November Backed BOM 14
Chuck Loeffler (loefflerchuck), from Salk Lake City, Utah, duplicated a Mountain Shoshone style hornbow of the Yellowstone/Windriver area from the mid 1700’s. This type of bow could have been seen by Lewis and Clark on their expedition when they encountered the Shoshone. Glazing at this magnificent bow, I envision Washakie (Shoots the Buffalo Running), on horseback closely following a buffalo and smoothly drawing this short, but powerful bow. I see him lead the buffalo as he loses the arrow. In a flash the arrow covers the short distance and buries itself deep in the buffalo. In a cloud of dust and prairie grass the buffalo tumbles. Congratulations Chuck on an outstanding November Backed Bow of the Month win.
http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,49438.0.htmlChuck gives us a bit of history and background on his masterpiece. “Here is my latest bighorn bow. Made for someone who wanted a Mountain Shoshone style hornbow. The handle splice I used is a butt splice with a tung groove to fit into the other side much like a form of a v splice with a horn riser on the back and front. I tried to copy as best I could the only archaeological complete horn bow. Found in the Wind River mountain range. The bow now lives in the Pinedale WY museum. The handle riser on the back of the bow is 6" and 4" on the belly. The bending section of this bow is only 14". It is the first bighorn bow I have made with no rivets. Just glued and wrapped. Bow stats-- 35" nock to nock. The tips are sinew hook nocks. The bow draws a little over 60 pounds at 19.5". The ratio of sinew to horn is between 1/3 and 1/2 from handle to tip. The bow is completed with a 3 ply sinew string. A brain tanned deer handle wrap, and porcupine quill wrap mid limb and on 1 tip. I made 10 Shoshone style arrows for this bow. Out of about 150 dogwood shafts I found 10 of the narrowest but stiffest shafts. These shafts are grooved and heat treated a few times to make light arrows with a stiff enough spine to shoot perfectly from this bow. The points are all Rose Spring style replica obsidian. The arrows all weigh nearly the same. The arrows shoot very strait and have a cast of 170 yards. I wanted to make a perfectly matched set from the mid 1700s of the Shoshone of the Yellowstone/Windriver area.”
Impressive. I just keep admiring all pictures over and over again. great great job GlisGlis
holy smokes, everything about that bow is awesome! thanks for sharing chuck, and finish your horn bow build on your site one of these days! wizardgoat
Incredible! Your work is just incredible. I'm always fascinated what you are doing on that sheephorn bows. I would like to see more detail pics, for example the tips. Is the horn bent sharp and sinew wrapped? simson
