Nice!!  Love to know the bow weight and arrow set up he used

Congratulations to Steve on a 42 year in the making quest for a Cape buffalo!!! I've known Steve casually for a lot of years.  He's been at Shrewhaven camp, spent hours in his shop and shared traditional shoot campfires with him.  He's a stand up guy and incredible bowyer.  Seeing this makes me really happy for him.  Congratulations sir!!!

I have punched through shoulders by accident and it worked out. I don't do it on purpose.

Hey everyone, it's been a while but thought I'd pop by and say G'day.
Work has kept me pretty busy the past few years, but I normally get out for one decent adventure each year. It's just that I've been unsuccessful those hunts though.

A couple of good mates (Jezza and Reithy) reached out and invited me on a hunt for Feral Goats up in our mountainous terrain here on the Great Dividing Range. All three of us hunting own Big Jim Thunderchilds, so we decided on a Big Jim Goat hunt.
Recently another mate started making self bows and gave one to me, so I took it along as well to try and get a Billy with that one. I made up a new batch of woods to go with the selfbow using some natural Turkey feathers, some creative painting and some Ribteks passed down to my from a good friend who passed away last year.



We rocked up to the property on Friday afternoon and set ourselves up in the cabin. Got the fire going, cooked up dinner, maybe a few sneaky beers and first light Saturday we were off.

It was cold and windy, and the Goats weren't keen on leaving the shelter of the thick bush.




Covering the ground with binoculars won out in the end with some spotted on a distant hill.
We set off and caught up with them in the thick tea tree. A young Nanny fed towards me and she became my first selfbow kill.




More Goats made their presence known, with a few handy Billies amongst them. A bit of cat and mouse ensured as they fed along, but we managed to get in front of the feeding mob.

Reithy was first up, and as a one horned fella walked past at 20, I witnessed one of  the most emphatic kills I've seen. The Billy dropped on the spot, his legs folding under him as the arrow took out both lungs.



The Billy had completely snapped one horn off fighting, but Reithy was pretty happy with himself, and rightly so.





We continued after the remainder, as they fed unaware of their companions demise. Another white Billy was preoccupied browsing and allowed me to get very close. I drew the Osage selfbow back and sent the Ribtek on its way, quickly downing a representative Billy.
I was happy to get a decent one with the selfbow, and looked up at the sky and let Tom know his broadheads were still going strong.



Past my bedtime now, so I'll continue tomorrow.

Cheers,
Memo.

So what are your thoughts on intentionally shooting through a deer's shoulder to reach the vitals?  Obviously, a broadside or quartering away shot is preferred, but if a "through the shoulder" shot is your only option, would you take it?
My setup is a 60lb @31" handmade longbow with fir arrows and 190gr VPA three blade broadheads. I'm hoping to keep my shots within 20 yards and am assuming I should have enough energy to penetrate enough through a scapula but would love to hear from those with more experience.

Thanks

Quote from: McDave on October 10, 2025, 11:36:09 AMAs you probably know, a pluck is caused when you begin to lose back tension before the shot is released.  The result of doing that is either a collapse, or a pluck when you try to prevent the collapse.

As you probably also know, the cure is to continue to increase back tension until the shot is gone.  It's easier to do that if you have some kind of surprise release or trigger, but that's almost a different subject, because it's still possible to pluck, even with a surprise release or trigger.

A more basic place to start is your own inner perception of what is happening in the shot process.  Mostly, we think that the shot is over when we release the shot, except that, oh yeah, we should try to followthrough afterwards, whatever that means.

So stop thinking that way and your plucks will cease.  Stop thinking that you release the shot.  If you release the shot, you're going to pluck or creep or collapse a fair percentage of the time.  Instead, think of that part of the shot process as being a continuous increase in back tension until your fingertips touch your shoulder (or wherever you want them to end up) when you follow through.  And, oh yeah, your release happens somewhere along the way.

Great explanation of the perfect release. Pulling through the shot and just letting the release happen unconsciously is spot on.... 

Quote from: trad_bowhunter1965 on August 05, 2025, 12:06:29 AMYellowstone Custom bows

That renegade is calling to me. Beautiful bow.

Nice looking arrows. Will see how they shoot tomorrow. Come in around 435 grains with 125 grain head

Rule of thumb for recurves is to start at 1/8th of the AMO length and work from there.  At 60" AMO there is your 7-1/2".

How about Bivouac bows?