Well for those that know about the NM Classic I ordered last October, you know it has been a traumatic wait. To fill in those that do not, here is the short story. I ordered the bow back in October and planned to have it and hunt with it down at Ray Hammond's place in early February. Well, Steve finished the bow, shipped it, and then the USPS just lost it. It was last scanned in Atlanta on January 27th and just dissappeared.
So last week Steve called me and said he was going to build me a new one and would hand deliver it to me at the Pre-Spring fling down in Alabama this weekend. Since I couldn't make it down until Friday night due to work I must admit I had a hard time sleeping Friday night. Just like a kid waiting for Santa.
So, Saturday morning I was looking for the Northern Mist logo on anything as I was walking through the vendors. I walked up to Steve and as soon as he heard my voice he whirled around and picked up my bow and handed it to me. My first word was WOW! The bow was even better than I had anticipated. 70" NM Classic with bamboo lams, with cherry veneers on the back and belly, Bolivian Roseroon riser and limb tips.
After talking to Steve for a few minutes I asked my wife to snap a photo before heading to the first range.
I went back to my truck, grabbed some halo to make a quick nock. stuck a tube of super glue in my pocket and headed to fling a few arrows. From the first arrow she shot right where I was looking. This just may be the perfect bow in my humble opinion. She is quiet, hits very hard, extremely smooth to draw and I noticed no hand shock at all. Off to the first course!
To get the weight I wanted in the arrow for this bow, I started with full length Carbon Express Heritage 350s, 100 Grain Brass insert and 250 grain point. Total weight is 780 grains. Now that I have the bow back at home I will start working on the perfect arrow, but these shot very well, perhaps a bit weak in spine. I am drawing about 28.5" since switching to 3 under so I have a lot of arrow I can remove to dial the spine in to where I need it.
First target.
Course was a lot of fun to shoot and had shots set up that required adjusting shot angle to get through the trees.
One of MANY perfect heart shots. If you look closely you can see the white of my feathers in the target.
The final target on the blue course was the longest shot of the course. The first time I took the shot I made a perfect double lung hit. Later I shot the course again and somehow shot over. Still not sure how I did that.
After driving home, I had to shoot a few in the backyard, just to make sure I wasn't imagining things. Three shots at around 20 yards went right where I wanted them.
Love the Bolivian Rosewood in the handle!
And the cherry is beautiful as well.
I already can't wait to shoot this bow again. For my first custom bow I think this bow is about as close to perfect as I could have imagined. Steve really nailed what I wanted in this bow. He is a class A Bowyer and a super nice guy! I couldn't be happier.