This bow has the most black in the horns of any I have made so far. I think they are desert bighorn but cannot be sure. From what I have seen desert bighorns are a little darker than Rocky mt. The bow started out a couple inches longer and had a lap splice with handle risers on back and belly glued and held with 6 coper rivets. It was finished over a year ago and became a tough lesson about rivets in a handle section not thick enough. After spending well over 50 hours to that point on the bow I was working with the tiller and bringing it to full draw for about the 100th time and it broke clean across the top of the handle at 2 side by side rivets. The pieces sat for a while. I pulled the sinew off and eventually started making it into a new bow. Since one limb was now shorter I used the same tung groove splice I used on my last one so I could get the longest bow for what was left. This bow also has the risers on the back and belly, but no rivets, just good glue.
The new bow is 35" Backed with 8 layers of sinew applied in 3 sessions. It has a draw of about 58# @ 19.5". I often leave these bows strung for a week or so at a time and they are still fast shooters. The reflex comes back after being unstrung a couple days. The new owner lived in Montana among the Blackfoot and wanted it finished in that style. The Blackfoot had many hornbows at one time but had no record of making them. It was said they obtained them from the tribes to the west as well as fine cedar bows. The arrows are dogwood with iron barrel hoop points and the string is 3 ply sinew.
