"Howdy" to All!!

[directdrive]

Howdy, Ya'll. My given name is Bruce though I go by Directdrive online. Found this lovely Bushcraft UK website only yesterday and was enthralled. Wonderful articles and great interaction on all of the various topics.

I'm a 56 year old guy with a hankering for wild places and solitude that can't be found in "civilized" areas. I enjoy working with my hands and making useful and unique things that have true value for me. Buying "off the shelf" mass produced items is certainly easier and sometimes wiser but they don't have any "magic" in them the way a self bow or hand forged knife carefully crafted by one's own hand does.

I live in the U.S. in Northwest Florida which for all practical purposes is really south Alabama. I am an ardent hunter and fisherman. Although I hunt with a rifle often, I prefer bows I've crafted myself. I am a potter and educator by trade and profession though I love to dabble in all manner of things from flint knapping, strip building kayaks, making bows and arrows from native materials, knife making, brain tanning hides and so-on and so-forth. I believe in being self sufficient and not relying on the government or someone else to take care of me and mine. Although in many ways I am a hopeless romantic, I am also well prepared and as self reliant as possible.

I look forward to participating in and learning from all the folks on this website.

Good Wishes to One and All

 

[Abbe Osram]

Hi mate,
welcome to the group, sounds like you are already on the go.
Make yourself a home here.

cheers
Abbe

 

[JonnyP]

G day Bruce.........sounds like you will fit in here just fine, any questions, just ask cos everyone is really helpful. I bet its great where you live, lots of open space, woods, lakes and rivers I imagine.
Anyway, Welcome...............Jon

 

[Ed]

A warm welcome to you. Please feel free to make yourself at home.


Ed

 

[Tony]

Hi directdrive and welcome to BCUK, that's a great introduction, thanks very much. I think you'll fit in here just fine and I'm sure that there's going to be a few people picking your brains about some of the things you get up to.

Enjoy

 

[Ogri the trog]

Welcome aboard Direct Drive
Its good to have you around and I look forward to hearing of your experiences.

ATB

Ogri the trog

 

[The Joker]

And thats a hello from me

 

[wolf]

wild places and solitude,how lucky...

 

[Millbilly]

Hello mate, good to have you on board. Everyone heres really friendly, and your sure to learn loads. enjoy! :You_Rock_

 

[rich59]

Hi Bruce/ Directdrive.

A very warm welcome.
I'm from London, UK. I wonder if bushcrafting is by its very nature romantic. A love affair with the wild. I seem to be doing my best to make my garden a wild place anyhow!

 

[running bare]

welcome bruce
even though this is bushcraftuk it is not restricted to uk as you may have noticed, friends from all over the world log on and like you they are all welcome we look forward to your input

tom

 

[Doc]

Welcome Bruce. Another archer is always welcome. There are quite a few folk here interested in bowhunting but it's not legal in the UK.

Good on you with all that practical stuff with pottery, bows, etc. Thoreau reckoned he had as many trades as he had fingers, and being able to 'do stuff' is great.

 

[directdrive]

Hi, Doc: Thanks for your mention of Thoreau being able "to do stuff" or to do things with one's own hands. Often, I have feelings of guilt when I am making things. I tell myself I could be doing something entirely more "useful" and the feeling ruins what ever I am doing at the time, be it making a bow, rolling my own cordage, knapping a skinning blade from chert or whatever. I know I shouldn't ever feel that way but still, I often do.

Anyway, you and Thoreau have made me feel a lot better about it. I can't quote him but Percy Shelly's poem, "Ozymandius" pretty much says it all. No matter how many "useful" or "important" things we do, they and we will all be forgotten in time.....so we may as well enjoy what we do as long as we are able....

Didn't know bowhunting was outlawed in Great Britain.....Come over here sometime if you like and we'll set you up a fine hunt......Bruce

 

[running bare]

what kind of power and range do you hunt over with a bow???

tom

probably sounds a daft question but im sure archers over here would be interested :You_Rock_

 

[directdrive]

Running Bare:

No. Your question isn't daft. When I was young and full of macho, I used bows that pulled more than 100 lbs. They weren't at all necessary. They were only statements of my "manliness". Nowadays, most of my bows pull between 50 and 60 lbs. For medium sized big game, even a 25 or 30 lb. pull will kill easily. Everyone of them will send an arrow slap through a deer and into the woods beyond it.

I use slow, heavy arrows. My arrows weigh in at close to 700 grains each with field point or broadhead. I spine them one at a time. It takes me a long time to come up with a dozen that have the same spine and weight. These arrows are diametricallly opposite those used by 99% of archers today who prefer eccentric wheeled compound bows, overdraws, releases, sights, superlight carbon arrows fletched with plastic vanes and mechanical broadheads that open on contact with game animals.

Although some of the early masters such as Howard Hill and Fred Bear liked a "file edge" on their broadheads, I prefer a shaving sharp edge. My heads are usually traditional two-edged Black Diamond Eskimos or the old Bear Razorheads. I have a bunch of Howard Hill heads but they are the very devil to sharpen.

Generally, I use a self bow fashioned from a single stave much like the English longbow but shorter, wider and flatter in cross-section.

I never take a shot at more than 40 yards. Usually, my shots are at 20 yards or less. I shoot instinctively.

Bruce

 

[Doc]

Fine on that, Bruce. Most archery in the UK is Olympic type target archery with long high tech recurves, but there is some field archery with recurves and, to a lesser extent, compounds.

At the last Scottish meet most of the bows were either homemade and similar to what you describe, or traditional hunting recurves like my 1968 Bear Tigercat. Arrows were, again, like yours - cedar shafts, feather fletching, heavy field points. I think archery as practised by bushcraft people in the UK borrows heavily from American 'traditional' bowhunting.

The compound is just too much like a machine for me. It has been said that primitive man's greatest inventions were fire, the bow and the wheel, so by setting fire to a compound bow you can have all three....

I shoot instinctive too. Not yet accurate enough to go hunting, but in time I'll be looking to get a takedown so I can fly to the US/Canada with it and put it to good use....

 

[andyn]

G'day Bruce Welcome aboard. Sounds like you have some wonderful experience with bow hunting. i look forward to reading more. Take care.

 

[morch]

Hi Bruce, welcome aboard mate

 

[Scout]

welcome aboard bcuk bruce

 

[Topcat02]

Hi Bruce, and welcome.