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New Bow

panhndlpoke

Heisman Candidate
Sep 6, 2006
6,688
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I think you all will understand and sympathize with me here.

I have a little bass pond on my ranch stocked with bass, catfish, and perch as well as half a dozen grass carp. Two or three of the grass carp weigh around 20 lbs and probably need to be removed and replaced with younger, smaller fish. I decided that it would be wimpy of me to just get a 22 or 17 or 223 or whatever and shoot them. It wouldn't really be sporting and they HAVE been good fish for several years so i decided to buy a bow fishing kit and shoot with an arrow. But I don't have a bow, and I decided I couldn't use a compound bow since that would be too unsporting as well. I decided I had to have a recurve bow to make it real fair because 1) I don't have a recurve bow and 2) it seemed like it would be fun to shoot them with a bow. I started this project about the first of May/end of April and finally got a bow on the way yesterday. I know, I've been right on it.

So, after deciding I needed this recurve bow, I went to Gander Mountain in Amarillo to buy a bow and fishing kit for it. I'd need some other arrows and stuff since I wouldn't be able to hit the broad side of a barn with any bow, but I wasn't worried too much about that. I mean, c'mon! This is an adventure, right? Anyway, Gander didn't have squat in the recurve area so I just started hunting online, but most of the cheaper rigs I could find new were about $150 give or take a bit. I was sort of surprised and decided I didn't really wanna blow that kind of money on a bow and reel I'll likely only use to kill two or three fish. Of course I started hitting Ebay hunting for a good deal on a used bow. Oh yeah. Did I tell you I'm a lefty and left eye dominant but have shot every bow, rifle, pistol, and shotgun right handed since the day I was born? Yeah, I decided to add another level of difficulty. Add to that, that I'm not a real strong guy and was a little worried that I would only be able to pull back about a 40-45 lb bow at first. Lefty 45 lb bows for cheap ain't real common. Well, they're not uncommon, but I also wanted something somewhat new. I didn't want a 50 year old bow that might explode on me the first time I drew it back. So I searched and hunted ebay most of the summer.

Meanwhile, I also start casually reading forums on traditional hunting and looking at some high end custom bows. I sort of became fascinated with them. I mean, these are real works of art in form and function. They're beautiful. I wanted one, but they can cost over $1000 for JUST THE BOW and I was chicken to spend $150 for a for a bow, reel, and arrow. Anyway, the obsession escalated.

Quick note. I quit adding to my gun collection several years ago. I can hunt anywhere in the world short of Africa with the arsenal I currently have. It takes over an hour to load every magazine for just my 1911's. I have at least 6 shot guns. What I do now is if I want to buy a gun, I have to sell a gun. Usually what I end up doing is keeping the firearm in the same caliber but buying a significantly nicer weapons and optics. Example: I sold a Colt Officers 45ACP 1911 and bought a custom hand made D & L Sports 1911. $650 pistol to a $4000+ pistol. I didn't really need to but I wanted too and fortunately I am able to occationally afford a splurge like that. So what does this have to do with a bow? Well, you can probably guess what I did after I saw these custom hand made bows.

So yesturday I ordered a left handed Robertson Stykbows 43 lb Fatal Styk Z, glove, arrows, and arm brace. Total cost? $1400+ and I still don't have a stinking fishing reel for it.
 
You wouldn't have a .257 Weatherby Magnum you want to unload?
 
Haha, no. I am currently not looking to buy or sell anything in the arsenal. And I lied just a bit. I did expand the collection this summer because I added a shotgun to the collection in a genre I didn't have. I bought a Kel Tec KSG with a EoTech holo sight of the biohazard symbol. I needed a combat/zombie response shotgun.
 
Panhandle, Congrats on the next great obsession. I LOVE custom made bow, and chosing the woods, researching the various bowyers, designs, etc. is a lot of fun. If I had lot of loose cash, I would invest in several new custom bows. I guess you found "the Leather Wall" site. Very cool stuff and fyi, they do have extremely high quality custom used bows from the same bowyers for sale pretty often Many of those guys trade just for the trading and getting to own something different. My custom bow is sweet 52 lb at 28 inches. It's a Horne bow (the maker is Horne who's shop is in Bowie TX, of all places). I've also owned a few others, including a nice little Hummingbird and Zipper. Fine bows all, but the others were recurves (usually a little faster than the longbows but thisHorne is a long bow, but faster, natural and just feels good, so it's now my "go to" bow, and I hope to hunt a lot with it this archery season..
Let us know now how you work up some arrows that fly well for you. If you need some help, just holler.
TCP
This post was edited on 9/13 9:11 PM by TexasCowPoke
 
I've seen the Horne bows. Very nice. There's actually a bowyer in Pampa not too far from me. It is Great Plains Archery and they get favorable reviews. What pushed me to the Robertson was the Bob Lee site that references an article that reviewed several custom made bows. While the Bob Lee win that comparo, the Robertson was about as efficient and maybe a little more forgiving. And the Fatal Styk's hold their value very well.

When I get the bow next week, I'll put up a couple pics.
 
I went cheap for a deer stickbow and got a Samick sage takedown recurve. Couple hundred $$$ and a deer was down.
 
I almost bought a Samick. Everything I read about them says they're by far the best buy. For $200 you can have everything you need to go hunt deer. Bow, arrows, target, and some broadheads. There probably isn't a better deal in all hunting, hehe. If I hadn't decided to buy a bow I could hang on my wall, that is what I would have bought.
 
So I got the bow today and I learned a few things. 1. Suck at left handed bow shooting. 2. It is a work of art. 3. Drinking mass quantities of wine while writing "thank yous" for wedding presents and then shooting a bow probably isn't a recipe for success. 4. Retraining to learn to shoot left handed is going to be more complicated than I thought. 5. Bow = Art. I am so in over my head.

Pics soon.
 
My Samick is going back to Mccalester Army depot next month.
 
Panhandle, wish I was close so I could help you develop some arrows that are tuned to that bow, if the one's you have aren't. I'm making some of mine up right now and I do my own... for cutting them the right length to tuning them with the right amount of weight. Very different than tuning for a compound, and usually much more time consuming until you have the right recipe.

OH, since we haven't discussed this during this season yet, I ordered my OSU arrow wraps, seen at

http://www.onestringer.com/index.php?page=mods/Products/itemdetail&itemid=1138

and I order mine with the reflective paper to find them at night/early am.

The Samick is supposed to be a best buy for what it is and I bought one from my grandson, and it is very functional!
 
I'm right handed, but very strongly left-eye dominant. I grew up shooting everything righty. I've found it's quite easy for me to switch back and forth. I attribute this to teaching myself to hit left-handed in high school. Or maybe I'm just awesome like that, I don't know.

Lefty or righty, I tend to not be much of a crack shot, though.
 
I did much better sober. And the arrow wraps are awesom.

As far as tuning goes, I haven't even tried anything yet. Ordered the bow from the maker and the arrows from 3 rivers Archery. I picked up 10 more cheap arrows from Walmart. For now, I'm just trying to get where I get reasonably close to where I'm aiming. I'll try to tune more as I get better.
 
Panhandle, is that new bow 43 @ 28? Do you know what actual length you pull? (your about my size, so I bet you can pull right to the 28). (measured from the inside of the grip to the nock/string location. It's easy just to have another person mark an arrow for you when you are at full draw where you can hold it. Then just measure the arrow to the mark.
 
I started out with a martin X-200 recurve 50 lbs at 28. I have since moved up to a sarrels bobcat II 60 lbs at 28. Its twice the bow the martin is. I want a black widow takedown very bad.
 
Well, I thought I'd show you a pic of my arrows (these are for my compound) made up.
3dgrin.r191677.gif

I'm working on some more traditional arrows for my longbow.

Tim's Arrows
 
I like those texascowpoke.

I have custom osu arrow wraps. I will see if i can post them.
 
K. I will try to figure it out on a pc later.
This post was edited on 10/2 9:17 AM by panhndlpoke
 
took recurve out today and killed a coon. 3 does came in early before the sun was up, but left. Coon didn't even slow down the arrow.
 
'74, I 'm not surprised by that!

My compound is set at 62 lbs, with 28 inch pull, it's bowtech so it isn't slow, using the same broadheads as my trad setup with 125 gr heads, and 12% FOC, my arrows weight right at 420 grs moving about 260fps. but the energy is about 63 lb/ft.

My Longbow is 52.lbs at 28, and I put right at the 28 inch drawon those 29.5 inch arrows. Those arrows are tuned to the bow with 225grs (125 gr heads and 100 gr. brass insert) up front for a 20.5% front of center, and total weight of about 555 gr.or a little more. They come out of the bow between 186-188 fps. (I shoot Gold Tip Hunter Xt's and GT Trads in 5577s and the trads are a fraction heavier arrows). The enery calculated for this setup is about 44 lb/ft or a little more.

Shooting into the same "The Block" target, I get almost 6 inches deeper penetration with my longbow than with my compound. IF I can hit a deer where I want, I'm expecting passthroughs with the longbow, where that hasn't been true of my compound in several years. It looks obvious that the energy is much greater wtih the longbow setup but that doesn't agree with the energy calculations for wt/speed. This seems to be a paradox. I know the extreme FOC (now used a lot with traditional bow setups) helps a lot with penetration, but it just doesn't seem it should be that much more. I get enough penetration to get clean kills with the compound but rarely get a pass throughs. I'm thinking of really working up some compound arrows at gradually heavier weights to see where the optimum speed/retained energy would be. I'm thinking of first adding about 50 grains to those arrows, if I can get them to shoot well without blowing the FOC completely.

You guys have any ideas on what to try?

One of my retirement dreams is to open a flyfishing/archery/fine firearms shop... wish Stillwater needed one!
3dgrin.r191677.gif

This post was edited on 10/4 9:59 PM by TexasCowPoke
 
IMG_20131001_081543_490_zpse62fa021.jpg


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This post was edited on 10/7 2:58 PM by panhndlpoke

This post was edited on 10/7 3:11 PM by panhndlpoke
 
What a neat bow.

One of my guys started shooting a recurve in the last couple of years even though he had never shot a bow in his life. He didn't want to start with a compound.

Last week he shot his first spot and stalk mule deer buck. He got inside 30 yards and had a pass through shot shooting 600 grain arrows/broadhead.

Really cool for him.
 
What a great looking bow



TCP on getting pass threws with your compound I would suggest a thin arrow like easton FMJ and a fixed broadhead like slick tricks.

I used to shoot carbon express arrows with grimreapers and rarely got pass throughs. I swicthed and have got nothing but pass throughs since. What is your compound bow.
 
I currently shoot a Bow Tech Liberty and love it because its so smooth and shock free, but the newer ones are definitely faster. I still get more than adequate speed however. I just got my gold-tips cut and fletched up the way I like so I'll have to finish the year with them, and I use a cut on contact fixed broadhead (I use Magnus Stingers, with bleeder blades,125 gr.) and they fly like my field-tips. I need to give these more of a chance than I have the last two years. I was playing with going with the expensive single bevel heads, but the Stingers are pretty darn close to them I think.

We need to get out and shoot a tourney this next spring.
 
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