Ozbow

Just got around to finishing off this little lot for a chap called Geoff Sainsbury. He won them in the raffle at the Specs shoot at the Hunter in October. They're all 62-64lb in spine and within ten grains, so pretty good. So now just a set to finish for Nick Lintern's better half, a set for a bloke...

Thanks. Most enjoyable little read.

Hi All, Just wanted to say thanks to all those who helped put together the AF Memorial Shoot up at Taree this weekend. Top effort. And thank goodness the temperature dropped about 20 degrees on the drive up from Sydney. Great location, excellent facilities, nice people and really nice courses. Thoro...

Just wanted to say thanks to all at Coffs for a really good first Trad Shoot. Appreciate all the work. Courses were great, facilities great, people great. Cecilia and I really enjoyed ourselves. Certainly worth the 1100k drive for the weekend. Cheers, Andy PS. Hope someone can post the scores and so...

Thanks to everyone (Trish, Nick, Pete, Ron etc etc) involved. A top (and tricky) shoot yet again.

Great shoot, weather, people, food. And, needless to say, Cecilia enjoyed it especially. Her first kosher win.

Andy

Hello all, As someone who primarily shoots what many call 'modern' longbows or even 'hybrid' bows at Trad Shoots, I thought I'd add a few words. On the bus this morning I was reading an interesting article in the Oct/Nov 2015 edition of Traditional Bowhunter magazine called 'The Long History of the ...

Hey there, I 'got into' making flemish strings about 18 months back, mainly to add another craft to things but also to mess about making strings to match fancy arrow fletching etc. I played around a bit with string counts as well. I tend to go three bundle, and having read a little about 'skinny str...

Cecilia and I set of early Thursday am. Can't bloody wait.

Cheers,

Andy

PS. Will bring the big war bow as requested.

Hey Stuart, Pretty much always used acrylics as they're easier to thin with water and clean up. Can't tell you the dilution amounts, but it's usually less than you'd think, maybe 10-20 water to paint - experiment a bit. The main thing is to stir your paint beforehand to mix it. Don't shake it or it ...

Yes, thank you to all concerned. Cecilia and I had a great time yet again - even though my shooting was so woeful I didn't bother putting a score in. That said, at least I won The Wand with one incredibly flukey shot from my 120lber (so there was something to celebrate even though the authorities fo...

Hi Hunterguy, Wish I had the work space to make up my own shafts etc, but sadly small apartments in Bondi don't permit. Anyway, funnily enough, I've just finished a set of rather 'blingy' (stained crown, yellow and green splicing in white feathers, cresting and what not (not very traditional but I c...

Thanks for the video. I think it's fairly obvious as to what he's explaining. You can easily see the difference in the action.

Cheers.

PS. As far as shooting war bows with you, both myself and Eoin Mcarthy will be at The Gathering in June. Plenty of room to throw big arrows about there.

Another shot. Not quite as full draw. But I think this shows more of the 'character' I mentioned.

A rather naff quality still. She's a slightly weird looking thing with all her bumps and twists.

Hi Hunterguy, Will post some better quality still pics when I get chance. It was a pretty awkward stave. It bends through the handle, but as far as I know (and as Nick tells me), pretty much follows the arc of a circle. The tips may look a touch stiff due to the very 'character' (i.e. knots/twists) ...

After blowing up my previous 105lb war bow fashioned from a stave of local Brigalow, I went for broke and ordered a stave of 80-100 growth ring per inch Pacific Yew from Medicinebow Woods in the US. This is the resulting outcome, thanks to my mate Nick Lintern. It was rather a bugger to make but, to...

Yes, so I believe. To that swine Guy Layton (he informed with with a certain glee).

Yep, interested. Could you email on andy@mammal.net.au

Thanks,

Andy

Good point hunterguy. On the longbow shop site they're called war bodkins, so fairly meaningless. And no, they're not hand forged. I'm saving hand forged for when I'm a touch more proficient. Then we'll be on to that Hector Cole chap. And yes I admit, they're somewhat fancier than they should be com...

Whilst these are in no way my first set of arrows, they are my first crack at something hefty and of war dimensions for my two new war bows (120lb laminated jobby and a lovely 128lb Pacific Yew beastie crafted by my charming friend Mr Lintern). These arrows are pretty much Livery Arrow specs. 33 inc...

I'll add a bit more of a starting point. If you want good arrows (and why wouldn't you?), grab some of the hand-spined, hand-weighed Port Orford Cedar shafts from Kustom King. For a 57lb recurve like your Wes Wallace, you probably want shafts spined at least 5-10lb over the bows' draw weight at your...

Thanks. Really enjoyed that.
A

Don't currently ride, but used to a lot in my youth. Had a selection of stuff from crappy little CG125's and A100's through to a GPZ500, FZR1000 and one of the early Ducati 851's (a beautiful thing which really handled when set up, could ride it off the edge of the tyres, scrape knees, boot edges et...

Hi there, My tuppence worth. I shoot carbons, alloys and have a made a few thousand woods in my time. Woods do break more easily, so carbons or alloys are great for 'bashing' about and practising on rolling discs and the like. However, I reckon woods are much nicer to shoot from a traditional wooden...

Hi Roadie, Sorry to hear about your surgery, but glad to see you're back out and on the mend mate. Been in the wars a little myself just recently, but still have all my digits. Look forward to seeing you at Wiseman's with any luck. Rather than trying out some medieval trigger release or thumb ring, ...

If it was a lefty, I'd have made sure it was long gone long ago. Lovely bow.

A

My usual draw length is 28.5 inches, and when shooting Eoin's 120lber the other week, I was pulling to 'about 32 inches' according to Eoin (I'm 5'11"). That length seemed to be the most comfortable ( I use that term loosely) to draw to and feel like it was 'locked in', without the more obvious,...

I used the Soma Saker tabs for a while too. Same principle as the KSL Gold tabs but lighter. They also come with an additional 'pinky hook' for your little finger which I tried for a while. Rod Jenkins uses one in Masters of the Barebow 3 I think.

All my bows would probably fall into the 'performance' category (Fox Triple Crowns, Borders, Blackbrooks, Blacktail etc) and most of them look pretty good too. That's where most of my cash has gone.

That said, most of my time is spent on getting my arrows as good as possible.

Split finger and tab. Mainly because I started in target and the rules used to require split finger. I use a tab because that's what I started with and feel most comfortable with - and I like the heavy KSL Gold brass tabs with a finger spacer and a palm plate these days. I try to use a glove on the ...