Current News

 Ashby Bowhunting Foundation Newsletter

September 2024

President’s Message

President’s Message:
A simple reminder to study your quarry before hunting and use an appropriate arrow system capable of quick, clean kills. The bowhunting community received a black eye from a youtuber/promotional hunter named Chris Bee for publishing a clown show video that put on full display his ineptness in preparing for a hunt, and his guide for allowing it.

Not unexpectedly, this has caused quite the outrage in Australia and the damage is done even though I understand he has pulled his video offline. An irresponsible and unethical hunter using a completely inappropriate arrow system for buffalo and handing the anti-hunting crowd ammunition, and the sad part is he seemed quite proud of himself. There is no excusing this stupidity on behalf of any hunter nor any real guide and I’m sure the fallout to the bowhunting community has yet to come. The entire bowhunting community needs to wake up to the simple fact that if you use an inefficient arrow system incapable of penetration into an animal, expect inefficient results.

On better news, ABF renewed its agreement with Texas Parks & Wildlife Department.

Good hunting and as always, have a nice day.

Rob Neilson

Donations​

The Ashby Bowhunting Foundation is a 501 (c) (3) education and research organization. 100% of your donation will go to the Missions of Ashby Bowhunting Foundation. No salaries are paid by the Foundation. We realize there are many worthwhile organizations out there, and greatly appreciate your consideration and support.

Newsletter Tip

Please note an update to Factor 8 was recently released. For your convenience, Factor 8 now reads:

Shaft Profile
Tapered shafts show an 8% penetration advantage over parallel shafts, and 15% over barrel-tapered shafts. Parallel shafts show a 7% advantage over barrel-
tapered shafts. This is applicable to all arrows and shaft materials, on all hits. (See Arrow Lethality, Part 2: The Natal Study and 2004 Update, Part 2.) (2024 Update) Based on ABF testing, due to the advancements in arrow shaft technology in the decades since this factor was put forth, such as the availability of stronger spines in smaller diameter parallel shafts with strong steel inserts and collars achieving an FOC equal to or greater than tapered shafts, ABF now views this Factor as of nil importance for those using such shafts. It does, however, remain a factor for consideration by traditional bowhunters, particularly those using wood shafts.

Events

→ Testing Season. Testing on cull animals and focal point studies underway on select heads.

→ Sept 12: HSC Archery Event at Outlaw Archery

→ Sept 28: Trinity Oaks Gala in Houston

→ Hunting Season

Ashby System Results - Bowhunter Interview with Troy Fowler

How long have you been a bowhunter?

Troy: I have been bowhunting since I was 12 years old and by now that’s pushing 40 years.  Old slow compounds, overdraws, and a decade shooting traditional including two kills with flint points.

Do you hunt with traditional equipment, compound, crossbow, or a combination of these?

Troy: Traditional gear years ago, mainly compound but I just got a crossbow and it’s super fun.  I may give it a go on the ranch pigs!

What is/are your favorite animal(s) to hunt?

Troy: Large adult boar feral hogs and elk.

What is/are your favorite bowhunting method(s): stands, still hunting, spot and stalk, pure stalking, or other?

Troy: Due to my being in a private land state mostly hunting out of stands.  But I prefer glassing and stalking.

What event(s) brought you to use Ashby-style arrow setups?

Troy: FAILURE.  I was having inconsistent lethality, tracking distances, and penetration were completely unpredictable. 90% of the shots were at feeders at a known distance and I wasn’t missing. This should be easy - right?

Especially (this is key) as the animals I hunted and focused on were larger.  For instance a 120 pound pig has no comparable physiology as a penetration medium to a 220 pound boar. They are completely different due to enlarged bone structure. Big pigs eat broadheads.  I haven’t shot an elk yet, but people tell me they are much bigger than a whitetail deer! I need to go find out!

My first kill with an “Ashby arrow” was with a 54# longbow.  I had built (I call it tinkering) the arrows back when I was still experimenting with “heavy” arrows on my compound. I was not convinced!  They just look so SSSLLOOOWWW!! Then one day I said to myself.  “Well, Troy, if you’re gonna do this let’s do this!  Let’s replicate Ed.”   (I did not know Dr Ashby at the time - just gleaned off the ashby report and figuring it out redneck style!)

So I went back to a traditional longbow, the arrow ended up 680 grains 26% FOC, hand sharpened 3:1 single bevel, intact structural integrity.  Perfect bare shaft flight with every arrow. It took me a week to build 6 of them.  This is pre internet and I had to work with bits and pieces of tuning info.

The day comes for me to test! So I grab my setup and go to the ranch looking for a “pig”. All I wanted a regular pig. But NOPE, I am easing through the brush and there, I see, the biggest pig I’ve ever seen while hunting, to date.  We play cat and mouse a bit and I end up 17 yards or so from it.  As I draw he sees me and rotates toward me to see what the heck I was doing or check my heart rate because it was racing!!!

 
Oh boy!! Quartering to with an arrow going maybe 150 FPS.  I literally said to myself, “if Ed’s right, this is gonna work”. I aimed into the shoulder junction and released my arrow “test” while fully preparing to run like hell!  At impact, I hear an almost inaudible “chut” sound and the arrow disappears into him like he wasn’t there…..I was absolutely surprised and stood there as the pig spun a bit and then he ran off, but not like his tail was on fire, just kinda running. Uncertain of the hit - I left him 4 hours.  Well, the arrow penetrated 4 feet and the broadhead popped out his ham.  Blood trail was easy.  I was amazed.  No sound on impact (hardly), 4 feet of penetration, and 100 yard blood trail.  The pig weighed 265 pounds.  My biggest pig to date and I’ve whacked a pile of them since!

Could you describe your typical arrow setup(s) for hunting big game?

Troy: 650 + grains, single bevel one piece broadheads hand sharpened.  Every single arrow is bare shaft, nock tuned, for perfect flight - then fletched with (4) 2” AA style feathers to max FOC.

Overall, what has been your experience using Ashby-style arrow setups?

Troy: Put simply. When you put in the works and build an Ashby style arrow, the only reason you don’t get your animal, you didn’t hit vital organs. It’s now my shooting mistakes or they jump the string and after the shot that makes things questionable.  The arrow system does not fail in any capacity.  The human might.  But we can have arrows bending or broadheads that dull on impact or arrows that don’t penetrate decide our hunting success.  If you mess up, it is ok.  But to have an equipment failure?  That doesn’t happen anymore to me.

Do you have any bowhunting tips you would like to pass along?

Troy: Perfect arrow flight is completely misunderstood and it takes a ton of work. “Spare no effort or expense to achieve perfect arrow flight” Dr Ed Ashby!!

From the Field - The Value Of Bowhunting Mentors

“The bowhunter’s challenge is not only in the hunt, but in the time spent alone in the woods preparing for the hunt.” Fred Bear

I cut my bowhunting teeth hunting whitetails on Montana's Bitterroot River. It was a bowhunter's dream. I hunted with a PSE compound because I could afford it and it seemed like the right bow to use. I was figuring eveything out on my own. No mentoring and often shooting from the hip. I bought one of the first Screaming Eagle tree stands from Paul Brunner in Ovando, Montana. I would shoot a lot of practice arrows from the tree stand. I didn't know how to approach my stand properly and would end up spooking deer I saw and probably many I didn't. I would see deer all the time, just not in range. Sitting in a treestand for hours, especially in subzero temperatures, wasn't for me. So I climbed down and started moving through the woods slowly, hoping for a shot. I tried everything, including using cattle as a moving blind as they'd head into the trees in the evening while the deer were coming out. Plenty of laughs but few shot opportunities. 

I had a hell of a time using that PSE compound on the ground. I still liked to shoot it instinctively but for some reason my ability to judge distance on the ground had gotten much worse. I shared my despair with my roommate Chuck Ondov, another bowhunter, and he knew instantly what the problem was. He said, "Shooting that compound bow instinctively, is like walking around with black tape over your right eye. With a compound bow you are forced to hold it straight up and down because you are shooting off an elevated rest. The top limb was blocking my right eye. This severely hampered my ability to leverage parallax, where both eyes are focused on the same point, the place where you want your arrow to go. He let me borrow a recurve he had and I shot it every day for two weeks. Then I took it out in the woods and practiced stump shooting, the best form of practice as every shot is new and replicated bowhunting. Few wild game animals mimic a target bale on flat ground. Now, shooting off the shelf I could rotate that top limb out of the way and both eyes were focused on the target. I could consistently hit a four inch target at twenty yards. I fell in love with archery and bowhunting. Plus the recurve was an absolute joy to carry in the woods. I also told Chuck that I had run into two seasoned bowhunters on the river but didn't ask for their names. When I described what they were wearing, the recurves they were shooting and their sense of humor, he responded, "Living Legends!" It was Gene and Barry Wensel, brothers who would become great friends over the years. I was honored to share several hunting camps with these traditional bowhunters. 

Then I moved to Fort Collins, Colorado and found wild places that had plenty of elk in alpine country. I spent time at Arrow Dynamics in Fort Collins and attended a seminar put on by G. Fred Asbell. I immediately bought his book, Instinctive Shooting. And I found another mentor, Lee Kline, who I worked with at HP in Loveland. Lee was one of the founders of the Colorado Bowhunters Association and he had a lot of patience mentoring me. With help from Asbell and Kline I learned things I'd never learn on my own. Asbell helped me with my stance as well as tuning the bow. Kline had me shooting in all kinds of positions, including laying flat on my back and shooting across my chest. A little crazy to say the least! My favorite position was on my knees, with my butt on the heels of my boots. I love this position as the arrow angle is perfect, my visibility is reduced, I was super stable and could swing almost 180 degrees. The first elk I killed was a cow elk about eighteen yards away. It was a steep downhill shot, into a creek bottom. I was brushing snow off this log, getting ready to sit down and thirty five elk appeared and were headed down the opposite hillside to get a drink in the creek. There were many spikes and a few raghorns. I decided on a three or four year old cow that was in the lead. I knelt down and had to cant my bow over to shoot underneath this spruce limb. My bow was parallel to the ground. I picked the spot when she put her head in the water, came to full draw and released. Because of the noise of the creek and the fact she was drinking, she didn't hear the release. But the arrow passed through both lungs and stuck in the ground, making noise when it hit a rock. The rest of the herd exploded past me at about six feet. That was exciting. She couldn't make it up the bank and turned to run downstream. She only went about 100 yards and piled up between two logs. Thank you Lee! 

The second book I bought from Fred Asbell was "Stalking and Still Hunting, The Ground Hunter's Bible". If I could only recommend one book to bowhunters, regardless of the number of years of experience, it would be this book. It shined a light on a number of mistakes I was making that no other book or person had illuminated. It is brilliantly written and compelling. Here are a just a few gems from this book: 

• Chapter 7: Smell - You can fool an elk or deer's eyes or ears but you will never fool their nose. Asbell does an excellent job of sharing the cone of detection that would give away your position to an animal and how to reduce it. I started using unwaxed dental floss as a wind indicator hanging off the top and lower limbs of my bow. I lay about six inches of dental floss on my pant leg and then fray the last few inches with my knife. This creates a wind indicator that catches the slightest breeze. When I'm sitting at an elk wallow or in a natural blind I'll tie some wind indicators on limbs several feet away to easily monitor the air currents without lifting my bow. This is also fantastic to learn the wind currents of an area during scouting trips in the summer. I'm interested in learning about three types of wind currents: Dominant wind on a high pressure day, cold air drainage and thermals. And if the wind indicator gets wet, just cut if off and create a new one. 

• Chapter 9: Stalking and Still Hunting, Psyching Yourself - When I read this chapter I knew Asbell was the real deal. Nobody could make this stuff up. Asbell writes about transitioning from our urban existence into nature where everything slows down. To be successful as a hunter it is critical to mimic this rhythm. He encourages the hunter to cover a hundred yards every ten minutes by taking one step, looking slowly from left to right, listening and then taking another step. Now if you're with another bowhunter it might just drive them crazy. You'll want to do this alone without distractions. If you are in elk country there is no reason to cover a lot of ground. In fact, the less ground you cover the less you are polluting it with your human scent. The first time I tried this I was in elk country so thick it smelled like an elk barnyard. One step at a time I was on a steep north slope moving up toward timberline. About twenty minutes into this mantra I had something catch my eye downhill, about 150 yards away. I slowly turned and realized it was an elk behind a tree and the elk had flicked its ear to get a fly off. And I saw it. There is no way I would have seen that if I was moving at my normal pace. It takes sauntering to a whole new level and you are much more likely to see wildlife before they see you. 

I owe a lot to Chuck Ondov, Lee Kline, G. Fred Asbell and others.They radically changed the way I bowhunt. I still love to hunt alone in the wild country. But now I'm quick to reach out for help when I can't figure something out.

Celebrating the WILD in wildlife!

David Neils

Doc’s Ramblings

Now, there are times when folks need to stand up for what is right. I am calling this out for what it is: blatant unethical bowhunting that hurts all bowhunters, bolsters anti-hunters, and misinforms individuals about bowhunters in general.

I had planned on asking you to watch, comment on, and give an enormous thumbs down to a YouTube video by Chris Bee, a well-known and vastly popular 'promotional bowhunter’ with over 330,000 followers. However, after editing it once, the video of his Asian buffalo hunt was removed, but that came far too late. The damage to bowhunting was already done.

Chris Bee edited his initial video, removing the first wounded and non-recovered buffalo and a good section of the video showing the amount of penetration (or lack thereof) he achieved.

Mr. Bee’s second try at a buffalo resulted in him chasing the hapless beast about the countryside for a long while, sticking yet another arrow into the poor buffalo every now and then until it looked like a buffalo-shaped pincushion. Along with this revised video, Mr. Bee posted his so-called apology in which he lied about his broadhead, saying he used a 2-blade broadhead (on a 450-ish grain arrow). In the initial video, he showed his arrows and stated he used a Montec 3-blade broadhead. That, too, was removed from the video. Mr. Bee shows no remorse and seems proud of his actions. 

On the non-recovered buffalo, Chris Bee left it running around with the arrow sticking out.

That’s a disgusting advertisement for bowhunting. It was a frontal shot and, indeed, appeared to be a non-lethal hit (it lacked adequate penetration to reach anything vital). I can only hope the arrow falls out soon.

Though now removed from YouTube, individuals undoubtedly captured many copies of Chris Bee’s original video posting, which could have a devastating effect, especially for the bowhunters in Australia and those of us who sometimes hunt there (and those who hope to do so in the future). A total prohibition on bowhunting is already in effect in South Australia because a single individual had the stupidity to shoot a wallaby with a target arrow and leave it hopping around in a residential area. A single incident is often all it takes to lose the right to hunt.

There has never been a better advertisement against using inadequate arrow setups for the task at hand. Nor has there been a better example of why one should not believe penetration results from gel testing, which Chris Bee has been a strong proponent of. It also makes a strong argument for why one should be extremely cautious about taking advice from ‘promotional bowhunters,’ those having a financial interest in being sure you believe every word they say.

For the reader’s information, here is the comment I posted beneath the Chris Bee buffalo hunt video. I stand by every word of it. “You, Sir, are a disgrace to the bowhunting community. What you did is unethical. Information on what arrow setups work reliably on buffalo was readily available, but you ignored that. I’ve taken 11 buffalo (not to be confused with Bison) with one arrow each. However, I chose to use an appropriate arrow setup for hunting buffalo. Now, you have fueled the fire for the anti-hunting crowd in Australia and have likely swayed the opinion of many “neutral parties” against bowhunting. I have many friends in Australia who tell me that some members of Australia’s parliament are already calling for a total ban on bowhunting because of your video. Congratulations on the irrefutable damage you have done to bowhunting.”

Good hunting, my friends … and fight the good fight.

Dr. Ed Ashby