Well, The Wife and I drove out and met with Lukas of Saluki bows today. He kindly invited me out to visit and shoot his bows. I have many opinions and reviews of the bows I shot today as well as the great company of Lukas and his wife. Upon arriving Lukas came out of the shop with a Composit bow in the "taming" process in his hands. after parking and him putting his bow up, we set about for the tour. He has a beautiful 8 acres of woods and pasture land with a great working shop..two actually. Step on inside and see his trophies mounted on a wall....Let me say he is a hunter indeed, having taken some respectable animals from around the world. Now back to the Sun room/shop area. His wife was busy making strings and such, and before me neatly laid out was about 10 bows of various sizes and models. Being a lefty he only had one of those for me to shoot...(Thanks Redbow) which was a Turk at 54" BEAUTIFUL!!! I also got to shoot a 54" Damascus horse bow (super fun) and a righty 60" Ibex (Smooth).
I'll start with Dana's Bow the 54" Turk. I'm 6.3" and 210lbs I usually shoot a 62" Kayapo recurve, but being the only lefty he had on hand I short the 54", to my pleasure it was a super smooth draw and had zero stack at my 29.5" draw. to my suprise it also had no ..NO finger pinch. We paced off about 30yards and commenced to rip some arrows down range like laser beams. At first I wasnt paying attention to the speed just the feel of the bow and the way it felt in the hand and on the drawing hand(I shoot split finger) after the first couple I was shifting my attention to the less important(IMO) things like speed and such.
WOW!!!! is all i can say, this bow is wicked fast has the flattest trajectory of any bow I have shot. Then I started to really focus on accuracy and man, they were all going right were I pointed. And all this within 15 minutes. My last shot was at about 30 yards and I called the shot.."Right in the red" BAM!!! I zipped one right in the center. Very impressed was I at this point.
So Since I didnt want to shoot Redbows baby too much, We switched to the Damascus Horse bow. This i shot off the hand which was a first for me, and after I got the hang of it was soon killing some foam with much pleasure. Next came the righty Ibex which was very smooth even shooting righty I was putting them in there at about 15yards with consistancy.
the Wife also shot some and had a great time, and loved the feel of the draw which is unique when compared to a regular western recurve but I should have paid more attention to it so i could explain it better, but was having way too much fun shooting these laser beams.
After some great shooting we went back in and talked abit about bow options and so on. As well as looing at some of his glass carving and other types of carving as well...an amazing artist to say the least, and I'm not just saying this, being an artist myself I feel that my standards are high, and his was carvings were beautiful with great movement.
A true treasure to behold was an 13th century composit horn bow that was completely intact and must have been about 150lbs draw. On Lukas's site you can see in the inlay section a beauty of a bow that he made with horn in the limbs (purplish in color)well when held up to the light it shines right through the limb, as if looking through a finly made stone sconce or something..it was amazing to say the least. I wish I would have taken more pic's but i was caught up on the fine craftsman ship, great history and bow talk, shooting, and So on. He's moving to Brazil soon and I gotta say I'm bummed that after having found such a great bowyer and good person so close to home, it will be a bummer to not be able to come on over and test shoot new bows, and get fitted for any new ones I may want in the future...guess I will just have to go to Brazil };>)
I also got to see his longbows (yes he is still making them) and he told me of a new one he is designing that will be done soon. It is a three piece takedown, and yes it will be done before he moves so i will have to go down and see it...
Saying our goodbyes he bid us come anytime, to talk BS and bows...Great bows, great company.
Here's a crappy pic of me shooting the Turk. Dang I need a hair cut..
Topic: Met W/ Lukas of Saluki Bows....!!!! (Read 929 times)
