First Bow - Red Oak Board Bow

[fiddler49]

Just build another one dude. Oh! this very important!!!!! put a better and bigger back stop against your fence!!!!
I would suggest a sheet of ply wood. Or even two 4 ft x 8 ft stand them up. You don't want to kill the neighbors dog or kid!!!!!   cheers fiddler49

[webrx]

Thanks Fiddler, yeah, building another one is an option and we already moved the shooting area to the back of the yard, with a 5' x 4' backstop behind the target.  I am actually building a target hut to go around the target with a 4'x4'x12" lifetime (old clothes/plastic bag backstop) built in - this will have a 3/4" hardwood backing so nothing should get through it.

This gives us a longer range to shoot (up to 15 yards) and takes out the risk of dogs and kids.

I have the material to build strings now, so I thought if I shortened this one another 2 inches that would still be 66 nock to nock.

But I am not sure if it will take the strain of another 6 to 8 lbs at its current thickness and I would hate to break it at this stage of the game.

d

[hedgeapple]

Webrx, I thinking since you took 2" off each and are now at 37# that you probably did as adviced and got the mid section of each limb bending a bit more.  If so good for you.  The bow will last longer and work better IMHO.  The other reason you only gained a couple of pounds could be that the bow took on some more set while you were shooting it in.  Set means the tips remain bent toward the shooter after the bow is unstrung.  That would cause a lost in poundage because the limbs arent working/bending as much as they did originally.

I will say that's a great first bow.  Most of use didn't do that well on our first attempt.  You should be proud.

[webrx]

Thanks again.

I think I will leave it as is for now, I am proud that I was able to get this first bow working so well, and it seems to be bending ok to me, and yes, I did take a little more off from midlimb to tip.  My son is now asking me to build him one, so, might as well do another for me if I feel the need. Been looking around and no source for anything other then red oak right now locally, so, maybe i will do a pyramid design next for me, and build a short american longbow for my son. 

Thanks again for all the advice.

d