CLUB OFFICERS President: Ronnie Courvelle (850-4207) Vice President: Secretary: Mike Nickels (712 326-5779) Treasurer:Brent Simmerman(597-9497) Trustee:Ed Rebarich(345-7608)
Trustee: Dave Holthouse (291-0211) News Editor:Lee Pereksta(592-3856) 3D Coordinator: Mike Palm(590-3439) Indoor Range Coordinator Tom Bocman (344-8019) Indoor range phone (734-7272)
Key Dates to Remember
Septermer 13 - Club Meeting, 7:00 Indoor Range
September 15 - Openday day of deer season
August Club Meeting I missed the August meeting—was on vacation on that date. When talking to another member, it sounded like not much was discussed. We did vote in two new memberships though.
New Members There were two new memberships voted in at the August Meeting. Our newest members are returning members; Dave Wise and Cory John. Welcome back to the Ahamo Archery Club.
Club News:
There hasn’t been much going on this past month. Our 3D’s are done for the year so there’s no news there and no shoot results to add to the newsletter.
A couple of things to mention: Our next club meeting will be on Monday, September 13. This is because the first Monday in September is on Labor Day.
If you have a fan at home that works and you don’t plan to use it anymore, bring it down and plug it in at our indoor range. We used to have a couple of large commercial fans down there, but they died and were tossed.
The range temperature isn’t too bad because of its location in the basement, but when it is near 100 degrees outside it does get a little sticky.
As always, here’s a reminder to keep your range clean. I was down there a couple of days this past week and it looked pretty good. So thanks to those of you that are doing that. Pick up your trash when you leave and either take it home, or put it in our containers. If it does look a little messy, sweeping up is helpful also. When you do that, just send me or Mike Nickels a quick email on that and we’ll mark you down for a work party.
Newsletter Information
I always add a note to the newsletter asking for articles to add to it. Not many of you respond to that. In the past several years, I’ve probably had one ot two articles per year that weren’t from me or from something I found on the web.
If anyone does have something for the newsletter, or has a burning desire to put their thoughts down to share with others (something archery, hunting, or club related) it will be welcomed. It’s sometimes difficult to find enough news to add to the newsletter.
Also, note that I am planning to retire in 2012 and will be leaving this wonderful state. If anyone would like to take over the Newsletter job from me starting in 2011 I would welcome that—and would be more than willing to share that responsibility with you throughout 2011. In 2012, I will definitely not be doing this anymore and will need a replacement for sure.
Hunting Articles:
With not much to add to the newsletter this month, I’ll add a couple of hunting related articles from me. One that’s new, and another on field dressing that I add to the newsletter on occasion.
Tuning Your Hunting Bow:
I’m sure most of you know that you need to shoot your arrows with broadheads before the season starts to be sure you can hit your target. If you don’t do that you could be very disappointed when you finally get a shot after several weeks into the season and your arrow doesn’t hit where you aimed.
1. Basic Broadhead Flight: Your broadhead is like having fins on the front of your arrow. If your arrow comes out of the bow just a little crooked, the fins catch the wind and will move your arrow high, low, or off to the side before stabilizing.
Even if you have expandable broadheads, there could be an issue. Those types of heads are usually longer than your field points and will give you a different center of balance with your arrow.
You also need to pay attention to the weight of your field points and your broadheads. If they are not the same, your broadheads will fly a lot different than your field points.
At a minimum, you need to shoot some practice broadheads at a target to validate your sight settings or to reset your sights. We have broadhead targets at the indoor range for that, or you can just find a dirt bank somewhere to shoot at.
2. Simple Tuning: I tried a new process for tuning my bow for broadheads this year that worked much better than I expected.
I shot my broadhead at a target, then my field point at a different target from the same distance. I then adjusted my rest, reshot, and adjusted again until both shots hit is the same relative area on the target.
My broadhead was first shooting lower than my field point. Thinking that my knocking point was too high, causing my knock end of the arrow to kick up and the blades of my broadhead to steer the arrow lower in the target, I moved my rest up a little. It worked like a charm. After a couple rounds of shots and continued adjusting, both arrows were hitting at the same height.
My broadheads were then shooting a little right of my field points. Thinking that my rest was too far to the right, causing my broadhead to kick the knock end of the arrow left and steer the broadhead to the right, I moved my rest to the left. For some reason, that didn’t work. It just moved my broadhead further right. I moved the rest to the right, and both arrows ended up hitting the same spot. I even moved back to 30 yards and had both arrows hitting the same spot.
In the past, I had paper tuned my broadhead, which took a lot longer. After tuning the new way, I tried shooting a field point through paper, and it shot a perfect bullet hole.
3. Other things to watch for: I found in the past, that my bow shoots differently when I shoot it with gloves on. My cloth gloves slid around a little and cause my hand to be at a slightly different position on my bow. This causes the arrows to shoot differently for me.
I made a mistake by tuning my bow without gloves on. After tuning it, the next time I shot, I used my gloves, and found the broadhead was again shooting differently than my field point. I retuned with gloves, and all was well.
If you can’t get your broadheads to shoot the same as your field points, there’s a couple of things you can try. First, you need to be sure you are not torque-ing your bow in your hand. If you grip your bow to hard, or allow the bow handle to not be centered in your hand, your bow could twist to the side as you release. This will cause your arrow to jump to one side or the other as you release, making it almost impossible to shoot your arrows consistently.
Another thing to check is your rest. If your fletchings are hitting your rest when you shoot, your arrow will be deflected left or right, up or down. If you can’t get your broadheads to shoot the same as your field point and you have everything else, you can check your rest. One way to do that, is to spray foot powder on the vanes of one of your arrows and simply shoot it. Any powder scraped off of a vane when shoot, will show you where contact is being made. You can correct this by rotating your knocks, moving your rest during the tuning process, or by changing your rest.
4. Final points: Other things to be aware of, include shooting the correct spine of arrow, and contact with clothing. If you can’t get your arrow to shoot, the size of your arrow may not be correct. The best way to check this is to visit a local archery shop and show them your bow and your arrow. There are charts that will show the correct size arrow for your draw weight, draw length, and type of cam. You can find this yourself on the internet, but to be sure, you should check with a good archery shop.
Finally, before heading to the woods, you should shoot some arrows with hunting clothing on. If nothing else, shoot with a long sleeved shirt or jacket, and try one or two shots with your head net on if you wear one when hunting.
Field Dressing Your Deer Here’s a field dressing article I’ve put in the newsletter in prior years. Hopefully it’s helpful to both experienced and new bowhunters. The better you take care of your deer immediately after harvesting it, the better it will taste when you cook it.
1. Field dressing kit. All you really need is a sharp knife, but there are some things that you may also want on hand. My kit consists of a small knife, a small towel, several paper towels, a small saw, some water, rope, and a plastic bag for the heart. I also carry a small bottle of water with a little vinegar to help wash out the blood when I’m through. Note that all hunters should have a first aid kit with them. Mine isn’t big, but it at least has band aids, tape, gauze, and some first aid cream. Before having a first aid kit in my pack, I once cut my finger while field dressing a deer and had to use masking tape and folded up pieces of a paper towel to stop the bleeding before continuing with field dressing.
I also have some disposable rubber field dressing gloves that really help to keep your hands clean and to get a grip on the windpipe when you pull everything out of the body cavity.
Note that your knife does not need to be big. The smaller it is, the easier it is to work with it without getting cut. I use a 2 1/2 inch buck knife with a locking blade.
The important thing is that your knife must be very sharp. It will be easier to work with, and will do a much neater job.
2. Preparing to field dress your deer Be certain your broadhead is not inside the body cavity. Make every effort to find your arrow. If you can’t locate the broadhead, check to see if there is an entry and an exit point in the carcass. If you are not certain where the broadhead is, open the deer up carefully during the field dressing process and use an arrow without a broadhead to poke around inside the cavity to try and locate the broadhead.
Tag your animal first - this is the law, and I always do this right away. With the paper tags, you will at least need to punch your holes indicating the date of the kill. Next, drag the deer to where you want to field dress it. I always look for a flat area with two small trees on each side of the deer. I also lay my towel next to the deer and lay out everything I will be using, on or next to the towel.
3. Make your first cut Cut around the anus first. Pull it out a little and cut around it as you pull it out. It is much easier to cut around the anus while the deer is on its side, before you spread its back legs out. I cut in about 3 inches or so deep. Game and Parks has a video that shows Dick Turpin field dressing a deer. In it, he cuts in a little deeper than I do, and makes extra care to angle his knife out to avoid the bladder. He then pulls it out a little and ties a string that is pre-tied with a slip knot around the anus so nothing leaks out, and pulls it back through the body cavity from the inside without cutting the pelvic bone. I don’t do this, but it’s something you can do if you’d like.
4. Spread out the hind legs and cut from the breastbone. I use two pieces of rope to spread the legs out, stretching them out between two small trees. You can also have someone hold them apart, or even keep the deer flat on it’s back with your legs as you make your cut.
Begin cutting at the breastbone. I pull up on the hair and cut into the hide right at the breastbone. Once started, I cut into the hide (including the belly muscle), insert two fingers and pull up as I cut.
Keep pulling and cutting until you get to the sex organs. Pull up on these and cut around them. There is a long tube running from the sex organs to the anus on a buck. Cut into the hide and meat, and along side of this as you pull up on it. When I get to the anus, I cut this off and toss it aside. On a doe, you should cut around the udders.
5. Cut through the Pelvic bone with your saw This is not necesary. One year I cut in around the anus deep enough that I could pull the anus and colon out from the inside. Because of CWD, the game and parks web page was recommending the bone not be cut just to be safe. However, as soon as I got to the butcher he cut it so he could be sure the inside was clean and so it would cool faster. The butcher still boned out the deer, but the only bone he cut was the pelvic bone. I went back to cutting it for that reason, it allows the deer to cool faster, and cutting the bone makes it easier to drag the deer out of the woods. When I cut the bone, I cut through the meat straight down to the bone with my knife, then use my saw to cut through the pelvic bone. When I am almost all of the way through, I lean on each side of the back legs to pop the bone open.
6. Cut through the Diaphragm The diaphragm is a thin piece of tissue separating the stomach and chest cavity. To get to the heart and lungs you must cut through this tissue. I cut around the entire cavity, through the diaphragm. I also pull the stomach to one side, then the other while cutting through whatever tissue is attached between the stomach and the body cavity. This will make it easier to pull out the stomach.
7. Pull everything out of the body cavity To do this, some people split the breast bone first. Some use their knives for this, which can be very dangerous. It is very easy to have a knife slip and cut yourself or someone else while cutting through the breast bone. If you want to split the breast bone, cut through the hide first, then use a saw to cut the bone.
I leave the bone in-tact and reach in up to my elbows. I reach in with my left hand and grab the wind pipe. Then, with my finger along the back of the blade of my knife, I keep the blade away from the arm and hand inside the deer and reach in with my knife hand until it is past the hand holding the wind pipe. Cut through the wind pipe with your knife, and carefully pull your knife out turning it away from your hand that is inside the deer. Toss the knife onto your towel and reach back in to pull the wind pipe. At this point, everything should pull out, all the way and over the back legs.
8. Final steps After pulling everything out, I always hang my deer in a tree and spread the legs to let it drain. I have a rope and pulley system I use for this, but you can pull it up without pulley’s or elevate it a little on a log or hill. The important thing is to drain the blood out as best as you can. I have a small bottle of water I carry that has a small amount of white vinegar (a tsp. or so) in it. I also have the top of a Clean Shower spray bottle that I screw onto the water bottle when I need it. This works great to ‘mist’ the inside of the deer and then wipe it out. I wipe the carcass as clean as I can with paper towels and leave it to cool while I carry my gear back to my truck.
If you leave your deer while you carry your equipment out, note that Nebraska requires that you roll your tag up and tie it to the inside of the deer’s ear.
Be sure to clean up your paper towels, and to cut out and save the heart. If you don’t like the heart, you’re missing out on a treat. My wife makes a great pate’ with my deer heart that is always a hit over the holidays.
Newsletter Items
If you have a hunting picture or story, please send it to me, I’d like to put it in the newsletter. If you have an item for sale, send me the information to put in the newsletter as well.
Please email me anything you would like to add to the newsletter, or contact me for my mailing address. You can even give me your article at a club meeting.
