Sounds like we're kindred spirits. I would rather bowhunt than anything. My first bow was a green fiberglass recurve I got in 1966 and was taught to shoot by an old German cabinet maker who lived down the street. First "real" bow was a 45# Bear Grizzly, then a Martin/Howatt Hunter. Shot a compound for about 2 years and hated it, but that's what everyone else was shooting in the early 80's. I continued to shoot the Howatt Hunter for a lot of years before trying a Keith Chastain Wapiti longbow in the late 90's. I became hooked on longbows. About that time I started building my own longbows and over the years made and sold 87 of them before selling my bow building equipment to a friend. I still shoot the last longbow I built. It's 62", 53# @ 28" with a Cocobolo riser, stained Red Elm limbs and an actionwood center core. It's fitted with a rawhide hooded Selway Stick Quiver. I shoot nothing but wood arrows, mostly lodgepole pine shafts and some cedar. Stained, clear dipped, hand crested and 3 fletch on a Jo Jan Multi Fletcher. I make my own flemish twist strings. I was also very fortunate to have met some great mentors along the way, including a close friend who built me a gorgeous 3 piece takedown longbow. It's all Bocote, riser and limbs, with a strip of carbon in the limbs. He even made me a set of antler take down knobs. There's nothing more relaxing for me than to build a beautiful set of custom arrows. I get some flack from compound shooting buddies who use carbon arrows. They say they wouldn't want to use and break my beautiful wood arrows, but heck, I'll just make some more. Life's too short to shoot an ugly arrow!!!
