Vernon B. Godsey - Flight Bow

[ShootstraightBob]

Does anyone have any information about a :
VERNON B. GODSEY, from Renton,Washington, who built and shot flight bows?   Any information about the bows?

[kurtbel5]

Might try and find Marlon Torres he is mostly on the pow wow forum, he is a flight shooter, goes by the handle Marlon.
Have any pictures of it?
  Good Luck  Kurt

[d. ward]

I'll check and see what I can find.bowdoc

[Blackhawk]

I remember seeing a picture of the bow that he made and used to set flight records in the 1960's.  It had a radical, but short overdraw with the grip quite a ways forward of the grip.  

He used a 17" arrow to shoot almost 800 yards, and I believe the bow was around 52# at 17".

If I find pics, I will try to post.

If Larry Hatfield sees this, I'm sure he has lots of info on him and his bows stored away in his steel trap mind.

[JavelinaHink]

VERNON B. GODSEY

This Flight Bow is 80# @ 15"

I'm still putting info together to go along with the bow in the display of Flight Bows

Hope you like it........    Bill
 

[d. ward]

Nice Bill real nice.Thank you bowdoc

[sticknstring+]

Great stuff Bill! Were his arrows tapered front and back? Thanks, Greg

[marlon]

Yes those little recurves have vanish. But they are makeing a comeback. Vern was the first person to make alluminum nocks for flightshooters and hunters in the 40s and 50s.Very nice bow. Marlon

[wadde]

In 1976 Vernon Godsey held the record in the 80 pound bow class with a distance of 892 yards, 2 feet 6 inches, His daughter April held the record for junior girls in the 39, 50 pound and unlimited classes in 1969 and 1970.

[marlon]

Bert greyson Told me about the nocks. He has passed away last week at the age late 90s. Marlon

[JavelinaHink]

Thanks Guy's.......and for the info too.

His arrows are tapered at both ends as most are. These two both have alum. nocks and the dark colored arrow is made from some type of carbon material.

Sorry to hear about Dr. Greyson, he was one of the old timers still with us. I was lucky to get his Flight Bow and arrows and two of his kill arrows one that killed his first bear in 1955 using a 80# osage bow and the other was used in Africa, forgot what he killed with this one but marked on the arrows.

I'm surprised that one of the Archery mags didn't write an article on Dr. Greyson...
..maybe that would be something that could be done as I can give some pictures of the items and should be able to get some pictures from Archery magazine of him.....Bill  

[ShootstraightBob]

Thank you very much to all the guys who responded to my question about Vernon Godsey.  I appreciate the information.
I will post a picture  of the bow soon.
Thanks again to the Trad Gang,  Bob York  

[kurtbel5]

Bill
Is it just me, or does that look like the same glass Bear used on Grizzly's?

[JavelinaHink]

Kurt...I never thought about that and I checked my 63 Griz and its real close, I think if I cleaned the Flight Bow it would be a match....cool  

Look forward to seeing another one of his bows Bob....  Bill

[Hud]

Vernon lived in Seattle, WA for a long time, he loved tournaments, and made numerous trips to the flight shoots in Nev. I believe he was an engineer at Boeings. If you try searching Washington State Archery you may find someone with more information.

[d. ward]

I got this arrow off Joe like 10-12 years ago.I will get a micrometer and check diameter to make sure but here's an aluminum noc tapperd flight arrow of Vern's.The noc is about 1/4" and the tip is about 23/64 with a 40 grain straight ferrule field tip.Its not signed or anything like that I just kept it because I thought the aluminum noc was pretty cool.bowdoc  

[d. ward]

pic of the tip.bd  

[Hud]

There were a number of articles written in the NAA publication "Archery World", about flight shoots in NV. There are a number of references to Vernon on the web. The Reinvention of Archery by Frank H. Scott, The North American Archery Group, LLC.  He credits NAA Flight Champion Vernon Godsey with a number of inovations. He shot a 17 in. arrow 794 yds. Search Google: Vernon Godsey + archery.  You can spend 1/2 a day browsing history.

[Hud]

If you search Google:  Vernon Godsey + archery
there are a number of references to Vernon.