Recently I got to be one of the lucky ones to shoot Kirk Lavender’s traveling Sasquatch longbow. As soon as I picked it up I knew that I was in for something different. Turns out it was a truly impressive kind of different.
For those who don’t know him, or his work, Kirk is a bowyer located in Oregon. You can learn more about him and his bows at
http://bigfootbows.com/index.html. He’s got some good pictures of his work there. The bow I got to shoot was submitted to Walk the Talk III where it did very well.
I myself was pulling 46# @ 27 ½” true draw. (That’s measured at the high point of the shelf radius, not AMO measurement) I had the BH up at 8 ¼”. I had the high BH as part of getting it tuned to shoot the arrows I had available. Shooting a 364 grain (7.9 grains per # of draw weight.) arrow I made 180 fps
Now that’s all very nice but I had to put it in a way that really meant something to me. The best longbow I own is a Bob Lee. I hate admitting this, but for only 3# pounds more draw weight the Sasquatch shoots the same weight arrow 10 fps faster. Now that is a difference a person can really use. I know a lot of folks say that speed isn’t everything. That’s true. But hey, if somebody is just going to hand you several more fps, would you turn it down?
Right off I noticed a few things about the Sasquatch. It’s short and it’s light. The shortness really got my interest. Thought to myself that maybe this could work out as a good hunting longbow. I’ll admit I was somewhat skeptical about how light it was at first, but more on that in a minute. The riser has finger grooves cut into it. I’ve shot several grooved risers. Never did like them. Gotta say though, Kirk made them work. First bow I ever shot with grooves where I actually like them. A few other people shot the bow and they also found the finger grooves well made.
I enjoy turkey hunting from a blind. I use a recurve. At 58” long this bow would certainly cause me to rethink my gear. I didn’t get to take it hunting but I did get to take to a couple of trad shoots. That experience also got me to change my initial feelings about how light the bow is. The bow is quick to point, quick to aim, and it immediately reacts to whatever you want it to do. The shoots I go to always have a few “trick” shots. Shots I don’t always make. The Sasquatch is light, quick, and responsive. No two ways around it, those qualities enabled me to make those trick shots at those shoots. Almost made them seem easy. I took a first at the Lodi Bowmen Gold Country Classic and a second at San Francisco Archers Traditional Rendezvous with the Sasquatch.
When Kirk had the bow sent to me he asked me to write a fair and impartial review of my impressions of the bow, so I’m going to do that. The Sasquatch’s lightness and responsiveness are leading me to rethink a lot of things. But those same qualities that I’m really beginning to like also make this bow not a good bow for a beginner. This bow is for the experienced shooter. Also, let’s not fool ourselves here. Although I did very well in competition, trad shoots aren’t like shooting a FITA field round or an American 900 round. For that type of competition, a heavy riser would be better. But after all you’ve got all day to set up your shot, shooting those rounds. When I got the bow dialed in for my arrows, there was a “thump” in the hand during the shot, but no real hand shock. I believe that if one were to seriously lower the BH though and run it like a hot rod like what was done for the WTT III testing, then it may start to generate some shock and some string buzz.
Overall though, if you’re looking for a bow to hunt with on Saturday, and then kick some butt on the range on Sunday, the Sasquatch would be well worth looking into. (I believe Kirk has some bows available for potential buyers to test drive, but contact him through his website to make sure.) This is a bow that I would seriously like to own!
If anybody wants to know more, either contact Kirk at his website, or if you would like to know more about my experiences with the bow then just send me a PM.
