But not the Aldreds, not yet. One of the American flatbows of unknown builder & provence is a killer. Looks massive, 64-1/2" nock to nock, everything looked flawless, so I put a string on her. B-55 Flemish twist kindly made for me by our own Michael Cregan, who shoots heavy Hills so this string has all the right mojo. Suits the bow just fine, but first only to a 4" brace height...

Then start pulling her back, a little at a time. More & more; she's feeling a little stout- got an attitude on her after all these years- decades- who knows how long? Get out the draw length arrow and the hand-held draw wt. scale- get her up to 25, 26 inches- finally to 28". Holy crap, 75#@28", and my scale generally runs a little low.

Raise the brace height to a whopping 5" and take her down to the "lab"- the basement range where I do my indoor practice- stand next to the dryer and shoot 17 yards into the garage Morell bag target. SHE IS A SHOOTER! Use my 57# Hill to warm up, but with the "new" bow I don't think I was pulling more than 27- 1/2". But flat & fast, any old arrow- "Center Shot" hahaha!- 1-1/6 wide at the arrow pass, no shelf except the top of the grip. Just how I like em. I thought I was done with 70# bows, let along heavier. Uh-uh, not giving up yet- this bow is a piece of history & I love living it- at least for now, while I can.

Oh yes, she's a "string follow" bow- kind of goes with the territory. About 2- 1/2" of string follow, but still a job to string & unstring. No problem with cast, but she needs to go outside for a proper workout at a real range. Right now my neck is hurting a little.

The Aldreds are a nice, civilised 46#, and I will wait until far more patient & expert hands and eyes than mine can help me evaluate them for shooting.

Dan

Your next task, Grasshopper, is to snugly bundle it in bubble wrap and send it to me 8^)

Glad it's a shooter, yew bows have large dimensions relative to draw weight...they always look freaking massive when compared to bows of similar weight crafted from denser woods.

Nah, I'd rather snatch the pebble out of your hand first. (That is a pebble, isn't it?)

One of these days we will meet up; (we certainly live close enough) and show 'n tell 'n shoot will happen...

It's the bow with this crop circle mark: (Extra Terrestrial Bowyers?) But the more I look at the other bow, which also has that mark- but very faint, hard to see- I think of Chester (Chet) Stevenson, who could follow grain like a bloodhound. The dips and curves on the belly that match the back perfectly remind me of some of his work.

Reading between the lines Dan ... I think you're a little excited :) :)

Very nice.

That mark indicates an Earl Grubb bow. That is his trademark from what I can see.

Definitely and Earl Grubb bow. Here's a better photo.

Yup, George nailed it. I recognized the mark but couldn't pull up a name.

Most definitely a "Grubbs". One of the premier self-bow bowyers, and suppliers of Yew billets, close friend of Howard Hill. Bob

Thank You gentlemen- Earl Grubb it is. That name is only slightly familiar to me as well- was he of the same time & place as the other Pacific Northwest bowyer/archers- e.g. Earl Ulrich, Gilman Keasey, Kore Duryee?

What an exciting piece of archery history! I intend to shoot this thing until both shoulders fall off. Then Iktomi can have it. Such a savage cousin compared to its Yew brother, the Aldred target aristocrat!

Someday I hope I can show these treasures to our pal Jim Fetrow- I am still scratching my head over the cosmic coincidence of me driving for 9 hours like a single-minded obsessed maniac to collect them on his birthday.

Yes, Phil, you are a very astute reader of the subtle messages between the lines. I am a little jazzed about these bows. Until she's cleared for take-off, the good Aldred is proudly on the living room wall, above my wife's 1906 Ivers & Pond "Upright Grand" piano.

More Grubb details: No strike plate, just the side of the riser. And a small screw- must be a 20 - 30 yard sight pin.

Upper limb to the nock, wear damage against the edges of the clarified calf skin backing; only by stringing her up does it become obvious that the wear is a result of stringing & unstringing, the upper loop rubbing against the upper limb.

Wonderful stuff Dan. That Aldred looks so elegant together with that gorgeous piano :)

OK, the name Earl Grubb is completely new to me, be interested if anyone can fill in some details

i am looking for some good plan wood arrow to shoot out of a 40 lb longbow in competition. let me know if you will have time to help. George SAID YOU ARE THE BEST jack

Wrong Dan. I ain't the best at anything- there must be at least 1/2 dozen other "Dans" on here, George certainly meant someone else.

I would also like to know who makes the best wooden arrows. But so far, I have been very satisfied with the shafts & arrows I've gotten from Paul Jalon of Elite Arrows. Also Bob Burton "Aromakr" (Whispering Wind Arrows) who was one of the ones (above) who named Earl Grubb.

You can't go wrong with either of them.

Found this site while looking up Earl Ulrich from Roseburg, Oregon. Earl never learned to drive and my father Ed Russell used to drive him into the mountains to look for yew wood. For history buffs Earl, my father and Frank Grubb organized the first Archery Tournament in Oregon. I still have some arrows, target and hunting made by Earl.

did I not see something I think it was fred bear that went to see him when making the 1000 series of personal takedowns? dr

opps it was earl ulrich on the bear takedowns sorry dr

If I could only shoot a 75# bow again, you just can't beat that power, that is why Howard and Byron shoot that weight for target practice and hunting.

Well, I finally DID give the 75# Grubb to Iktomi last month at the Rancho Neblina shoot in Petaluma. Great to finally meet him in person and go shooting with him. (no we didn't shoot the Grubb!).

Hope he has fun with it!

Dan

Fur-Fish-Game - January 1931

“Bow and Arrow Hunting” - Thompson, B.G.

""The personnel of our party this trip consisted of Earl Ullrich, know to his friends as “Yew Wood.”......”Yew Wood’s” bow was of yew and “weighed 60 pounds. Our bows were carried in water proof cases made from old inner tubes. "Thus equipped and with sufficient supplies for ten days, we loaded into Yew Wood’s Buick and thence to Steamboat Bridge, the end of the road the beginning of the trail. "" [pg. 22]

Ulrich may have stopped driving at some time but he did drive in his early years. I'll pull out his file tomorrow and see if I have a photo of his old Buick.

That archery tournament, would it have been the Pope and Young-Archers, maybe summer of 1936. F.S. Barnes gets credit for the first archery club in Forest Grove, Oregon, "The Maurice Thompson Archery Club[1890 or so]." It met and shot once a month on the campus of Pacific University in Forest Grove.

The article "Beginnings of Pacific Coast Archery" by M.F. Hill the December 1932 "Archery Review" has a photo showing Hill and Bill Parsons with their collection of trophies won at the 1928 Pacific Northwest Championship held in Oregon.

Here's a passage from the May 1934 "Archery Review." "The archers of Forest Grove, Oregon, are staging an all day tournament for the archers of the Northwest. The meet will be held on the campus of Pacific University at Forest Grove on May 19, 1934."

Quit a bit of interest in archery during that period.

Russell - I don't know what information you are looking for on Ulrich, but you can PM me and I might have some you are looking for.

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