Jay Campbell has donated a Torges bow to TBOF and we are selling it by silent auction for our youth charity cause. The auction just started and will run through March 3. TO bid, check us out on facebook or attend our state shoot.
From Jay: Folks, This may be the only chance you-all will have at a handcrafted Dean Torges bow in this lifetime! The full text of the inscription is as follows (syntax and punctuation are exact):
"for my friend Butch Wilks, whom I will never be able to repay for his generosity & kindness - this old bow, from the early years. Work twice as hard for half as much.
Autumn/07 Dean Torges, brother of the bow"
Here's what I know about the bow we are donating. Dean Torges and I used to travel and hunt a bit together, and I collected quite a few Torges bows to hunt with. I still have a few, inscribed to me. Dean, author of Building the Osage bow and many other articles, books and instructionals, is widely (and rightly) considered the master of the Bamboo Osage bow design (BBO). A good friend of mine, and one who is a true character in many of my book chapters, is mountain man Butch Wilks, from New Mexico. Butch and Karen and I have shared a few hunting adventures, to put it mildly. Butch, who is a master builder, went to visit Dean and help finish a kitchen, or some such. As part of that, Butch came home with an osage longbow (not a BBO, but all osage), inscribed from Dean Torges to Butch. Butch always has had a hyperdeveloped sense of obligation, and somehow felt that he should give me the bow. So I have it, and because I myself have a hyperdeveloped sense of obligation, I am donating it to TBOF for charity. If the winner wants, Karen and I will also sign the bow, to prove its provenance. I have shot it. It has a bit of string follow, but pulls about 64#, and sends an arrow true (I have not shot or pulled it for about 5 years). Butch says that Dean said that Jay Massey shot it and really liked it, but I don't know that for sure. That's what I know! Best, Jay and Karen Campbell
I will post up some pics later.
Topic: Dean Torges Bow (Read 412 times)
