This guy pulls about 50#@28" and is 64" ntn. Bought the bamboo from Ed Neat at the TN Classic and shaped the limbs mostly according to the BBI buildalong by Sam Harper. This is my first RD and I had a bit of trouble with the tillering, as evident in the braced profile. In the end, however, this bow is comfortable to pull and smooth on release. For my next RD BBI I'll probably try to get the outer thirds bending more. Any advice regarding the tiller would be much appreciated!
Part of my goal with the built-in cedar reel was to make a bowfishing bow that "looks" primitive. Sometime during the belt-sanding, bandsawing, drill-pressing, and epoxying, I realized how ridiculous it was to think any part of this bow would be "primitive". I would now argue that taping a plastic bottle to your limbs is more primitive in nature! Regardless, I'm surprised with how well it turned out from a functional standpoint.
This was my first time to use gar scales as decoration and it worked out great. You have to strategically cut the hide along the scale lines or else risk cracking scales when you try to cut through them with tin snips. The scales have a thin hide holding them together underneath. I glued the cut hide to the bamboo with Smooth-On and rubbed another thin layer of it over the scales to fill in the gaps and make it smooth. These scales were from a small spotted gar I shot the day before. The ONE DAMN SCALE that had to pop out during sanding gives this bow its name "Snaggletooth".
My goal was to finish this bow and shoot a fish with it before the end of this bowfishing season, so that's how I broke it in.
I think the red spinner bait skirt string silencers (say that 10x fast) and red bowfishing line really bring out the ERC accents.
