Hi fellow archers!
I'm totally new to the world of traditional archery (is there any other kind?)and am sort of lost locally as every place that I have looked pretty much just has compound and crossbow stuff. One fellow seemed knowledgeable and had a couple of take-down recurves but they were outfitted with inserts for accessories much like a compound and that sort of just had me scratching my head.
What I want to do is just get started in traditional archery with longbows. It's me, my wife, and my little girl who is just five. It's early for the little one, but hey it'll get us outside together and she'll grow into it quickly. She wants to do everything that we do anyway, so I think she'll adapt quickly.
Not knowing anything about everything, I sort of jumped into the "get some gear that looks right" without actually being able to try anything (it's not even possible around here). I knew that I wanted a decent quality long bow and that I'd need two sizes/draw weights, one for me and my wife, and one for the youngun. I have run into a problem already and I have yet to pull the string...
I got some arrows which look to be good quality for practice but I want to shoot these bows "off the shelf" and the arrows have the Duravanes on them. They look nice and sturdy but therein lies the problem, I think. It looks like they're gonna bump pretty hard against the corner of the shelf and riser as the arrow leaves the rest, which has gotta be rotten for accuracy. So question number 1 is "Do I need feather fletched arrows?". I am assuming yes from the look of things and I see that experenced archers prefer them on the tradbows. That leads me to question number 2: "Should I get a fletchers jig and some feathers or just buy arrows?" Arrows on the whole seem to be hard to find for less than a mint, actually more than I paid for the bows in dozens!
I got what I think are some really nice bows for the price. I selected a Samick CA60 Forkhorn traditional longbow for my wife and myself at 35#. I chose an Elk Ridge Archery Pilgrim youth 42" longbow for my girl @ 12-15#, which is way nice for her at the moment but just light enough for her to get about a 3/4 draw on it. She's growing like a weed, so I figure it'll last a few years that way. The Elk Ridge youth bow came with a tear shaped felt pad on the shelf/riser, which looks like what you see Martin offering. The Samick came without anything on it. So I went out and got a super soft piece of leather and made a custom pad for it. It looks nice, but it is untested and I am not even sure if shooting those Duravane arrows is a good idea. I got it all from the nice fellows at Lancaster Archery and I am asuming that I can just exchange the arrows for shafts and feathers/fletching kit. Is that what i want to do or is there another source for complete arrows that would be a better bet considering my already considerable investment here.
Now, if you have gotten this far, this is where the subject of my post comes in. I made the shelf pad based upon what I remember as a kid and my gut instincts about how this particular bow should be shot and from the pad on the youth bow. I made my pad longer and I added a bit of a ridge on the shelf under the pad to form a sort of channel for the arrow shaft, not tight or tall, but just enough to keep it from turning on the shelf. I am not sure if that was a wise move or not but I figure it's reversable. So what i'd like to see and what may be fun for you guys to share is some pictures of your longbow shelf pads, assuming that they are "longbow/recurve hybrids" like mine and have a platform and a bit of a window.
Here is a picture of the shelves:
Whew!...
TIA & Happy Easter!,
Bill
Topic: Shelf pad material and form (Read 793 times)
