Beautiful bows

Lovely bows and wood colors.

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My 64" Bighorn Grand Slam. What a bow. As has been said it was no speed demon but if you pointed it at an animal you might as well get out the skinning knife.

At 73# @ 30" it's too much for these old bones. I miss the days when I could shoot it. I'd love to see someone shoot it again.

Nice bow Trap. I missed that one in K-zoo. I'd have jumped all over that.

This has been a very enjoyable and informative thread.  My first "good" trad bow was a Bighorn.  Won it in a raffle at a banquet that Fred was speaking at.  Sold it but tracked it back down a few years ago and bought it back.

A few posts have noted that the Bighorns aren't real speed demons.  I'd agree with that, but they're not slouches either.  I think they might feel slower than they are because they are very smooth, pleasant bows to shoot.

One hears the same comments about the older Bear TDs.  However, when I put a low stretch string (D-97) on a couple of sets of '80s era Bear TD limbs, they were just as fast as the new red and black tips with the same string.  Long story short, we tend to compare today's bows with low stretch strings with vintage bows with dacron.  Put the same string on each, and there's virtually no difference in performance.

I just put a D-97 string on the Bighorn I recently reacquired.  Perks it up very nicely.  And still very quiet.  At 56 inches, I think it will be in the turkey blind with me next spring in place of my 56-inch Bear TD.  A fella could have worse problems.   

I grew up with a bow in my hand.  Always shot Bear bows, and started hunting at age 14 with a Bear compound (barebow).  In 1987 I came home from college and grabbed Dad's 1962 Bear Kodiak and shot it in the yard.  I was hooked on recurves again.

Went back in the house, pulled the latest Bowhunter magazine from the magazine rack and flipped to the Bighorn Bows advertisement.  The bows pictured were beautiful and reminiscent of the Bear Kodiak.  I wrote for a brochure that same day.

The next summer in '88 we stopped by Bighorn Bowhunting Company in Ft. Lupton while vacationing in Colorado.  Glenn strung a couple bows and Dad and I shot them at a box in shop.  Dad ordered a bow that same day, but I had to go home, finish school and save my pennies.

I got my takedown delivered in the fall of '89 and took my first deer the next year after 9 years of trying.  Killled my second deer the next year.

Will always have my Bighorns.

Next year, I got my second deer with my Bighorn takedown, and ordered a 64" one piece Grand Slam.

Moved to Colorado in 1994 and got my first buck with my one piece Grand Slam.

In 1995 I got another Colorado whitetail with my Bighorn Ramhunter longbow.

In 2011 I thought it was time to hunt with my Ramhunter again and got this Colorado Whitetail.

My brother Scott has more Bighorn bows than anyone I know.  Here is his first pronghorn taken in Colorado in 1998.  He took this with his first Bighorn takedown that he got in about 1990 or 1991.

In 2012 Scott drew a nonresident Shiras moose tag here in Colorado and took his moose with a 57# takedown KOM era, Douglas fir arrow and Magnus head.  Complete pass through.

Todd, thanks for posting your pictures; I'm aware of your family's affair with Bighorns and appreciate the posts.  My early Ramhunter will see the woods this season.  thanks
Shick

I know there are many, many Bighorns out there but a fortunate few must keep them stashed away because they're hard to come by.  I ordered a Colorado Bighorn in the mid-eighties and let it get away from me.  Found and bought a used one years later and made the same mistake.  Obviously, I'm not real bright because I've always liked the curved-limb bed Bighorns.  A classic hunting bow for sure.

Many years ago when we had just moved to Terre Haute, Indiana there was a bow shop "The Wilderness Shop" that was traditionally oriented.  They sold compounds, but everybody who worked there, shot recurves.  Mostly, Bighorn's.  I was still in college and those Bighorn bows were just a dream.  Really, enjoyed shooting them.   

Great story Todd.
I love my Bighorns, 3 KOM one early Fred.

Fred really new how to make a bow that looked like what a hunting bow should look like.
I also think the Ramhunter longbow is one of the best longbows ever made. Wish I had been more into longbows when they were being made.   

I totally agree Charlie about the Ramhunter Longbow.  For a classic D-shaped bow, it is very well made and exceptionally smooth.  Some didn't like the size of the grip, but it is very consistent.  The bow is silent and throws a heavy arrow with authority.  So many these days shoot longbows that are very, very far from the classic d-shaped design of the past, but the trapezoid limbs on the Ramhunter make this a longbow worth shooting.

Todd, my thoughts exactly on the ramhunter.  It's just a no bump, smooth shooting longbow.  As far as speed, when I don't shoot it for a good while, then pick it up, I realize that it is plenty fast for me.  I have an '89  66" 54#er; brown ramwood riser, maple limb core, brown glass, sheephorn limb tips, my so-called plain jane, but it's what I come to visualize as a classic longbow.
Shick