I have some experience with John Strunks bows. But never had the opportunity to try any others. So I would like to hear who you guys like and have tried. These could be selfbows or laminated. for example, Stcharles, welchman, etc and what u like and don't like about the bow. My strunk yew bow is very impressive, and I shoot it better than anything I have. I would love for this thread to turn into a list of English longbow bowyers. Lol. Also pictures would be great since the photo bucket thing wiped out all the pics from old threads.

I hope some people respond here too. I tried and ELB when I was 14 and loved shooting it. I've never tried another since. I'd like to see who likes what and why, to help me decide which one I want to try.

Pip Bickerstaffe and Richard Head are two English bowyers you can check out if you want a real English longbow.

I have a pacific yew laminate ELB from ravenbeak natureworks in Canada. It has a lapis stone arrow pass inlay and bison horn caps. It is beautifully made and a pleasure to shoot. Shooting off the fist just seems natural. Nothing not to like about these bows. I'd really like to get a pacific yew selfbow as well. Will post pics if I get a chance. I look forward to hearing what others have to say.

Scott

Jim Belcher

I have been making a lot of ELBs but I don't sell them. Last few years I have gained a lot of respect for these bows. Pound for pound they will shoot right along with the best designs from other styles of wood bows.

Jay St.Charles makes them at Pacific Yew. And to me the epitome of the English Longbow is made by Gerald Welch of Welchman Longbows in Alaska. You can find them both on a google search.

I generally don't have great interest in bows made by others with a few exceptions. A Strunk Elb is one of them. I would have liked to have had a yew English longbow from Jim Fetrow as well. He made good ones.

I bet Dean Torges made a good one too and I discussed them at length with him. Unfortunately that's never gonna happen. Best I can do is... do my best.

I do have a beautiful yew stave Jim sent me that I need to finish, and a yew stave I got from Dean that he got from Dick Robertson. All in due time.

I guess the only bow on my wish list I have a chance of is a Strunk bow. Maybe I should pursue that.

Thanks for the info guys!. I have heard a lot of good things about st charles, and welchman. And am familiar with the ones ravenbeak offers. Just haven't heard a lot about them. I would really love to try a stcharles or welchman. Keep em coming

I’m the same as Felix’s ,I have a bamboo backed yew ELB from Ravenbeak, check out there website.It takes some getting use to, but the more I shoot it the more I like it .Yew is an absolutely beautiful wood to shoot,mines 70” and 52#@28” it shoots 550 grain Douglas firs as well as anything.

Bert Frelink, Quarter moon Bows, learned a lot of his craft from Mr. Strunk. Not sure if Bert is making more bows or less since he retired from his real job.

DDave

Pip Bickerstaffe

Lee Ankers at Heritage longbows

Marc Grady

Gary Evans

Rod Lyons

Simon Owens (Holder of the Bronze and Silver certificates of the Worshipful Company of Bowyers.)

Joe Gibbs

Malcolm Grady (Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Bowyers. Holder of the Bronze & Silver certificates of the Worshipful Company of Bowyers.)

Elderly I was going to send one to England but the cost was about $250.00 just for shipping.

It sounds like Steve(Badger) could build you one...and it might even have great cast since he builds great flight bows. :)

The shipping cost is why I don't consider purchasing most bows from over seas. It's a. Shame. And I would be honored to have one of Steve's bows. I'm sure they would launch an arrow.

The best english Longbow maker 95% of you have never heard of, was Ron Taylor, London, England. In the 80’s and 90’s, if you were serious about shooting a yew self bow, a bow made by Ron was the bow to have. There is a reason you don’t see them up for sale on auction sites ;-)

( Quote:)It sounds like Steve(Badger) could build you one...and it might even have great cast since he builds great flight bows. :)

Bowaholic, my English longbows currently hold the unlimited record for distance and the 50# record in both mens and womens. Not trying to brag just stating a fact. the Unlimited record I was particulary proud of becuase it was only a 90# bow and the records are usually held by 140# bows or higher. We beat the old record by about 50 yards.

I'm still on the hunt for a nice trilam. I got a bbi from "badger" and all I can say is that thing is a shooter. I chronoed it at work a week ago and I was shoot high 160 fps not even drawing 28". I have been looking at bowyers that offer bows through "the longbow shop" the whole month of August is free shipping so now is the time to seize my opportunity. I have really been considering a bow from Adrian hayes, since they are sold from that site, would pay no shipping. Does any one have any experience with his bows or willrich bows? They have bows from bickerstaffe, although I'm not really wanting a hickory backed bow with a lemonwood belly. Any help or advice from experience would be great.

Shawn What specs are you looking for? I have two self yew bows by Gerald Welch, that I’d consider parting with

Thanks Paul. But I have a welchman. I'm really looking for something along the lines of a laminated Longbow or try Lam or something along those lines I have several self bows and I'm not a big fan of seasonal shooting and the seasonal problems I have with them. Thanks for the offer though. But also if I remember correctly your bows were pretty heavy I don't shoot over 50 pounds because of a shoulder problem

Shawn, I can attest to Steve (Badger)'s bow work, I have one of his yew flat bows, and it a smooth drawing shooter. I concur, a horn nocked ELB by Steve would be 'da bomb' as Bob (Bowaholic) would say.

As far as overseas shipping, the pound dollar ratio isn't that bad right now and I was recently quoted 50 pounds or about $60 plus from the U.K. to MO for a bow. If you've shipped staves/bows across country here it isn't all that much less.

Just a note about Welshman English longbows. He puts an arrow rest on them, so his bows are NOT English Longbows. No evidence has ever been found that supports the notion that even a wrapped in rest of any material has ever been used on an English longbow. Should not be advertised as such.

Shawn, are you coming to the TBA Longbow shoot at the end of this month? I might have a bamboo backed tri-lam that you can shoot. :)

I absolutely love ELB’s! I’ve wanted a nice Yew ELB forever but something always comes up stopping me from acquiring one... I’ve got a Ironwood ELB right now that I had to reduce the draw weight on to be able to enjoy shooting it. I’ve tried trading for one on the trade threads here but none ever come up for trade so obviously the lucky ones that have them think highly of them too... My Ironwood was built by a guy in Lower Michigan. If I remember correctly it’s 74”

Bob, I plan on attending tba at the end of the month. I will probably come up for saturday.i plan on bringing a few bows with me this time. Lol And thanks for the info guys. Mr hatfield. It's true. All of my current "elbs" do have a rest on them. However this time i was wanting to get one without a rest. Mr strunk said he would make me a bamboo backed ipe. And I'm sure it would be a shooter. As I love both my selfbows from him.

I am back to considering a bow from pip bickerstaffe though. Just always heard hickory doesn't do well with high humidity, and I have plenty of it here in Northeast Arkansas. It's only used for the backing with the bow I am looking at. It has purple heart and greenheart core, and lemonwood belly. The main purpose for wanting this bow is that my yew bows suffer in the hot wet summer here. Wanted something I could shoot in our crappy winters and crappy summers. Lol

I knew you would have plenty of bows Shawn, but I will bring this skinny little bamboo backed ipe with English horn nocks anyway...just in case you want to shoot it. :) Looking forward to seeing you there...I'll be there from Wednesday thru Sunday. :)

Heh, your BBI longbow/English nocks gives me an idea. My HBI just might work for an older set of horn nocks I have, somewhere. Need to look for them, it just might work.

ILAA rules for an English/Welch longbow, partial.

" Examples of any cross-section shape fitting into a 1 to .625 ratio rectangular template, with the sectional shape touching both long sides of the template. CF5. The handle may be built up on the belly side with wood to form a comfortable hand grip, more necessary with light draw weight bows. No arrow rest ledge of any form is allowed. CF6. Horn string nocks may be used. These usually take the form of a slim conical shape bored out from the cone base to fit over the bow tip. The string can also be retained with nock grooves cut into the bow stave. The grooves can be of any size, shape and form.Horn and self nocked bows can also incorporate extra grooves to fit a slack string, to aid stringing the bow. CF7. There must be no artificial aids to aiming and sighting, either on the bow or the string. Rubber bands, tape or sight marks of any kind are not allowed. Note: The above freedom of form and cross-sectional shape allows most types of longbow to conform to the rules. Typically replica late medieval hunting and war bows. Victorian target and sporting as well as modern target, clout, mark, field and distance shooting bows shall all comply with the rules that define a long bow. Any existing longbows used in the above catagories will almost certainly be compliant. "

Note that " No arrow rest ledge of any form is allowed." There ARE rules for what an English Longbow is! An "anything goes" bow is simply an longbow, nothing else.

It does in the land where they come from, but for people like you, not so much. And it does if you are shooting an English Longbow in World Flight competition, where one of the rules is--"The bow shall carry no support for the arrow;". My point is, there are published rules for building a longbow that can be termed an English Longbow. If a bowyer, knowing that, or being too lazy to investigate, builds something that does not comply with those rules, they are NOT building an English Longbow, just a bow. False advertising.

So if the grip area is wrapped with leather, does the top edge of the leather grip count as an arrow rest? Is a leather arrow pass legal?

You can have any material for the arrow pass as far as I know. If the wrap is built out so it can be used as an arrow support, it's not legal. Have to shoot off your hand.

We take the heritage of the long bow very seriously. We live with the history of Crecy , Poitiers and Agincourt. We still have the oldest archery competitions on the planet and we take a dim view of anyone who meddles with the pedigree of the style of the bow.

How would you feel if a brit redesigned "Old Glory"

leave the Elb alone .. it's not yours to change

Thank you, Phil!!!

Josef feel like he will be able to break his own unlimited ELb record again this year by about 20 meters. Pushing 500 yards pretty soon.

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