Willie,
I'm glad you brought that up sir !!!! I noticed at 23" before she blew that I wasn't getting that rusty hinge sound. Before with the flat straps you hear them "groan" as they stretched so when that stopped I should have too. There are a couple reasons why I got myself in this situation.....
1. the model bow was really short by the original standard, and then to top that off my back bow was too long....Should have been 1/3 length not 1/2.....what that did was make the backbow string VERY short on working length. While the strap failed the bow did not....we are talking a 3/4 to 7/8 inch wide stick pulling over 60# at nearly half it's length.....cant figure out why that dont work duh
2. If I had paid more attention I would have realized that I had wrapped the grip area to 20" (increased the draw weight)....but at the same time I took all the working area from the backbow limbs so I basically made it fail.....the lesson here is ya got to have give in the backbow limbs if the strips are short....or you have to have longer strips/ strings if the backbow does not have working limbs.
I'm quite sure that had I made it right the rawhide would not have broken. Since Oglala wants high weight and the no limb backbow style, I believe I will partially twist the cords even though the flats would work fine being 5-6 inches longer. By big take-away from this is....the design is great but the bowyer is an idiot
rich