Not to imply I can always shoot this well. These days I don’t practice as much and age is having it’s way with me, but…
Here is what I could do when I was in the zone. Shot this at an unknown distance and
when I paced it off it came to 32 yards. Useing a Robertson stykbow
20 yard practice with a Jefferys
recurve
20 yards with a modern R/D longbow
@castoff said:
Not to imply I can always shoot this well. These days I don’t practice as much and age is having it’s way with me, but…
Here is what I could do when I was in the zone. Shot this at an unknown distance and
when I paced it off it came to 32 yards. Useing a Robertson stykbow
20 yard practice with a Jefferys
recurve
20 yards with a modern R/D longbow
I was kidding!
@willowleaf said:
Castoff: Your flutes are wonderful! Especially like the bear and the spalted wood snake. Thanks for sharing them!
Thank you. I posted them hoping to get others interested in this wonderful instrument. To me the sound belongs outdoors. To hear it played in the distance across the water or through the woods just feels natural like it belongs. Like tjalmy said in the thread that lead to this post “It seems fitting in a sylvan environment. Lovely gentle wooden instrument, very organic.”
When hunting with a bow a completely different feeling than with a gun?
I have had the pleasure of listening to Castoff playing around a campfire and look forward to hearing it again (hint hint). The closest I have come to playing music is making windchimes. A tuned set of windchimes give off an amazing sound. Thinking of hanging a set on my canoe for solo paddling.
@Castoff said "I have made several primitive/wooden bows and many wood arrows. My favorite is a yew English longbow I made and won several tournaments with. "
I’ve made several English Longbows and warbows now, Mostly from hickory and bamboo. It’s tough getting decent yew. I make native american style bows from chokecherry, green ash and juniper I cut when I visit our farm in Utah. Bowwoods are pretty scarce in San Diego. It’s hard to dry the wood so it doesn’t crack, so these can be kind of frustrating. I just bought some hickory wood and have cut out 8 ELB staves from it. Just finishing #3 from that set. I’m probably going to sell most of them or trade them, and give the others away as gifts. A couple of years ago when I got into archery again, I made a recurved flat bow and took a meetup archery class; at the end of the year the teacher invited a bunch of us back for an archery tournament. I won the adult males group, but most of the other guys had only been shooting for several months. My wife was surprised when she came home and there was a “gold” medal sitting on the kitchen table. In that group there was a young woman who was an incredibly good shot using a fancy target bow with sites. I learned to shoot reading snap shooting hints from Fred Bear so I’m no expert. Last winter I got into making viking style bows, I used to live in Norway, and in the last year I’ve made friends with several traditional bow makers in Sweden, Norway and UK - hope to visit some in the next couple of years and also do some paddling with them.
@BlackCorsair said:
When hunting with a bow a completely different feeling than with a gun?
I agree. Hunting with a bow requires being able to have the animal in close. As a result you spend more time watching them than shooting. I like that because you learn so much more. When the kids were growing up we ate venison and rarely bought beef. We have a ten deer limit. I considered hunting with a rifle grocery shopping. Once the kids left home I hunted only with my bow. I have always felt a respondsably for the life I take so the skill to make the best shot I can is very important to me.
@SeaDart said:
Fantastic! I suspect you spend time on some of the primitive archery sites. I was active on the leatherwall years ago. I have only made 4 bows. I have a decent archery library with a couple of volumes on Native American bows. An internet friend sent me the yew stave from Oregon. I have always built my own matched set of arrows be they made of bamboo, cedar, aluminum, or carbon. The arrow correctly tuned to the bow is really important for consistent accuracy. It sounds like an amazing trip to travel to Scandinavia and paddle and learn about viking bows.
@Kayak_Ken said:
I have had the pleasure of listening to Castoff playing around a campfire and look forward to hearing it again (hint hint). The closest I have come to playing music is making windchimes. A tuned set of windchimes give off an amazing sound. Thinking of hanging a set on my canoe for solo paddling.
Yes I look forward to camping together again Ken. Glad you “chimed” in!
I was upset when the landscape contractor I hired a few years ago failed to leave behind the massive overgrown yew that I had him take down – it was in a bad place, too close to a nice Japanese maple and shadowed by a towering pine. But it had an 8" diameter main trunk and was over 15’ tall. I had planned to offer it to woodworkers, particularly instrument and bow makers. I clearly told them to leave that particular tree in the yard after cutting it down. But I was not around the day that the crew finished up and I came home to find that all of the downed trees and shrubs had been chipped or hauled away. The stump is still there, nearly flush with the ground, and I can see how dense and fine grained the wood is. I hope that somebody on that crew realized what the value was in it and at least some of it went for something more than firewood or mulch.
@willowleaf said:
I was upset when the landscape contractor… The stump is still there, nearly flush with the ground, and I can see how dense and fine grained the wood is.
The horror! I had two trees I asked to be left when we had to have trees that were dying removed, and some cleared from the power lines. Same result as through the chipper went a mulberry and a bald cypress, but close grain Yew is a treasure! A bow stave of good Yew cost as much as $200 twenty years ago. If you could find it.
