So I've been shooting my monster 90# ELB for a couple months now. I love all kinds of longbows, takedown, R/D, ELB, lam, self, whatever. I am unlike others who enjoy the heavy 'warbow'/ELB style longbows- I appreciate heritage and am a history buff, but I have zero interest really in flight/clout or period correct shooting, being a big man, to me it's just a giant ELB and I love the size, power, and fun of pulling it back behind my ear. I also have decided to embrace the challenge of taking a 76" 90# bow out in the woods hunting. Not in a tree, but on the ground, either hidden or on the stalk. The quarry most suited to this size bow is the feral hog. I am convinced some of them may have French ancestry and their invasion must be stopped!
And of course they are TASTY! Anyway, I acquired the bow without having the proper arrows for it. The bow is tillered to 33" and up to now I was only able to practice pulling and holding it past my ear with out a long arrow, and for shooting purposes was limited to some 30" carbon arrows I had lying around for my other bows, which only allowed about a 75-80# shot pulled to my face. Let me say the carbons were just NOT heavy enough for the bow. Such a huge stick needs some HEAVY arrows in order to transfer its energy efficiently. Even weighted with a heavy field point and a piece of plastic coated wire inside the carbons just weren't cutting it, barely hitting 650g total weight. This bow needs something more in the realm of 800+ grains to function and get decent cast, not to mention being tillered to 33" it really needs to be pulled all the way back to do what it was meant to do. This meant I needed wood shafts for sure. Carbons of the size required were just cost prohibitive and unwanted. SO...enter in our very own John Fletch here on Tradgang. He knew of my goal from previous posts and assured me he could build me some tough poplar shafts to do what I want to do and even make them look medieval, as my current arrow making skills are not quite up to snuff. I traded him some items I wasn't going to use and he made me some lovely 34" spears for the bow. The coolest part for me was that he actually had a modified fletching jig for 7" feathers allowing him to glue the feathers on like a contemporary hunting arrow without needing to wrap/tie them with thread. I've got some really handsome STOS broadheads which have that perfect triangle look, that I'm going to try on them..but I may also get some Tuffheads to try as well since those are real monsters. I've got 10 of the 34" monsters, but pics only show a handful of them.
Well, I'm pleased to report that the arrows John built for me fly like darts out of this bow pulled to 33"!! Finally getting good arrow flight, all it took was some proper mass and the ability to do a full draw. I'm working on 10 yards right now just to get comfortable with the behind the ear anchor, but so far it's working...check out the nice lung shot I got on deer target
The bow isn't lightning quick, BUT it is hilarious how hard the arrows hit the target...it makes the target sway back and forth and had me in laughing fits. I have plans to do a little camouflaging to the bow to dull it down some for the woods. If I actually pull this off over the next few seasons (it may take more than a few tries, hehe) I'll have myself a cool story to tell.
He even threw in a couple bodkins for me to try just for the heck of it. No doubt they'd punch through a boar's armor, but the STOS heads will do the job and I can't even imagine what these arrows would do with a Tuffhead on them. Anyway, good trade JohnFletch and can't wait to go stalking.
Can't wait to see the eyes bug out of some wheelie shooters when they see me emerge from the woods cammied out with a camo tape wrapped around small tree in my hand.
If some hogs let me get close enough, they are in for a surprise.
10 yard kill, haha!
7" feathers glued on, no wrap necessary! SWEET!
Stay tuned for hunting success pics, I'll be practicing in the meantime..
Topic: Finally got some proper arrows for the 90# ELB, watch out hogs!! (Read 255 times)
