My new longbow

[Mububban]

I picked up my new (first ever) longbow on the weekend from the local maker I found, and it's fantastic. The stave was one the maker had cut for himself and been curing for the last 2 years, so he was sad to see it go, but very happy with the way it came out.

It's hand cut, hand split Australian spotted gum, made with hand tools only, has cow horn tips, a Flemish twist string, and a simple leather handgrip.

The draw weight is 50lb at 28 inches. I asked for a Mary Rose style bow, so it's a D-shaped profile, and I went for an unstained and lightly oiled finish so it's natural/pine coloured and unsealed rather than dark oak stain and varnished. There's a nice bit of subtle wobbles in the unstrung limbs too where it follows the grain, which I love as it gives the bow character.
I'm about 6' 2", and when strung my bow is a tiny bit taller than I am. The brace height is 5.5 inches.

He put on a simple leather hand grip and a small waxy nocking point mark on the string for where to notch the arrows, so there's absolutely nothing modern on it at all (apart from the felt tip pen writing describing its poundage etc)

It cost me AUD$250 (~USD$185) and it shoots beautifully for a longbow. It's all subjective, but I find his bows a lot smoother
than the Turbows I've fired. For those in Australian longbow/re-enacting circles, Turbow is the most well known longbow maker, but he apparently uses machined spotted gum floorboards rather than hand cut staves. Thus his bows look a little too perfect, and don't feel as nice to shoot in my opinion.

I shot my new bow for about 45 minutes on the bush field course at the maker's club, killing plastic milk bottles, and it's very accurate too. I normally fire an old wooden-limbed 34lb recurve. I was shooting plastic flighted, wooden shafted arrows, that are not meant to be fired off the back of a bare hand like feather flights. But I was immediately able to draw this baby and fire it accurately. In fact I was matching the maker shot for shot and I never get to practise, which shows how comfortable I felt with the bow :-)

In short, I love it. I've now got to make some new arrows, with feather flights!

[Jessehk]

Looks great! Thanks for the pictures.

I really have to get back into archery ...

[Bard]

That's awesome man! Good for you.

[elrond243]

dude sweet bow. i love my long bow i made it's only 39#@28" but i wish i could get one that sweet.

[Cheesy Goodness]

...damn

That thing is amazing, you bastard
It looks like it would be smooth to pull back, even without reading your posts. And the horn tips are a very nice touch.

[Mububban]

Hehe, all abuse smugly accepted ;-)

I'll have to get him to make me a 30lb longbow that I can use for combat archery as well, if so I'll try and get him to make the more traditional larger horn nock such as these:

[Bard]

That horn is awesome...I've got a 50lb.@28" longbow, all hickory...pretty stock actually...

[Christophe of Grey]

Mububban,
Wicked looking nock! It looks like that is actually antler not horn. Biologically the difference is horns stay on for the life of the animal and are often hollow. Antlers fall of every year after mating and are typically solid. Deer antlers are harder than moose antlers. Thus is your bow is tiped with deer antler you can use a fast flight string. If you use a softer antler like moose, you have to use dacron 50. But then if you put a metal nocking point on the string or string silencers it negates the advantage of fast flight strings any way!

Beautiful bow. I won't use the word Cheesy did, but I'm also envious particularly considering your report on how it shoots for you.

[Running Wolf]

What a nice bow...
What would I give to have one like this one...
But, ok I have a Recurve, so I shouldn't complain.
Just... I love Longbows...

[Mububban]

You should save up and buy one then :-) It's archery at its most basic. Aim and shoot purely on instinct. I love it!

[Christophe of Grey]

Running - Wolf,
Mububban is right. Shooting a long bow is a whole different experience than shooting a recurve. Can I say more intuitive, more esthetic, more instinctive, more "closer to the essence" of shooting traditional bows? My newest long bow has taken me about 6 months to figure out and tune and now I prefer it over my recurves hands down. Much more satisfying.

[AmrasTheArcher]

You're 6'2" and only draw to 28"? I'm 6'4" and draw to 32". I know what you mean about it being instinctive, don't think I'd get on with any other sort of bow now.

[Christophe of Grey]

WOW! Long time since I've had any contact with this forum. But your question sparked a question for me. When I make my own arrows I always cut the shafts to 30 inches. After points and nocks are attached the arrow is 31 1/2 inches long. I know this is long for my draw but it allows me to either retip of renock an arrow at least once, sometimes twice before I have to throw it away. (In truth the arrow becomes a practice arrow for me.) So I checked my draw length and it turns out to be 27 inches. I used the technique of placing both arms straight out in front of me, palms together then measured from my sternum to my outstretched finger tips. I was surprised at 27 inches and checked it sever times. I use the three finger Mediteranian release of one finger over, two under the arrow nock and my anchor point is the bae of my thumb at the point of my jaw. I've tried other anchor points but always seem to come back to this one. After I make the draw I conciously remind myself to arch my back which causes me to hold the draw with my back muscles instead of my arms. I use a slightly closed stance which causes my body to semi-rotate backwards to line up with the target. Sounds confusing and unnatural but I've settled into this and it works for me. In our local club, Maryland to Georgia, out of 250 archers I am currently number 8, so I guess it works.

As for bows, I'm perhaps more than obsessive, I currently have 14. Three recurves that I really like and four longbows. My current favorite is a 38 pound longbow. Well technically a reflex/deflex longbow. That would be modern longbow. I also have a very period English Longbow with no arrow rest and a D cross section along with horn limb tips. I bought it to complete a kit for a re-enactment club I'm in. My horse bow is just for fun. So lots of bows but I shoot them all at some point depending on how I feel. Right now I'm trying to stick with my 38 pound longbow as the shooting season is coming up and I want to do really well.

I also have at leasst 2 dozen arrows for each of my bows. I told you obsessive! I make my own arrows so they are custom fit to each bow I use them with. Makes a major difference in results. I also make my own quivers and arm guards along with bow strings. As my wife says, it keeps me out of the bars..........

I'll search about to see if this forum supports posting pictures. If it does I'll post some of my kit.

cog

[AmrasTheArcher]

27" sounds like a short draw, how tall are you? I was measured using the same technique at 31", I've increased it to 32" just because I can if you know what I mean. When you full draw how much arrow is left forward of your bow?

[Christophe of Grey]

Yeah, I was surprised at the measurement myself. I'm 6 foot tall and normally proportioned so 27 seems a bit short to me as well. Maybe I should retest or test using an alternate method to compare. I'll keep you posted. I will say that my 31 1/2 inch arrows do extect beyond the bow about 1 1/2 inches at full draw so that seems right. Uncut shafts, which come 33 inches, extent a considerable amount at full draw.

An another note and pure curiosity, how many shafts can folks on this list get off in 30 seconds? I've seen You Tube and other reports that the English Longbowmen could get off about 10 - 12 shots in one minute. Seems slow to me. After some reply I'll hsare my current rate. But let me say just last week I saw an individual get off 11 arrows in 30 seconds. He began with a double shot though.

cog