On the large Cowboys i've seen, the weight slug seems in the middle. If these are meant to dive and work in rough and moving water wouldn't it be (correct me if I'm wrong) to put the weight forward of middle? The ones I swam swim great on top and dive a little w/wire adjustments along with lip bending. But to dive deep with a body width of 1 5/16 I would assume you need #1 a large slug 1/2oz or more. On lips, what style lip is available to use? I was toying w/ A40 lip modified to the BM dimentions. Thanks

Large cowboys have 2 belly weights. 9grams each.

Plugs meant to be cast do poorly with a center of balance ahead of midpoint

The shape of the lip and line tie position has more to do with the depth a plug attains than does the weighting.

Moving the weight and center of balance forward creates a larger tail wag, which requires the tail section of the plug to move water side to side. That may be an issue with thick bodied plugs (with short fat tails)

The cowboy lip has a slightly longer than "normal" lower lip that gives it some depth grab as well.

George thanks for the reply. As I said, studying the BM cowboy I see 1 large weight, 1/2" x1/2" . That size slug comes in @ approx. 18 grams. Putting 2 weights make more sense. Would the weights be positioned centerally around the plugs balance point? The BM lip was 3/4" length w/a mid hole. My thoughts were to leave the A40 lip O.E. length and narrow the sides from 1 5/16" to 1 3/16" w/sides bent up. Then bend the wire loop up toward the lip slot or fabricate another lip with an upper hole. As always your info is appreciated. I spoke w/ you @ RISAA. You were @ the Gibbs booth and we breifly spoke about Bottleplugs.

I'm gonna try a pikie3 lip on one that I turned up recently, 6" long plug. Not sure what the original size was.

The weights in the plugs I have (pre-eye version) are side by side and located at 3" and 3 11/16" on center from the nose.

Examine the lip carefully. Unless it is different on the newer versions, I think you will see that the lower section is rather long in comparison to the vertical section. I think you will need to re-bend any commercial lip currently available (or just make you own).

Thanks George. The lip I have is 13/16"" long and 5/8" vertical. I will resize the width from 1 5/16 to 1 3/16. This dimention is from the O.E. BM I used.

I test swam the Cowboy with 2 different weight combos. My goal is to have this plug dive with minimal crank speed. I went with the 18 gram weight scheme. First I put them @ 3" & 3 11/16'. The plug swam great along the top with the head under the surface. Made a lip ajustment and bent the eve way up to the lip centerline. I dove just under the surface. Next I took the same weight amount and split it up into three seperate weights. First slug was @13/16", second slug 2 5/8" & third @ 3 1/2". This combo put the head slightly down at rest but with a slow crank dove at least 1 1/2' under. Swam super with a nice wiggle. I used flat wheel weights, cut them to 9 grams and 6 grams for the test. I drilled a small hole in the middle of the weights and fasten to the plug at the locations w/ small #4 screws. The screws and weights w/hole weighed 6 and 9 grams. Now I feel I have what I wanted this Cowboy to do. Now I will drill the blank and put in the plug slugs. Thanks for your help George and GFB44 I hope this helps you.

#2 weighting combo.

oh my God, Billy, you created the son of frankenstein! can't wait to test one for you when it's done!!!! nice engineeering.

figured I would bring this back up as I have been making some cowboy-ish shapes (don't have an original). My plug is 6" long, with a pikie3 lip. I've made 2 so far, one with a belly weight 3/8"dia x .55" deep (approx 11g) and one unweighted. swimming the unweighted one today. Pretty paint b/c I enjoy painting as much as making :jump1:

I think I have 2 or 3 more blanks ready, once I figure out how I like it I'll finish the rest. All AYC

I figure 2/0 hooks with a flag tail fit best.

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b393/go4broke44/DSCN1764.jpg

Nice job. you will notice the very nice wiggle w/ the top water swimmer no weight. the wighted one will probably swim sub surface w/ slow retreive. I put the xtra weights in a 7" one, one in the chin 6 grams and the other two 6 ea. between hooks. The weight combo swims down w/ slow retreive 2'. i used basswood to take advantage of using the lead to give me the reaction of diving w/o reeling too fast. My 6" version comes in around 3oz. 7" 4oz. Good luck with the Cowboys.

I know the BM Atom Jr. he uses white pine ... I assume the same on the cowboy .. anyone know for sure ? Metal Lip ?

I'm pretty sure they're pine, I've chipped my share.
Cool looking plug, Go4, I'll bet it fishes well.

Thanks for the kind words.

I swam the unweighted one yesterday, stays pretty much right on top, just under the surface. swims insane, with a little roll mixed in as well. gonna try two more versions this week, one with just an 11g belly weight slightly aft of midship, and another with 11g belly weight about 2" from nose, and a .25oz tailweight to try and cut down on the tail wag a bit.