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Row One: 1) Pictured here is a Full Draw of a little different type, to start of this unprecedented TWENTIETH PAGE of traditional bows Drawn. It is the new Oklahoma State license Plate and also the avatar of "staveshaver" on PaleoPlanet. He provided the pictures. The Native American depicted on the plate is taken from pictures of a statue on the grounds of the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, OK, and ...
2) Here is a picture of that fine Full Draw statue, in it's entirety. Thank you, "staveshaver".
3) Finally got a full draw pic from my friend Lance Coleman. Here is Lance's succinct accompanying message - "short, sweet, and to the point" - LOL:
"Here ya go, Bernie..... Sorry I'm not more photogenic.... I've gotten to where if there's not something to take a pic of, I just don't take a pic. (Older I get?? the pickier I get HA!)"
"and yes before you ask..... something DIED when that string was slipped.... That wasn't a photo op, that wasn't a pose. that was a still of a remote operated video I was filming this past fall."
"Glad to see yer still alive, Bernie,
Hunt Hard,
Lance Coleman" (Leave it to Lance to be so high up in a tree we can't even see his bow - LOL. Thanks, buddy, I really like the picture.
4, 5, & 6) Are Full draw pics sent to me by Art B, "Nordic Fletchr" of PaleoPlanet. The front and back shots are self-portraits taken with a timer, and the last one is a blow-up of part of a group shot from when he was participating in a Medieval style tournament , in period attire. The tournament was near Rapid City, SD. Art's bow is a venerable Damon-Howatt "Mountaineer". Thank you so much, Art.
Row Two: 1) thru 4) Are from Stephen (Steve) Thomson , of Southern Ontario in Canada, is obviously a very dedicated archer and bow builder. He maintains a very interesting web site that you should enjoy checking out, at www.bowsforpros.com Steve has apprenticed under world class bowyer Jaap Koppedrayer, and still works with, and learns from, him now as friends - much to the benefit of his own bowyering, and his own clientele. This quote from Steve, in a message to me, explains, "I build bows mainly from Bamboo and construct them using Japanese bowmaking methods." He learned those methods from Koppedrayer, using ropes and wedges rather than forms to shape his bows. In pic 1) Steve is Drawing a Yumi bow made by Jaap K. for him, to it's 41" draw, and using a special glove called a Yugake.
2) is one of Steve's own , short bows - a 46" Bamboo and Bubinga core under clear glass. The ears are Hickory, and the riser is a special technique with multiple colors giving a 3-D appearance.Steve raised Emu so (some of) his grips and Arrow passes are of Emu leather.
3) and 4) are a friend of Steve's, named Jim, and he is drawing a longbow made by Steve. It is a beauty at 78" long and draws 90# @ 28". It has a composite core of tempered Bamboo, sandwiched between Bloodwood and Black Ash. The backing is a thin strip of Bamboo, dyed red and brown, with Water Buffalo horn spliced into the tip overlays. Thanks for this interesting spread of Full Draw pics, Steve.
5) Jesse Smith, of WI, won Feb. Laminated Bow of The Month on Primitive Archer.com with a bow he made for his wife, shown here in a collage. Jesse actually made a "set" of "His and Hers" Bamboo Backed Ipe bows for himself and his wife - recurve for him, longbow for her, and as I recall his recurve scored second highest votes. His wife's winning longbow is66" ntn, 50#@27" and sports a pink shaded bamboo backing (thus it's name, "Sunset"). It also has elk antler tip overlays, and a Maple power lam and stripe in the handle Congrats to Jesse and his proud wife.
6) Self Bow of the month for Feb., at PA was scored by a return winner - "SawFiler" (Shannon Walker), of KY The winning bow was an Osage that Shannon started at the TN Classic last year with some advice from the highly repected/loved "Pappy" Bagget, who hosts the popular annual classic. Shannon dedicated and named the beautiful Osage bow in honor of "Pappy". It is 61" ntn and 52#@27", also dressed up with a set Copperhead snakeskins. Congrats to Shannon.
Row Three: 1) I have four more Full Draw pictures from Steve Thompson (of the Row above) showing more of his beautiful bows and great form. This one is a Mongol style bow with Bamboo and Hickory under clear glass. It is 45# @ 28" but can be drawn to 30" with no problems.
2) This one is a Bamboo Composite with a deep overdraw. It is 50# @ 28". As Steve noted, both of those pictures are also nice ones of his wife's very pretty garden (in Canada, remember).
3) This is Scott, a young new archer, shooting the same bow in Picture 2). The local Fish and Game club held it's annual March shoot and game dinner this past weekend, and Steve let Scott use that bow, which Scott bought after the shoot - LOL. Good choice, Scott, and I'm sure you will enjoy it and our chosen sport.
4) Here is Steve with a new Red Elm, sinew backed bow, with static tips - very quiet and smooth shooting. Steve is shooting at a wiley (3D) Turkey through an opening in a bush. Steve says he's made 3 sinew backed bows this winter and is quite pleased with the results. Thanks for the pics Steve.
5) Friend Paul Mills ("kodiakkid" of tradgang), from right here in NC. I've shot with Paul at a number of trad shoots and he's appeared in these pages before. Now here he is after catching the bug for building wood bows. This is his first - a character Osage named "crook". Paul bought a nice thick stave and was able to take a belly split from it to make his first Osage. Heck of a nice job and tiller on it too. Looks like I won't be the only one shooting primitive in our some of our groups this year - LOL. Welcome to you, Paul - and also to your 61", 43# @ 27" selfbow. Paul says he is really hooked on this bow building now! Thanks for sending the pic, Paul and see you at the shoots, God willing.
6) This is "Censu" of PaleoPlanet - also no stranger to these pages. Noel (Censu) is my cyber-friend from the beautiful island of Malta, and is providing us with more scenes of his home country in these next five Full Draw pics. These pictures were taken while he and his friend John were shooting at the clay banks on the northern end of the island.
Row Four: 1) Noel is shooting a Pomeranate Sapling bow he finished recently.
2) His friend, John, is shooting a Red Oak flat bow that Noel made for him.
3) We get to enjoy Malta as well as the bows and Full Draws.
4) Beautiful bows and choice of backdrops, Noel and John. Thank you again.
Note: After a hiatus this past summer, due to changes in my Host site's Server, and a need to get (and learn how to use - LOL) a new FTP program to work with the changes, at this point I am back in the swing. As soon as I catch up on a few already waiting Full Draw posts, I will be out scouting for, accepting, and snapping new Full Draw pictures to continue adding to these pages. Please (continue to) enjoy ! My deepest gratitude to my long-time host, Robert Hogue, of Bowhunting.net fame, for all his generosity and support
5) Primitive Archer Laminated Bow of the Month for March was this 48" Horse bow by James Parker of NC The bow has a Bamboo back and belly with Ipe and Carbonized Bamboo lams, Ipe riser, and Spanish Cedar Syiahs. 55# @ 29" James made this one especially for Greg B. A mighty nice Horse bow, James, and won in a tough field - congratulations. BTW, I got to see both James (& family) and his bows at the NC State Trad Championship shoot at Hickory this year. I looked the bows over real close. Even more beautiful in hand than they are in the pics - and all wood, I'll vouch for that.
6) "Ryano" of PA took March self bow BOM at PA with another of his, always special, Osage recurve bows. 53# @ 28", 62" ntn, and made from two billets, spliced in the handle. The bow has Whitetail antler tip overlays, a snackskin back, and leather handle wrap laced with Kangaroo lacing. mighty fine win, Ryan, and picked from among a large field of fine bows. Congrats to all entrants as well as Ryan
Row Five: 1) Arnold Smit of the Netherland ("VArcher") shown here at an arrowhead shoot in Ireland where he was invited by a gent he made a couple bows for. Arnold is shooting a Blacktail Elite T/D bow.
2) Arnold's shooting buddy, Jos, at Full Draw with a bow Arnold had just built for Don Montgomery ("Winterhawk") of WV. It is 62", 46#@28"
3) Barbara, the wife of Toxiophileken of PaleoPlanet, with her first selfbow checking it's Full Draw tiller. Looking fine, Barbara.
4) Some of James Wren's nieces and nephews (and some other young archers) at the running deer funshoot at Sissipahah's August shoot in Burlington, NC Most of this group were first time shooters - and look at the good form evident already! Get your kids into Traditional Archery, and watch the smiles grow.
5) Another, even more recent, picture of Arnold Smit at Full Draw atop his shooting club's tower. They have four different distance targets set up to shoot at from their sturdy tower - great practice.
6) Brett, "Boomer", of MN and PaleoPlanet with his new Osage hunting self bow, 57# @ 27" Beauty, Brett - hope you blood it this year.
Row Six: 1) My dear friends from Texas - The Sinclairs - Oak, Cal, and dad, Chuck - and their ever faithful dog. They took a little stump shooting outing, and we benefit from the Full Draw pics of their good form and beautiful bows. As fine a family as you'll ever have the pleasure of meeting (and/or shooting with - LOL).
2) Oak, Cal, and Chuck's girl friend, Lexi.
3)Chuck, Sporting one of his hand made quivers and shooting an Osage self bow by Dano Gren. Dano was trying something a little new and Chuck loves it. It is only 51" and 50# @ 28"
4) Lexi shooting her first, and recently made bow (by Dano). An Osage bow of 62", 28# @ 22" Chuck says she is really enjoying learning to shoot with the rest of the family.
5) Cal is shooting a beautiful recurve bow that was custom made for Oak by Tim Ziegler but it is still a tad heavy in bulk and poundage for Oak, as yet.
6) Oak with his Dano built Osage self bow. 40", 15# @ 14" Keep on keepin' on, Sinclairs - I love it!
Row Seven: 1) and 2) Barrett Zeigler, now age 5, appeared in these pages (see Page 13) starting out with a bow his dad, Tim, built for him. That was 2 1/2 years ago. Tim gave us all an update so here is Barrett with his Lil Kodiak (8#@14") shooting the Lake Marion 3D shoot, last weekend. Tim has built him another bow but he is still working his way into that one. It won't be long with that form, focus, and determination, I'll wager. Keep up the good work Barrett and Tim.
3) , 4), 5), & 6) Matthais Wiltschko, from across the waters in Austria - a Region called Waldviertel (which means woodquarter), via Paleoplanet.com ("Steilpassfaenger" on Paleo, BTW), with an Ash bow he built for his girlfriend, at full draw in some beautiful landscape. The bow also is beautiful (look at that tiller), has buffalo horn tips, Cherry Heartwood handle, wrapped with hempcord, a tempered belly (which really brings out the ash rings), 69", 30# @ 24" but can safely be drawn to 29", and I am sure his girlfriend considers herself as lucky as I do. Nice job (and pics), Matthais. 5 & 6 are more great photography of his beautiful wood bows - Matthais is a builder of fine traditional bows, and also has a very nice web site at http://www.bogenbau-wiltschko.at/speere.html It happens to be in Austrian but a lot of the headings and words are recognizable in English, such as ""fotos".
Row Eight:
NOTE: Finally, I think I am shedding some of my winter doldrums and starting to post again. Please keep checking back. Thank you.
1) Here is Arne Smit a fine bowyer of the Netherlands. Arne is currently (Mar, 2010) visiting the USA and this picture was taken at a shoot in CA
2) & 3) Jon is a friend of Arne's and we see a couple pics of him shooting a couple of Arne's bows in the Netherlands.
4) & 5) are pics I took of Jeff who shot with my group at Sissipaha's first shoot of the season, a couple weeks ago. This was a two target shot off a tower, one to the left, and one to the front.
6) Sam Carnahan of MD is the son of "jcar315" on tradgang, and is seen here shooting a Bear cub bow.
Thanks for the Full Draw pics, folks, and for being so patient with this ol' hoss. I'll try to do better in the future - if I can stay awake - LOL
Row Nine: 1) Talk about coincidence - I went back to PaleoPlanet to tell a (different) member that his message this morning about him missing new pics/posts in this section had "built a fire under me," after I posted the above row. On that forum, I found a picture of the lovely daughter of my friend, Noel, from Malta. Lara's pic was at the top of the page as a banner. I found Noel's post re the pic, and it says it all:
"I had nearly given up!
Hi guys, I wanted to share with you. It's a long story but lately I had not been enjoying archery! I had got too involved in the political side of it and nearly lost the spark. Yesterday we went out for a day, the kids and some friends. I took my bows and my daughter's bows. I did not have time to shoot too much. There was a much better archer than me, my 7 year old Lara made me feel so proud. Her stance is so good and she is getting stronger too. I am so happy, she has re lit the flame. Thank you, Lara, my little shooting buddy! We will have a great many shoots together! I am happy and proud......................"
"Here she is shooting her maple bow.... made by her special bowyer that she calls dada."
After all, isn't that what it's all about - the young archers we get interested in archery, and the fun we all get out of it??? Thank you Censu (Noel) and Lara for reminding all of us!
2) Here is KdeJ of Europe and PaleoPlanet at Full Draw in a pic he sent to me, with his English D shaped Longbow. The bow is Hickory and tillered to 45-50# at 28-29"
3) Young archer, 10 year old Sarah Green of GA, and of the traditional archery community shows her great form at Full Draw, during a stump shooting, squirrel hunt with her family. So great to see them starting young and enjoying archery in the outdoors with family. Keep up the good work Sarah.
Recently I was privileged to be included on a Turkey hunt that was auctioned off by good friend Don Baten, on last year's TradGang annual auction to raise funds for the Children of St. Jude Hospital. In between actual hunts a lot of friendly bow shooting/competition took place. I was able to capture the following three pics for these Full Draw pages:
4) 10 year old H. Woods Langehans, (the son of the winning bidder on the hunt, Michael Langehans, both of SC) shows his form, pulling the Black Widow takedown recurve bow I have on loan from Don Batten. Don lends encouragement. Woods was doing a good job with the bow, and having a ball too.
5) Corey Mattson of NC, our talented camp cook (and a real time Chef), at Full Draw with a laminated wood bow that Don made and presented him with. Corey was doing fine too and loved the bow.
6) Don "batman" Baten, of NC and TradGang, here giving one of his Ricky Welch bows, a longbow takedown, a good workout. Don most always does excellent.
Row Ten: 1) Your host, Bernie is back again, with my latest Bow An Anneewakee Addiction bow (built for Anneewakee archery by bowyer Lee Hoots). I have wanted one for quite a while and this photo was taken my second day with it. The bow is Black, ebony Gaboon Riser, three Action Bammboo cores in the limbs. %$ ' Long, 50# @ 28". A "stealth" bow for hunting in my opinion. Sweet shooting, zippy as all get out. Other Anneewakee Addictions come in selections of beautiful exotic and native woods and laminations. Check them out on John Dill's Anneewakee Archery web site http://www.kanatiquiver.com/
2) At this year's Baltimore shoot (which I couldn't attend) my dear friend, Killdeer snapped this awesome drawdown (done as a joke on her), after taking a normal group photo of tradgangers on a course round. It is still a Full Draw of traditional bows - LOL (no arrows knocked, for safety - everybody loves Killie). I don't know or recall all of them but let's see how I do. Starting on the left: Lee Vivian, Not sure about the next man but I think his son is beside him, Kenny "4runr" Yoder (up/behind), Dave Bartholomew, Jake "snakeeater", Can't tell who is behind Jake but could be Dave's buddy who often goes to shoots with him, Bill "Peckerwood", Isahia (I believe), and Dave "Doc Nock" Landis. A very special Full Draw pic and I thank Killie and the group.
3) This 6 year old young archer displays about the most focused expression and demeanor possible for a youngster at Full Draw - I love it. He is "RangerB"'s son and is shooting a bow his father made for him. I do not have further info.
4) This is my Daughter Lois, Taking her 2nd archery lesson ( at 47, and from me) before going with me to ATAR 2010, in July. The bow she is drawing is a 35# @ 28" Martin Rebel, loaned to us by a friend, Don Batten. Unfortunately she didn't get to shoot with us at ATAR 9though she enjoyed the long weekend camping) as a bad shoulder was plaguing her. I would love to see her become interested enough to continue but time will tell. However, even if she doesn't, we will have this ATAR together to always remember.
5) John Davis Dill, the son of Anneewakee Archery owner, John Dill, at Full Draw against one of the dinosaur targets on the kids range at ATAR 2010 in WV
6) You're right - this is not a Full Draw picture. However On the new (next) page (tbd21) you will see full draws by all 11 of these fine Tradgang archers. We all joined together for a Classic Bow Shoot on a 20 target Fun Course at ATAR 2010 in WV Classic bows are "oldies but goodies" - hmmmmm that may apply to at least some of the archers too - LOL.
See you on Page 21
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