Pat just emailed this to me.

I'm proud to say that I have a new friend of many talents.. One of those talents is he is a fine bowyer of the oldest tradition... You see, he makes selfbows. With handtools he transforms a piece of osage into a powerful hunting bow, a museum piece, at least in my eyes..

With just a modicum of arm twisting he agreed to make one of these fine bows for me. Again it is all osage, no laminations, nothing but the wood.. Just to top this fine piece off he did glue snakeskins on the back, not only for their natural beauty but to subdue the yellow wood. This is a hunting bow !!!

I walked away from the truck this evening and shot one arrow at a clump.. As I was walking to retrieve that arrow I saw a jackrabbit sitting by a patch of weeds.. Now I really like jack's and almost never bother them but this bow was just begging to be bloodied.. I picked up the arrow and brought the bow to full draw. The bow had that wonderful whisper on release that only a wood bow can have. In an eyeblink the arrow pinwheeled the unsuspecting rabbit in the neck, it exited behind his shoulder on the off side.. He flopped a time or two and lay still.. I walked 38 long steps to him.. A fitting way to break in a fine hunting bow. Why yes, there may have been a bit of luck involved!

It's so nice to use the real thing. they really do work.
Elmer Keith sad "the more you practice the luckier you get ! "