400-lb boar with arrow

[Southern]

This is a recent photo of a fellow I know, a former national field archery champion, bow designer for Fred Bear and Earl Hoyt, then head of Shakespeare Archery before starting his own archery shop and bow making business ( under his name and building recurves and longbows for other name brands).

Owen is now 82 years old, still climbing live oak trees to ambush deer and boar, roaming the same swamps as I.

His son, Tom, posted this, of him with a 400-lb feral hog taken in a swamp, its hideout for raiding nearby grain fields. Owen used one of his own bows, a 49-lb recurve, with wooden arrows.

 

[Klenchblaize]

K

 

[8885]

Good for him it means I still got at least 20 years hunting left.

 

[rick6point5]

This is a recent photo of a fellow I know, a former national field archery champion, bow designer for Fred Bear and Earl Hoyt, then head of Shakespeare Archery before starting his own archery shop and bow making business ( under his name and building recurves and longbows for other name brands).

Owen is now 82 years old, still climbing live oak trees to ambush deer and boar, roaming the same swamps as I.



His son, Tom, posted this, of him with a 400-lb feral hog taken in a swamp, its hideout for raiding nearby grain fields. Owen used one of his own bows, a 49-lb recurve, with wooden arrows.
View attachment 58924

Owen Jeffery is a legend & nice to hear he is still a nimble old boy, I think he made the bow that Fred Bear used for his Elephant hunt and he tested it himself..that's a 75 pound draw recurve drawn to nearly 30 inches..I will be very happy to have the strength to do that when I am over 60! watch out ladies...

 

[Southern]

Owen Jeffery is a legend & nice to hear he is still a nimble old boy, I think he made the bow that Fred Bear used for his Elephant hunt and he tested it himself..that's a 75 pound draw recurve drawn to nearly 30 inches..I will be very happy to have the strength to do that when I am over 60! watch out ladies...

Yes indeed! When my son was young, but a large 12-year-old, we we practicing over at Owen's range, and he pulled up in his little pickup truck with a friend and a pure Euro-looking boar larger than this one, much larger than this, that he had killed with his longbow, 60-lbs if I remember correctly. He had trailed it on the ground until his good senses overtook his excitement and he retreated to get some help. So Owen must have been about 69 then.

Fred Bear with a stout recurve done by Owen, and a grizzly.

 

[sammyc]

AHHH why isn't bow hunting legal in the UK? Would love to try it...

 

[beretta682]

It probably dates back to the medieval days when all the deer belonged to the king, the only weapons the everyday peasant had was a bow and arrow so to stop the deer population being plundered it was make illegal to hunt with a bow and arrow.

 

[patjack]

You are probably thinking of the forest laws Tudor time? but that was concerning owning a sight hound type and if you did their feet were rendered useless by very inhumane methods to make them unable to chase the royals Game. Only the royals and their hanger ons could pursue deer game etc... sure some more knowledgable poster will give better details.
Hunting any wild animal with bow was banned in 1965 then amended in 1981 and has never changed they suceeded in banning bow hunting and at same time attempted to ban an airgun from being used to kill any wild animal, I still have the letter and reply I sent to the houses of parliament when I was very young and thought the end of my rabbit hunting was going to be stopped-banned gladly enough people responded and they did not succeed... and all these years later we our still under constant attack so UNITY is even more important especially in this digital world the Anti's are well informed and armed with night vision and digital recording devices that are being donated to their cause... Its a known fact that they have got night vision in the forest of dean area as they are so opposed to the killing of Boar they will stop at nothing. So Unity amongst us to protect what we still have and pull in the same direction.

Sorry for going off post... BOWHUNTING, THE ALTERNATIVE CALIBRE - About

 

[Southern]

Thanks for posting that link, patjack.
I had posted in Off Topic and in other places about bowhunting, and learned a lot about the archery clubs in the UK. It sounds like a significant number of archers travel from the UK to bowhunt where it is legal for the game the like to pursue. I would like to read more about that.

There is a traditional archery festival every year in Brownsville, Indiana ( I guess it still is there ) and people come from all over the world. The rule was that you could camp there on the farm hosting the events, if your dress and tent were from some period reflecting your bow. I went in 1996, and there were groups from France, Bavaria, Austria, and the UK with longbows and in historical costumes and tenting. I met some Lakota and other Indians who were in deerskin and teepees of bison skins, shooting flatbows. I got some good hunting tips and followed up on one, to a bear hunt in Minnesota by canoe, using my 55-lb recurve.

Hunting season has arrived, so I will reach out to my fellow bowhunters here for some updates on what they are bagging. I am going after deer, bear and wild boar in October.