Thursday 11 September 2014

An Interesting Visitor

I had a visit from Steve a guy even older than me, in his 70s. He's a solid chap (ex Rugby player) with a good firm handshake, who wanted to see if I could make him a 100# bow from a Yew stave he'd been seasoning.
He'd not done a lot of shooting and wanted to see what draw weight he could manage.
I haven't got any 100 pounders at the mo' but we worked up starting with 47# at 28" and then on to my only 32" draw bow, about 80# at 32".
He was ok at 28" with the bows but was spraying the arrows arrows rather high. This is due to shooting at close range (10 yards into the garage). I showed him the medieval style of drawing high on the eye line and then bringing the elbow down to a full 32"draw. He took to it like a duck to water, getting a full draw. I could hardly believe it when I looked at the target! To group like that when anchoring down by your right shoulder, first time of trying is astounding.
He felt he could manage 100# with some practise, so i said I'd see what I could do with his stave. We had a go with a couple of crossbows too and looked at the draw weight of a Yew bow he's made some time a go, 30# at 28" which is pretty respectable for what was pretty much a first try with a bough bow.
I might run the Yew log through the bandsaw later to get a better look at it, One face looks very clean, though the sapwood may be a little thick and need reducing.

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