Daily Archive

by Mark

THE LINK TO THE BOW MAKER HAS EXPIRED.  I CANNOT CONTACT HIM AND CANNOT FILL ORDERS FOR HIM.  PLEASE DO NOT ASK ME TO DO SO.  IF THERE IS ANOTHER LINK FOR HIM IN THE FUTURE AND I FIND IT I WILL POST IT.

My friend Jeremy received a nice Christmas/Birthday present, a Mongolian bow.  The bows are still made by hand.  The horn of a wild goat is laminated to wood to give it outstanding strength.  This bow design was one element (in addition to tactics) that made Chinngis Khan able to conquer the world.  Its laminated design also is the reason (in addition to tactics in jungle) that he was not able to conquer humid areas such as SE Asia (Vietnam, Thailand).

These are the same bows shot during Nadaam Festival in the summer.  The targets are placed on the ground instead of parallel as western targets are placed. The Mongolian draw is unique in that it used a thumb ring to draw back and release- not a typical 3 finger release as used in the West.  The thumb release is very similar to trigger releases that hunters use today.

The bow maker’s family is famous for making bows.  He said at one time they made about 10 a year.  Now its around 100.  It takes quite a bit of time to make a bow.

The arrows are fletched with feathers from a buzzard/vulture.  The wood suspiciously looked like a dowel rod but the points were large and heavy.  They looked like they were turned from bone.

Bows run around $200 US (maybe a bit more).  Not bad for a hand-made bow.  The draw strength is around 55 lbs. I believe legal in most states for hunting.  For more information you can visit the website of this bow-maker  www.hornbow.mn

We hope at some point to visit this guys home/factory which is between Darhan and the Russian Border.