Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: bradsmith2010 on January 12, 2017, 09:38:03 pm
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well I saw this guy shooting on utube( jeff Kavanagh),,and thought wow it would be great to see him shoot a wood bow,,
I contacted him and he was all in to try one out,, the pressure was on,, whew,,
I had the stave I had been looking at for about 10 years,, it was too long for the shorter bows I was shooting,,, and to nice to cut,,but would be perfect for Jeffer and his 29 1/2 inch draw,,it had just been waiting for the right bow,,
between working and trying to make the bow as best I could it took me a while to get it done,, and I reallly want to give credit to you guys and some of the best bow makers in the world that post here,, I have learned alot from the collective knowledge and advice that goes on here every day,, thank you,,,
Mother nature really designed the bow,, I made it as wide and long as the stave would permit,, kept is bending even and it turned out nice,, very nice cast and beautiful to look at,, the stave really did not have any flaws for an osage,, a couple of pin knots close to the edge, but I felt the deer hide made them a non issue,,
the deer hide is from a deer I shot season before last and you can see the exit hole on the handle,, just for good luck,,I wrapped it around the edge becasue of the pin knots,, I put a hair on strike plate to make it silent on the draw and fur silencers to make it deadly quite for hunting,,
the bow draws a bit more than 50 at 29 1 /2,, it is 69 nock to nock 1 3/4 wide at the widest ,, and will shoot a wide range of arrow spine and weights,, is is not picky,,
so I sent several arrows to Jeff for him to try,, they all shot good for me,, I knew his release would be different than mine so wanted a range of arrows for him to try,,
I wanted this bow to be very stable and not shift when I sent it out,, I let it sweat every time I worked on it.. leaving it braceed for 4 or 5 hours at a time,, the stave had natural reflex and I wanted that to settle in when I had the bow and could make adjustments in tiller,, it ended up with close to 2 inches of reflex when shot in,,I was pleased,,
I tillered out the bow to 24 inches before putting the rawhide on,, and shot it through the chrono with no backing at that draw,, it was 53# at 24 inches and shooting a 486 grain arrow 167fps,, ok I was pleased and felt I was on the right track for tiller with the bow shooting nice cast at the shorter 24 inch draw,, I wrote beadman and he felt it was doing good at that point,, and pretty much guessed what the bow would shoot at the full draw,, that was even more pressure,, to try to get the bow to shoot what he had quessed,,
I put the rawhide on and waited about a week and the bow had lost bout 4 #s,, guess I did not wait long enough,, I hoped I had not hurt the bow pulling it to full draw with the moisture content to high,,
after waiting a few more days the bow weighed just like before putting on the rawhide,, so I was ok,,I hoped,,, I got the bow tillered out to about 52# at 27 inches and it shot 505 grain arrow 170 fps,, I was very happy with that ,,even though the bow was fresh ,, I felt it was an indicator that the bow at nearly 30 inches would have very nice cast,, so far so good,, the next day I shot the bow at 28 inches and the bow was about 55#, ,the first shot was 181 fps 512 grain arrow,,, I thought it was a misread,, but all following shots were the high 170s to 180,, it was shooting nice,, I took weight off and stretched the bow to nearly 30inches,, I did not shoot it through the chrono anymore,, I was happy with the way the bow shot and left it at that,,
the tiller looks funky,, the perfect looking stave had some waves and dips reflex and deflex when I got the bow going and that is reflected in the funky tiller,, I followed my own advice and kept the taper even as possible and let the way the bow shot be the final indicator for me,, the unbraced profile assured me the bow was bending pretty even, the reflex on the top limb was a bit tricky,, making the braced profile seem a bit weak on the bottom limb, but at full draw the top was a bit weaker,,,, here she is,,
bow for Jeffer,, he just got the bow today, so hope to get a report on how it shoots for him soon,,
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more pics
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Very nice bow.
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more pics :)
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more pics
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Wow :o This looks like a sweet machine! It's been a long day and I'm turning in soon, but rest assured, I'll be coming back here tomorrow to read everything you wrote. So until then, congrats!
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I really enjoyed making the bow for a very special archer and very special person,., hoping it brings a lifetime of archery enjoyment :) :) :)
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Very cool bow with excellent tiller. Who wouldn't be tickled with that?!
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you have talent and are a generous man. I can't wait to see the video of Jeff shooting that bow... that man can shoot!
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Brad that's a classy bow! Can't even critizise a hair on the tiller.
I like how she shows her muscles in the side profile and the propeller in frontprofile just looks too cool.
That is a great bow from a unique stave.
Congrats brother!
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Nice bow, the tiller looks dead on from here and the lack of set shows it. Well done :)
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Very nice work, beautiful bow, he should love that, has he shot it yet ? How did he like it ? :)
Pappy
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When I first came here to PA one of your bows was the first one that I saw & it reminded me of the bows that where common in PA magazine in the mid 90s and my thoughts were this guy takes a real natural Artisanal approach to bow making & that was impressive to a guy like me with out much raw artistic talent , but this bow is at the apex of your work (Hands Down) I have seen so far , that bow has a organic artistic nature thats hard to put into words , he will love it , the only other thing I could say is I could have saved you a lot of taxes,tariffs & shipping if you had of shipped it to Chicago instead of Canada 😜
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Well done Brad.
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Very nice work!
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I have always enjoyed watching Jeffer shoot, and look forward to seeing what he does with this top notch bow you made for him.
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Thanks for writing such detailed account of how this bow came to be. Fun read.
Mr Kavanaugh better post a vid shooting this lovely weapon. Otherwise he's gonna get a unsubscription! ;)
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Dang I hope to see a video on his channel with this bow soon! Awesome work.
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thanks Guys for all the positive input, as I said earlier, it was an honor to make a bow for such a gifted archer,,
I hope it will open some eyes for people to see how accurate a primitive style bow can be,, and really fun to see him shoot,,
I have been making bows a long time and alot of archers assume that a modern bow is more accurate,, in my experience the well made wood bow is as accurate as any bow,, and just as fun for sure,, I learned alot making this bow, just when I thought I was getting a handle on it :), I forgot to mention,, I made the bow without any heating or bending,, and was just lucky the prop twist lined up on the handle( at first brace the handel was way off but as the bow settled in it came into line a bit more on its own), the natural reflex held up nice,, and I account that to the stave being cured in the high desert for 10 years plus,, nothing like a fine cured osage stave to work with,,I can't thank Mike Scifres enough for sending me such a great stave to work with,,and thanks again for taking the time to look and comment,, :)
Pappy, I dont think he has shot it,, he just got it yesterday and said his stringer wasnt long enough,,it would be fine if he stepped through to string it, that is how I was stringing it,, but if he is more comforatable with the stringer I will just have to be patient to see him shoot it,, but I am having a hard time being patient,, :) I am very excited to see the bow in action,
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Thank you for all the great pictures and description of the bow. I know how hard you worked on it and the amount of time you spent making it just right. I can't wait to hear how it shoots for Jeffers.
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Nothing funky about that bow at all.Sweet shooter.It held up great.Even with a lot of the reflex on the inner limbs.Harder to do.Good design, tillering and seasoning I'd say.If he releases at 29.5" he is'nt going to see all that much difference in shooting his glass bows as far as trajectory goes.Thanks to you.I'll bet he'll be pleased.He's a heck of a shot and the bow is like an extension of his arm or like it's a part of him so I'm sure he'll shoot a nat off a dog's behind on film with it.I hope he expresses too how quiet a bow like that will shoot too because I know instantly he'll notice that.
I'm sure Jeffer will say....It'll shoot!!!!
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Okay, I read all of it. I would have cracked under the pressure making a bow for someone who REALLY can shoot. Maybe one day I'll have the guts to contact an amazing archer and follow your lead. Inspiring story and amazing bow. Has anyone seen that Lars Anderson guy shoot? Perhaps he would like a wood bow 8)
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Very cool. That is generous gift. How cool would that be if your bow, a simple wood bow, became his go to bow. By the looks of these photos and the chrono results it just might. Way to represent the craft :)
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Excellent work with that one Brad and excellent performance. I'm sure he will be impressed with selfbows after shooting that one
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man thats sweet lookin stik! great job sir.
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Nice job Brad. Good looking bow.
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Great bow Brad. I have learned a lot from your posts, and consider you to be a well respected mentor of mine. I'm sure Jeff will be very pleased with it. Hopefully he can use it to help increase the growing popularity of selfbows.
I have shot recurves for close to 45 years before getting the selfbow bug about 5 years ago, and have decided there is not a better class of archers around, proven once again by your generosity.
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Awesome performance out of that one :o
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a few quotes from Jeffer,, I was really holding my breath till he shot it,, :)
"Okay so not surprisingly the bow shoots where I'm looking." "I just wanted to let everyone know how it's going so far. It's a wonderful bow!! I'll be sure to make some videos about this bow after I play with it for a while and get use to it more."
"The first several shots I took with it were all over the map. hehe I had to get the "feel" of it. Play with the brace height, arrows, etc. I expected that though because it's a totally new style of bow for me to shoot. I don't think it's going to take very long to develop a nice comfort level with this bow though. It is definitely going to be a performer. I was noticing that when I missed it was definitely the shooter, not the bow. When I shot well with good form the bow recognizes it and performs. Heck it's almost like the bow has a will of it's own and speaks during the shot, "you can do better than that". Shot with good form and I seemed to get, "yeah, now we're talk'n" from the bow. Love it! "
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Good deal.Nice to get feed back but I'm sure you knew it would perform well too.
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Great bow Brad. That Jeff sure can shoot, and I can't wait to see the videos with a nice stick bow in his hands.
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I just want to thank everyone again for the postive comments and support,, best to you all and your bow making,, :)
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That is a beautiful bow, with a great tiller, crafted by a talented bowyer! Nice job, Brad. Jawge
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Loved the comments. ;) :) I always love to hear them say, "hit where I was looking "
Pappy
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There you go, right off the bat he's recognizing the magic of a natural material bow, that it's a living thing with it's own personality! Good job man! Be sure to update this thread when he puts out a video!
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That's a sweet lookin bow! : )
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That's really cool. I subscribe to his videos. Learned a lot from his techniques and tips. I'll watch for that bow.
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I'm a bit late gettin' to this party, but great story, great feedback... hope to see it on Youtube.
Good work :)
Del
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Those comments are awesome. It's so cool to hear him personify the bow. Each one really does have a personality. My favorite was when he said, "come on, you can do better than that." I almost laughed out loud. I know a few of mine have said that to me! ;D ;D