UNLIMITED UTDOORS O FALL 2015 TRADITIONAL BOWS AND ARROWS Hunting Safety Tips Best places to hike A Supplement of in Adams County Town & Country, Inc. NOW 2 locations to a serve you 838 S. High Street, Hillsboro, Ohio Phone: (937) 393-2055 & 11142 State Route 41, West Union, OH Phone: (937) 544-2913 We BUY, SELL LAYAWAY & TRADE Guns! AVAILABLE! Long Bows, Crossbows, Guns, Ammo, Camo Clothing, Fishing Supplies, Hardware, Clothing for the whole family, Shoes & Boots, Giftware & more! 40799699 2 | Unlimited 2015 Outdoor | November Table of Contents 4 Traditional Bows and Arrows by Daniel Karell 8 Standfast Outdoors by Jeff Barnett 14 Hunting Safety Tips by Scott Cartwright 16 Backpacking 21 Best parks in which to camp by Tom Cross 22 Backcountry Assassins coming to a TV near you 24 Best places to hike in Adams County by Tom Cross Unlimited Outdoor 30 Cincinnati Nature Center | November 2015 2015 November | 3 Bill Dunn of Brown County holds a hand-made bow he constructed, one of many that he’s made over the last 10 years since he bought the Zipper bow brand. Traditional bows and arrows By Daniel Karell “Building bows is a series of pitfalls.” Bill Dunn’s job for the last 10 years has been making bows and arrows from scratch by hand, avoiding a multitude of hurdles in the creation of these crafts on a day-by-day basis. Dunn, who’s wearing a plaid shirt, jeans, and a short but unkempt beard, currently builds Zipper bows and Grizzly broadheads, and he owns both labels. The bows sell on his company’s website for anywhere from $600 to $1,500, and he ships them as far east as China, as far west as Hawaii, and seemingly everywhere in between. But while a bow and arrow may seem as easy to put together as an Apple Pie on a warm August day, the process to build the perfect product takes not only time, but the utmost precision. 4 | Unlimited 2015 Outdoor | November “You’re just constantly trying to avoid those pitfalls,” Bow limbs prior to being sanded and shaped. Unlimited Outdoor | November 2015 | 5 40797428 Dunn, 39, said outside his by the U.S. Census bureau barn in Sterling Township found that 13.7 million in Brown County, which Americans use firearms to operates as his workshop. hunt, compared to 4.5 mil- “There’s so many places you lion using bows and arrows. can go wrong but if you can However, the bow and keep avoiding all those spots arrow seems to be making and correct you’ve got a a bit of a comeback these good bow. days. “Sometimes I’ve taken Using new technology to some pretty good stuff and add carbon in the risers and cut it in half, because it’s just limbs of the bows, the equip- not going to be right.” ment has become even more Humans have been using lighter and accurate when bows and arrows to hunt for firing at a target. Dunn keeps a list of all his bow’s measurements in thousands of years. In fact, “The stability is so great a notebook to use when he gets a repeat order. according to research con- with it,” Dunn said. “If I’m ducted by professors with shooting and I twist my the University of Tübingen fingers out or I make a poor in Germany and the Uni- release, that carbon has the versity of Johannesburg in extra stability to stabilize South Africa, there’s evi- that limb faster and get the dence to show humans used string going straight, which bows and arrows 64,000 equals better performance. years ago. “Plus, there’s better shoot- But in the years since, the ability, which is also another bow and arrow went from aspect of performance, the most popular hunting because it’s going to be instrument to one that’s more accurate the faster it been relegated to the side- lines up, gets straight, and lines in favor of rifles and sends the arrow down range other firearms. A 2011 study faster. With the carbon, it’s Dunn holds a riser in his hands. so stable that I don’t believe you can intentionally twist Limbs a limb. What that lets me do hanging is build a much more radical in Dunn’s limb and it’s still more stable workshop. than a wood limb.” Dunn has been into bow and arrow hunting since he was a teenager. While in high school, he cut down Osage trees nearby and made his own self bow out of it, as he couldn’t afford the manufactured bows used by more experienced hunt- ers. He then met Zipper found- er Bob Thompson after graduating high school at shooting events, and Dunn said he always displayed a love for the Zipper bow brand. “My wife (Tracy) got tired of hearing me talk about how great these Zipper bows Arrows before becoming broadheads. were so she said ‘order the 6 | Unlimited 2015 Outdoor | November dang thing’, so I ended up Despite the new technol- getting my first one,” Dunn ogy, Dunn considers himself a said. traditionalist. He hunts with Two years later, Dunn pur- a wood bow and arrow, which chased another Zipper bow means that he has to usually from Thompson and eventual- be within ten yards of a target ly developed enough of a rela- on a hunt in order to make an tionship to work with Thomp- accurate shot. son as Thompson was prepar- Or in his words, “I want ing to retire. Dunn spent four them close enough that I can or five days in Brown County smell them.” shoeing horses, before driving He sees the use of tradi- to West Virginia to work with tional wood bow and arrows Thompson in his shop. as a progression, from begin- “Finally after about six ning hunting with firearms, months of that, I took it over to challenging yourself more and brought everything here,” with a carbon composite bow, said Dunn. to using a wooden bow, which According to Dunn, it’s a raises the hunting challenge two week process from start even more. to finish to build a bow. He Even with the lure of com- starts with about four risers puters and video games keep- and sets of limbs at a time, ing children inside and away but he said inevitably, one of from learning hunting tech- them is dropped to the next niques, Dunn isn’t worried two-week cycle. about hunters going extinct. The risers need to be “Hunting’s not going to go cut into shape, potentially away. We are hunters when with other elements added we’re born. The biggest thing to them, sanded, and then that we say a million times is applied with as many as ten just getting kids into it, but layers of finish. For the limbs, we are hunters. That’s why it’s even more complicated, as kids play hide and seek, that’s they need to be sanded, then why they’re out there catching shaped to the riser and be of grasshoppers. We just have to equal length and weight on make sure that the kids real- both sides of the riser so that ize the reason they’re playing the string holds tight. the games they’re playing.” The broadheads meanwhile Dunn also said that more need to be sanded, finished, respect should be paid to all and grinded so that it’s sharp animals, and that new hunters on both sides. shouldn’t be focused on tag- “The Grizzly is a single- ging the biggest buck of the bevel head,” Dunn said. “In year. the single bevel, what it does “An old, smart, doe, is just is, when it meets resistance, as intelligent or more during that thing is going to twist the rut than any buck out Unlimited Outdoor and turn. there,” Dunn said. “And also, “When it meets resistance, consider the effort you put there’s pressure pushing into the hunt in correlation against this bevel and that to the trophy that you take bevel,” explains Dunn, while away. If you hunt hard and demonstrating how the arrow you find that smart, old doe, | spins,” so it will twist when or whatever it is, it’s more 2015 November it meets some material. If you rewarding.” have a heavy enough arrow, Daniel Karell is a content producer for instead of trying to force the Georgetown News Democrat and through that bone, it will split the Ripley Bee. Reach him at dkarell@ civitasmedia.com through that bone.” | Completed Zipper bows. 7 SStandFasttandFast OOutdoorsutdoors By Daniel Karell Outdoorsmen and women who feel the call of God and the call of nature can now put the two together. In 2008, a step-father and son duo, Al Atkins and Evan Crowley, started StandFast Outdoors, an organization with both hunting and faith in mind. StandFast started with the pa d out with two guys that loved to hunt and go out, and they decided one day to film themselves,” StandFast member Jeff Bar- nett said. “They enjoyed it so much they came to Steve Ellis and I and asked us if we wanted to join in and turn it into something a little bit more.” The group, which includes many members of the Gos- hen Church of God, is now up to ten people and continu- ing to expand. In addition to the hunting, they do outreach work in the community to Jeff Barnett 8 | Unlimited 2015 Outdoor | November Beautiful Ohio River Front Lots for sale, water, sewer and electric.