BowCast Blog

Part 1-Making a Paper Tuner

I am still working on building my home bow shop like I'm sure many of you are.  There is a great PodCast, episode #53, on what tools and supplies you will need to start your own home bow shop.  One of the items missing from my shop was a paper tuner.  I have tried many times to quickly tune my bow shooting a piece of paper taped to my ladder rungs.  NOT a good idea and one I would NOT recommend as I put a few holes in the wall of my basement and was out a few arrows.  This blog entry will show you how you can make your own paper tuner by simply going to your local hardware and grocery store and spending around $30.

Living the Essence; Hardcore Bowhunting

Peers ask me all the time, “Why do you like bowhunting so much? All it is, is shooting animals.” I just have to smirk the comment off, because I know that bowhunting is something that is kindled deep in the heart of a person who wants a challenge; to be responsible, respectful and rejuvenated by all that nature has to offer. Some people say that “If you haven’t already done it, you never will.” I tend to disagree; however, if you really want to be a hardcore bowhunter, all it takes is for someone to plant the seed. From that point on, bowhunting is one of those things that people will either grow apart from, whereas the true hardcore bowhunter will find themselves obsessed by mystique of the bow and arrow. I am of the later.

Taking the next step is what Bowcast is all about. Taking the next step, from the average archer to the complete archer is what we are trying to facilitate. For many archers the next step involves becoming your own bow mechanic. If you really want to understand how a bow works you need to start maintaining and fiddling with your own bow.

Many of you know that I live in a pretty remote area of Southwestern New Mexico, this is great for hunting but not so great when it comes to hitting the 3-D circuit. We used to have 3 maybe 4, 2-day shoots in the area, basically, all the people from the desert would come play in the Gila National Forest for the weekend. It was alot of fun because these shoots brought in archers from all over the Southwest. Unfortunately Fire Restrictions, Fuel Prices and a new NM Archery Tour has caused several of the local clubs to relocate there big shoots to a more central area of the state. Well, those are the reasons that are stated, personally I think alot of those clubs got tired of having there butts handed to them by the Silver City Crew :).

While I don't know if I would call Silver City a hot bed of archery I would say that there are alot of really good shooters from the area. In fact, there is shoot along the NM and AZ border that pulls about 2500 shooters every year and there is usually a few side bets going on between the NM and AZ shooters. While, I don't know the exact record I do know that the NM teams usually bring home a PILE of cash. Let me just say it, when it comes to busting foam there are A TON of better archers in my area than me, I would consider myself more of a student of the game, and my 12-ringing buddies would back me on that one.

"Front and Center" for Front of Center 

Many of you may have heard Anthony or Aneal talk about "Front of Center" or "Forward of Center" when talking in relation to building an arrow that is efficient in flight, and maximizes the trade offs between arrow stability and arrow flight distance.