Gang,
For the last two years, I have had the privilege of attending Barry Wensel's Whitetail Bootcamp as my "Bowhunter's Spring Break". Aside from the rich experiences of listening to a Wensel-told hunting story or absorbing decades of deer hunting knowledge, one of the highlights for me was getting to spend time checking out Barry stuff! He's got plenty of it too!
One of the coolest pieces he has is one of Paul Schafer's personal hunting bows. I'll spare you the details of the bow, but it has a pretty interesting story behind it. After some tragedy and goodwill, the bow finally made it's way into Barry's hands and serves today as one of his most prized possessions. You can read about the bow in Barry's book, Once Upon a Tine (chapter 19).
I got to thinking after my first trip to Barry's place, that it would be pretty cool to order my first Schafer Silvertip and have it modeled after Paul's bow. After a lot of emails and a visit this past summer with Dave and Beth Windauer, who are fantastic people, we nailed down the design and the wait began!
Well, I got a phone call earlier this week from Beth, and my bow is in the mail! She is 60" 55# at 28" and features the old Trebark camo netting on the limbs. The riser is built with rosewood dymondwood, and the laminations have been modified a bit to match Paul's old bow as closely as possible. Dave did an absolutely perfect job of capturing the classic and simple nature of Paul's bow, while maintaining the integrity of his own design and artistic representation.
Below are a few pics of the original, and my new one. Don't think I'll ever pass thing one along, and I cant wait to shoot it!
Jim
Topic: A Re-Created Schafer Silvertip (Read 862 times)
