Traditional Bows Drawn, Pg14

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Row One: 1) Hunter Aliff, son of the Artist (Brian K. Aliff) who does all the beautiful trophies, t-shirts, etc. for ATAR in WV and sells his feather art, etc. out of a couple Galleries there as well as off  his own web site. Here Hunter Full Draws on a couple of the Dinosaur targets on the Kid's Range at ATAR - 2007.

2) Here is a fine looking Character Osage bow named "Striking Beauty" because of a fiddle back pattern in the wood, which you can see some of, especially on the bottom limb. The bowyer, "flesner", of paleoplanet.net says it is really striking in the sunlight. His friend, Jerry, who is a Squirrel hunter par excellence, is doing the Full draw honors. The bow is 63" tip to tip, and 53# @ 26"

3) & 4) "Andrew being Archer" of Paleoplanet.net and Romania, Andrei Hoha, provides this FD pic of himself with a very nice Hazel Bow he made. Also a pic of his son, Mihai. a determined young man who wants to follow in his Dad's archery leadings. Andrei made his bow also but is planning a better bow soon. Mihai did the interesting painting of his bow. Thank you both and welcome to our pages.

5) & 6) This is "Hwarng" of Paleoplanet.net, Thomas, and his Red Oak Holmegaard style bow. It is 59.5" ntn, 55# @ 26" and has a thin sinew backing. The bow also has Water Buffalo horn tip overlays, a Maple board handle, and was finished with Minwax Stain and Seal, topped with paste wax. The second  Full Draw pic is an interesting angle of the same bow. Thanks, Thomas for a couple of real good looks at a Holmegaard.

Row Two: 1) "outdoors girl189", Meg of paleoplanet.net is back with us in a Full Draw of her latest Osage flatbow effort. The bow has some "nice" character twists and turns in it but Meg handled it well and says it shoots "quick and quiet". 60" ntn, aprox. 45# @ 26". Thank you. Meg, for sharing. 

2) Derek Jamison with his latest creation, at Full Draw. A beauty of a tri-lam bow of Hickory, Purpleheart, and Pau Amorella. It is 70" ntn, 60# @ 29.5 and has horn nocks. Really nice looking bow, Derek.

3) "osage60" of paleoplanet.net shows us two Native american replicas he made, at Full Draw. This one is an Osage (with a reddish cast to the wood) Pony bow, with side nocks. It is 48" ntn, 48# @ 25"

4) This one is an Onadaga bow that osage60 thought was an elm until he got to the inside of the stave. Still debating what the wood is but possibly a type of Hickory. It is 56", 50# @ 26". Both bows are beauties and look to draw really nice. Thanks for the pics, osage60.

5) & 6) "Pappy", Mark Baggett, of TN and primitivearcher.com is back, and this time with the July PA Selfbow of The Month. His Black Locust, skinned with Timber Rattlesnake. It is really beautiful, 65" ntn, 52# @ 26", with Buffalo Horn tip overlays. There were twenty some bows (all good contenders and three that ran neck and neck for most of the race. Excellant win, Pappy.

Row Three: 1) Meet "tradrick" of primitivearcher.com and take a gander at his first selfbow. A beautiful Osage with Maple tip overlays and great tiller. the bow is 67" ntn, 53# @ 28" and sports a Ferret Floppy Rest. I have a feeling we'll be seeing more nice bows from tradrick.

2) & 3) This is "onemississipp", of paleoplanet.net and MS, with his second bow he's built. He chose to takle a taxing Snaky Character Osage stave out of a four stave log he harvested, and did a great job IMO. The bow is a short 52" ntn, 30# @ 26". Job well done, onemississipp.

4) Marc St Louis, of Paleoplanet.net (The new, correct address) at Full Draw with his newly made, gorgeous wood lam R/D bow of Bamboo backed Rosewood. It also has a power lam glued in next to the core. Mark did a great job on the R/D and overall and it is a bow to envy (purty fast too, Mark says). 62" ntn, 55# @ 28" This bow wound up taking Backed Wood Bow of the Month for Aug. in Primitive Archer.

5) After an absense for awhile now, "aussie yeoman", Dave, of Oz and Paleoplanet.net is back with a sweet bow. It is made of one of the premier bow woods in Australia, Spotted Gum. 71" ntn, 30# @ 28", and made for combat archery and historical re-enactment. I love the slim, trim, graceful arc of this bow. Welcome back, Dave, and thanks for the pic of a fine looking bow.

6) Luke ("huflungpu" on paleoplanet.net) is the older brother of another young bnowyer in these pages, "outdoors girl189" (a row above) and here he is at Full Draw with a really nice Osage selfbow he built recently for a friend. the bow is 66" ntn and approximately 70# draw weight. He backed it with snake skins and put antler tip overlays on it. His friend is surly going to be pleased and proud of that one.

Row Four: 1) This past weekend (18 Aug, 2007) I went to a shoot in Burlington, NC sponsored by Sissipaha and I was able to take some Full Draw pics - but first one of the others got one of me, shooting My Dano made Character osage, "Sneaky Snake", and a Cane arrow.

2) Don Batten Shooting his Great Plains bow

3) This is a row of shooters taking aim at a "Flying Pig". From left to right - John Dill's Brother, Doug, William Batten, Don Batten, Paul Mills, John Dill, and Preston.

4) Paul Mills, and I forget what his bow is right now.

5) A couple of unknown (to me) shooters at the practice bags.

6) William Batten shooting an early John Strunk Yew bow with Cherry Bark backing. A beauty of a bow and a really pleasurable bow to shoot - I know - LOL.

Row Five: 1) The Pasadenna Boys, of paleoplanet.net had another meeting in the park where they worked on their bows, etc. and shot arrows. This is Jon with his Red Oak Pyramid bow at full draw.

2) Then "toxiophileken" with a Hop Horn Beam elb at "close to Full Draw" (he says).

3) Also Maury (a new one to the group)  with the first bow he's made. A Pretty Hickory bow.

4) James, "allask" of paleoplanet.net, appearing for the first time in our pages (I believe) with a great character Black Locust bow. James' draw is 53#@26" but the bow is 61# @ 29", 66" ntn. He made it from one of three nice staves that he salvaged from a log he found in a ditch, covered with snow. Where there's a will (and hard work), there's a way! Very nice job, James.

5) Marty Thomas, "Buff" of tradgang.com and TX, at Full Draw with his Black Widow bow and setting the example for his Grandson, Tyson.

6) "Atta boy, Tyson!" Pretty good Full Draw form for a three year old , huh? "Specially when his longbow is longer than he is. BTW, The bow was made for Tyson by Joey Gates - nice looking bow, Joey - and fine way to put it to use.

Row Six: 1) "Hillbilly NC" of paleoplanet.net and NC. Here HB is drawing a Stone Age Bow of Hickory that he and a friend made entirely from stone age tools/materials. It has a Deer rawhide string that was also scraped with stone. He appears to be shooting a Cane arrow and they went from raw materials to shooting the bow and arrows in three days. It looks to me that he might be trying the bow out in Hickory , NC in that pic too. Nice looking bow n' arra, HB!

2) Gordon Ferlitsch collaborated with a friend to make a California  primitive bow like some pictures he had seen. Gordon made the Bow, Brad Backed it and decorated it, while Gordon's wife did the  lettering, etc. Brad is shown at Full Draw with his unusual, unique, and beautiful historic recreation. Click here to see the Belly and Back of the bow. The bow is Service-Berry, 65" ntn, 65# @ 28", with Cocobolo tip overlays, Sturgeon Skin backing, Natural brain-tanned Elk handle wrap, Walrus ivory arrow pass, Carved Abalone and bone beads on the handle tags, and finished with Tru-oil. It's name is "Yurok Medicine. What a bow, guys, and thanks for sharing it with us.

***At least the next nine pics are from what every one hopes is a "First Annual" EuroMeet for primitive Bowyers, Knappers, Archers, etc. The meet was arranged and set up grandly by Iliana (she is "123Sharo" on PP) and Kosivo (I'm pretty sure both have been seen in these pages before) and held in Bulgaria. It was a grand affair and everyone hopes it grows and grows in the ensuing years. There are threads (and many more pics) about it on Paleoplanet.net. Folks from the USA were also invited to attend but, though some planned to, no one could this year - better luck next year. Here are the Full Draw pics I could get from the threads, and I will try to name all in them - even though not at FD since they are from so far away and are known on PP.***

3) It was hot during the day so they elected to mostly built bows etc. during the days and shoot after dark.Here is Juri of Finland (closest), Matti of Finland, I think David is next in line there, then Andrei of Romania, and way back is Reinis of Latvia, who hitchkiked a long way to make this shoot. All of these bows were made while at the Meet, BTW

4) Matti, Andrei, and Reinis on line and I'm not sure about the one behind Matti.

5) Reinis ("Demaggue" on PP), and Andrei (at Full Draw) ("Andrew being Archer" on PP)

6) This is David of the Netherlands (and has been seen before in these pages)  ("Time Tourist" on PP). David is at Full Draw with Matti's 15 minute Dogwood Bow, While Matti looks on.

Row Seven: 1) Here is Matti, sans shirt, with his wet Oak bow. Great show to all and all of you (plus the others that were there, and your friends) are welcome to send me full draw pics for these pages anytime you have them.

2) Vlado Shooting .He and his family hosted the Meet and he and his son Pancho provided demos of Horse Archery, as well as lessons for those who wanted.  I love this pic by Juri!

3) Ceco demonstrated his Indian style of shooting.

4) Here is David again, this time with a fine looking bow he made there at the meet.

5) Niko Macura brought four of his beautiful hand crafted bows to the Eoro Meet (and presented one to their host, Vlado). Here he is at Full Draw with my favorite (from the pictures). It is an ELB Takedown of Bamboo backed Osage with a Purpleheart core - 70" ntn, 47# @ 28" The takedown is accomplished by a sleeve fitted inside the handle wrap.

6) Niko was kind enough to send along some more Full Draw pics. While Niko was born and raised in Croatia he chose to live in the Netherlands quite a long time ago. He also is a Bowyer and Knife smith of considerable talent,  www.macbow.com  records this. More FDs with his fine bows follow on the next row.

Row Eight: 1) & 2) Niko of Macbow in more Full Draw pics. (Further info may follow.)

3) Niko also sent along this interesting pic of a group of Netherland archers and traditional bows being drawn.

4) You guessed it, the Pasadena Boys are at one of their meets again, and another new attendee , Dave "attenurb", has joined in and provided us with some Full Draw pics to enjoy. This is Tom (PP founder) at Full Draw.

5) Here Steve watches Tim Baker at Full Draw.

6) "Tim" Baker doing a tillering aid type Full Draw, for demo and tiller check on this bow.

Row Nine: 1) Steve "Badger" with one of his powerful Full Draws. Dave, thank you for the FD pics and I hope you stick with the "Boys" and we see FD pics of you and your bows in these pages in the future also.

2) "allask", James of PP is back with another Full Draw of a fine bow of his. Black Locust, sinew backed and with Rattlesnake skins applied, no overlays and a rattan wrapped handle. She's 54" ntn, 60# @ 26" and has a slight recurve configuration. Looks great, James.

3) This is Edmund, of Vermont, at Full Draw with one of my favorite older bows, a Wing Hunter. Edmund has sort of been taken under the wing of one of our most active trad personages , "Vermonster13", Dave - also of VT. Dave is helping Edmund with trad bow shooting and "Deer Hunting 101". On this day, they were going out to scout a little and enjoy some stump shooting along the way. Good on both of you and best of luck.

4) & 5) Primitive Archer's Self Bow of The Month for Aug. was shared by these two fine Osage bows and both gents are return winners. "Pappy", Mark Baggett of TN (#4) with his Snakey Character Osage, 63" ntn, 53# @ 26" rattlesake skin backed. "Cowboy", Paul, of TX (#5) with his Osage that he made for a friend. 66"ntn, 55# @ 28". Great bows and great jobs, guys. Pappy's bow, later, also won Self Bow Of The Year for 2007 .

6) "Woodland Roamer", Alan Shook of NC, and yes it looks like his last Full Draw on here but it's not . He is closer to the front porch and it's a new bow. A character Self Osage of 67" ntn, 50# @ 26" and sports a braintanned Deer hide handle wrap. Beauty of a bow.

Row Ten: 1) Carrie MacDonald, the Wife of Orien M, of paleoplanet.net, at Full draw with her first "very own" bow, made by Orien. Carrie is just starting and doing a fine job of it. The bow is an Osage 0f 59" ntn, 30# @ 27". The MacDonalds were living in NY but recently moved back to New Mexico, after which Orien made the neat bow for his equally neat Wife. Good shooting to both of you.

2) Clint Kissee and his Grandson, Mason, graced these Full Draw pics before - now mason is a year older (3) and still following Clint's lead.

3) Mason shooting to the sky and sporting his new splinter Osage bow his grandfather made for him from leftover rings of his own stave. A little extra here - of course an archer has to learn to check his equipment in order to get these results!

4) "Ekwos", Eppo Wolgen, of Ontario, Canada, is a 70 year old father of a budding bowyer, and he also does some mighty fancy bowyering himself. Eppo has built a few computers from scratch, but doesn't post much himself (yet), so his son, "Tilbilly" entered his latest Horn Bow for him - in Primitive Archers Bow of the Month competition for Sept. It took first place in the Backed bow category. Here is Eppo at Full Draw with it. It is Buff horn, Deer sinew, Ash, and hide glue. 75# @ 28" Congrats to this months winners. (See number 5 also.)

5) "mds65", Mark Smetzer, of California, returns to these pages with another of his beautemous Osage bows at Full Draw. This one is 53# @ 27", 59" ntn, has cow hoof tip overlays and a Cordage wrapped handle. It was the first place Bow of the Month in PA's Self bow class for Sept.

6) Another Horn Bow of note. After at least 3 failures, "puzio" of paleoplanet.net succeeded and turning out this beauty - and says he will now be able to make much better ones. Good on you, puzio, as this one looks awfully good to me. Horn, Elm, and Sinew - 70# @ 27", 48" ntn

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