I made a decision about 8 months ago to quit selling bows, get caught up on the orders I already have and just do it for a hobby, which I was really looking forward to! Problem was, guys were calling and emailing me asking for bows. I hated to turn them down, but I stood fast by my decision. I commonly recommended one or two of my bow building friends to them, as I knew they built some fine bows…
Well, one day Kirk, a buddy and owner of Big Foot Bows, suggested that if I didn’t mind, he could sell them a replica of my 3 piece hybrid longbow. I had no doubt Kirk could reproduce my bows, as any good bowyer can pretty much reproduce another’s product, and since Kirk was looking for business as he’d only recently started up “Big Foot Bows” I figured heck yeah! Kirk offered to build one and send it my way for “approval”. He had a similar design that he was calling the Splinter Kat, and he decided to rename it the “Splinter Hawk”. Maybe he can explain the whole “Splinter” thing? Anyhow, he shipped me a bow a few months ago.
Simply from unpacking it I knew it would be an acceptable replacement to my Sapphire Hawk. The lines were nearly indistinguishable, the limbs were shaped the same, the riser was just like mine. The craftsmanship was AT LEAST as nice as mine. ( I should note, Kirk has one of my bows he received in a “Bow Swap” that a bunch of us bowyers did 2 years ago) I bolted her together, strung her up and flipped about 5 arrows through her. They all hit where I was looking and there was no handshock and very little noise, even though the string was yet unsilenced. I ran another 10-15 arrows through her and hung her on the rack next to a few of my bows. She was right at home there.
(his bow left, my bow right. I actually build 3 different riser lengths so this particular one is an inch shorter than his)
Not just the risers are identical...
Well, yesterday I got a chance to put this bow through a few more paces. I scrounged together 3 different sets of arrows. For this bow, some were weighing in at 14 gpp, others down to 6.5 gpp. I didn’t have anything lighter to try…which was fine. I doubt Ole Kirk would want me flinging toothpics from this bow anyhow.
I also wove a couple wool puffs into the string to mellow out the buzz…. Some bows are quieter than others, but I’ve been around long enough to know that an unsilenced string makes noise, period.
Yesterday was a windy day, so my shots ended up staying under 30 yards. I took this Big Foot bow, my Hawk standby hunting and shooting bow, and a nice little recurve that I’m pretty fond of out in the back yard. I had handled this bow a total of 10 minutes since Id received it, with about 15-20 arrows through it. My “hunting bow” on the other hand…I’ve probably put 2500 arrows through it and maybe 500+ out of this little recurve. The thing about this “Splinter Hawk” was that I felt like it was mine. Kirk mimicked my grip perfectly. If you’ve ever shot one of my bows, you’ll know I have a peculiar handle on them and I told Kirk, if I was to direct Sapphire Hawk customers his way to get an aftermarket version, the grip was THE biggest issue. It HAD to be right. Well, I picked up this bow and some 9 gpp arrows and put the whole bunch in a nice 6 inch group at 30 yards, just like I would have done with my standby hunting bow. I loaded up the light arrows and made a little elevation adjustment and piled them into the middle of the target as well. Then I loaded up the heavy arrows, didn’t make much of an adjustment and created a nice little grouping just to the left of my other group….I think they were a little stiff for this bow.
(a 20 yard target, not my norm, I was pleased!!)
After pulling them and shooting them from my bow, then the recurve, then Kirks bow again…and again…and again, I decided that this bow, the “Splinter Hawk” could proudly be marketed as a Sapphire Hawk replacement. The one thing I can say is different, is that the Big Foot version of my bow may have a couple fps edge. The arrows seemed to have just a hair flatter trajectory than from my bow, which was actually 2# heavier draw than Kirks.
This is a well deserved plug for Kirk, not trying to hide that in the least bit. He’s relatively new to this bow building game, but I’ve watched him think outside the box to develop a couple cool models and work his butt off to develop a bowyer business, and he has done it right. His craftsmanship is top notch, his designs are somewhat unique and have been developed through lots of testing in his shop. This “Splinter Hawk” is a nice bow and I’d recommend it in a heartbeat. By the way, this limb has a silk veneer that is pretty dang cool...not sure if its even offered, but I liked it!
Good Job KIRK!!
Topic: New Big Foot Bow (Read 538 times)
