Bow string natural material

[hedgeapple]

Has anyone ever used "guts" intestines for bow strings?  In high school I remember tennis rackets being strung with cat gut.  I'm not sure it was really intestines from a cat or not, but that's what it was called.  I have a 50 acre farm.  My nearest neighbor is 1/2 mile away.  The next nearest neighbor is a mile away.  I have feral cats hunting/living on my farm all the time.  I hate the impact feral cats have on the wildlife, especially the quail population.  Feral cats on the #1 killer of young quail and the #3 killer of adult quail.  It would be good to find a productive use for these pest.

Also, I read the NA use sprial cuts from the neck of snapping turtles for string.  Anyone tried that?

[Hillbilly]

Never tried gut, but always wanted to. The Cherokee in my area apparantly preferred bear gut for their bow strings. I may save some gut from the next deer I kill and try it. As far as cats, don't know-but the worst that could happen is that there would be less feral cats eating all the wildlife.

[Ryano]

Never tried gut, but always wanted to. The Cherokee in my area apparantly preferred bear gut for their bow strings. I may save some gut from the next deer I kill and try it. As far as cats, don't know-but the worst that could happen is that there would be less feral cats eating all the wildlife.

And you could send the rest of the cat to Patb.......

[hedgeapple]

 hmm  Maybe I need to know what he would do with the rest of the cat.  I might want to keep it for my self.  Then again maybe not.   

[madcrow]

Check around.  I used to work with a man that had skinned over 1100 cats.  He was selling the hides to a fur dealer.  Also, cat quivers, cat fur lined mocs.  The possibilities are endless.

[african man]

Cat hunting ...... Ye ....
Really nice furs and the gut is real strong , boil whats left over and feed it to the dogs , nothing going to wast
Man caused the problem , man must sort it out ...and have some fun doing it

[markinengland]

Cat gut is often said to be used on tennis rackets but I think it was actually pig gut that was used.
Mark in England

[Little John]

The only one here that I know has made gut strings used pig gut. I think you take the intestineand clean good then cut into strips. Use three or however many strips you think will make the string and tie all together on one end and attach to a nail then  pull them even and tie the bottom ends, then attach a weight and spin weight till string is twisted up about right. Secure weight  from untwisting and let dry. I think the guy had good luck with it and I always wanted to try it.  Back when I bird hunted a lot we Killed ferral cats with out mercy  as they are so hard on game birds. If you experiment with cats let us know. I dont know if a cat intestine would be long enough.    Kenneth

[ballista]

  I heard the seminole used boar, not sure about cat though- although you hit it on the head about feral cats being damn nusiences.
I saw two just from my stand this year, the other one i drilled and tried to use as coyote bait (i got it back in november, its legal in Wn too) but they didnt even touch it, maybe its some cat killing curse 

[hedgeapple]

A couple years ago during muzzleloader season, I saw an orange cat stalking in front of my stand.  It was just getting shooting light.  A quail whistle across the field.  The feral cat did a 90 degree turn heading straight toward the quail.  I had a dilema: save the quail and ruin my morning hunt or continue deer hunting and hope the best for the quail.  The cat was at 40 yards when I found it in my scope.  Before I could get the crosshairs locked on it, it turned another 90 degrees and pounced on a mouse in the weeds.  The feral demon would live another day, but not many.  I took a fat doe 45 minutes later.

[adb]

Check out Jim Hamm's book: Bows & Arrows of the Native Americans. It has an excellent chapter on string making, including the use of natural materials.

[sailordad]

aosda,

i dont think anyone should be offended by that.right here in the town i live in
we had an asian food restaurant that was shut down for that exact reason.
there were rumors of them using stray cats as "chicken".the health department investigated and found
the ramians of said carcasses in the dumpster. i was so shocked when i read that.
can you belive the waste,they actualy had parts left overt to throw out,what a waste

[JackCrafty]

For those with sharp eyes, you will notice two comments related to cats were removed. One was the original post and the other quoted the original post. The original post was not related to the subject of bowstrings and was made in poor taste.

So, if you're looking for the culprit who took down the posts, it was me. 

[WhistlingBadger]

The subject of feral cats kind of begs for poor taste, Jack.     I'm glad you resurrected a rather interesting thread, though.  I've often thought about using elk or deer gut for strings.  Seems like a material that would just naturally lend itself to strings, maybe with a simple reverse wrap.  But since I live in town with a tiny yard, I haven't figured out a way to clean them that wouldn't seriously offend the neighbors and give Mrs. Badger fits.  I bet my dog would LOVE rolling in the resulting mess, though.

[JackCrafty]

When I was living in an apartment with no yard, and no friends with land, I butchered 2 deer in the bathtub. Works great but it takes a while to do the before and after cleanup.

The deer were gifts and I couldn't say no.