Perfect Size Caber - Best Wood?

pine dries out rather quick..poplars are good...cedar(espicially Maine cedar) are good for  few years till they dry out..I guess you could seal them though.....best cabers are without Wayne Hills manufactured cabers..tough..last a long time..almost indestructable

For AZ we use a range of Cabers

 

16-17 feet - 70-80 lbs C's

17-19 feet 80-90ishlbs B  class

19 21 feet 100+ for A's

20 plus feet and 110 plus for pros and (challenge for A's)

Pro Challenge - 22 feet 145 lbs - Yikes it is also fiberglassed to help us keep the AZ sun and dryness from killing it - makes it a tough stick for sure.

Women

C - 14-16 feet 50 lbs

B- 15-17 feet 60-70

A- 17-19 feet  70plus pounds

 

most of ours are pine from Russ Murphy in Colorado

we have tried many things to keep them from breaking and the best we have found is to fibergalss them with 2-3 layers of the product.  Brent Abbott is a master at this and could give you some pointers, but the hold up very well to sun, heat and even rain.  and they sound solid even when they get an ugly dump.

just a basic guidline

Edited by seckmrl

As an AD that runs 3-4 games a year and has about a dozen guys who regularly practice at my place, going thru cabers is a problem.  I got some from Russ Murphy, but I think good ol' Russ may be on the back end of his caber makin' days (I hope not).  He used the lodge pole pines of colorado.  Jim Deters in the St. Louis area makes his out of Missouri Red Cedar and I have a few of those.  I recall turning the Wayne Hill manufactured cabers out east in 2005 and those were pretty cool.  I have tried to make my "Poor man's version" (or maybe I should say, "inept man's version") by putting some 2X6X16's together.  That makes for an indestructible practice caber at least and save the good one's for meets.  Does anybody have some good "blue prints" or descriptions of manufactured cabers?  I know that Merl Lawless tried to make one out of an alunimum light post one time (it bent the first day it was used) and Al Myers has talked to me about making one out of steel tubing and weighting one end to give it the "feel" of being tapered.  Don't get me wrong, nothing beats wood cabers, they are like wood bats, I just want something for the C class guys (who don't know how to dump a caber) and for practice. 

Thom, we have the same problem with the lesser experienced athletes doing some damage on the sticks. Like I postes we have fiberglassed the cabers and they are rock solid. It costs between 75 and 100 per caber but I know has one going on multiple years and it is over 100 lbs and 19 feet that has seen some terrible dumps. We also have tried all the other methods and had marginal results. The nice thing about it also is you can always rough the coat up and add another coat in a few years to keep it doing its job. We have about 5 cabers that we can run to each AZ games and they are the same so we can see how people progress as tossers

I would train with two types for technique....big end with taper.  Then a DEAD stick...no taper for the length that you will compete with Class wize. 

 

We have a Caber device that is tremendous for conditioning.   Its on wheels that you can run with...plant and PULL.

Myles...we are cutting the A caber for Gulfport games...right now it is 20' cypress stick that weighs about 150...

The Master and B cabers are 17-18' and weigh about 65lbs dry...we may stick them in the pond to bring them up a little.

I think I have some of the best caber in Michigan.. As my Pro caber, I will base them on my Pro Field....Alma.. one turned it... C. Smith. Saline highland game competition caber used think only 4 out of 8 turned it and my challenged caber was M. Zolk. 

Am with Myles on this one... I hate shoot out with a caber.. Would only like to see the top 3 athletes turn it.

Cedar, cypress or Colorado ash would be my choices (my cedar caber I will submerge into the river for a few weeks until I get my desired weight)

as for the class, I would follow closely to Mike Wills suggestion

How come noone has mentioned our Texas standby? The Ash Juniper or "Goddamn cedar" as they're called here. Never straight , almost no taper , split after a year , use a whole roll of tape , this stringy ass bark that sticks to your tackified hands when u stand it up , fire ants LOVE 'em, big knot holes all over 'em from top to bottom.......hell, I could go on for ages on the features and benefits ...........they do burn like crazy tho.

Silverback wrote: I wrote to Jason about coming down, but I think he has enough throwers.  One of my favorite trophies was from an early game down in Fla and I won the caber and it broke later, Shane cut the end off and carved a number one in it, I still have that and the fond memory.

 

Schucks...was finally hoping to meet you in person.

 

 

Ohhhhhhhhh there is no land like Dixie...hurrah,hurrah . This may be the oldest N/S game ever.......and it's Miles' fault - he older than me

david barron wrote: Skullsplitter wrote: the only deciduous conifer in North America that grows indigenously You got a lot of wedgies growing up, didn't you.

Yea, but then I started paying big shot Manhattan lawyers to get restraining orders to stop those guys from applying "Sphincter Floss".