Hello all, just thought I'd say "hi"!
I've always been a closet archery-enthusiast, but never got really serious until recently. I started at the age of ten making arrows, and didn't realize dead goldenrod stems with cardboard feathers just wouldn't do it until I tried to shoot one... you can imagine!
On and off over the years I did a little shooting here and there, not much, still didn't know what I was doing. It took an 11-yo son with a passion to try archery after he read the series "Ranger's Apprentice" to get me back in the archery.
I still have a nice Martin 40# recurve from years back, but it was always just a few pounds too heavy and wasn't much fun to shoot. So early this spring, I got my son a Walmart Bear fiberglass bow, and made myself a survival self-bow after I read Douglas Spotted Eagle's book, and we were off! His Walmart bow ended up way too light, and so I caved and got him a nice little 30# Samick Shadow youth bow, which shoots great for him. My bow is about 30# also, and although kinda ugly and rough it actually can shoot pretty nice when I'm in the zone! It's 48", from a 2" black birch sapling, finished with just Lindseed oil, has a pretty good string-follow, and has just a shoe-lace for a string. I'm shooting old aluminum 55# Easton arrows that came from who-knows-where (I think they were an old boyfriends arrows) and although they should be too heavy they seem to shoot better than my son's lighter arrows. Attempting to work now on rose-arrows and an ash bow that's a little bit longer.
I'm glad to have found this forum, and hopefully you folks won't be too hysterical about my soon-to-be-coming crazy questions! Thanks in advance...