by Gnome Tue Sep 17, 2013 4:32 pm
Here it is in ready mode, with cocking rope and cross-body shoulder strap. This one is fairly easily spanned by hand, but my long suffering and mildly arthritic fingers still like a little help. Rather than cut the extra length, I knotted the excess as you see and tied it on the end so that it still travels freely for centered draws yet is secured so that I'm not going to put it down and forget where every time I shoot it. I do that a lot. I also added thin leather washers to the screw anchoring the bolt clip and changed the shape of the clip slightly to lessen the downforce. It's much quieter now, though still a bit too noisy, but the leather also helps hold the clip in place firmly while still allowing it to be turned out of the way for hand-spanning or nut maintenance, without the screw getting loosened. I'll probably replace the plastic rope handles with wooden ones.

Here's my first prototype bolts, I have two more of each type just waiting for feathers. The shafts are 13" long, 3/8" diameter white oak dowels from the local home improvement big box store.

The points I'm pretty tickled with. On the left is a heavy bullet point I've had so long I can't remember where I got them- same place I got my 1/2" forged quarrel bodkin points, a nice company in the UK. I found out about them someplace else on this forum. Anyway, the one on the right I just got from an Amazon vendor called Sososhoot, a Chinese outfit, I believe. They say it is their own design and they have some other intersting looking points. This one has three faces, weighs about 160 grains, and has an outer collar diameter of 9mm, perfect for a 3/8 inch shaft after it's been sanded down. I'm getting a "muzzle velocity" of about 194 for the bullet point and 192 for the... I'm not even sure what to call it. The company refers to it as a broadhead, but English is definitely not the first language of their copy writer. Check them out if you're looking for something different, I know I'm going to order more from them. Took close to a month to get it, but I giggled like a little girl when I opened that package up.

I did take a few "in progress" photos on this build, if anyone is interested in more detail on construction. Did I mention how happy I am with the string? I'm finally starting the get the hang of string making, after only a dozen or so! Good thing, too, serving string is expensive.
Gnome