Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: Jude on February 27, 2012, 03:04:41 pm
-
Hi Everyone. I'm back on R&R leave from Afghanistan, and thought I would post the bows my son and I made last year. All three are from the same section of a bitternut hickory I cut last spring. Bottom to top in the group pictures are my 15 yo son Lucas' bow, 68" n-n and 44# @ 28", 5" brace; next is my 12 yo son Tristan's bow, 68" n-n and 34# @ 28", 5.75" brace; and my own bow, 66" n-n and 45# @ 28", 5" brace. Lucas' bow is a pretty standard hunting flatbow of his own design, which he roughed out with a hatchet and did all the rasping and initial tillering himself. I took over for the finish tillering and heat treating; when we clamped the twist out green to dry it, the handle section sprung 4" off the board and now it has about 3" natural reflex when rested. Tristan's is my first attempt at Sudbury style limbs, and was a real bear to tiller; on top of that, I cut too deep in one spot with the hatchet and ended up with a 34# bow. Mine is an experiment, with a short handle section and limbs pyramid out to 2/3 then 1/2" wide to the tips. Both Tristans and mine had little natural reflex and were clamped into an r/d profile to dry. Tristan's has 1" reflex and mine has 0 when rested. After they have been strung for awhile and shot, Lucas' retains 2" reflex, Tristan's is at 0, and mine has 1/2" of follow. Oddly enough, they all had lots more reflex after heat treating, but pulled back to their original profiles after shooting in. I cut all of them for stringers, and I'm considering tapering the tips of Lucas' and mine on the back to front direction to lighten them up a bit.
-
Here's the full draw pics, with my itty bitty 15 yo Lucas modeling.
-
All three look nice to my eyes, good job!
-
Welcome back!!
bows are looking good.
-
Nice looking bows there and thanks for serving in the sandpit! :)
-
Cool, looking good :)
-
Fine looking bows and all of them look fast as.
-
They all shoot pretty nice. My little one is the hardest hitting of the three, not too surprising. I'm sure the other two will have a much longer service life though. I don't have a chronograph yet to see just how fast they shoot. We got mine and Lucas' done just prior to the start of bow season last year, then I deployed two weeks later. According to Lucas, who's been shooting them this winter, the Sudbury is the most accurate of the three, but it's not heavy enough to hunt with in New York. Thanks for the nice comments.
Julian
-
Nice trio! Thanks for sharing and thanks for your service!
Josh
-
Those are great looking bows Jude. Congratulations ! Thank you for sharing and for your service. Look forward to seeing more on your work.
-
Nice bows! BTW I used to be station at Drum I deployed with 1st bridgade to Iraq in '07. I'm out now though. Welcome back brother!
-
They stay pretty busy; I was in 1st BDE back in 01 when we went to Kosovo and 1-87 went to Afghanistan, then I bumped into them in Afghanistan in 03, then again in Iraq in 05. By 07 I was hiding out at Ft. Irwin for a couple years before I got myself back to Drum.
-
Well, I'm back in the sandbox again. Yipeeeee!!! Just before I left, I rummaged around the garage and found an old fiberglass kids arrow barely long enough for my draw length, and the lightest thing I had kicking around. It shot really flat off of my pyramid bow. I intended to buy a chronograph when I was home, but never got around to it. I really need to get around to it soon. It will be about 7 months before I need to worry about it again. Just hoping I get home in time to cut some wood while the bark is still easy to peel.
-
Very nice Jude,some sweet work. :) Also manyThanks for you service :)
Pappy
-
Great bows, really and clean simple yet each so different.
Really shows the joy of primitive bows.
Gorgeous work.
Del