Right handed bow goes lefty

[SOS]

Some of you may remember the trial and tribulations of my making my first TD longbow 4 or so years ago.  Affectionatly called El Cheapo for the most basic materials, it became a deer killing machine.     That was until the left elbow I broke in three places as a kid gave up on me and I can't pull a kid's bow, let alone a hunting weight bow now.  After several months of being bummed out, I decided to dive it and learn to shoot left handed.  Crazy, but got me back in the game.  Still can't hit squat, but it got me thinking about a new riser for El Cheapo. It dawned on me, with a bomb-proof riser of action wood, let's reconfigure the old riser and see what happens....so....here we go!  Am I nuts, or what?    


Here is the plan:


Here is the rough cut:


Here is the two shelf'ed riser...heh, heh.

[gregg dudley]

Way to get after it, Steve!

[joekeith]

   :confused:      I dunno what to say...

[trick00]

What the heck??  

[Jerry Jeffer]

Crazy, or not so crazy? I don't know. How does the grip feel with the now lower cut out? I'd say you are trying to make the best with what ya got.

[Cool Arrow]

Wish I haad talent like that.
   Larry

[David Mitchell]

I saw such a riser style on a Harrelson recurve a few years ago at thge Kentucky Classic.

[GRINCH]

Gotto do what you gotto do.

[Jeff D. Holchin]

Yep, you are nuts.....  

[Oregon Okie]

That's so crazy it just might work. I like it. Can we see some more pics? With it in hand maybe. I want a switcher and this seems like a good way to get a "double shelf".

[59Alaskan]

it's just like washers and dryers or shotguns...
some dual shelves are side by side others are over under

[Pullonmylimb]

I dig it man.  Go with it.

[SOS]

When I started this, I thought about a removable block for each window so you could in fact shoot it both ways.  This might be doable if you kept both cutouts from the window and had a pretty square shelf.  Actually, I did shoot it just as you see it, will post a video if I can figure it out.  It didn't feel all that bad.

Here's an belly view if it will help.



Since I don't plan to go back and forth, I shaped the chunk from the other riser to hopefully blend with the rest of the wood.  Epoxied it into place.


Then rough shaped it.



Now some JB Weld Kwikwood epoxy putty, and voila!

[Bill Skinner]

I am right handed and right eye dominate but have had to switch to left hand due to an old injury.  You should have tried a thumb ring first.  You can shoot a right handed bow left handed with a thumb ring and get decent accuracy fairly quickly.  FWIW, I had to go way down on the poundage, my left arm and back muscles were a lot weaker than my right side.  Bill

[SOS]

Oh great, Bill.  Now I'm going to have to post a thread of taking the bow back to right handed...geesh!  LOL.

Thumb ring thing sounds interesting, though.

[SOS]

Little more sanding and shaping.  Mainly ready to shape the window and shelf, slap some finish on her, and then figure out how to put on a leather grip to cover the epoxy.  The wood chunk blended in pretty well.

[Overspined]

Nice work

[Overspined]

U know, I can shoot lefty pretty well. Aiming is all about getting the nock of the arrow under or referenced with ur dominant eye. So what I do is can't the bow a little more and the arrow aligns quite well. I am accurate usually to about 15 yds with little effort. I think I could do it if I had to. I just shoot the arrow off of my hand on hill bow, should b better off the new shelf you made.

Good luck

[SOS]

Got the shelf and window shaped and final sanding done...here is Lefty Cheapo with coat # 2 on....looking good.  Even steel wooled the limbs to put a fresh coat on them as well.

This shows the glue line and epoxy putty - not too bad, some epoxy will show after I figure out how to cover the grip - the epoxy putty should all be covered by the grip.



The off-side looks pristine.

[rastaman]

Steve that is pretty awesome stuff there!