PUMBA'S TRADITIONAL BOWS
By Rean Steenkamp
Louwtjie Louw is a new bowman in South Africa who recently visited the Africa's Bowhunter office to show me the three models of bows he builds. Louwtjie asked me to shoot the bows and give my opinion. This, of course, is "work" that I like to do.
< A closer look at the bow risers of the Pumba bows
The three styles of bows he builds are a reflex-deflex longbow, which is a nearly Scythian-style longbow. Louwtjie named this his Pumba Mark 1 series. He also builds a standard longbow, the Mufasa Mark 1 series, and then he builds a Scythian-style bow, which is called the Timoan Mark 1 series. All three of the bows are beautifully made and well finished off.
I found the three bows to shoot accurately, sweetly and with little hand shock. Since I like shorter bows, I especially like the Timoan with its curvy lines. I must quickly add, though, that these Scythian-style bows are in fact horse bows and that longer bows are usually more forgiving than short bows when it comes to accuracy.
Louwtjie also makes fine quivers and arrows. Since I have many photos of the bows, arrows and quivers I will stop using words and rather let the photos do the talking.
Pumba's Scythian-style bow, the Timoan Mark 1
< Beautiful tip of the Timoan
Riser of the Timoan >
< The Timoan at full draw >
Full view of Pumba's Mufasa Mark 1 longbow
< Riser of the Mufasa
Tip of the Mufasa >
< Mufasa at full draw >
Pumba's reflex-deflex longbow, the Pumba Mark 1
< Tip of the Mark 1
Riser of the Mark 1 >
< The Mark 1 at full draw >
About the Author
Rean Steenkamp
Rean Steenkamp, editor and owner of Africa’s Bowhunter magazine, is an enthusiastic traditional archer and bowhunter. He started hunting with a longbow in 1997 and has since bagged many African plains game with traditional bows, compound and black powder rifles. He also dabbled in bow building and published a bowhunting book titled “Let loose the arrow!”
Rean started his career in journalism in 1984 at a newspaper in Pretoria, South Africa. He interrupted his career at the end of 1991 when he joined the 37th weather team expedition to Gough Island, where he worked for 14 months as the communicator. The team consisted of only seven people living in isolation on the seven by 16 km island. Rean started the Africa’s Bowhunter magazine in 2000 while working as editor for the Game and Hunt magazine.