The gent this went to sent me a pic of the bow he made - not sure of the length but it is osage with sinew back and is a bit of recurve style - the pic he sent is not the best but it looks great and I know he's a bit of a perfectionist so...(he's tickled pink about his set that his "girls" got him As for the arrows not sure.)
Tim - western bows while being short were often quite powerful (50-70 lbs) and full draw was/is at times no more than 18-20" on the real short bows- but they were used mostly on horseback while running buffalo and period reports have them at times shooting clear through a buffalo. When running buffalo the draw was generally not to the chin or ear but around chest length or even shorter - about 18" based on period photos. This site has some info on a modern maker of such bows that may be of interest...
http://www.plainsindianbows.com/Dependent on tribe bows were made of wood - osage and imported hickory - but also elk antler and big horn sheep horn. Many were also sinew backed and others were sinew backed with horn bellies.
Mike - the gun is not a rifle but a smoothbore built by Tom Stroh that I picked up in a trade a couple of years ago. Sorry don't have full length pics. It's a 28 bore with an Ed Rayle barrel, Chambers Queen Ann Pistol lock (a real sparker), a walnut stock, and hand forged iron fittings. Even without a rear sight (which I plan on adding - one of these day....LOL) and despite my poor eyesight I can get 3-4" groups at 75 yards with a 526 or 530 ball, pillow ticking patch, and 80-85 grains of 3F - I figure with a rear sight I can cut that down to 1.5 to 2-3" and 75 yards is my self imposed limit no matter what.
While I've owned smoothies in the past (still have an original 1820 Potsdam 11 gauge converted to flint in 1843 and came west in 1846 where it was cut down with which I have taken a lot of game including elk and bear and once owned a 16 bore Manton single barrel which was stolen ^&%#$@&) I've always been a dyed in the wool rifle shooter (mostly pre-1840 Hawkens being my passion since I started shooting muzzleloaders 51 years ago), but this smoothie has opened my eyes so to speak and at age 59 the 6 1/2 lb weight is a real delight (especially at 7,000 ft above sea level) compared to the 9-11 lb rifles I carried in the past. I added the tacks since I like them and do an early western mountaineer mixed blood impression - Eastern Indian gone west - by birth I'm mixed blood Euro, Tuscarora, Choctaw so it fits for me (lots of eastern Indians were involved in the western fur trade of 1803-1850's).
funny thing is about 10 years ago I came close to quitting doing any frontier gear with bead work which had always been my passion since age 8 when my folks started me down this path by giving me the book "Across the Wide Missouri" which includes an A. J. Miller sketch of Old Bill Burrows who is a spitting image of my dad. Ten years ago I had gone off in another more modern direction for a while with my leather work and then on top of that my brother in-law got invalided and I gave him my beading stuff for therapy.
A couple months after that though I got some longhorn beef stew bones from a neighbor and after boiling the meat down I found a hock bone that just sort of screamed war club to me. I asked a friend, knife maker Gib Guignard, if he wanted to forge a blade for me and then we decided to do a companion knife and sheath. That re-fired my 40+ year passion for "frontier" gear - due to my 30+ years back/health problems (it's lousy getting old and broke down before your time - but mostly my own fault) issues I also found it was easier on my bod then the heavy stamping and tooling work I had gotten into and now I prefer doing this type work more than anything else and so far that 40+ year fire in my gut is still burning bright - it was my first love and looks like it will stay that way.
Here's the set Gib (RIP mi amigo) collaborated on -
I added a piece of deer antler to the hock bone for a handle and made it into a quirt/club. The knife has deer leg bone handle with a piece of deer antler for a bolster. The bead work is in the pre-1850 Absaroka style.
One thing for me that had a real effect on my overall work/outlook was a bit of "advice" I received back in 1972 from an old Oglalla artisan on the Pine Ridge rez. At the time I was learning by and making a bit of money by replicating originals and when I asked the lady if I could copy one of her pieces she looked at me with a quizzical look and said, "Sure but why? The work should come from your own heart and spirit."
While I continued to do exacting replicas and still do now and again those words of wisdom changed for ever the way I viewed my own crafting no matter what type. I still build within the style and method constraints (with a few "modern" modifications due to materials) of the period and "tribal"style but the work is most often all me and that's real satisfying to my "spirit".........
