I finally upgraded my puny target bow last month, going from a 35 pound fiberglass recurve to a 72 pound wood longbow. I've been wanting a real heavy bow for a few years now, but I always wanted to feel the bow before I bought it, since if it was going to be as heavy as I hoped, there was a good chance I wouldn't be able to draw it. At the PA Ren Faire last month, I was finally able to try a bow. They had one heavy bow in stock, and as soon as I drew it I fell in love. A free lesson came with buying the bow, and the guy doing the lesson said he really didn't have anything he could teach me. I was the most accurate I've ever been when I tried the bow for the first time (as a side note, he does a little experiment to "mold" the bow to you and make it truly yours, where he lets you use his bow for one shot, then switch back to yours. His felt different for some reason, and I got a decent shot off, then asked what made it different. He said the bow was 105 pounds! I still drew it all the way though. Once.) I got a dozen arrows with it (which are around twice as thick as my 35 pound arrows).
It took a ton of concentration to use proper technique with such a heavier bow, so I didn't want to shoot at home until I'd made a bracer. I've always used string slap as an incentive to use proper technique, so I've never needed one before. With a 72 pound bow, though, I figure it's worth the time to make it and put it on before each time I shoot if it just stops one string slap. So, here it is:
I was initially worried about the top of my forearm, cause I have really beefy forearms. So I wore the bracer really high. Turns out the string hits much lower down, and I got a bit of a sting down by my wrist. I moved it down and didn't notice anything besides a sound if the string hit my arm.
I only just got out to shoot today. The first thing I noticed when I stepped outside was that my pond was partially frozen, and it was windy. I got one of my targets out and propped it against a tree. Because the bow is so heavy, I can't hold it drawn for any length of time. As soon as I get it to my anchor point, I have to release. It took me a while to dial in, but after two dozen or so shots, when my right elbow, wrist and fingers were hurting too bad from the strain and the cold to keep shooting comfortably, I got a decent enough grouping.
From here:
Not my best, but it was windy and cold and I'm still pretty rusty, without the benefit of coming into it with nothing but instinct, like I was doing when I first bought the bow (I guess my mind is clearer when I first pick up a bow after a long time, and I'm insanely accurate for a while, but then I think too much about my shots and I'm not as accurate).
While I was in the project mood, I decided to make a sling for my new horn. While I was discussing it with my friend, I realized. Why not make a sling. . .out of a sling!? It took me all of three minutes to come up with this horn carrying method, which works just fine and gives me a last resort weapon if all else fails.
And, lastly, I'm going to turn my seax and other knives into a hunting trousse. I'm making my character more tethered to the 14th century rather than just being pure fantasy, mostly because I find fourteenth century clothing and technology the most comfortable to wear and use. So, though the seax shape isn't appropriate for the period per se, if I disguise it as a heavy hunting knife, it'll blend in a bit more. I'm going to make a sheath for the seax that will also incorporate my utility knife, an awl (that'll double as an eating pick), and a smaller eating knife (the blade for which should be getting here any day now. I'll make a handle for it just like the utility knife). Here's what the layout would have been if I hadn't decided to get the extra eating knife.
(The dollar bill is for scale). I'm working on shaving down the handle for the awl so it's no thicker than the rivet holding it together and the socket the point goes into, then I'm going to dye it black. The whole sheath is going to hang down a little off of vertical on my right side, since I have a matching custom longsword on order that's going to be on my left side. The top of the eating knife handle will match up with the top of the utility knife handle, but they'll go into the sheath at different heights, since the handles will be different lengths. The awl will overlap the eating knife slightly where it's in the sheath.
