Let me quickly set the stage... Shot a bit as a kid with my grandpa. Shot a bit in college using his old bows. Beginning of June decided to dust 'em off and start shooting again since my daughters were showing an interest. Lasted a couple months of daily shooting, but now both 50+ year old glass recurves are in pieces. Plan was (still is) to buy a new recurve to hunt with. But addicted to daily shooting, I couldn't wait to save up the cash. So I started carving into a piece of quartersawn ash. About 5 hours later I had a purdy little selfbow without a single drop of glue on it. Heck, I like it without a grip as well.
Now the tillering isn't perfect. I started to get a bit of a hinge early on, and just tried to salvage at that point. So it's basically a kids' bow now, somewhere around 28# at 28". But it fits the hand well, and is just nice and light and a pleasure to hold. At this point, it sports a piece of spectra string from a different hobby with some masking tape to bring it up a thickness that will hold an arrow nock. (Actually, probably a bit too thick.) It may be a bit big for my youngest still, but considering the bottom is touching the floor, her form isn't too bad!
Given a lousy string, over-spined arrows, poor tillering, and the fact I've never shot a longbow before -- it shoots sweet. Here is the second end I shot with it, 20 yards. Honestly, that's not much worse than I was doing with the bows that are now in pieces.
I can only imagine what doing it right must feel like and can't wait to try. Wow, it'll be hard to get any serious work done on the wife's to-do list now that I'm seeing bows hiding in my lumber rack and in the trees around the house.....
Anyhow, looks like I also found a new forum to pass my lunch hour on.
Topic: One self bow and I'm hooked (Read 369 times)
