Field Notes
Notes from the bench and the field. What actually held up, what turned out to be wrong, and why.
20 July
Every Tool in The Forge, Part Two — The Bench, the Body, and the Fine Print
Part one covered the seven tools that build and true an arrow. This is the other half of The Forge — the bench wizard, the tools that sharpen the archer, the catalog under the...
20 July
Every Tool in The Forge — and the Two Shots It's Built Around
Seven tools, one arrow, two shots — the 20-yard chip shot that happens in a second and the long send that lives or dies on a number. Here's what each Forge tool is for,...
20 July
Western Hunter's First Whitetail: What's Different
Your elk skills don't transfer the way you think. The whitetail game is shorter, faster, and a lot less forgiving of movement.
17 July
Why Your Quiver Picks the Worst Arrows (Selection Bias on the Bench)
You benched arrow #7 on three shots of evidence. That wasn't data. That was a coin flip with a Sharpie number on it.
16 July
The Practice Routine That Beat My Target Panic
Six weeks, a blank bale, and one drill where you never fire the shot — the routine that rebuilt my release after three years of punching the trigger.
13 July
Hunting Pressure: Why You Need a Backup Stand
Deer don't leave when you hunt them. They just stop using the piece of woods you're sitting in. Here's how to keep hunting them anyway.
12 July
Feather vs Plastic: When Each One Wins
Feathers and vanes aren't rivals — they're different tools. Here's where each one wins, and the rear-weight math nobody runs before switching.
10 July
The 90-Minute Full Tune: My Bench Workflow
A real tune takes 90 minutes, and most of it isn't shooting. Here's my bench sequence with the clock running, so you can steal it.
6 July
Re-Tuning After You Change Anything: The 11-Step Reset
Swap a rest, a peep, a point weight — anything — and your tune moved with it. Here's the order I re-check every time so I'm not chasing a ghost at 40 yards.
5 July
The Truth About Microdiameter Shafts
Skinny shafts drift less and punch deeper — but the tradeoffs nobody mentions are real. Here's when 4mm is worth it and when you're paying for nothing.
2 July
Wraps: The Cheapest Tuning Aid You're Not Using
A $12 pack of arrow wraps buys you repeatable fletching, a built-in nock index, and a little rear weight that stiffens your spine. Most guys skip them to save four grains. That's backwards.
28 June
Cable-Driven Rest Setup: The Trap Most Shops Fall Into
Cable-driven rests are great until the cord's tied wrong. Most shops time the rise and ignore the part that actually wrecks your groups.
27 June
What 100 Recovered Arrows Taught Me About Shot Angles
I started keeping every arrow I pulled out of an animal. A hundred of them later, the lesson wasn't about broadheads or FOC — it was about angles, and how badly we lie to...
26 June
How to Read a Spine Chart (And When to Ignore It)
A spine chart is a starting point, not an answer. Here's how to read one — and the four times the chart is flat wrong.
25 June
The Most Overlooked Tuning Tool: Your Phone Camera
You're carrying a 240fps high-speed camera in your pocket. It catches the nock kick, the rest contact, and the cam lean your eyes never will — and most archers never point it at their...
25 June
Shooting Through Your Pegboard: A 5-Minute Tune Verification
A $12 sheet of pegboard and one arrow will tell you in five minutes whether your bow is still tuned. No paper, no draw board, no guessing.
22 June
The Vane Length Trade-Off Most Hunters Get Wrong
Everybody runs 2" Blazers because the pros do. Half of them are shooting fixed heads at quartering elk and wondering why their arrow won't steer. Vane length isn't a fashion choice — it's a...
19 June
Why Your Bow Won't Stay Tuned (And What to Do About It)
You tuned it in July. By October it's tearing left and you swear you didn't touch a thing. You didn't have to. Here's what actually moved.
17 June
Buck Fever Is a Symptom, Not a Disease
Everybody treats buck fever like a curse you're born with. It's not. It's the predictable output of an undertrained nervous system meeting a moment it's never rehearsed.
15 June
How to Spot a Bad Pro-Shop Tune
You paid for a tune and shot a bullet hole through paper. That doesn't mean your bow is tuned. Here's how to tell the difference.
14 June
The Quartering Shot Math Nobody Does
Everybody knows quartering-away is the money shot. Almost nobody knows where to actually aim — and the closer the angle, the more wrong the crease becomes.
13 June
Why Your Bow Is Slower Than the Box Says — and Why That's Fine
Your bow won't hit its IBO number. Neither will mine. Here's what that sticker speed is actually for, where the speed really goes, and why The Forge shows you both the rated number and...
13 June
Spine Runs on IBO, Not Your Chronograph — Here's Why
Your measured arrow speed is the most honest number you own — for kinetic energy and trajectory. For spine, it's the wrong number, and feeding it in points the verdict backwards. Here's the actual...
13 June
Brass Inserts Aren't Magic
Brass inserts don't add penetration. They add weight — and whether that weight helps you depends on three things almost nobody checks.