a funny longbow story

[Diligence]

Regarding clubs.  At the club I've been going to, they are mostly rural folks who are easy to get along with.  They do look with amazment at my rig, and home made everything.

Funny story,  there are 3 guys who shoot recurves and the rest all shoot 10 speeds.  One of the well respected recurve guys asks to try my selfbow which is not center shot.  Shooting at a 5'x6' target at 20 yards, he clean misses the whole thing on the first shot....darn funny.  I busted a gut because he used to make wonderful laminate bows and is a respected hunter.  To his credit, arrows 2 and 3 were within a foot of each other on the target.

Clubs seem to be funny places.  Maybe we need to organize a world wide gathering of Primitive Archers.  Perhaps in Alberta, then I could attend....lol

J

[HatchA]

It is pretty certain that black leopards are living wild here too, ther are sightings snme where in Britain every week. Those guys are smart, because even the army cant find them. There are often sightings from believable people and police and army try to track them down..

Isn't one of those called "The Beast of Bodmin Moor"...?

[cracker]

Interesting story as far as the wild swine around here there are many my son catches them to sell to hunting preserves. I was somewhat amused by the speculation that we would possibly soon see a 2000 pound pig that could run 70 miles per hour, my son and I speculated that it would make a fine saddle animal.Ron

[spinney]

I to have had similar experiences to Dragon man in the UK.
The first club I tried to join I took along a  nice hickory flat bow that i had made and I came in for a lot of ridicule from the members of the club. So much so that as I left a guy came up to me in the car park and apologised for the behavior of the members of the club.
When I got home I had an email from the club secretary telling me to literally P**s off.

The second club I tried to join I got a similar response.

Then I went to a field club and was made to feel very welcome although I get some odd looks when I  turned up with a sinew backed Osage recurve.

There is definatly some thing wrong with archery in the UK.

When I started to show a interest in making my own equipment I got no help or encouragement from my fellow countrymen.
I found websites like this one and discovered that there are other people with similar interests to my own but very few in the UK.


Rant over.

Spinney

[Bevan R.]

What chaps my hide is when someone comes up and asks if I think that my bow can really kill a deer sized animal. 
I'm pulling a 50 lb flatbow for heavens sake. The 'public' impression now is that if it does not have wheels and lots of cables, it ain't lethal.

[Del the cat]

What chaps my hide is when someone comes up and asks if I think that my bow can really kill a deer sized animal. 
I'm pulling a 50 lb flatbow for heavens sake. The 'public' impression now is that if it does not have wheels and lots of cables, it ain't lethal.

i find that when I tell 'em the arrow goes at over 100mph and can go through a car door they can relate to that... Mind you with modern car doors you can probably spit through 'em .
Mind in the UK, they generally know that a longbow will kill anything the size of a Frenchman
Del

[Cromm]

I understand everything the UK guys are saying but it could have been just bad choosing of clubs. I wouldn't think of going and joining a target archery club, field archery yes as that should be set up like hunting without the blood.
But I shoot a English longbow and do field archery. Not British Longbow Society or Target archery.
I have one guy in my club who always say "hey look it's rudolph the reindeer what happen to his nose??" About my Fallow deer quiver. I don't mind because his girl always comes over and says that it is the best quiver she has seen, do I make them to sale,have I any others???
With a lot of things, Someone has to say something bad before they say something nice.
I am sorry you haven't been able to find any other like minded people spinney and Dragonman but don't give up we are here in the UK!!!!!
Dragonman PM me the name of the bowmaker if you can I would like to know their name??
Wild boar in the UK yes there is and more each year. Big wild cats yes there are also. They have been spoted only 5 miles away from where I live.
There are guys I know who say Yeah I would like to shoot a Longbow but they are to hard to shoot right or they are to slow you have to rise the bow up to high at long 40 yard targets and I want to one day......Well I have a draw of gold medals from shooting the longbow, but some of my greatest shoots I shot so bad but laugh so hard that it doesn't matter, it was being out there that was the joy of the day not the score.
I think that's the thing with some people they have to win and they believe they can do that by buying the next best thing or whatever the archer guy on TV is using instead of hard work and just enjoying the time and people you can shoot with......

[Parnell]

I'd seen some coverage on the big cats there, but didn't know if it were true.  Very interesting that it is, we've got our panthers in S. Florida, as well.  I've only seen one in the wild, but found lots of tracks over the years.  Stay on the lookout or Hogzilla, gentlemen, apparently he is out there!  I think I'd soil myself if I saw Cracker buckin through an open field on the back of a boar that size!!!

[Inyati]

Dragonman,

Where are you based in the UK? I had the same experience at the club I tried out. There were a few Longbow guys; who are apparently supposed to be more friendly the others; and then olympic style. The longbow guys were more interested in keeping to themselves and the others were not interested once they knew I wanted to take up trad!

PM me maybe we can get together and start something like the Mojam in the US. Del are you up for this?

Pete

[dragonman]

Someone with an organizing personality should arrange a yearly British wooden bow shoot, woodenbow people could meet up, it would be a start,

[Inyati]

The offer above is open to all the UK bowyers on here, shall we have a get together?

About the big cats in the UK, I would love to see one. I've tracked leopards in South Africa (was a ranger before moving over here) worked on a leopard project just before I moved. It would be great if one of you (Spinney) pm me when there is sighting, maybe I could track it, take a few pics.

[Inyati]

Dragonman,

Great minds think a like!!!!! Shall we see how much interest we get and then start something?

[Phil Rees]

This may be of interest to you guys

www.fieldandrovingarcherysociety.co.uk

no bow clsssifications
no weight limits
shoot anything you want except compounds
wooden arrows only
... sounds good to me

[dmassphoto]

Someone with an organizing personality should arrange a yearly British wooden bow shoot, woodenbow people could meet up, it would be a start,

Hey and while you're at it, give some advice to a guy in Tennessee on how to get folks together to shoot like the English Warbow Society.  

[backgardenbowyer]

Dragonman - you could look out for an NFAS club (field archery) http://www.nfas.net/  NFAS includes a "primitive class" in which your BBI would fit - I've made and shot a couple of these.  Some NFAS clubs are mainly compound archers, but others are much more focussed on ELBs, American Flatbows and primitves.  NFAS is very informal and friendly.  Also check out SPTA for hard core primitive archers. GNAS is the target archery association and has all sorts of stupid rules about what you can wear at a shoot!!!  BLBS is an association for ELB target archers and again riddled with traditions and rules.

I can guess who made the ELBs you saw.  IMHO his basic three laminate bows sold through arcehry shops and bought be undiscerning target archers are mass manufactured, but his more bespoke bows are something else.  Core woods can function in more than one way and don't just serve to lighten the bow, ipe after all is a very dense wood and the "core" of your BBI is ipe.  A small amount of string follow is actually preferred by target archers as it makes the bow more stable and softer in release - speed is not so important for target shooters: horses for courses!

I know there are wild boar in parts of Southern England but I've never seen one - would love to do so.  The woods where our NFAS club shoots are thick with roe deer - mainly because nobody shoots them here!