Story of the Trad Gang kind

[pointy sticks]

Part 1/2


I want to share a story with my fellow Trad Gang members. This story started back over year ago with a simple PM from a man named Mark James.
Mark had been following some of the arrow discussions which so often happen here on the Gang. The topic of the day was wood arrow and what type. I like to shoot ash and Mark sent me a PM asking me where I bought my shafts from. Was it North of the border or from somewhere in the US. Told him I had a tendency to make my own every now and then, and Mark inquired if I ever sold them or had shafts left over I could not use.
Several PM’s later I had found out what spine shafts Mark was looking for and told him I’d take a look and see if I could find any that fit his needs. I went to work, pulling a prank, I’d PM mark and tell him I think I found 6 shafts that would work that he could make arrows out of. I’d PM him and tell him I had to find something to ship them in…..   Then, one day I sent him a PM saying I found a box and the 6 shafts were on the way and to let me know if they worked for him. Mark offered to pay or buy the shafts form me and I’d reply with something like “it’s only shafts”, “don’t worry about it”. All I asked him to do was send me a picture of any deer he harvested using the shafts.
So a week or so goes buy and again I receive another PM from Mark. This time he’s calling me names? Well sort of his exact words are;
“Sheldon

you fibbed a lot! Those arrows arrived today, and they're great! Thank you very much!”
I don’t know what was he’s talking about. I sent him 6 shafts, oh I remember now I threw in a couple nocks some feathers and paint that’s right. This is what was in his box.


 


Later on that fall I sent a PM to this man named Mark from Saskatchewan to see if he ever got a chance to get hunting. He told me yes and that when he figured out how to do it he would post a picture of his deer on my board.

 Successful hunter in the field Congratulations Mark

 


Mark has posted comments a couple times on my “Proboard” threads and I’m guessing he checks it out every now and then to see what I’ve been making.

Well this May I got some time off work for surgery and recovery. Some of you will remember my thread “Time off and Bored” where I was posting pictures of arrows I had put together while sitting home. Mark spied these green ash arrows and sent me a PM

 

[pointy sticks]

Part 2/2


Well after a couple PM’s Mark ask me if I ever shot selfbows and if I might be interested in a trade. Tell me he has a bow he’s not using anymore and it could use a good home. I told him we could do a trade or some sort of deal, Mark replies with “I’ll send it to you, try it out and see if you like it then we’ll talk”. Eight or nine days later my wife comes home and as she‘s walking in the house tells me I got something in the mail and I should be sitting down.  NOW I’m worried. She starts to tell me the guy at the post office made record of it. My heart is sinking lower and I’m getting that not so good feeling (had way too much beer and hotdogs) in the pit of my stomach.
The first sight of the package and I knew right away it wasn’t good; I almost did get sick and felt like I wanted to cry.
For the record the tube is a very heavy wall tube and it would have taken a lot of pressure to bend it in such a way to break a bow like this. I couldn’t do it.

 

 

 


I felt so bad about this that I even found Marks phone number through directory assistance and called his house to apologize for what had happened. I knew I had nothing to do with it other than accepting the offer to try the bow but man I surely didn’t want this to happen to Marks beautiful bow. I emailed the pictures I took to Marks PM account and he replied later that night. Then again later that night he PM’d me to thank me for the phone call message as he was out of town and just checked his home messages.

Mark has even offered to build the next bow he’s working on to my specs if I want and send it to me. I’m too scared to answer that question as I still feel bad about his other bow.

My summation; There are some great people in this world, and you never know when you’ll happen to meet them. The traditional archery family is an ever growing group that knows no boundaries of miles, country, religion, race,

Good deeds are like good friend, you never know who or where they will come from.


Publicly, Mark I would like to once again say thank you for the offer of trying your bow and again say how bad I feel about what happened.  


Sheldon

[BMN]

Man, the picture of the bow just makes you sick! Great story though. There are some very fine people here.

[**DONOTDELETE**]

Mark Sorry about Your Bow... Great story

[Ian johnson]

I know how you feel, when I anounced on here that I was given a bowhorse and wanted to buy a stave, Hackbow, gave me a stave, I am still working on it

[frassettor]

[straitera]

Plain old fashioned goodness and consideration of others makes my day especially that which is unexpected. Well done for you both.

[LEOPARD]

Great stuff!

[Bakes168]

Good story, and nice arrows. Too bad about the bow though.
Bakes

[mike g]

Great story....
I have a similar about me and a bowyer in Canada that involved 2 broken bows....
    Makes ya wonder how many bows the various shipping co have destroyed....
    I'm contemplating sending my Hill bow in for a weight reduction....Thinking thined walled PVC for sure....

[jacobsladder]

moral of the story.....package in a tube , insure your package, pay for a confirmation reciept, and cross your fingers..... i sent a dozen arrows from michigan to texas last month priority.... it ended up taking them 30 days.... i also at one time recieved a remnant of the package (the triangular priority box) that at one time held a dwyer dauntless i bought.... fortunately i was dealing with another great tradganger and he returned my money and waited for his insurance claim to come thru........ yes..... there are some great people on this site!

[Rob DiStefano]

Great story and great folks.  

And it illustrates the perfect reasoning for why one should always use PVC tubes for shipping stickbows.