One of the guys that wrote a book on primitive archery lives in my neighborhood.  He put a posting on craigslist, he wanted to know if anybody wanted to learn how to make a bow.  I took him up on it.

We met in his back yard.  He bought a stave of red oak from Home Depot and had a bucket of tools to work with.  This guy has apparently done this thousands of times and has shown a whole bunch of people how to make bows and bowstrings and they get together once a month and go shooting.

I now have a bow leaning against my bookshelf that this guy pretty much just made for me with a little help from me, and then we shot for a little while.  It shoots pretty good, by the way.  

Have you shot it at a target yet ?

Pics???

Quoted: Pics???

+1

How much did the stave cost?

If you ever really get into it, make your own adjustable bow string rig with a 2x4 and some dowels, bolts, and wing nuts. All you need is a router. I can make a quality bow string in about 5 minutes with some Dacron and nylon serving, and it's tight as heck.

Quoted: Have you shot it at a target yet ?

Yeah, we shot at a burlap bag full of plastic bags.  I wasn't too confident to shoot very far, I'd never shot a bow before, so at about 20 yards I was hitting within a one foot circle.  He could hit a beer can at that distance.

Very fun.

The stave was $6.  And we made the bowstring out of a spool of cotton thread, it took about five or ten minutes to make.

I have a friend from highschool who is a " NA"  and he makes long bows out of osage.

I still haven't gotten him to lighten up on the price though.

I've never seen a "osage" tree, so I have no idea if that is worth it


GM

Cool.


tagged for pics.