# Letâs talk about homemade hunting bows?



## Hillbillybob (Jul 30, 2007)

Letâs talk about homemade hunting bows? How many of you have made a hunting bow and if so how many of you made a real Native American hunting bow?
What kind of wood do you think Native Americans used to make their bows?
What kind of woods have you used to make your hunting bow out of?
Now for the hard one do you know if Native Americans hunted with their bows in the rain and why?
I am asking these questions because I happen to know the answers to most of these questions and yes I have mad many hunting bows but only a few true Native American style hunting bows and arrows.
Hillbillybob


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## Old Vet (Oct 15, 2006)

They used many kinds of wood to make bows out of. It is the kind that grows where they are at. Osage orange (Bows-dark)It is prised for bow making. I have seen bows made from Persimion, Oak,and Hictory.

I have used hitory and osage orange.

They don't use the bow in the rain because the leather that they used on the bows as a string would become wet and lose the tenchion.

The arows are made from sycomore or ash. The reason for this they won't bow and become useles.

It takes a lot of time to make a bow or arows to use for hunting but it can be done.


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## Hillbillybob (Jul 30, 2007)

Old Vet said:


> They used many kinds of wood to make bows out of. It is the kind that grows where they are at. Osage orange (Bows-dark)It is prised for bow making. I have seen bows made from Persimion, Oak,and Hictory.
> 
> I have used hitory and osage orange.
> 
> ...


The frist answer is correct. 
I made bows out of lots of wood.
The third answer is almost correct, only they didn't use leather for a bow string.
I've never see arrows made out of ash or sycamore but I'm sure that some arrows were made out of them.
Some of the best arrows were made from crooked, crooked wood.


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## Ed Norman (Jun 8, 2002)

Yeah, sinew backed. 

I make them out of bois d'arc, hickory, black locust, elm, ash, bamboo and maple. I also make them from fibreglas and various wood laminates I saw myself. I've used bamboo for backs, along with sinew and jute. 

Here's a question for you. Why didn't the natives leave their bow laying around where the dogs could eat the sinew backing off of them? Wait, that wasn't phrased quite right.


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## Hillbillybob (Jul 30, 2007)

The correct answer about what the bow string is made out of is natural sinew. Sinew was also used to reinforce the back of the bow so when you had the bow at full draw it helped the bow from splitting. The sinew was glued onto the back of the bow I'm calling the back of the bow that faces away from you as I was taught by a very old man who made lots of real Native American Bows over his life time.
The glue used was hide glue. To make hide glue you need rawhide and you just boil it in water until the hide turns into glue. The glue is water soluble.
Thought I had better put this here before an argument started.
Since the hide glue is water soluble hunting in the rain would ruin your bow that you might have 30 or 40 hours in making altogether but by a skilled bow maker maybe as little as 18 hours.
Hillbillybob


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## OkieDavid (Jan 15, 2007)

I made and hunt with the following;
1. Cherokee style longbow- Osage Orange
2. River cane and/or rough leaf dogwood shafts
3. Obsidian and/or Flint/Chert points (sinew wrapped and pine tar sealed)
4. 45lb draw weight
I will be looking for the seventh deer with this set up this fall 

Also made a sinew backed recurve from osage orange- covered the sinew with a beautiful matched set of prairie rattlesnake skins. Would be hunting with it but made a terrible error during tillering one limb and ended up turning a beautiful 55lb recurve into a 40 lb "fun bow"....named it "Headed South" LOL

I do have a bow with "training wheels" in the closet if all else fails and seasons end is approaching with an empty freezer.


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## Hillbillybob (Jul 30, 2007)

I made a monster when I was 12 out of hickory. My first bow. 90 lbs at full draw. I kind of scaled back since that first bow. Most of my bows are in the 60lb to 65lb bows. I have made several 25lb bows for nephews and several disabled people. I have been making my own hunting and camping equipment since I was small. I enjoy hunting, fishing, and camping with things that I made.
I use dog wood for arrows also.
I have made bows out of Osage orange, hickory, white oak, red ceder and elm. I like the hickory to work with and use it most of the time anymore.
Hillbillybob


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## Guest (Sep 4, 2007)

I have to disagree with you on the hides not used for string, cause in some cases they were. My Uncle (full blood cherokee) taught me how to make a bow string out of a squirrel hide. He also mentioned that ground hog, beaver, or the neck of a deer hide was more preferable then squirrel. But using deer leg tendons was the most preferable of all choices.

I have a 49 pound @ 28" draw cherokee "D" bow that I made about 5 years ago. I made it out of a Muleberry tree. I've also made a few out of Osage Orange which I have given away to friends and relatives. 

As for hunting in the rain. No they didn't cause their strings would get wet and stretch out. This is one reason why Custard chose to ambush indian villages during the rain. He knew their main choice of weapon was useless. 

I don't hunt with my homemade bow as I am much more accurate with my 45# recurve using port orford cedar arrows. However I do enter a few cornstalk shoots using my homemade bow.


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## Old Vet (Oct 15, 2006)

Skin bow strings were made out of many things. The rain question brings up another thing. What were the prefered weapion in costal Mexico and further to the south? They used no stirngs at all.


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## Hillbillybob (Jul 30, 2007)

The man who taught me to make bows was an old man at the time and full blood Cherokee who made all the ceremonial bows at the time. He told me that in the old days a man would only make a bow using sinew for a bow string. He said in later years hides were used but never had the quality of a war or hunting bow of old. I knew the man from the time I was born until his death. He was my great uncle. He was the man who first taught me to hunt. 
He came and lived with us his last 5 years on this Earth. He taught me to respect the land and to do things the old way. 
I learned how to make pipes and blow guns. He taught me art and love of the native ways. I was inspired to come up with an answer to my farther about being a full time trapper. He taught me many herbs and their uses that I have passed on to several younger Cherokee friends.
I will always make the bows as I have been taught.
Hillbillybob


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## Hillbillybob (Jul 30, 2007)

Old Vet said:


> Skin bow strings were made out of many things. The rain question brings up another thing. What were the prefered weapion in costal Mexico and further to the south? They used no stirngs at all.


The Blow gun
Hillbillybob


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## big rockpile (Feb 24, 2003)

Well getting a little off subject.But my GF showed me that Trapping using Indian ways was much better at providing Game or Fish than using a weapon.Even though most are not Legal now days.

But for Larger Animals Indians turned more to using Firearms than Bows,not for the Longer range but for the knockdown power.Their Rifles on the most part were not very well taken care off,and they weren't on the most part that good a shot.But they could get very close to game.

That was one thing about the Tribes of the North East.The French was providing them with Lead and Powder,well when the English took over they no longer did this.Upset the Indians very much because they had became so dependent on their Firearms.

But yes I enjoy making Bows have done it from the '50's I have used Snake Skin for Backing and like it.

big rockpile


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## OkieDavid (Jan 15, 2007)

I've made strings from hide (spiral cut/twist) but never from sinew. Curious how to join sinew into a string? I've dried/pounded/separated but only for short runs as in securing fletching or points. Is it a braiding process or something else? Love to hear "how to"


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## Hillbillybob (Jul 30, 2007)

OkieDavid said:


> I've made strings from hide (spiral cut/twist) but never from sinew. Curious how to join sinew into a string? I've dried/pounded/separated but only for short runs as in securing fletching or points. Is it a braiding process or something else? Love to hear "how to"


Have you ever made rope from natural material? It is the same process as making a good fishing line out of plant fibers. Only I make it about 1/8 inch in diameter and about a foot longer than the bow. It takes quite a lot of sinew to make a good bow string but I have never broken a sinew made bow string.
You find where the bow should be at strung rest and that should give you a good 7 1/2 inches plus to bring the sinew back onto it's self and braid in the extra sinew to form a loop. The sinew will haft to be damp and will dry tight. After the bow string is finished I just rub it with my hands and spit to really get smooth then work it until the string is dry. I don't thing anything can break a well made bow string.
Hillbillybob


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## Guest (Sep 5, 2007)

I've heard, never seen it done, that a well made sinew string can hold a car up off the ground. It's one of those things that I would have to see before I would fully believe it.


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## Ed Norman (Jun 8, 2002)

I've never heard that, but I have always been amazed that you can take a straight flatbow and sinew back it, and when it dries, the tips will be reflexed 6-8", sometimes more if you really lay on the sinew. That takes a bunch of strength to pull the tips of a bow up, while laying on the surface of the bow. 

And yet, years ago when I broke an ankle, all my sinew ripped in half. Oh well.


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## Hillbillybob (Jul 30, 2007)

r.h. in okla. said:


> I've heard, never seen it done, that a well made sinew string can hold a car up off the ground. It's one of those things that I would have to see before I would fully believe it.


Well I've never tried to hold a car up. It wouldn't surprise me but I would haft to see that for myself also. I'm not going to try to do it with the amount of time I spend making a good bow string myself. If you want to try it let me know. I might drive down and watch it when you try.
Hillbillybob


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