Building a hunting bow?

[Jaxom]

Not enough folks seem to be posting here. but I'll give it a shot anyways! Building a bow for hunting is actually what sparked my interest in building bows in the first place. Like many of you, times are tight in this recession, and well, I just cannot afford $500 for a good bow...compound or otherwise.

Before I actually get to building any bow that I intend on hunting, I will say I'll be building a few practice bows to get my feet wet so to speak. This way I'm not going to be waisting my time with an experimental bow in the woods, which could potentially just injure either myself or the game I'm seeking. Once I've have the methods down pat, then I'll concentrate on a good hunting bow. In the mean time I'ld like to get a gist of what makes a good hunting bow for reference sake.

Let's start with what I already know about hunting bows. For starters, I'm not a power freak. I understand that a bow with a 50lb draw is plenty. This helps, becuase then I don't need to invest in wild exotic woods to achieve 60-70-80lb! draws! Length might be an issue though. Bowstick mentions to use a 60" bow (58" noch to nock?) for hunting. His logic is that being short, it's easier to handle in the woods, less to get snagged on. But what about inside a blind? Isn't 60" still going to be rather large? I mean in a perfect world and I had all the money I needed I'd be looking at one of the Mathews short compounds at about 30".

Wood selection. There's sooo much out there on wood selection. I'm going to need to rely on the experts on this. ON Sam's building site he doesn't recommend going over 45lbs on red oak. As you all problably have read it over and over, yes, he does mention it could handle 50lb, but doesn't recommend it. I'll go along with that. So what should I use instead of red oak?

Backing... I already have a question in another forum about backing with camo colored cloth as a dressing to sheetrock tape. But since this bow will be specifically for hunting and I'll have a few other bows under my belt by then I'm would be willing to give other backings concideration. What would you use?

Thanks,

Jax

[crimbizzle]

All good thoughts. To the wood selection. I've found several local places that sell hardwoods other than the Red Oak that Lowes and Home Depot stock. Ipe, a freakishly flexible South American hardwood is what I'm monkeying with at the moment. They use it for premium all wood decking since it's very rot resistant. All I had to do was make two phone calls before I'd found some 3 miles from my home. I'd suggest looking into the locally owned smaller scale lumber yards in your area. If you want to monkey with composites check out boat building suppliers (easy if you live on the east coast like I do). I found local fiberglass cloth for cheaper than online (and no shipping! WOOT). viewtopic.php?f=8&t=5 is a bowyers den list of several hundred woods to look for, their specific gravity, and flexibility characteristics. I have a tattered printout I take with me every time I go snooping for wood somewhere.

As for a short bow, maybe a horsebow is what you are looking for. NO idea how to make them, but I've seen Youtube vids of some unbelievably powerful horsebows. I'm in total agreement with you to make some experimental bows to get the skills down before starting the killer bow project. All hail the experimentation!

[J0nathan]

Red oak is fine for higher weight bows, I've made two over fifty, one was right on the dot, and the other one was about seventy. As for length, at your skill level, or even after completing five or six bows, there is no way you will be able to make one under sixty (unless you build a glass recurve....) Stick with seventy-two, then maybe go down to sixty-four inches. For a backing, I recommend using cloth, not sheetrock tape, just go down to your local fabric shop, use a layer of canvas (middleweight) and a layer of camo cloth (lightweight) then glue that on with Titebond III. For your first few bows, just use two layers of a bed sheet, works just fine for me.

As for other wood choices, red oak is just about my favorite bow wood, real easy to work (compared to my other favorite; Hickory) My oak bows all tend to take less set than my hickory bows too.....

I'm going to start on a oak bow soon, I'll post a build along.

Good luck on your first couple of bows.

[Jaxom]

Great! Thanks for the tips guys! Sadly, I don't know of many independant places near me. (chicago 'burbs), Now defunct Courtesy, Home Depot, Lowes and Menards have pretty much put the little guys out of buisness around here. We do have a Rockler wood working in area, but my beater truck dies if I try to drive it more then two or three miles. But I just KNOW that they'll charge alot for exotics.

Just curious, I've been watching a series of video's called the Woodsmaster. In one of his episodes he makes some really small "small game" flat bows, anyone ever try making one of them? Not something I'd attempt taking a deer with, but would be fun for rabbit or squirrel hunting/pest control. For those interested...google The Woods Master: Primative Weapons episode.

Jax

[borris]

My first ,home made, bow is a hickory longbow, no backing 60" long. It pulls 42# at 28" and i took a whitetail doe this weekend at 25 yards. I've now made a total of 5 bows.
The latest longbow is a red oak from home despot, unbacked, 50# at 28". I'm am far from an expert but you need to check the grain carfully, do lots of research, when in doubt use backing.Be careful, don't over draw(i had one hikory long bow fail due to a friend overdrawing it).
Build it and go get'um!!!
Good luck
borris

[huntersteve]

Saw this post and decided to chime in with my.02 worth.....most of the bows that i've built so far have been with red oak....
with a proper design you can easily build a 50-60# bow or even heavier....where you can run into problems is if you try to
build one that is too short....keep it 65-67" or more and you can build really good bow....Steve

[kauboy]

Steve, did I read that right?
You've built a 60# bow out of Red Oak???
Was it the 65" one?

I'd love to see them!

[JPKalishek]

my all oak penobscott bow pulls right at 80# and is 62" long. that is at 24" and it is stacking a bit. I tend to keep it set lower than that, but "lower" is 65# or so.
The English made some long bows from oak as well, and the old forum had a fellow with an oak backed ash elb(or was it an ash backed oak?) that was up around 200#.

[JPKalishek]

A managed to get a halfway decent pic of the penob here: