My wife and I celebrated our 27th anniversary Sept. 19. We (she) decided to celebrate our mostly blissful, sometimes tumultuous years together (9,862 days) not by traveling to a warm beach or remote tropical paradise but by sharing her dad’s lakefront cabin (Wausau home) on Lily Lake near Pickerel.
Now, I really shouldn’t complain at all, because the lake view is beautiful, although the fishing is consistently bad. There’s almost no traffic on our dead-end road, and there are few TV channels to interrupt the solitude (although ME TV has plenty of “Gunsmoke,” “Bonanza” and “The Rifleman” episodes to break the silence).
Workaholic Dad and workaholic offspring have never fully mastered or even understood the concept of relaxation. Michelle spent almost all her time indoors, preparing many delicious meals, while her dad (who turned 87 on Sept. 14) puttered around with burning or moving wood.
He and I waterproofed both decks and then the two of them double-teamed me and bought three sets of custom-cut window blinds to help me further enjoy the week. They took the old ones down, and I installed the new ones.
I did manage about 20 minutes of fishing (not even a nibble) and a brisk mountain bike ride, when I realized that the hills around Lily Lake are very steep, and I really need to get that new e-bike.
I did bring three recurve bows, stashed with some arrows and points between a giant dog cage (used to hold an 18-pound cat), a smaller cat cage (to hold Hemingway, our 4-month-old yellow and white assassin cat) and a giant hard cooler full of stuff we could have put in a much smaller soft cooler.
Whenever I hold a wooden-and-fiberglass recurve bow in my hands, I smile. They are made with old-world craftsmanship and feel natural and primitive. Not quite as basic an all-wood self bow or longbow, but about as far away from a metal-and-carbon compound bow as a Model A is from a Tesla.
My goal was to fine-tune my recurve bows to tighten groups and ensure a more accurate shot on a deer. My guidebook was “Traditional Archery,” a great book by Sam Fadala, a well-known outdoors author whose “The Complete Black Powder Handbook” I had edited years ago at Krause Publications in Iola.
I’d never tried “bare shaft tuning” before, using an arrow shaft with no fletching to determine the best shaft spine and point weight for dead-straight arrow flight. I used a carbon arrow shaft close to the spine, or flex, of my hunting arrows, and began my work.
The three bows were my current favorite, a 52-inch Bear Black Panther Hunter (45-pound draw weight), an old 62-inch Ben Pearson Colt (45 pounds) and a beautiful 62-inch Jeffrey Custom Takedown (47 pounds). I immediately noted how much smoother the latter two shot because of their longer limbs.
Using the bare shaft and later my feather-fletched hunting arrows, I used a combination of screw-in weights and 125-, 150- and 200-grain points to determine the perfect weight. Most local archery shops don’t offer threaded weights or points in anything but 100 or 125 grains, so I chatted with a pro at Lancaster Archery before ordering.
Unlike a compound bow, which has various adjustments for drop-away arrow rest, cam synching, windage and elevation on $500 lighted sights and a zillion other tweaks, the recurve bow has none if you shoot off the arrow shelf. That leaves arrow adjustments. I love that.
The bare shaft used was a Gold Tip Hunter 400 spine (8.2 grains per inch), which was very close to my favorite Easton Legacy 500s (8.3 grains per inch). I also used Beman Centershot 600s (7 grains per inch).
The Bear loved a 150-grain point and Easton combo but also shot straight with the Beman and 150-grain tip. The bare shaft with a 250-grain combo seemed straight, too.
The Pearson was dead-on (no left, right, up or down angle from nock to point) with 150 grains and bare shaft, and also flew true with the 150-grain point on the Legacy shaft.
My favorite, the one initially coming with me to the woods this fall, was the Jeffrey. I moved the screw-in hunting stabilizer from my Bear to the Jeffrey and dialed in the bare shaft with 200 grains, but settled in the Easton and Legacy shafts with 150-grain tips.
All that’s left is trying some broadheads, either with or without added weights, to ensure proper flight. I don’t use mechanical heads with my recurve bows, and you should always practice with your hunting heads before the hunt.
It’s easy to accept the status quo and Uncle Joe’s recommendation for gear, but don’t be afraid to experiment a bit with your archery equipment for peak performance.
Now I just need something brown within 25 yards to shoot at.
Ross Bielema is a freelance writer from New London and owner of Wolf River Concealed Carry] LLC. Readers can contact him at ross@wolfriverccw.com.