Newbie forum member

[bbgunz]

Hello y'all,
         My name is Adam. I'm a 24 year old veteran, one deployment under my belt and glad to be out. I met my beautiful wife Fay after I got out of the Army. I think it's high time I get into hobbies I couldn't or didn't have time to do while I was active. Some of those include Black/bladesmithing (haven't started yet), primitive archery, primitive survival skills, martial arts and want to start hunting with a primitive bow. I love shooting firearms, learning anything useful and trying to be friendly in general. I live in Ames IA for the moment but we plan on moving to Olympia WA in the springtime.
As far as archery is concerned I'm wanting to get a recurve bow modeled after the Great Khan's armies. My wife is pretty limited to bow as the most she can pull comfortably is 15lbs 

[JW_Halverson]

Welcome Gunz!  Love the username, that's funny.  Makes me wanna shout, "YOU'LL SHOOT YOUR EYE OUT!"

Ylu got a few primitive archer types in your neck of the woods in Iowa right now, but there's one behind every other tree in Washington, it seems! Sadly, in Washington they do not have osage like you got in Iowa.   

[bbgunz]

Thank you! Bbgun was a nickname I had in the army. No one could pronounce my last name (bieber) so they made it simple : BB and BBgun.
I honestly know very little about woods but from my understanding Osage is highly regarded! Right now I'm just having a hard time trying to find a good bow within my price range and I have no idea what I'm supposed to be looking for lol

[JW_Halverson]

Ain't no fun in shooting a bow you had to buy.  Not like shooting a bow you MAKE!

Start looking for an osage tree with no limbs for the first 7 feet or so.  Look at the grain of the bark.  Follow the valleys of the bark as you look from the base of the tree and upwards.  Does the bark seem to twist around the tree?  If so, walk on and find another.  If the bark seems to run straight up and down the tree then it is likely to split along those lines! Mark this tree in your mind and run for a chain saw!

Or better yet, hang around in here a little bit and meet some of the Iowa bowyers and offer to go out woodcutting with them.  Who knows, they may trade you a seasoned stave for your efforts!

[bbgunz]

Yeah I can understand that. However all my focus is going towards buying a house. Everything else is second unfortunately.