A couple years back, I was gifted an older Sunset Hill string follow longbow by one of our custom bowstring customers. That bow (then named ‘El Cazador‘) was a bit too heavy for me to shoot comfortably – 53#@27.5″ – and it had a huge handle and riser. In Nate’s words “The bow was originally made for a big lumberjack in Oregon at 75#.” In discussing the bow with Nate, he offered to take it in for it’s 4th and final rework of it’s life. It had already been reduced 3x. Now El Cazador has been reborn as a 65.5″ nock-to-nock 43#@26″ longbow, renamed by Nate as ‘Saucon.’
He stripped off the back glass, reworked the back bamboo lam, re-glassed the back with a creamy plum brown glass, narrowed the limbs and re-tillered. The handle was reshaped with more of a narrow teardrop wedge shape and a very slight dish to the grip. New finish and leather and I am a very happy camper. With the re-worked bow, Nate sent back a B55 string, a D97 string, and a yellow Swiss Army field dress knife. The bow is so well behaved at the shot and absolutely silent with no string silencers needed of course. Limb timings are perfect. The new limbs are deeper and narrower than a regular Hill – starting to lean toward an ELB in cross section.
I sure do look forward to many adventures afield with Saucon. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Mr. Steen… and also to a very special string customer!
For anyone wanting to know more about Hill Style Longbows, Nate’s SUNSET HILL LONGBOWS AND LEATHER blog is the place to learn.
My new Sunset Hill “Saucon”
