Not necessarily a top five list, but here are some of my favorite woods I have used that I consider to be excellent quality bow wood well worth cutting/buying any time you can: osage, mulberry, black locust, elm, hop hornbeam, hickory, dogwood, white ash, ipe. I have the oily heartwoods like osage, mulberry and locust at the top of my list because they perform better here in fogland where the humidity is constantly high. There are many other woods that will make a good bow, but any of the above are good proven woods that are relatively easy to get in the southeast.
