls bugling. I could not believe it---the warmest morning of the entire season, and there were more bulls bugling than I had heard in three full weeks.

I got close to three of the constantly bugling bulls before 9 a.m., but they each had large herds of cows that kept me from closing in to bow range. Every time I or one of the bulls bugled, they ALL bugled. This was fun, and the kind of elk hunting I am used to!

I moved in on the fourth bull, two ridges farther away. He screamed and screamed and screamed as he moved toward me, and at 100 yards he screamed at me at least 40 times. . . I was ready.



Finally, at 11 a.m. under a blinding hot sun, he let out the kind of bugle that I dread hearing, the little "ee-umph" that says "Night, night, I am tired and need some beauty sleep."

ARRGHHH!

[Rik]

That was the end of the hunt. By the late afternoon, it was hot enough to fry eggs on any rock in the sunshine.

So much for 2011.

If my first elk season had been anything like my 30th elk season, I am not sure I would have ever hunted elk again.

"So," you ask, "will you be back in 2012?"







YOU KNOW IT!

[Rik]

Oops, I just realized I added the wrong photo in the grouse contest.

Here's the one I meant to add:

[Mudd]

I applaud you for your tenacity Rik.

Thank you for sharing with us.

Even with all of the bad breaks(weather, other hunters, wolves included)it says a lot about what hunting is all about and why you would know for certain that you'll be back.

You captured my hunters' heart with your story.

God bless,Mudd