While I have been shooting traditional bows for almost 50 years, I just purchased my first all wood bow. It is a new-to-me John Strunk bow in pristine condition. A work of art, by my eyes. It is osage backed with bamboo. 64" long. 54# at my 29" draw. Here's a few pics before the questions:
My first question is that there appears to be a date code on the limb. Does anyone know how to interpret it? 9.07.2 BS
Next, I have never shot more than just a handful of arrows out of all wood bows. Clearly this bow has no cut-out to move the arrow closer to center like all the other longbows and recurves I have and do own. I have shot 3 different spines through it (60, 65, 70) NO FEATHERS, all 31 1/2 inch long arrows with 125 gr points. They all fly tail right, which would normally indicate heavy spine, all the way to the target. I only have feathers on some of the 70# arrows (putting some on the others tonight) and they don't fly too bad, but still very slightly tail right, but hitting where I'm aiming and grouping well. The unfletched hit left, but still group...in fact I split one by "robin hooding" it. Now...at 55#, I would think that a 31 1/2" long 60# spined arrow (at 28") would be light on spine. Am I thinking too "modern" that a bow like this will ever shoot an unfletched shaft of a proper spine well? What method is used to "tune" arrows for best performance and flight?
Finally, what kind of brace height should I be aiming for on a bow like this? The bow came with a 61 1/2 inch SIX strand string, which frankly, I did not feel comfortable shooting with at 55#. But it braced up at what for me is fistmele....6 1/2" for my hand. I had another string here which is a little heavy for it...16 strand...that is 61", and with that it's braced up at 7 1/2".
Thanks for any information you can provide. This is all new to me, but I'm looking forward to learning a new aspect of the sport. It's long been on my "bucket" list to learn to shoot all wood bows and take game with them. At my age, I figured I'd better get started!!!
Mike
