My dream bow...
Well, I think it just rocked-up in the mail.
Back at college when I first became interested in the bow-and-arrow, and had eyes only for camouflaged three-stringed wheel-bows, I read a "Bowhunter Magazine" article about Paul Schafer, and was greatly impressed. But, still the appeal of the wheels held, as, from my rifle background, there was just no way that I could personally trust something so simple, and further, I hadn't yet discovered that the process was more important than the end result. So, I got hold of an elderly Hoyt compound (all I could afford, anyway) and after much trying and a few years, took my first two animals with it, a brumby and a donkey. By the time I took my first donkey, I was in my first year of teaching, and could finally afford a new bow. It was going to be a Matthews compound, but I recalled that Schafer article, and decided to first check out this traditional notion. I bought a Martin Hunter recurve. After much trying with that, I had knocked over another donkey, and a young bull buffalo (not too shabby for a fellow's second traditional kill, and fourth archery kill). But it was on a remote dam in the Simpson Desert, after an epic cat-n-mouse game with an enourmous brumby stallion into which I was finally able to place an arrow, that I decided that this traditional thing was definitely for me. Then and there, near that dam as I looked at the fallen desert monarch, I decided to get one of those Paul Schafer bows. But, back in civilisation, the prospect of waiting for ten months was too much, and I decided that it would be good to check out the longbow thing, seeing as I'd hunted with a compound and a recurve. So, a couple of Black Widow longbows came my way, and I really cut my teeth on them as a bowhunter, and my remaining one remains very special. During this time, I decided to experience Hill-style equipment too, and bought a beautiful Redman. Finally, after a few years had gone by since first deciding to get a Schafer recurve, I stayed-up real late one night so that I could call Montana early in their morning, and place an order with Dave Windauer - and after eleven months it arrived on Friday, and I'm stoked with it!
I suppose I wanted to experience as many different types of bows as I could. One day, I'm sure I'll cut, split and dry one of the nice straight trees that grow along the river, and see what happens.
But, if I just had to have one, it'd be the Silvertip that caught my attention in the magazine when I was just starting out in archery.