My new concertina has over a three year waiting list - still got at least 18 months to wait :-(.  And it'll end up setting me back over £4000, that's £ not $.  I've got it all set in my head as to how it will be and it will be beautiful.

And what am i intending to do with it?

Hang it on a wall and only play it in my bedroom on special occasions?

Like hell!

It's gonna play as many gigs and sessions as i can find.  It's gonna party cause that's what it's made to do.

That's the whole point!

I wasn't blessed with the greatest of looks, so i may as well have the greatest looking toys to play with!

So enjoy ya bow.  I know if i was a deer i would definitely be wanting to have a closer look!  LOL

I have a very special Kodiak recurve that Fred Bear gave me about 2 years before he passed away.  He wrote on it "This bow is for hunting  not hanging, Happy Hunting, Fred Bear".  Well, I hung it for a few years, but Fred's words eventually got to me so I eventually took it afield.  I'd say USE your bow!

I remember a line in a thread on here several weeks back about watching dappled sunlight on an exotic wood riser while on stand.  I like to admire my pretty bows during those slow times on the stand or in the blind, but they are never left at home.

As several have said, just wipe 'em down when you get done!

A great bow is filled with spirit that needs to go to the woods with you. Don't let it get old from sitting around.

My dad used to say it is better to wear out than to rust out. I think that kind of wisdom applies to most things. Use it and enjoy it. It will pay you back a million times over with great memories. And, when it is old and shows the marks from years of use and care, you will be able to look at it as an old friend and share the great memories. It is meant to be used and it is meant to be well cared for.
Joe

All Traditional Bows are pretty thats why we buy and hunt with them  

My dad's old sweet sixteen is marked up from years of being used in the turkey and squirrel woods, he can no longer hunt , but he can tell you how every scratch got on her.


That's how a bow should be after hunting 30 years with her  

I don't feel like I've bonded with my bow until we've taken at least one spill in a rock field together.  :D

Agree with Biggie, Swamprooter!!!!Joey you da man! Marco

Thats how I shoot my deer. When they are staring at my purty Morrison in complete awe, I let em have it! SNUFFERIZED!!! Thats the ugly part of the bow.

No such thing as a bow that's too purty to hunt.

Kinda like saying a woman is too purty to, well... nothing is too purty to do with what nature and God intended.  I'll leave it at that.

Shoot them!! I have a Black Widow SAII with a HUGE scratch in the upper limb that was put there by a first year bear cub that was five feet away in the tree behind me. Momma was standing up on the tree I was in trying to figure out what I was. I finally poked at the little guy with the limb tip and he hauled off and "swatted" it. Thought about refinishing it but I'm glad I didn't. That was a dozen years ago and everytime I look at that scratch I think of that hunt. Memories.

                   

I buy the most expensive bow the bowyer makes and beat the snot out of it!!!!

Everything we own will soon enough belong to someone else-who'll probably sell it all and pocket the cash!     I have some pretty bows but I still prefer to use them to stop branches from hitting my face! They're not scratches they're scars-from "battles" with game in the woods. Heck, if I owned Wyatt Earp's gun from the OK Corral I'd just have to shoot it!   :D

If you want to just look at it, take a picture and hang that on the wall. It's a hunting weapon. Don't hurt it's feelings.

I just went 11 days in the CO mountains with a new to me PLII. I clonged the upper tip on a rock pretty hard but it didn't leave a mark. And I'm pretty sure there are no other scratches on it. I just won't own a bow if I can't shoot it. But I will take the fall for it, to keep it from getting banged up. I fell down a couple times.
I just ordered a hunting weight set of limbs for my Zebra Morrison ILF riser so I can hunt with it. I'm just too accurate with it not to hunt with it. Besides a bow is just as likely to get scratched at a 3d or indoor range.
Use them but take good care of them is my take.

My bow, like me, bear a few scars from the hunts anywhere from the Michigan foresets to the Colorado Rockies. From rocks, and mud, to barbed wire fences, and quad rides. They get used to lean on, to steady my bonoculars, to block an oak brush branch from busting me in the face, pulling someone up a steep climb, you name it.

Its been dropped, tossed, slid down a steep embankment, knocked over, fell off, and dang near run over.

Its been hung from nails, branches, wires and sticks. Its been rained on, snowed on, bled on, and sweated on. If anything else was done on it, I dont wanna know.

But that bow has been huntin. It ain't been disrespected by hangin someplace unstrung all pretty and neat for someone to look at.

I dare anyone to say that about a wheelie bow. They may work just fine for killin animals, but they've got no soul.

When I get home, I wipe it down, and wax the string. Its ready to go again. Like a good hunting dog, 'cept its never done anything on the carpet that would get the wife riled up.

Nope, theres no such thing as a bow too pretty to hunt with.

I got tired of worrying about my pretty bows getting scratched up. Bought me a Quinn, spray painted it and it is my hunting bow. Don't shoot bad either!