New Guy

[akbowman]

Great site!

Im new here and figured i would take Dana's advice and make a short introduction.

I live in Alaska on the kenai river and have been and avid outdoorsman my entire life. I have been hunting with bow and arrow for probably 15-18 years, but until just recently, I had never shot a longbow, recurve, selfbow, flatbow, or any other form of bow other than a compound. My Brother-in-law had been talking about making bows out of hickory and i was interested but didnt know the first thing about it. At christmas time our family draws names for gifts and I ended up getting a hickory self bow that he made. From then on i have been completely hooked on the traditional stuff. To be able to make a bow out of a stick and then use it to hunt has got to be like tying your own flies and catching fish with them times 10.

Well to make a long story short, I have been pretty much obsessed with bow building every since christmas. I made my first one out of hickory with some cocobolo in the handle and on the tips. I made it for my wife so i made it 35# at 26" draw. Gave me a chance to figure out the tillering process and a lot of do's and dont's, and i didnt have to worry as much about it breaking being only 35#. Turned out pretty nice and was well worth the satisfaction that i got the first time that it launched and arrow. My second bow I made from maple with a hickory backing, this one i made 48# at 28", was shooting for 50-55 but got a little crazy on the tillering and settled for 48#. I didnt do any tip overlays but did put some bubinga in the handle and, wanting to use something alaskan, I also put a strip of birch in the handle. I would love to make some alaskan wood bows but its proven darn hard to find good bow wood here.

Anyway that is my story in a nutshell. Ill try to attach a couple of photos of the two bows that i have under my belt, feel free to critisize. I am brand spanking new to the bowyer world and any critisizm would be taken as constructive i assure you. Thank you for the great web site and i look forward to getting to know you all. In the picture with two bows, the one on the left is my first bow, the one on the right is my second.


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[DanaM]

The more the merrier

[El Destructo]

Looka t all of dat Purdy White Stuff.....Gawd I love it!!!! Oh....and the Bow is nice too!!!! keep it up....but dont use up all da wood in Alaska doing it!!!

[George Tsoukalas]

Welcome! Nice bows! Jawge

[david w.]

hello welcome aboard.

you live on the kenai. youre so lucky. i would be fishing everyday

and very nice bows

[kayakfisher]

Nice lookin bows and David I would be right beside you on that river waveing a 9 foot rod
                                                                 Dennis

[huntertrapper]

welocme and good looking bows.

[ricktrojanowski]

Welcome, Nice looking work. Living in Alaska......That must be awseome!!

[Keenan]

Welcome AK, This is a great site with some excellent bowyers. Those are some fine looking bows that you've and for the short time that you been doing it your doing awesome. Hope to see some more. Keenan

[david w.]

whats the biggest salmon you have caught on the kenai?

you shoot 3 under like i do its the only way to go i cant shoot split finger worth a darn

[akbowman]

Thanks for all the comments.  I do fish almost every day in the summer. Its funny but when i moved to alaska 26 years ago and for many years after all i could think about was catching the biggest salmon i could. I have caught some big ones too. I think my record is 72lbs for king salmon. Ill attach a pic or two of some of them. But back to the funny part, what most people dont realize is that the kenai river is plumb full of rainbow trout. I dont know what it is but there is not a fish in the world that gets me as excited as about a 12lb rainbow trout. I still fish for salmon but my true passion in the fishing department is rainbow trout. And also when it comes to salmon fishing i get more enjoyment out of helping new people to alaska catch their first salmon than i do catching them myself. I normally fish out of a quiet peacful Drift boat and truley love it. If anyone wants to fish and can get up here, let me know and i would be glad to take ya.

That is not me shooting the bow, its the friend that i gave it to, but i do shoot three under, and to tell you the truth i dont know when or why i started to do that but ive tried one over and two under and it feels unnatuaral and a bit uncomfortable to me.

Here is a pic of me and my aunt with her first big king, it was 65lbs.

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[GregB]

Welcome! Looks like a great life you have up there, have always dreamed of going to Alaska some day. Great looking bows you've made...looks like you're a natural bowyer!

Greg

[Pappy]

Welcome ,you will like it here.nice bow and really nice fish.
   Pappy