Something different.

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Rhino1
Posts: 43
Joined: Wed Jan 27, 2016 7:01 pm

Something different.

#1 Post by Rhino1 » Thu Oct 18, 2018 9:40 am

It's been wet here in sunny QLD which means no work for me and getting bored with making knives and doing Leatherwork. So, after much deliberation I've decided to come out of the closet about something I've been hiding and share a little story.

There's a few on here that know I go through a lot of bows, I buy a bow and use it as a daily shooter then after a few weeks or months, etc another beauty will catch my eye or something doesn't click and the initial bow will either find a place on a wall, shed, cupboard or be passed on to someone else.
In all this buying and selling of bows, one thing I've worked out for me is that a trad bow grip needs to fit my hand to be a keeper, some bow grips seem to twist in my hand or sit in a dicky position or I need to continually make a conscious effort to hold it in a certain way to keep shots from wandering off centre, Im a firm believer that a trad bow needs to fit you and your shooting style not the other way around.
Anyways, earlier this year a few bows came up on Gumtree and one arvo after work I spent a few hours driving around Brisbane picking up 2 old 1970s Bear curves and a martin jaguar.
The bears were as good as expected and the $100 martin bow came from a guy who bought it new 3 years earlier and hadnt done much with it, Now I checked out the reviews online and everyone seems so outraged at the quality of the string and the flipper rest that no one seems to say too much about the actual bow, after 6 weeks I finally got around to taking the martin out of its case with the intention of tidying it up and reselling it. It soon became clear why the bloke hardly shot it, the brace was set at a wrist slapping 4.5 inches and there was whisker biscuit on the front of the riser which effectively hid the target from view when it was drawn on anything under 20 metres, the string was the original endless loop and despite the reviews was still going strong and had no issues I could see apart from simply being an endless loop string.
So I made a nice Flemish string, dug through boxes of archery gear and found a decent aae adjustable rest still in the box, I tuned everything and already had someone keen to buy it. After another month or so, said buyer never rocked up and the bow was taking up space on the dining room bow rack and was banished to the office.
It was here it caught my eye and one rainy arvo I decided to walk my range with the martin in tow, with every shot the jaguar split the silence and sung it's banshee song (just as abrupt as any Sambar honk) but surprisingly every shot was on point even on awkwardly placed targets that I normally struggle with. Later, silencers were added to hush the nasally twang of her harpy song and without me actually noticing, somehow, this ugly $100 bow had become my daily shooter, now I have several bows that cost well in excess of $1000 that don't see much action any more. After having conversations about it and letting some other blokes have a shot, I've come to the conclusion that it's maybe more of a one off not the norm, I was even lucky enough to put 2 good sized pigs on the deck a few weeks ago (one sow was 70kg) with this and have had great success on small game with some successful shots taken out to 40m, I have since made up a series of plates to adjust the tiller of the limbs and have generally had a lot of fun just tinkering with it.

So, I guess the story isn't about the actual bow, but just finding something great in the last place you would ever think to look, although I'm not about to be wandering around any public archery ranges with this bow anytime soon.

Cheers for reading this dribble, regards Rhino
"As far as I can tell my place is right here, on the smart end of this rifle" H.Glass-Revenant.

little arrows
Posts: 2856
Joined: Sun Feb 29, 2004 2:14 pm
Location: Sunshine Coast QLD

Re: Something different.

#2 Post by little arrows » Thu Oct 18, 2018 7:12 pm

G'day Rhino,

You bought something you'd make a quick sale on and what do you know, it's a keeper, it's a great story.
Mate, you can dribble on here to your hearts content. ;)

cheers
sue

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