I have tried many things, the best one is the bow/arrow with a 20 lb
strength fishing line , the force of a bow is out of any competition.
But there are many things to adapt and to know.
Some tips :
SAFETY FIRST, THE BOW IS A WEAPON, THE USUAL CARE FOR THE WEAPONS MUST BE
KNOWN AND FOLLOWED (CARE OF PEOPLE AROUND, NO CHILDREN, NO ANIMALS AROUND,
RISK OF BOUNCING, PROTECTION GLASSES ETC...). IF YOU DO NOT KNOW THEM, LEARN
THEM IN A CLUB FIRST.
About the arrow, I replace the tip by a golf ball, the tip is easily
unscrewed and replaced by a drilled ball (golf or tennis) with a same #
screw passing trough the ball. Of course a big washer is necessary to attach
the wire and to prevent the screw to go back into the ball.
The tip must be replaced because we will not want the arrow to stay drived
in the trunk or a branch in case of bad shot.
Additionally, the ball instead of the tip will make the arrow less dangerous
(but still dangerous).
The golf ball and the tennis ball have the same weight which is twice the
weight of the arrow. so by adding a ball to the arrow one multiply its
weight by 3 which is the good weight to permit the arrow to fall back down
with a fishing line attached. If the arrow is not heavy enough, it will not
be able to balance the weight of the fishing line on the other side of the
branch and will not fall back.
A last interest for the use a ball over a nut, is that the ball because it
is bigger acts as a air break. The bow is so powerful that an free arrow can
pass over several 100 ft trees before coming back to ground which can be
dangerous and unpractical. I use the golf ball arrow for trees up to 100 ft
and the tennis one for up to 50 ft.
About the fishing line. I roll 250 ft of fishing line around a 10 inches
cylinder (in practice an office paper bin). The cylinder is drilled
perpendicularly and a boom is passed trough it. The boom is attached, same
technology as an antenna, to a little portable mast itself supported by a
parasol base. For the shoot, the axis of the cylinder is oriented in the
direction of the target. The interest of that is the fact that 1) during the
arrow climbing, the wire unrolls with less resistance than with a
traditional fishing system, same thing when the arrow is going down slowly
trough the branches and 3) It is far more faster and less tiring to roll
back the wire this way after a shoot (I use a glove to avoid hands to be cut
by wire).
If the wire is too strong (more than 20 lb), it can be dangerous in case of
blocking during a shoot, the arrow could come back in someone's head. It is
a better thing in this case to see the wire breaking and the arrow to go
away from me. Same thing if the arrow is blocked in the tree, sometimes it
is possible to break the wire just at the arrow level by pulling hard on it
and to get back the arrow.
Before each shoot, I always verify several times that the fishing line is
not in a position to be blocked. I particularly check that there are no any
turn of rolled wire on the wrong side of the boom.
If I do a bad shoot, I will never try to pull back the arrow with the wire
through the tree. I always let the arrow go to the ground, then cut the
wire, roll back the wire and re-attach the arrow to the wire when ready to
shoot again. It prevents me from blocking the arrow in the trees by
uncontrolled fall of the arrow and to get a fishing line mess when the arrow
falls from the top of the tree with a big length of line all around.
Gilles VE2TZT
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mel Crichton" <kj9c@iquest.net>
To: <topband@contesting.com>
Sent: Monday, October 18, 2010 8:41 AM
Subject: Re: Topband: The Slingshot Option
>I am also a die-hard bow/arrow user, having shot lines over 120 footers
>.... a couple of options to consider:
>
> To weight the arrow, tape two 1/2 inch nuts over the end of a target
> arrow.... be sure to tape well to cover the end of the arrow/nut
> combination in case the arrow takes a flyer... don't want the point
> sticking into something.... (I guess you could remove the point first)....
>
> Paint the arrow with fluorescent paint if shooting in the woods (they are
> hard to find otherwise)
>
> I shoot 8 lb line, then use it to pull 20# line, and THEN pull 1/8 inch to
> 3/16 inch rope.... less chance that the pull line will break if the rope
> snags. I use an old bow with about 60# pull.
>
> Usually can place a line within a foot or two of ideal location in just a
> few tries... a lot less frustrating than using slingshot or throwing a
> weight
>
> Mel KJ9C
> _______________________________________________
> UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK
_______________________________________________
UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK
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