if you had selfbow skill would ya ever buy another bow???

[adkmountainken]

i have a good collection of selfbows from many on this site. bows by Mark Baker, Keith Deters, Joe Weed, and Ron Waldron. these bows are absolutly FABULOUS!!! works of art and deserve to spill blood in the field. now for ME if i could build a bow 1/4 as good as these bows i'm about positive i would NEVER buy or hunt with a production bow. i just can not get over the performance and beauty of these bows. now i ask you if you could build a bow like these fellas would you still buy custom, production bows???

[Killdeer]

Yup.
You would not BELIEVE how lazy I can get!

Plus, while I love to shoot self bows,I am still roaming around and trying out all the different types of bows that I can. Not the tryout like shoot a few arrows on an afternoon. No, I wanna bring it home, make strings and arrows, play with this and that. Gotta live with it a while.

I am still finding out what I really want in a bow. And I am getting on in years. So many bows...
Killdeer

[adkmountainken]

Killy you have some nice bows FOR SURE but to me there is nothing as sweet as a well made selfbow that just seems to ooze soul throught the limbs! now don't get me wrong i have bows that are really special to me becouse of the people they are from but the selfbows just seem so full of life that you can feel it flow through the entire bow.

[Paul/KS]

Short answer is YES.  :D  

I build selfbows but I also admire the work of the guys who do the laminated bows as well.
I got a lovely and smooth shooting r/d longbow from Mike at Maddog a couple months ago...  

[adkmountainken]

Paul please feel free to post a pic of one of your bows as i love looking at selfbows. again i do have other bows i love and i'm sure i'll buy many more BUT if i had the skills i highly doubt i would ever bow another new bow.

[walkabout]

i have to agree here, i love selfbows and their character/ soul but also i admire the beauty and craftsmanship of a good glass laminated recurve and the other types of bows.  just like killdeer said im still figuring out exactly what fits me.

[Dick in Seattle]

Even though i don't do selfbows... no patience... I know what you're talking about.   i do laminated, and after I built the first one, I stopped buying production or even custom bows.   I still have a very few fine customs and vintage, but they just never get shot.   There's something about shooting a bow and knowing that it came from your hands, even if it's not as good as others, or as beautiful, that makes it special.  Learning to build, whether self or laminate, is the one cure I've found for the bow buying virus!

[reddogge]

I am a collector of sorts so yes, I must collect.

[rastaman]

It is my mission in life to keep the custom bowyers in business!   :D   (plus i have no building skills so there is that small hurdle to overcome).

[Traxx]

NOPE!!!!!
I was Dubbed,"Tightwad Todd" a long time ago.LOL

[Chris Shelton]

when I finally fork out the dough to build my own laminated bows, I probably will never buy another bow, lol

[ron w]

What Killdeer said.......it's just fun! Plus I afraid mine are about to blow up and self destruct at any moment! Reddogge, collector of sorts...me to!

[Stiks-n-Strings]

Well you know I would! I would buy a bow a week if'n I could afford it. LOL

 I'm learning the selfbow gig and just finished a sweet shooting little boo backed jatoba. Can't wait to get my first snaky character bow done. I just love those things.

 Stiks

[Osagetree]

I recently trade two $500.00 production bows to get one of my selfbows back,,, I could not get over the loss so to me it was worth it!!!    
 
Archery to me comes in many different forms such as primitive (selfbows), traditional (laminated all wood, bamboo or horn bows), Modern traditional (glass, pheolics bows). So, because I like to shoot all of them, the potential to buy or trade for one I may want is a good possibility.

By the way Ken,,, thanks for the fine compliments! I still miss "WARDOG" too!!

[Mudd]

"I ask you if you could build a bow like these fellas would you still buy custom, production bows???"--adkmountainken


Absolutely!!

God bless,Mudd

[gilbarbarian]

I'm with you Ken, I have only made a couple but I love the idea of trying to perfect the bow.

[ber643]

Yep, I did, a sweet little Anneewakee Addiction, lam bow named "Blackie". However I loved making the 4 or 5 self bows that I did in the last three years, and hunting with a couple of them. I will never regret those years and lessons learned, and I'm reasonably sure (time left permitting) that I will make and use two or so more self bows before the last bugle call is sounded. However I decided I also needed to use the lessons I had learned before going primitive again also, and the "Addiction", from bowyer, Lee Hoots (Hootsbows), made for Sponsor John Dill (Anneewakee Archery), stole my heart away.

[adkmountainken]

i hope to talk Ron W in to helping me build a bow at some point this year. i would be proud to make ANYTHING that would be heavy enogh to hunt with!

[Diamond Paul]

Yes, most definitely.  Selfbows (and any longbow, for that matter) don't do a thing for me and I don't enjoy shooting them, so I would still buy a composite recurve.  I think it is fantastic that people do build and hunt with bows they have made themselves, though.  I'm just not that hardcore.  I'd probably use a selfbow before I shot an old-school longbow, though!

[ber643]

Just let me add that there is so much real fun and satisfaction to both making and shooting a self bow that I firmly believe every archer/bowhunter should try either or both at some time.

The recent Ultimate Archer class at the NC State championship shoot - in which contenders had to shoot the course three times - once LB, once Rec, and once Primitive, had a lot of folks hustling for, and shooting, a primitive (all wood) bow for the first time. While some found it harder, some found a "new way to go" - LOL. I think most all got a dose/feel of the difference in flight (arc of the arrow) and fun factor. Many, I'm sure, have extended their trad archery enjoyment.