[Archers] More on PVC Bows

[Jay Nardone]

Lord Mungo, thanks for the report. This seems to be common among the folks
that choose to make them from what I have seen. All I ask is that if any of
you as a marshal encounter one, do your due diligence to check it the best
you can and then make an educated decision on its place on your ranges. I
know not all of them you will see will be this nice...

Janyn



-----Original Message-----
From: archers-bounces at seahorse.atlantia.sca.org
[mailto:archers-bounces at seahorse.atlantia.sca.org] On Behalf Of Garth Groff
Sent: Monday, October 08, 2012 7:30 AM
To: archers at seahorse.atlantia.sca.org
Subject: [Archers] More on PVC Bows

Noble friends of the Bow,

Instead of being at Coronation last weekend, Lady Sarah were celebrating our
anniversary at Colonial Williamsburg and taking in the Williamsburg Celtic
festival. To my surprise, I met a fellow at the Celtic fest who had a dozen
or so PVC bows on display. His name is Ben Dunham, and normally he builds
and sells harps.  The harps are definitely NOT made from PVC. :~) He also
has experience as a bowyer working in wood.

The bows he had on display were all about four feet in length. They ranged
in draw weight from 10 to 40 pounds. Their styles included simple sticks,
recurves and even a reflex/deflex. All were designed to be shot off the
hand, but he said he was working a series that would include right and left
arrow rests. I drew one of his bows of about 37 pounds, and found it very
easy to handle. No, I wasn't able to shoot it. The bows were all painted in
bright colors to appeal to children, but that's no different from the red,
yellow and green camp bows many of us have in our loaner kits. I was not
wild about his strings, which appeared to be nylon doubled back on
themselves with fixed loops at the ends.

With his experience as a bowyer, and the number of PVC bows he has built, I
am inclined to guardedly trust his products and experience, though I still
want more data. The bows appeared to be well made, and would be great for
beginning archers. He has a web site for his harp business, and plans to add
a section on his bows in the future. Ben promised to let me know when the
bow portion is up, and I will share the URL with the group then. I intend to
keep in touch with him to learn more about his experiences with the bows,
and may even buy one to evaluate. Ben was very pleased at my interest, glad
to meet an SCA marshal for obvious reasons, and would welcome further
contact any of us. His web site is www.dunhamharps.com .

Yours Aye,


Mungo
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