Homemade Spine Tester ans small game arrows on the cheap!

[Cinead]

Here is what I use.....

http://www.jamesmhill.com/Spine_Tester.html

Works just as well, if not better than the $200 plus commercial testers.

I have owned a few of the commercial ones......biggest complaint.....the size! The dial-thingies on these are BIG!

Also.....the cheapest one I have even found is $99. The one from above can be made for less than $50. I made mine for less than $25.

You can pick up a dial indicator from:
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/D ... number=623

I use this one, it has never failed me....and I shoot a LOT of arrows.....

Just make whatever you use sure it has a FULL 1" travel.

I mostly use this for making small game arrows. I take it with me into Lowes or HD and head back to the dowel section....I then start sorting the 5/16" hardwood dowels. Do yourself a favor....only use hardwoods for small game....trust me.

I look for the straighest ones......then start testing them......keeping the ones that pass muster.

A .30 carbine brass casing will fit perfectly over the end of a 5/16" dowel. Add a bleeder blade (available from: http://www.3riversarchery.com/Broadhead ... oduct.html) and you are ready to start losing arrows chasing after the thoughest little varmit (pound for pound) in the woods......barring a badger or wolverine......

Now I bought one pack of bleeders, made a template and make mine own from stout metal banding material that I scrounge up.....

With feathers, shafts, point and bleeder.....I can make up small game arrows for less than $2 an arrow. Ramin is also just about as indestructible as ash....so unless you lost them.....it will take a LONG while to get rid of them all!

To make them appear Tolkein "period" I spray paint them with black primer (the head only) and them sharpen the bleeder blade.

These arrows flat out put a hurting on squirrels and rabbits!

Another small game arrow articles(s) and the joy of hunting squirrels with a stick and string:

http://www.bowyersedge.com/bigtop.html
http://tmuss.tripod.com/sa.html

WARNING!

Hunting small game with a stick and string is ADDICTIVE! So much so that you will starting shooting deer while out squirrel hunting instead of shooting squirrels while out deer hunting.

Also, just remember......when you let go of the string at full sraw, pointed upwards at a squirrel.....that arrow may end up as a sacrifice to the gods of the woods.....stolen away by sprites, faeries or other fae of the woods!

[Eledhwen]

LOL Outstanding Cinead! Thank you ever so much. I ordered in my gauge already.

Eledhwen

[Cinead]

I quit hunting with any modern weapons in 1999. Since then I hunt exclusively with selfbows and wooden arrows. In fact I have only hunted in period clothes since 2004. Wool, linen and leather and some cotton since my "period" is Middle Earth, Third Age! I make my own knives and all leather products (save boots....I suck at footwear), bow, arrows, strings, but I do buy modern broadheads and make them "look" period....in fact I am often asked how I forge such nice "period" heads!

I have been heavily into primitive archery since 99 as well......I have sacrificed more arrows hunting squirrels than a lot of folks make in their life! LOL!

[Eledhwen]

I bowhunt..have done for longer than I care to admit. Up until recently I also went black powder with my .50 Hawken. I quit using rifles and shotguns long ago. One of the reasons; for anything but bow you must wear blazing orange for safety...and a LOT of it. With the bow, and the bow only, you can hunt in kit.

I'm a smith by trade and training; I make tools, blades of various sort, and other bits and bobs...when I have my forge set up, which I don't presently due to living in an apartment. They got rather annoyed with me when I tried using it outdoors. O-o

I work leather..a lot.

Now I'm doing the fletches on my own arrows, fixing to have a go with making my own arrow shafts, and having a go at making my own bow. Steep learning curve I'm told but I'll stick with it. I'm keen to go from self to composite when I get good enough.

The only time I can be about the landscape with a bow is during hunting season really. Disallowed in state and federal parks, disallowed to be wandering about with in the town. People are rabbits around here. *sigh* No swords are right out, so are tomahawks and knives with blades in excess of 8" or double edged. Welcome to the People's Republic of Massachusetts. Yeesh. Wasn't like this when I left to join the Corps...they did something in the decades I was gone.

Anyway, I hear you. Hunting in kit with a bow is the best.

Eledhwen