Made a longbow

[Md 25v]

There have been a few primitive/traditional archery threads coming up lately and its made me want to make a few bows for my friends. I finished this today. It is a linen backed red oak longbow.
The bow is 48lbs at 26in with a flemish braid string made out of eight strands of artificial sinew. I still have to serve the string and sand out one small nick above the handle on the belly. It shoots very fast. I'm going to heat it tomorrow and try to deflex/reflex the limbs. I don't want it to turn into a reflex bow so I'll have to be aggressive on the deflex part. The handle and rest are deer leather. The bow has 20 shots through it. There would have been more but it was getting dark. I'll put 150-200 shots through it tomorrow and break it in properly. After that I will put it through my chronograph with cane arrows to see how fast it shoots.

 

[Barbarossa]

Nice work. Hey I'll be your friend. Can't wait to see it when your done flexing it.

 

[erik the red]

Very kewl. Good work! :thumbup::thumbup:

 

[GingivitisKahn]

Nice work!

 

[Briarbrow]

heating it now will un_adhesive your back's glue; mor'n likely

 

[nate1714]

heating it now will un_adhesive your back's glue; mor'n likely

First off I have only made some amateur bows while camping. But Briar has a point. Looks good thus far. I cant wait for more pics.

 

[Md 25v]

heating it now will un_adhesive your back's glue; mor'n likely

I know, that's why I haven't made up my mind about doing it. These bows are give aways so I don't want to back it twice, to much effort. That said, the other reason I considered it was that I decided I don't like the look of the linen backing so I may remove it and back it with rawhide. I think rawhide backed bows look very nice but this one is four inches longer than my longest rawhide backing piece. I also have three more bows to make as gifts so I may leave this one as is.

 

[sambo.]

awesome work. that's a great skill to have.

 

[SouthernCross]

G'day Sambo

Do you know of any of our native woods that would make a suitable bow ?



Kind regards
Mick

 

[Preacher Man]

Really nice work! :thumbup:

 

[RescueRiley]

Great work MDV.. you got some mad skills there brother.. I'm green with envy.

 

[DOC-CANADA]

Hey Md 25v,

Excellent job. So far I have made 1-3/4 bows. (I hate tillering, so my 3/4 bow has been hanging around in its present form for the last couple of years.

I think it was a previous thread of yours in which you were making a limb bow. That's something I would like to work on - it has the most relevance to a survival situation.

Doc

 

[sunnyd]

Great job thus far on this long bow of yours! I am very keen on seeing additional photo's and reading more on this projects progression and conclusion. Keep up your fine efforts on this good work here.

Incidentally and just for grins, here's a hand made long bow I got off a fellow in south Texas about 4-5 years ago. Its my favorite traditional bow. I stuck a medium size hog with it in 2008 and I am going out with her again later this month when the temps dip down a bit more again..

Best,
Anthony

 

[Md 25v]

Just finished breaking in the limbs, has 150 shots through it with the last thirty at full draw. It shoots well. Fast and quiet, like a longbow should be. Here is a vid:

[youtube]YuuKe81po7E[/youtube]

 

[halo2]

Very nice. Can you do a buildalong on the next one?

 

[Md 25v]

Very nice. Can you do a buildalong on the next one?

Sure but the only complicated part is getting the tiller even. Do you want a full build vid or just how to do the tiller?

How is your bow shooting? Did you get your squirrel?

 

[Md 25v]

I have three more to make before Xmas but after that I was wondering what you guys think of a bow as the prize for a WSS contest?

 

[halo2]

Sure but the only complicated part is getting the tiller even. Do you want a full build vid or just how to do the tiller?

How is your bow shooting? Did you get your squirrel?

Full build. Don't worry about tillering. I'll learn that over time. No game yet. We'll see this weekend.

 

[teacher]

Impressive work!! :thumbup:

 

[Md 25v]

Halo-
Good luck! post pics if you get one. Squirrel is a much harder quarry to take with a low speed longbow than most would think. I rarely am successful on squirrel hunts with my bow. Rabbit is a much easier game to get close to.