have to vent!

[Scottski]

I just want to know WHY?  WHY IS IT WHEN YOU SHOW SOMEONE A NEW TO YOU BOW THEY TAKE IT LOOK AT IT AND PULL THE STRING PAST THEIR STUPID EAR! WITH 4 FINGERS ON THE STRING AS LIKE LOOK AT ME IM SO STRONG!!! Then this goofball brother-in- law of mine looks at me after the fact and he ask me how far do you pull these back?  Ah not past you ear!!!   What are they trying to prove? I have never pulled any kind of bow past my ear!  I just don't get it. Sorry guys I had to get that off my chest. Are they trying to break your bows or are people really that ignorant to selfbows and recurves. This is not the first time I have encountered this. Just a lil peed off!
That's all I got to say about that.

[lebhuntfish]

I hear ya brother! Had a guy  break one of mine doing that. I could have punched his lights out, but the bottom limb hit him in the privates. Two days later he brought me a black window recurve. Ended up costing him more than it did me other than my time. Oh yeah this was just 2 weeks ago! Patrick

[chamookman]

Whenever someone wanted to pull one of My bows back, I'd make sure to put one of My arrows on the string. I've wondered the same thing - I think it falls into the "He Man" mentality thing, complete with Caveman (Tim Allen) grunt  . Bob

[burchett.donald]

 Scottski, They don't know any better...Another thing you have to watch for is they love to dry fire it
I will tell them ahead of time now...Do not pull past your nose and please don't let go of the string!
                                                                                                                                                Don

[madcrow]

People for some reason associate the wooden self bows with the movies and english longbows.  My ex father in law did somthing similar once.  I showed him a 100 pound longbow once that was unstrung.  I was busy splitting some hickory and when i looked, he had rammed one knock in the ground and placed a foot behind it and was pulling the other limb over his shoulder trying to string it.  I yelled no and heard a snap. He was a big enough butt to laugh it off and say that how they do it in the movies.

[osage outlaw]

I had a recurve shooter at a 3-D shoot ask to look at my selfbow and then he drew it back to his normal 28" draw.  The bow was tillered for 25".  It didn't break but it still got me a little worked up. 

I shot a round with a guy at the Classic who had a fix for this problem.  He had one strand of FF tied on to the fade of the bow and to the bow string.  It was just the right length to allow it to go to full draw and not any further.  He said he started doing that after someone broke one of his bows.  It didn't seem to bother his shooting any.

[PEARL DRUMS]

Innocent ignorance.

[missilemaster]

I just stopped handing people strung bows! But what really gets me is when they try to draw it unstrung, the top loop gets to about mid limb and they stare at me with this look in their eyes that says, "I'm doing something wrong aint I"?

[Knoll]

Innocent ignorance.

Yep.

As I hand over the bow I tell 'em it's NOT a compound bow, it's designed for shorter arms than they have (even if it's not true) and NOT to let go of string.

[Marc St Louis]

I always ask them if they've ever shot a bow.  If they say yes then I prod a bit to see what they know.  If they say no then I educate them a bit

[Eric Krewson]

I started a thread over at the Stickbow site called "selfbow  etiquette ". No surprise that people who had no experience with selfbows had no idea about these bows limitations, especially for the random knuckle dragging archer who quickly whipped every bow they held in their hands back to full draw.

The proper etiquette would be to ask " can I draw your bow, my draw length is X amount", pretty simple.

[Scottski]

Guess I should tell them more about my bows. Even if they don't want to hear it. I kinda like the string tied to the bow and string. Might have to try one for my self.  Then when they ask what it is I'll just tell them that's my ( Big dummy string) maybe that will work. 

[RyanR]

A friend of mine when I was in the Marines drew my first Osage bow I built back too far and it broke. He felt pretty bad and I felt even worse. I don't remember exactly what the bow looked like because it was years ago but, I am sure the tiller was horrible.

[Trapper Rob]

My ex brother in law had to pull my first hickory bow back past his ear also ended up with a crack in it.

[bow101]

I know how you feel.  When I build a bow I like to pull it beyond the given draw in my case its 27" If it takes a little extra set pulling up to 29" so be it.   I stumbled upon a site that this guy sells wooden longbows.  He states that all the bows are pre-stressed and have taken set.
What I'm saying is if my bow is fit for my draw and it [breaks or cracks] a few inches beyond I have not done the job right. Its like a family car they are not meant to drive at a steady 100mph but they will.