Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Around the Campfire => Topic started by: Stonedog on March 27, 2009, 09:20:52 am
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I have been wondering who amongst us hunts in period clothing?
I have always been enamored with the Dark-Age of England and have been hunting as an Anglo-Saxon on the early 10th Century for sometime now.
I only carry what would have been available at the time......the only modern concession I make is a cell phone hidden away on my person (a rule that my wife enforces!).
I was wondering if any of my fellows share the same compulsion?
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Not yet, but Hawkbow showed some stuff one time that looked pretty cool.
And PS, good books (and name) ;)
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Great topic, Ive been working on it for a few years now. i guess im around 50 % on day with good weather and above 40 deg. I think the most important part of you gear is footwear (or at least for me). Hopefully ill have a pr of good worm mocs made before this deer season. you have any pics?
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Hey brother, i usally hunt elk in buckskins and mostly primitive equipment.. except for survival gear.. like matches and fishhooks,.. to me hunting alone in real wilderness sitations.. is my way of recharging after a year confined in this place we call civilization/and progress... geting back to the ancient ways for a month alone certainly lets me know where I stand in this great circle of life...and my wife makes me keep a cell phone in my war bag also... the only thing here is I may have to travel for miles to get a signal.... on top of some high peak... Hawk a/ho
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I hear ya Hawk!
While I love being in period clothing (trust me wool and linen in the period cuts are MUCH more comfy than modern clothing ANYDAY!).....carrying period gear....I have no interest in dying a period death from exposure!
I always carry in a braintan bag:
Cell phone (wife's rule)
Modern ways to light a fire
A mylar space blanket
A small but comlete first aid kit which includes sutures; if I am cut deep enough, I have been known to sew myself up!
Water filter
You don't see them as they are hidden away in a bag...If just for a morning hunt or day trip they are in a wool blanket roll slung across my back....If longer then I take more in an Anglo-Saxon side bag.....
As a side note.....
I have some handforged hooks and hemp fishing line.....but I still keep a modern set in my mini-kit hidden away.
I just had a NICE wool tunic made last week!
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I've hunted in 1770 era regalia for years with my flintlocks, adds a wonderful feel to the whole experience and freaks the crap outa the game wardens when they run across me. I've not hunted much with the bow, but I have spent a few days in my muzzleloader gear packing the bow and doing some stump shooting. Even that feels much more "right".
I start with a pair of center seam moccasins made by Mark Roster (Dakota Rooster) up in North Dakota, solid footgear! Then I add woolen stockings up over the knees held in place with a pair of leather garters with brass buckles below the knees. Over these I wear a pair of heavy linen kneebreeches with buffalo horn buttons. A pair of thin buckskin leggings over the stockings and lower part of the kneebreeches takes care of the legs. Then a mid-thigh length hunting shirt (or up to three, depending on the weather) and a woolen weskit (waistcoat or "vest") takes care of the upper body. Top it all off with a flat brim hat with the back side pinned up with a turkey wingbone call. Add a neck knife, oilcloth snapsack, fingerwoven sash around the waist with a tomahawk tucked in the small of my back and I am ready to thrive.
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Less words and more photos of the gear you dress in people!!!! ;D
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Here are a few pics....
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late fall... elk skin shirt, mountain lion quiver and bowcase..
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What if this gear is "no gear" ;D
Still want a picture >:D
Can't get any more primitive
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I used to do freelance writing for outdoor magazines. I did several muzzleloading hunts in period outfits. Pardon the poor quality of the picture. It was scanned from the magazine.
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Great picture brother.. that is some fine looking bacon and ham you got there too... Hawk
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Hawk, thanks. Yep, it was a yummy piece of pork. I really like your buckskin hunting shirt. I need one. :)
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I built that shirt out of huge elk hides about fifteen years ago... stained the top half with red earth pigments from the sacred black hills and since then with blood from elk, mountain lion , deer, bear and various other creatures fom the high country ...big medicine...... it even has a rip in the left sleeve from a really angry grizzly... so i guess it is broke in good ;) what kind of rifle is that you are holding? Hawk
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Hawk, it was TC, Hakens style in a .58 caliber. I still have the slug which was just under the hide on the opposite should. Oh, the boar's head is staring at me while I type. :)
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I made the coat from 4 deer hides I tanned. The yoke was from a coyote, not tanned just salt treated. I ran out of material while making the coat and used the coyote. I have since removed the coyote yoke. It feel apart. I think I wear that coat next season. I had gotten away from much of the primitive hunting. It's time to return to my roots. ;)
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Great job brother, for me any harvest taken in the old way with honor and integrity.. is well worth the effort it takes to make the harvest...what an old warrior that hog was.. Hawk a/ho
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Hunting in buckskins is something I've wanted to do for a long time. Soon I'll have enough leather stockpiled to make myself a nice shirt. Gotta start somewhere. :)
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Wow! It's good to know that I am not the only weirdo that like to dress up and hunt!
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Well it looks like I might have to make some dress up stuff too. Hawkbow, how did the Grizzly get a hold of your sleeve?
did you do the Montan three s's thing? Shoot, shovel, and shut up. ;) Or for me S%$t, Scream, and Scram! ;D Nice outfits, guys.
Brain tanned, or commercial? Unfortunately I can't wear moccasins, due to super sensitivity and plantar's facieitis, or however it is spelled. So I have to have something more substantial, with padding. I'd look like a pigeon on a hot sidewalk, in a pair of moccasins, walking across the ground. ;) Ever get any weird stares from other hunters? I think it was Jim Hamm, I read about in Sports afield, or Outdoor life, years ago, and they did a story on primitive hunting, and it showed him all decked out in his finest buckskins, with bead work moccasins and all. Not sure if it was him, but I think it was. Anyway, I thought it was a bit much to go hunting, dressed like you were going to Pow Wow. ;D
Wayne
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something about the color and shape of buckskins.. I don' think the animals can see me as well as when I am wearing camo.. I have had elk at five yards with the wind right and they never saw me.. this has happened enough times for me to believe that the elkskin breaks up my human form just enough to become invisible. While hunting with Wolf watcher last year He was right next to me mostly in the open, and I never saw him until he moved.. he had his buckskins on .... The bear was a cub.. it ran up my tree when I took a picture of it and it's momma and two siblings, i tried to push it out of the tree and got slapped for my efforts. momma then began tearing that tree down.. in her fury she knocked my bow from my hand and nearly uprooted the tree.Finally I shot the cub with bear spray and he left my tree.. momma was so furious I used the rest of the spray on her with little result. let me tell you having a mad momma grizz two feet from your moccasins tearing tree parts off as big as you are is one scary deal. :'( :-[ she finally left, that was one long walk back to my camp. miles back in the wilderness and bleeding.. my bow, tomohawk and knives did little to comfort me that long night walk back to camp... but the elk were bugling ;D so i stayed another two weeks.. other hunters usually are intrigued by the fact thatI hunt primitive.. I will say that one guy around here hunts in tandy leather style golden colored buckskin shirt.. I can see him from miles off .... every time... so can the elk.. he hasn't got one yet in nine years of trying.. I believe it is his bright golden buckskns... among other things.. Hawk
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Hawk-
I agree. When I am in my naturall dyed wool and linen....for whatever reason....it tends to just make me vanish.....my clothes are cut roomy (just like the clothing of the period)...and are all some shade of tan, brown, green or grey....only dyed with natural dyes....not Rit!
I rarely see another hunter....if I see another human I hunker down....let them pass.....or avoid them.
As far as foot wear....I wear 10t anglo-saxon tunshoes.....they are made from heavy oiltanned leather.....
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i wear a lot of wool and now bucskin...moccasins, and a lot of plaid...i killed a smart ole boar groundhog wearing a bucskin shirt with a flintlock. and i killed a few deer in alaska wearing a wool plaid shirt and black wool pants...i dont really wear camo or modern hunting gear...mostly old style, it dont feel right wearing gore tec or scent lok heres some pictures of some animals ive trapped or killed wearing old style gear http://primitivehunter.blogspot.com/ (http://primitivehunter.blogspot.com/)
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thats me that posted as predatorcaller on my dads name on accidnet..... pic of me with my first kill with a flintlock and wearing traditional garbhttp://bp1.blogger.com/_n0mwegGn3K0/SHJu0Nz5whI/AAAAAAAAAAc/8PbwVHmjEZY/s1600-h/IMG_0292.JPG (http://bp1.blogger.com/_n0mwegGn3K0/SHJu0Nz5whI/AAAAAAAAAAc/8PbwVHmjEZY/s1600-h/IMG_0292.JPG)
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When I hunt in Montana, I wear wool. Surplus Swedish wool pants, and coats. They are a bluish grey. I have had deer walk right up to within four feet of me. I think some of the camo stuff has the ultra violet rays due to the detergent, and the animals can pick up on that. I have sat in a rain, with a green waterproof poncho, over my head, and looked out to see deer feeding within a few feet of me. I have seen deer watch someone in a stand, and sneak off, only to come by me and never seem to notice. Could be something in the light wave length of the material. As for the Tandy leather, could be chrome tanned, or just the color is like the safety vest to the deer. Anyway, you guys looked great, and I will start looking how much leather I have accumulated and start planning on a shirt, or pants. ;)
Wayne
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Modern dyes often contain UV spectrum enhancing compounds to improve colorfastness. Deer pick up on the UV wavelengths and it just looks like a black light poster in a headshop to them! Modern laundry detergents also have the UV enhancers/dyes.
I stopped washing my historical reenactment clothing in the modern wash because I was laundering out all the historically correct "patina". Few frontiersmen had access to Kenmore washers and it's a good bet the local sutler didn't carry Tide. Nowadays the best they get is a healthy swish in the creek, slapped on the rocks a few times and then hung on a handy bush whilst I splash some more creek water nearby my own hide.
Another nice thing about the natural dyes is that they do not tend to come out really even, but have some streaks and subtle variations in shading that helps break up outlines.
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very true j w.
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ive been wanting to make a buckskin shirt to hunt in for years now. my only problem is i really havnt got the time (or skins) to tan my own. and i refuse to use chrome taned skins.
well i went over to my dads house the other day and was telling him about my plans for a shirt. he said, "wait here, ill be right back."
wouldnt you know he came back out with a grocery bag FULL of buckskin! there has to be 7 or 8 hides in there. apperently what happened was my grandmother got them at a flee market for like 5$. not a piece, thats for all of them! my dad used to go to blackpouder rendezvous back when i was a kid, and he made himself a pair of leggings from a couple of the hides, and just packed away the rest.
i already claimed his leggings for hunting, and he says it would be great if i could get some use out of the others.
now the point to all my ramblings. i havnt got a clue what to model my shirt after.
Mike, ive always enjoyed reading your storys in the mag (especially this last one with your boys, very well done), and i love your shirt with the medicine wheel on it. what did you pattern that after, of was it just from scratch? I was looking in Crazy Crow trading post the other day and found a pattern for what they called a "Plains War Shirt". it looks similar to yours, other than a few bead decorations that i would leave out. i was contemplating that, but if you have some better advice id be willing to listen.
and just to keep things going, does anybody else have pictures of their period clothing, namely buckskin shirts? ;D
Phil
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Phil, a simple wone is to think of a poncho or Capote and make one like that.
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I patterned mine after a plains Lakota style war shirt... all the decorations and medicine are mine from different hunts and adventures... I would suggest using the plains style no sewing .. only leather ties holding the shirt together... good luck with the shirt brother, I have been asked by several brothers of the bow about my shirt so will ask Stacey to post some pics for anyone who wants to copy the design..Hawk
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Phil, you can do like Eddie said, or go to Dixie gunworks, on line, or order their catalog, and they have patterns, of all sorts, in the back, from the 1700's up. They have Indian style clothing patterns also. From shirts, pants, to skirts, and dresses. You know the nice white pants that George Washington, and Thomas Jefferson wore? They were buck skins! The tanned skin of a deer was worth a dollar. Hence a dollar being a buck. The Europeans loved them.
Wayne
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Thanks for the info, and im anxiously waiting for your pictures Mike. im at work right now so i dont have time to check out the sites, but i will later!
im going over to my folks place this weekend. so im gonna pick up the skinns, and ill post a couple pics.
Phil
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theres gonna be two mountain men in potter then burnt hill because i plan to be huntin in skins in potter myself. ;) :D
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;D ;D ;D
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hey HT, where are you gonna be hunting and when? im in the north east part of the county. about 1/2 mile from McKean county and about 3 miles from the Ny border.
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near galeton...in the town of germania....national forest off of route 44
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i used to go fishing all the time out that way. kettle creek, sunken branch, west branch, lebo run. all very good trout streams back in the day.
On a side note, and it might be kinda early to bring this up, but are you gonna be at the ETAR at Denton Hill this year? my buddy and i are going to be camping there from thursday morning to saturday night.
Phil
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oh im not sure maybe... we went last year so maybe this year...depends on work schedule
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That would be cool if you can make it. if i get my shirt done before then, im probably gonna wear it at least one day.
well there were only 5 skins, but theyre big enough that i think i can get a good shirt out of em... the bigest one is 4 feet long, just so you have a size reference.
well i wont hijack this thread anymore, so here are the pics.
(http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff212/theburnthillarcher/buckskin/100_1848.jpg)
(http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff212/theburnthillarcher/buckskin/100_1849.jpg)
Phil