So I got home today and chatted with my wife for a bit then went inside to give my dog a few treats. I saw a piece of corrugated drainage pipe laying on the dining room table and I thought what the heck is she doing buying that, I’ve got a bunch of it out back. Then I saw it had some shipping labels on it and immediately knew what it was, my trade bow 😀A snakey Osage bow. Gold metal winning bow from Sleek. To dark for any photos but I’ll post some this weekend.
Also in the tube was a snake skin. I’m not sure what kind of snake it came from but wouldn’t want to stumble across him in the woods. Thinking about trying to look online and see if I can figure out what it might be. Maybe a python was my first thought, don’t know
Thanks Sleek, awesome bow with a pedigree. How cool is that..
Pictures this weekend.
Glad it arrived. Also check your mail box, there is an envelope coming with the paperwork for the bow from the competition. As the bow was shot in womens division, I obviously didnt win the medal to send with the bow as i intended. So i sent you the registration form with the arrow distance on it.
The bow didnt perform as well as i had hoped in contest. The problem wad getting good arrow flight. It was mostly limited by the arrows performance. In practice i borrowed an arrow that shot far enough to tie and possibly break Arvins record which would have been very exciting. Unfortunatly that arrow was not a legal arrow in primitive category as it had a plastic nock.
When i got home I let the bow sit several weeks and i think that was a mistake. The humidity here is aweful and the bow lost speed. I was shooting 204fps and after sitting home, it shot 190s a few times before slowing down to 160s. Im sure if you dry the bow out it will speed up again.
The stave was not an easy one to work. Its character fought me every step of the way. I didnt feel confident heat treating the bow anywhere near my normal heat treat. Im certain that played a roll in its being affected by humidity.
Your draw being so long, i couldnt possibly post about it here without you guessing it was for you. But I did record and document the bow build along with a few others on my facebook page SleeksSticks. There you can watch almost the entire build process.
Im certain if you get that bow dry, its performance will go back up to where i designed it. There are 2 strings on it. The white is a lenin string that was used in contest. The other is a fast flight style string made from power pro fishing line. Do not serve the natural string btw, that causes them to break.
The snake is python. I was going to put it on the bow, which is why i waited so ship so long. But, i couldnt make up my mind if i wanted to risk adding more moisture from the glue into the bow, its dry time, and changing the bow from how it was in competition to being a backed bow. Ive seen your work, and figured id let you make that decision, and sent the skin for you to use as you see fit on what ever bow you like.
Im sorry i made you wait so long to receive it, i just couldnt decide what to do with it. I hope you enjoy it and are able to watch the videos on it, and thank you for being a good sport about the longer wait.
