Tips and Tricks

[Doug Campbell]

Since moving to MT from MO I've learned a trick or two about staying out in the cold, (but it's a dry cold)    By far the best one has been the silk scarf.

I saw all the cowboys wearing them for years and thought they were mostly ornamental but wow!! do they make a difference.

I like the 3'X3' ones, just take hold of opposite corners and wrap around your neck twice then tie in front. I even made up a few antler slides so I wouldn't have to tie mine. Better than an extra layer of long handles!  

[John Nail]

go to the local hardware store, buy a "wax ring" for under a commode.melt and  mix it 3/4 with 1/4 beeswax, and you have a lifetime supply of first quality string wax for about $2.

Go to  www.netcraft.com  and buy rubber spinnerbait skirt material in the color of your choice. This comes by the foot. Very cheap, and you cut the string silencer to length after you tie it on. Makes them around a dime each.

[Doug Campbell]

Used one of the beauty shop bottles one time, worked great till I added some acetone to thin my glue. Had a major meltdown    Guess I got the wrong kind   :(  

Doug

[**DONOTDELETE**]

My mother-in-law runs her own beauty salon. Ahhh that explains why that little patch of fur on his chin is so dark

[Littlefeather]

I do the same as Sparta with my camo. Rubbermaid is great. Add a box of Arm and Hammer Baking Soda to help remove any odor.

I wash hunting clothes in Baking Soda.

A scent free soap that is much cheaper than the stuff targeting hunters is "Physoderm unscented".(Thanks Charlie).

Burnt cork makes great face camo "and will give you school girl pimples". (Thanks again Charlie).

The best way to correct the edge of a new Wensel Woodsman is a belt sander and 220 grt.
(thanks Lance C.)

Plastic, electrical "zip ties" are the greatest tool you will find when building ground blinds.

Vanilla is about the best cover scent/attractant I've found.

Hogs absolulely love store bought molasses and will travel miles to get some. Pour over the top of a Mortons Salt block and they'll travel even for even further.

"No-Snow is the best water proofer I've found for fletching.

2 by 4 block with a hole drilled through it and a rope run through it makes a tree step that will work on anysize tree and is very safe.
 CK

[George Tsoukalas]

Use "Yes, Dear." frequently!  
Jawge

[Robert Kennedy]

Another trick for getting your arrows to pull out of 3D targets easier. Keep a bar of hotel soap in your pocket or quiver. Every 4 or 5 shots, rub the end of the arrow from the point up to where you expect it to sink in.  The soap helps it slide right out, easy as you please.

[Rick Boyer]

when you store your hunting clothes in a container I put in bay leaves that grow local and just a little vanila extract. You could use any local tree that gives off a smell..I mix the vanila extract with water and put it in a spray bottle.. As for arrows pulling out easy I use rain-x on the shaft.

 gator

[Legolas]

I just love my REDI REACH.  http://www.klawhorn.com/redireachstandard.htm  

Less fatigue in the tree stand and it puts my bow exactly where my bow hand will need to be to grab my bow when I stand up. CUTS MOTION WAY DOWN.Combine it with a Saunders kwik loc  http://www.sausa.com/pp13.html  to hold my arrow or Torges match/rubberband trick and you are set.


Torges trick- take a wood match stick put a rubber band on it by laying it over the match then pulling it through itself. Then you can put the wood match over your arrow when it is shelved and wrap the other end of the rubber band around the riser/grip back to the match.

Paul

[Walkingstick]

Tom, just the opposite for me. Never a problem with the tape, hunted 12 days of rain one year in Ohio and those fletches never had a problem. Have some i have litterally worn the feather barbs down quite a bit and still on.

Glue bottles are a must because when you squeeze the bottle the glue comes out but when you release it sucks it back in. Tube doesn't do that. It keeps running.

[Charlie Lamb]

I make my own cover scent taken to the extreme. I dig a bunch of sassafrass (common in this area) and brew up a big pot of extra strong tea. Then store it in gallon milk jugs.
Since I normally shower before heading out, I use it as a rinse while still in the shower.
Smells great and can't hurt.

You could put it in a spray bottle or even use it in the rinse cylce of the wash for your clothing.

[kojac]

For a wind indicator I like to pin a saftey pin a good old cotton ball to my clothing or if I'm a little lazy I just put some in my pocket. Than pull a little of when I need to know the wind.

Happy huntin' from Montana.(it's 20 below again and gonna get worse before it get better!)

kojac

[John Nail]

Wind checker
empty squeeze bottle of "Repel" bug dope. ream out the hole a little and fill with carpenter's string line chalk. I like the blue

[Chris R]

Originally posted by George Tsoukalas:
Use "Yes, Dear." frequently!    
Jawge

Best one yet    

Chris

[Maine Mike]

I like to use duco cement for my fletching. It will adhere to the gasket lacqure finish just fine and it is cheaper than most specialty glues. I also like to use Barge cement for all my rests and strike plates. I am about as frugel as they come. My wife and I were out shoping at a discount liquidation store and I allways keep my eyes open for anything that may be of use in my traditonal archery takle. I found a piece of taned black calfs skin in a bin of scrap leather. It is super smooth like mohawk. I paid $3.00 for it and I ended up with a good supply of rest material.
I also cruise the Good will and other second hand stores. I am on the look out for old beaver and seal skin garmets. Great arrow rest and string silencer materials.
I think that is the beuty of traditional archery, the ability to improvise and still have functioning (lethal)equipment. Unlike compound shooters who have to buy the most super duper gadget and gizmo, I know I used to be one.
On my arrows I like to finnish my fletching with a serving of silk thread at the front of the fletching. I shave a little bit of the feather from the base with a razor and then wrap. This protects the fletching when I have a pass through on a target or a miss. I also keep a can of varathane on hand and paint the serving to give it an extra coat of protection. I wrap the serving like I would a guide on a fishing rod.
I guess I have blown my horn enough for tonight,
Maine Mike.

[Flinttim]

I find Duco at Big Lots now and then and buy lots of it. 'Bout 89 cents per. Leave the green cap on it that it comes with and push a bulletin board push pin into the end of it. The glue comes out perfectly for fletching arrows. Real fine bead.

I saw a neat trick in Brunner's video. He has what appears as a tuft of rabbit fur hanging by a short string on his top bow tip. Great wind indicator.

[Charlie Lamb]

For those that use fur or yarn string silencers... a good spray waterproofer makes them even less "absorbent".

[Don Thomas]

When your waders or pacs get wet on a wilderness hunt up north, warm two river rocks next to the campfire at night and drop one in each boot before you go to bed. They will be dry by morning. sure beats struggling with frozen waders! Don

[CAHunter]

Learned this one from G. Fred

Great wind checker.

Tie UN-waxed dental floss (Not the Gore Stuff either) on you bow string at each end, leaving about 2-4 inches of excess hanging off. It will shread apart and will pick up even the smallest breeze.  I keep mine on year round. The worse it looks the better it seems to work.

[Doug Campbell]

Had the bright to tie a feather on my upper limb tip for a wind indicator, worked great till I was four steps from a nice black bear just waiting for him to offer a good angle. The wind was fairly stiff and that feather was whipping around, the bear looked up and spotted that feather. You could just see him go from the feather, follow up the bow limb to a big ol blob of me hanging onto the bow then the recognition of what I was. Didn't take him long to get gone.   :(  

Now I use milk weed pods, just go out when they are about ready to pop open and put electrical tape around the pod. Collect when they mature and you have a ready made container. Break the end off and pull out one little parachute at a time. You can see them from quite adistance and they'll float forever. Seed even stay in teh pod most of the time.

Doug