When European Tradgangers meet....

Flying Dutchman · July 25, 2011, 03:08:00 PM

As some of you might know, I live in The Netherlands. I wrote some reviews on Tradgang and suddenly there was that e-mail from Hubert from Germany. I never met this guy or knew who he was. However, he explained he had read my reviews on Tradgang and had some questions about my Peregrine. This is how our correspondence started.
We mailed a lot and spoke about visiting each other. We picked a date: the 23rd of July. Hubert would visit me, which meant a four hours drive for him. He could stay with us during the night and leave again on Sunday.

He brought three beautiful bows with him: a Centaur Carbon Elite 60" 50@28", an A&H ACS CX 62"55@28 takedown longbow and an Eaglewing Talon 11 60" 50@28. Add to that my Cari-bow Peregrine (62"45@29)and one could say we had some fine representatives of the best of the best from the US...
I added also a Grozer Hungarian Horse bow from 50lbs@28inches and for nostalgic reasons my first Longbow I ever owned, a Bearpaw Raven (German brand) from 38 lbs @28 inches.

Here we are sitting in our garden, admiring our collection:

And then it was time for a shoot. We grabbed our bows and arrows, took four 3D animals with us, managed to get it all in Hubert's car, and off we went.

We went to my training dome, the old factory, only a five minutes drive. For those who "haven't been there", take a look at my review of the Peregrine in the review dept. I am testing it there. In this factory it is always dry and you can shoot till 67 meter (73 yards).
We shot from 13.00 till 18.00 hours :eek: . Afterwards we tried to recalculate how many arrows we must have shot and we think 500 pro person is a safe assumption

. It was shear madness! I started with the ACS, curious if I, with my 30 inch draw, could handle the poundage which would go up to 60lbs. No problem at all, to my astonishment I could draw it to 30 inch with ease. It shoots like a dream. Moved over to the Centaur. I am sorry to say this, but this isn't my bow. To less mass, too sensible and absolutely not forgiving anything. Moved over to the Eaglewing. This bow shoots like a machine; I was shooting very small groups with it from the beginning as if this was my own bow I had for years already. I switched a few times, but I kept coming back to this Eaglewing which probably was delivering a respectable 55 lbs at my drawlenght. I never imagined I could draw that weight with so much ease.
Hubert shot my Peregrine like a trusted friend and every shot amazed him. He was shooting it very good, very tight groups also and I could see he was falling in love. We started at 15 meter, went to 22, to 30, to 37, to 45, to 52, , to 60, to 68.
We kept hitting our targets! Alas I forgot to take my camara with me, so we have no pics from this. We shot in a high tempo, 7 arrows after each other within a minute. We started a little game: beginning at 15 meter and when you shot a kill, go further to the next distance, working our way up to the 73 yards. I can tell you Hubert is hard to beat; after all he is one of Germany finest Archers, who won a LOT of tournaments. Well, let's just say he thought the same thing about me and we did equally well. .
After five hours and 500 arrows each, we were dead-tired. None of us had ever shot that much or that long.

BEN · July 25, 2011, 03:11:00 PM

Now that's what it's all about!!

DannyBows · July 25, 2011, 03:17:00 PM

That is just a cool story! The 'Brotherhood of the Bow' knows no borders.

That's an awesome line-up of bows there. Thanks for sharing with us!

SlowArrow · July 25, 2011, 03:20:00 PM

Great story! Thanks for sharing it.......

Piratkey · July 25, 2011, 03:25:00 PM

I like too
Thanks

SheltonCreeker · July 25, 2011, 03:44:00 PM

Good stuff right there! Thanks for posting!

JohnnyWayne · July 25, 2011, 05:41:00 PM

Rob DiStefano · July 25, 2011, 06:11:00 PM

way cool, we're all 'brothers of the bow'! thanx for sharing

Jack Guard · July 25, 2011, 06:18:00 PM

Love it. Thanks for sharing.

sou-pawbowhunter · July 25, 2011, 06:20:00 PM

The mystical flight of the arrow has the power to transcend both border and tongue. Thank you for reminding us.

Lone Ranger · July 25, 2011, 08:07:00 PM

Very cool!

jeff w · July 25, 2011, 08:19:00 PM

That is great, thank you for sharing.

Archie · July 25, 2011, 08:33:00 PM

Sounds like you two had a great time!

Archie

bolong · July 25, 2011, 09:36:00 PM

Cyclic-Rivers · July 25, 2011, 10:06:00 PM

Hubi · July 26, 2011, 02:11:00 AM

Hi Ad,
At first I want to say thank you so much

! Ad and his wife are very warm and beautiful people!
It was a magical weekend. And you all are right brotherhood of bows knows no borders.
It was exhausting but I still benefit from the energy it has given me.

Thank you again for this weekend Brother.
Hubert

Flying Dutchman · July 26, 2011, 02:20:00 AM

And thanks to you too Hubert! Without you the magic wouldn't have been there! You are a great guy too! And always ready to help, no matter what!

I hope to see you often, my house is yours Bro!

GRINCH · July 26, 2011, 02:40:00 AM

There's nothing like a new friend with a shared interest,thats what trad gang is about making friends and memories.

Flying Dutchman · July 26, 2011, 09:05:00 AM

Thank you all for your reactions!

Manitoba Stickflinger · July 26, 2011, 09:39:00 AM

I married a 1/2 Dutch girl who's mother grew up in Holland. When we finally get there to visit I hope I too am invited to shoot in your personal archery range. Only thing is that I'm really good to 15 yards and that's it. One day!

Thanks for the post...Ryan