Vermont Bowhunt Challenge

[vtgunfighter]

Hello everyone. I just found the site today and am glad to be a new member.

Why did I join? Because this morning I was having breakfast with a buddy of mine and we started to talk about our archery season here in Vermont.

He just purchased a new Matthews Helium compound. Last year I purchased a new Hoyt Carbon Element....yeah, not winning any friends yet, just wait.

My friends a great guy but he's easy to get going and I always give him a hard time about how much he loves Matthews bows and I give him a hard time because he's been more successful with his rifle than with a bow and I may edge him out a little there.

So, after some lively conversation at the diner I just came right out and told him that I bet I could make a new bow out of wood, by myself, which I have never done, learn how to shoot it, and kill a legal whitetail in our 2012 Vermont Archery Season before he does with his new Matthews Helium.

Well, game on. He accepted that bet.

So to the internet I went. I orderd the Traditional Bowyer Bible series and found some other sites, this one included.

I stopped in at the local archery pro shop and  we're set up so that the loser will have his photo and the story posted there on the wall until the next archery season. We're calling it the Vermont Bowhunt Challenge.

I plan on taking plenty of pics along the way, making at least a few bows until i get it figured out and winning this bet.

We'll probably grab some local sponsorship along the way and donate the money to the Vermont State Conservation Camp program and the food bank.

Should be fun. I'll start a thread at some point soon about it.

So, when you see me asking questions all over the place I'd appreciate being pointed in a helpful direction. Of course, I'll read as much as I can and try to get a feel for the forum before I say much more than this.

My only experience with traditional archery? I used to have an old Ben Pearson recurve that I couldn't hit anything with past 12 yds, then it delaminated....

Feel free to laugh when appropriate and thanks for setting up a great looking resource here.

Eric

[JW_Halverson]

With your attitude and sense of adventure, you are going to win.  Maybe not win the Challenge, but you will win something.  Good for you!

Be sure to post questions and pictures as you work on this project, we'll all be glad to help any way we can.

[Pappy]

Welcome Eric,good luck on your challenge,if you don't win the bet you will probable be hooked on primitive archery and that alone will make you a winner. By the way 90% of the deer I have killed over they years have been closer than 12 yards,you learn to set up for close shots when you shoot as bad as I do if you want to eat.
   Pappy

[vtgunfighter]

Thanks for the encouragement. I'll need it along the way for sure.

No doubt about it, I am using this buddy challenge to get me to do something I've been thinking about for awhile.

Several years ago, when I started bow hunting with an old bear whitetail II wheel bow I learned more than I could have imagined and became a much better hunter because of it. It only seems natural to move to this next level. I've been shooting deer for years at "bow" range through all our seasons. We'll see if I can make the transition and get inside that last couple of yards and all that it takes to close the deal and fill the freezer without all the gadgets.

The predominant red meat that my family eats is venison, so the need for success will have some of that pressure on it. I am sure there will be times that I'll wish I didn't open this can of worms but so be it. I plan on having fun along the way and reconnecting to what I think of as traditional archery. I am sure its different for everybody. But I remember my father and uncles hunting with recurves when I was young and the stories before that of our families hunting every season they could, and sometimes outside them to feed everyone at the table and the stickbow was part of that as well.

I've got some reading to do...shoot straight. Thanks again Pappy and JW_Halverson.

[paulsemp]

Just remember for thousands of years the "stick bow" feed almost everybody. I have only shot a compound maybe 6 times but there is no way it feels better than a wood bow. You will soon see what drags us in!

[JW_Halverson]

Just remember for thousands of years the "stick bow" feed almost everybody. I have only shot a compound maybe 6 times but there is no way it feels better than a wood bow. You will soon see what drags us in!

That's where paulsemp makes a glaring error.  All our ancestors are gone simply because the primitive bow was ineffective.  They all died of hunger and malnutrition or eating bad mushrooms that were easily stalked with a stick.  In fact, we were extinct until the compound bow resurrected us as a species.  Same for flintlocks, deadfalls, snares, fishtraps, and following circling buzzards to a kill site made by a real predator....none of those work.  Thank God for PSE, Hoyt, Matthews and all the other makers of ten-speed bows. 

Stick around, I will be giving a lecture on the proper use of sarcasm in civilized debate.

[vtgunfighter]

I get sarcasm, huge fan. That's great.   

I am also a big fan of the traditional skills. I have a group of friends that run a school here in VT. Reclaiming Our Origins through Traditional Skills.
http://www.rootsvt.com/

My sons will be heading out there next week again for some time with all the stuff that kept our ancestors and some of us alive. It's always been technology and innovation that's kept us moving and fed, just a different version. Good to know skills and a shame so many of us have let them be forgotten or were never shown.

I have an osage selfbow that I bartered for from my friend Brad out there. I'll start shooting that soon to keep me from working too fast on my first build. Not sure the DL is right for me but I'll figure it out. It still feels foreign.

[youngbowyer]

Sounds like a great challenge! The right tools can really make a difference, get yourself a nice drawknife, a rough rasp, and a fiskars hatchet. Those are pretty much the only tools I use to make a bow besides sandpaper and a scraper. A board bow is the way to start. Get yourself a straight grained maple board from home depot or any other lumber store.