Meet "Osage Can You See"
When I took "Sweet Georgia Brown" out to the range, my shooting buddies were pretty impressed with what I could do with a 22# bow, particularly since one of them, Charlie, was already shooting "Lemonade" (17#) and was doing really well with it. John expressed an interest in trying one of my longbows and when I asked what weight he had in mind, delighted me by saying, "Thirty five pounds." He shoots a 45# recurve and had recently tried a 35# recurve and found he was more accurate. (Big surprise!) Anyway, I had a week free and felt like building a bow so I decided to see what I could do for him.
Layup was:
.043 glass back
.110 osage taper
.101 lamboo core
.097 osage parallel
.037 glass belly
Total wood stack: .308
Total stack: .388
Riser Cherry 16"
As on most of my bows, the full stack is forward of the riser, only the belly glass going up the fades.
Limb shoulder width is 1.199, making it another of my tests working toward a narrower shoulder and deeper core... not as extreme as Lemonade or even Sweet Georgia Brown, but still leaning in that direction.
It came out at 37@28, which produces 34# at John's 27" draw.
I started out planning a .330 wood stack and decided at the last minute that that might come out too heavy, so reduced it to the above. I almost wished I hadn't. I came out on my initial test draw of the rough blank looking like I would end up light, like maybe 30 to 31 pounds at 27". This was at a 68" length, which is the length I wanted for John, who has 27" draw. I could have shortened to 66" without any major problem, but I decided to go for it, but try really hard to keep as much poundage as I could by doing all the final limb sanding and shaping by hand, keeping the limbs pretty square on the edges rather than trapping them toward the belly as I usually do. I'm pleased to say it worked. This bow has excellent cast and really tosses a heavy arrow well. I started it right out with 1716's with 100 gr. tips for an arrow weight of 387 gr. At my 25" draw that equates to almost 13 gr. per pound!
So, here's the bow:
Very close to dead straight, just about 3/8" of very mild string follow.
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Strung |
At draw... I'm not totally satisfied with the tiller. Top limb is clearly stiff toward the end, but as you will see, I'm not complaining too much.
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Clear glass up the fades leaves the cherry showing and allows the full wood stack to work as a unit. |
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I was feeling a bit patriotic as I was working on it, hence the name. |
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I'm pretty pleased with my tip work these days... |
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This is three shots at 30 yards, with those heavy arrows.
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As you can see, I'm still having problems controlling my elevation. I've got to master that or I'm never going to be able to shoot well... |
OK... Truth in advertising time. Here were the next two. I came awfully close to not shooting them. 8^) For a new, just off the bench bow, I'm real pleased.
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Captain Dick