Bow build/hunt for St Judes

[Shaun]

Whip and I donated a Wisconsin deer hunt (Whip)and self bow building class (me) for the St Jude auction. Couple of fellows named Bob from the Buffalo, NY area were the lucky and generous winners.

Hot weather and earn-a-buck zone kept the lid on the deer harvesting through this morning though they are still hunting this evening. But the shavings flew from day one and some respectable self bows were born.

Bob and Bob started from dry staves and learned to chase a ring.



The time flew with mornings and evenings on stand and yellow chips during the mid day. We made a quick trip to Howard Edwards shop a half hour away to do some band saw rough out on Saturday and the boys from Buffalo worked hard to finish their bows by Monday mid day.

Whip finished up a bow he had roughed out at BradJam a while back and I could not resist the urge to work up a new bow in the midst of all this bowyer action.

L to R: Whip, Bob Z, me, Bob B



Most amazing to me was the enthusiasm of the Bobs from Buffalo. They not only put in the sweat and made fine bows, they set down their modern bows and hunted every moment after with their new self bows. In Bob B's case this was from a lovely camo dipped Bob Lee to osage and even more impressive was Bob Z's leap from a wheel bow to a stick. He shot that thing till it was too dark to see, like a kid a Christmas! Whip and I assured him he had just saved several thousand dollars by skipping over the glass recurve and longbow phases.

It was a great time and as fine a pair of hunters as you would ever have around the campfire. More pictures and stories after I have rested up some.

[Terry Green]

Looking   forward to seeing more and hearing more!!!    

[**DONOTDELETE**]

Wow that is Great...

[tippit]

That's Great...2 more selfbow converts!  Congrates to the Buffalo Bobs     Couldn't have a better teacher or place to learn      to you and Whip...Doc

[tippit]

Maybe you should include a knife forging sesson next year in the woods of Wisconsin...hint  

[Leland]

I've been waiting for this.Looks like a good time.
 Leland

[Chris Surtees]

   

[tradtusker]

great stuff iv also been waiting on this to see how it goes. how about a few close ups of the bows Shaun      

[Benny Nganabbarru]

Top stuff! Can't wait to see more about it!

[smiley]

looks like a great time. That is awsome from wheel to a stick

[hunt it]

Glad to see you guys had a great time.

[BMN]

Great stuff guys!  

[Talondale]

That looks like BobCo 1965 there.  Some nice bows.  Hope their evening hunt went well.

[Shaun]

More of the story: After roughing out the bows on the band saw the Bobs used draw knife and rasps to work the blanks down to faceted bellies and get them to floor tiller bending.

Bob Zieziula applies the draw knife to cut to a 3/8" layout line

 

Bob Baumet using a rasp to facet the belly of his bow

 

Whip not only hunted and worked up a great osage bow but was all over the cooking. Here he heats some home made ham and bean soup for lunch. Bob Z said about the accommodations, "I'd bid on this hunt again if it was held in May, just for the food."

 

[Shaun]

Bob Z takes a careful look at his bow on the "Merkle posts" - a pre brace height tiller method I learned from Littletree (Brad Merkel). This is a great method and can complete 80-90% of tillering before reaching first brace.

 

Bob B's bow is cooling on the cull after heating to straighten and induce some backset before starting to tiller. Best time to do this heat work is after floor tiller and before starting the serious bending.

[Whip]

Just back myself and catching up on this one.  
What a great week we had!  Great people combined with bow building and throw in some whitetail hunting to boot.  It just doesn't get any better than that!

I'll get to work on my pictures and try to add anything I can, but you're off to a good start Shaun.  Thanks for everything Bud!

[Shaun]

Bob Z trying out the new bow - 52# @ 28" 68.5" NTN with a big knot in the lower limb and a tiller to make a teacher proud.



He seemed to take to a stick and string like a duck to water and the wheelie stayed home the rest of the hunt.

Here Bob B tries out his new bow - 69# @ 29" 70" NTN with a major whoop di doo in the upper limb and another text book tiller. This one stayed in play the rest of the hunt as well.

[Shaun]

Vance... are you out there buddy?

The food was too good! We had elk - twice! And wild turkey casserole and venison hot dogs and venison lande jeager sausage and dutch oven baked brownies and cinnamon rolls and good coffee.

The hot weather finally broke and a cold front brought drizzling rain. No problem for the chef as he fixes moose steaks and dinner rolls on the campfire and cast iron. Look like enough for 4?

[Shaun]

And Joe finished a fine very fast bow with lots of small knots and a 3" natural backset that stayed at 2" after tiller. 55# @ 28" 68" (?) NTN

[Shaun]

Oooops, that was the first shot photo and I was a little slow - told you it was a fast bow! Here's a full draw