I've been reading here on and off for a couple of years and am just returning to archery after a several year layoff. I've shot bows since I was a kid and have hunted with a bow since the late 1970's. My first "real" bow was a Howatt Hunter and I eventually gravitated to longbows which have been my passion for a number of years now.
I currently live in Montana, but lived in the Seattle area for over 30 years and thus spent quite a bit of time at Northwest Archery. Over the years I got to know the St.Charles family and purchased several bows from Jay who inspired me to learn to build my own bows. In the late 1980's I started building selfbows with Yew billets purchased from Jay, and eventually gravitated to building laminated longbows in the mid 1990's. My first laminated bows were a Hill style, but soon went to a mild R/D design. It has been seven years since I built my last R/D bows and I've spent this past year getting back into bow building with a one piece hybrid design that I'm very pleased with so far.
A couple of years ago, I became very intrigued with O.L.'s ACS limb design (mainly from reading this site) and ended up purchasing an ACS-CX from A&H Archery last spring. I have only shot bows of my own manufacture for the better part of the last 20 years, so the new ACS was quite an eye opener for me to say the least.
Anyway, that's a quick summary of my background. I can tell from lurking here that this is a great community of folks and I look forward to participating and hopefully make a contribution. I do tend to read more than I type, but will try to not be a continual lurker!
Jerry
Welcome to the camp fire. Glad to see someone of your experance join us.
Now it does sound like you owe us some pics of your stuff and some camp fire stories of your times with the St. Charles family :goldtooth:
HOWDY!
Welcome!
Welcome Sir!
Welcome to the gang. :campfire:
:campfire: welcome!!
Hi there. Hap
Welcome :wavey:
Welcome buddy!!!!
MAY THE SPIRIT OF FRED BEAR GUIDE OUR ARROWS.
Welcome Jerry :campfire: :archer: :archer: Frank
Welcome to the gang.
Well come aboard Jerry, I've been in Archery for over 25 years and I learn something every day from here. :wavey:
:wavey: :wavey:
Please to meet you.
Glad you came out of the shadows,welcome.
:wavey: :wavey:
Welcome! A good place to hang out.
Welcome to the :campfire:
Can't go wrong here. welcome from Canada.
New Guy??
Sounds like you are in the top one percentile of experience.
Glad you are here!!
Hello, if you want to meet a bunch more people, come down to Moose Creek this summer. June 26th-28 the Traditional Bowhunters of Montana will be having their summer shoot/get together there. It is a real good time. Moose Creek is 6 miles north of Big Sky.
It is good - that sometimes the best of us wander in from the woods- and gather here.
Good to have ya here, Jerry. Now, how 'bout some pics? That's almost a requirement around here!
:) :wavey: :archer:
Doug...
Welcome!
howdy!
Welcome! :wavey: :thumbsup:
Howdy! :wavey: I just had Suzanne St Charles make me up a dozen and a half arrows a while back. Seems like a real pleasant lady. :campfire: :coffee:
Suzanne is all of that and a genuinely wonderful person. She tought me personally how to make my own arrows when I was a teenager and I believe she made most if not all of the arrows that Northwest Archery sold through their shop since as long as I can remember. It would be interesting to know just how many thousands of arrows she has dipped, crested and fletched - I expect the number would be staggering. I used to spend hours in the back of the shop hand picking and weight sorting my ACME Premium POC shafts - I miss those days. It has been over 15 years since I have had any contact with the St. Charles' - I understand Jay and Suzanne have stayed close to the archery community with their respective businesses, but I'm not sure where Joe ended up. I thought I had heard that he had moved away from the Seattle area, but don't know that for sure. Does anyone here have any knowledge of what Joe might be up to these days?
Jerry
welcome jerry! --- ah yes, acme poc's! the best!!! i used to buy 'em by the hundred count and back then they were ALL good shafts, unlike today!
Jerry, her brother still builds bows.Her Dad still goes to shows and shoots from what she told me. Suzanne recently started to carry Sitka Spruce shafts from Hildebrand. They are awesome. She has a very nice web site as well.