By Mark Jones
As I look at that particular bow hanging in my study I am overcome with an irresistible urge to reach out towards it. To feel the warm wood in my hands. To close my eyes and let it transport me back to the sights, sounds and smells of Africa. Yes, some may view it as just another bow, a hunting weapon indis-tinguishable from any of the several others that it rests amongst. But to me it is so much more. It is a bridge that enables me to relive the bonds forged with those animals that have fallen to it, as well as recall with fondness the personal friendships that it has helped to create along the way.
When I first booked my South African plains game trip, I knew that not just any bow would do. The bow that would accompany me on this adventure had to be special. One of all natural materials, understated elegance and uncompromising performance. A bow that felt “alive”. In short, a bow to match the sig-nificance of the overall safari experience itself.
That bow was born over a period of many months. My search for it had led me to Gregg Coffey of Java Man Primitive Archery, a US bowyer from the northern state of Michigan who is well-known for his beautiful all-wood composite recurves and longbows. Over the course of many telephone conversations and e-mails, the design and construction of the bow began to take shape.
Based on my requirements, Gregg suggested a modified version of his new Assyrian-style static recurve as a compact yet powerful bow, well-suited for use in potentially tight ground blinds against the largest and toughest African plains game species. The bow’s design now finalized, selection of the actual materials to be used in its construction became the next major decision. In consideration of its intended purpose, I wanted to include as much native African content as possible within the structural constraints of such an all-wood (no fiberglass) bow. Once again Gregg did not disappoint, with the finished product including a comp-lementary combination of such diverse African woods as wenge, bubinga and makusi (the latter from a pre-WWII era piece of lumber cut in then British-colonized Rhodesia!), as well as tip overlays of highly polished gemsbok horn.
While I have always, from the very first time I laid eyes on it, considered that bow to be a fine example of the bowyer’s handicraft, I must admit that when I look at it now I do not really dwell on its outer beauty.
Rather, in my mind’s eye I see the blur of a feathered shaft arcing towards two of those animals that to me most symbolize “Africa”, a fine trophy zebra stallion and a record book blue wildebeest. I see long hours spent sharing a ground blind up in the Northern Province with PH Dirk Crafford, both laughing as a brown hooded kingfisher divebombs a waterhole as part of his morning bathing routine and frightens a skittish impala nearly half to death.
I see myself stalking big nyala and kudu bulls in the historic KwaZulu Natal region with PH Rob Duffield. I see new friends sitting around a crackling fire (or “bush TV” as Dirk jokingly dubs it) in the cool night air underneath a canopy of white hot stars, fellow hunters sharing each other’s com-pany in the way that only they can. I see and feel all these things each time I pick up that par-ticular bow. Not “just another bow”, but rather an exten-sion of my inner self which magi-cally takes me out to happy days afield that never end.
