This hunter really needs to take a bow
Roberts prefers the primitive to the modern, and that includes making his own gear
Chuck Roberts was hanging jerky when I called Monday. Figures. Last month, Roberts sent a possible Buck of the Week from Montgomery County in Indiana. I tried to decipher everything. The buck was big enough, 11 points. But other things didn’t fit. He wore blaze orange and not just any bow, but a longbow.
He had killed the buck with a longbow during Indiana’s firearm season. You can still bowhunt then in Indiana but must wear florescent orange.
The bow, which draws 47 pounds, was won at a raffle held at the first Tom Swift Memorial shoot. The bow was made by Billy Dugard and given to North Florida Archers. Roberts bought $30 in raffle tickets to win it.
“I have a bucket-list desire to build a bow from a wooden stave and tip the arrow with an arrowhead I made,’’ Roberts emailed.
That touches on the dueling divergent streams in modern outdoors, the push to the more primitive vs. the push to the latest and greatest in technology.
Roberts is following the primitive path. Come along.
“It is very satisfying,’’ Roberts said. “When you shoot a compound bow with sights, it is kinda like shooting a rifle. When you shoot a longbow, it is more like shotgun, just instinct. I find I like it a lot more.’’
Longbows are basically grown-up versions of the bows we made as kids with curved sticks and string. Compound bows are the most popularly used hunting bow, though crossbows are gaining quickly. Longbows are fringe weapons.
Roberts got into traditional shooting through his late friend Tom Swift, whose dad had been their Boy Scout Troop leader. Swift invited Roberts to Paradise Hunt Camp in Georgia and told him “it was traditional archery only.’’
“I asked if I could bring my compound bow, and he said, ‘Sure, but [be] prepared to eat a ton of crap if there are other hunters in camp. Expect comments like why do you need training wheels on your bow and stuff like that,’ ’’ Roberts emailed. “So I borrowed a longbow, and practiced every day leading up to the hunt.’’
Roberts is a retired IT guy from Yorkville. “The big day came and Tom and I spotted a small herd of hogs in a millet food plot,’’
Roberts emailed. “Tom said, ‘You’re the guest, go ahead and put the sneak on them.’
“I got the wind in my favor and started.
Twenty minutes later I had snuck to the spot, but the hogs had fed away from the original spot. I recalculated where to sneak to intercept them. They must have scented me. Hogs were running everywhere. Three boars came running by and I thought this is my only chance. On pure instinct, I let fly an arrow.
“Well, all those hours of practice paid off. I took the closest hog right behind the foreleg, quartering away. He ran about 100 yards to where we found him. Now after a thrill like that, how can you return to cams, pulleys, peep sights and pins?’’
That question goes to the heart of more primitive vs. more modern.
Roberts goes deeper into the more primitive.
“Making your own gear is another whole level,’’ Roberts said.
He watched YouTube videos of Clay Hayes making gear and tried to understand chasing the growth ring the length of an Osage orange stave.
Roberts attended several flint-knapping seminars and watched more YouTube videos.
“Ever since [the first knapping], I hate to tell you how many YouTubes I have watched,’’ he said. “There are different ways to do it.’’
Some people use modern tools to shape the arrows, others go truly old-school.
He has been to a bow-building seminar in Missouri.
“Last year, I was unable to build the quality of gear to hunt with,’’ Roberts emailed. But he tried.
He started with oak, it broke. He took a piece of mulberry, but he violated a growth ring when working on it.
“Most recently, I tried a piece of cherry and tried to back that with rawhide and it also broke,’’ Roberts said. “Reality is a bitch.’’
In some ways, he is connecting his young reality and his retired one.
“I watched ‘Robin Hood’ on TV when I was little,’’ Roberts said. “I cut a piece of sumac, because nobody cared if you cut that. Then I used interconnecting rubber bands. I tried to go out and be the mighty hunter with my rubber-band bow.’’
His next attempt will be with Osage orange (hedge apple). He has the wood harvested and currently drying for his next bow stave.
“There is a definite learning curve,’’ Roberts emailed. “I am faring better with the arrowheads but am still working on making consistent size and weight.
Maybe this coming year I will get my kit together.’’ ✶