Just over a year ago, my wheels started turning and really TRULY thinking about chasing Cape buffalo. It's been literally my #1 bucket list hunt I've wanted to go on for as long as I can remember.
Well, during my last trip over to Africa, my buddy Lammie and I discussed it and decided it was fully doable with a longbow (and after seeing Mr. Tim King smoke his big bull a couple months ago with his recurve confirmed that!). After talks of the hunt, next came the equipment preparation. I really wanted to go with a longbow since that's always been my go to bow, so I contacted Mike Westvang from Dryad Bows about my plans and to see if he was up to putting together a bow. After a few talks, he and his crew were up for the task of putting together my buffalo bow.
Fast forward to this summer and we really ramped up the plans and decided on what needed to be done to get the bow built and not have any worries bout it. They put the handle together using Dynamax, glass laminations, and several strips of carbon for added strength. For the limbs I wanted two sets, one as my "warm up" set and another as my buffalo hunting set. Both came in right on the money in weight with the warm-up set being 67lbs and the heavy set being 76lbs. My plans are to build up my muscles as much as possible and get comfortable with the lighter set, then fully transition into the heavier limbs a couple months out from the hunt.
I've never shot any trad bows that are near this heavy so it's going to be a whole new ballgame. I figure arrow tuning is going to be the biggest issue, just trying to get the weights I need to fly as PERFECTLY as I possibly can. The hunt is scheduled for next August/September so I've got lots of time to get everything prepared for this gig. I'm sure I'll be bouncing questions arrows and this and that off of you guys that have shot heavier bows. Should be a wild ride one way or the other!
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Well, during my last trip over to Africa, my buddy Lammie and I discussed it and decided it was fully doable with a longbow (and after seeing Mr. Tim King smoke his big bull a couple months ago with his recurve confirmed that!). After talks of the hunt, next came the equipment preparation. I really wanted to go with a longbow since that's always been my go to bow, so I contacted Mike Westvang from Dryad Bows about my plans and to see if he was up to putting together a bow. After a few talks, he and his crew were up for the task of putting together my buffalo bow.
Fast forward to this summer and we really ramped up the plans and decided on what needed to be done to get the bow built and not have any worries bout it. They put the handle together using Dynamax, glass laminations, and several strips of carbon for added strength. For the limbs I wanted two sets, one as my "warm up" set and another as my buffalo hunting set. Both came in right on the money in weight with the warm-up set being 67lbs and the heavy set being 76lbs. My plans are to build up my muscles as much as possible and get comfortable with the lighter set, then fully transition into the heavier limbs a couple months out from the hunt.
I've never shot any trad bows that are near this heavy so it's going to be a whole new ballgame. I figure arrow tuning is going to be the biggest issue, just trying to get the weights I need to fly as PERFECTLY as I possibly can. The hunt is scheduled for next August/September so I've got lots of time to get everything prepared for this gig. I'm sure I'll be bouncing questions arrows and this and that off of you guys that have shot heavier bows. Should be a wild ride one way or the other!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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