Gemsbok horn bow

[Stech]

Hi guys,

I randomly stumbled upon a picture of a gemsbok horn bow yesterday and immediately had to have it. I usually shoot a compound (yeah I know, boo) and have no experience with building bows, so I'm wondering if anyone here can build one for me or knows of someone that can.

This is the sort of thing I'm looking for:





Any help at all is appreciated.

Thank you.

[mikekeswick]

I wouldn't bother they are more of a 'novelty bow'. Horn is very dense and can take a huge amount of compression, as such needs to be bent a long way in order to get it to store enough energy to warrant its physical weight. When sinew is added to a horn bow it means you can now bend it far enough without risk of it failing in tension. Horn by itself isn't strong enough in tension to be pulled far enough so these bows shoot poorly. High handshock and low arrow speed. Of course what I am saying here is relative to a proper horn bow and performance orientated if you don't care about the performance then they are really easy to make. Basically sharpen a stick and epoxy them onto it

[paco664]

fiddler49 has a thread on here of one he made...

i too am fascinated by making one of these...

[Bob Barnes]

I made one several years ago using about 12" of hickory between the two horns.  It looked cool but was about 80#@20"...   I took it to mojam and let lots of guys try to pull it back... I don't remember who even ended up with it.  It was fun but I won't do it again.  I think a better use of the horns would be splitting, flattening, and only using them for a belly lam.

[simson]

Two gemsbock horns makes no efficient bow. Looks cool and you can train your muscles, but much better make a composite like Mke and Bob said. And yes I too made once a bow out of two horns, but after short decided to use as composite component and overlays.

[Cloudfeather]

I had thought of making a gemsbok and sinew bow like Ed Scott. Though, I believe I'm going to try a composite of Sinew, Osage and Horn first. I got some good pointers from a pro horn composite bow maker on facebook. Jason Beever, he's on the primitive bow making page, I believe. Worth a look.

[mullet]

Like Mike said, they are nice to hang on the wall. I have never read anything that said they were nice to shoot.

[bubby]

I built one, but with a maple core and sinew back😝

[AttieBotes]

The first picture looks like a friend of mine, Laing Vermeulen. He builds Gemsbok horn bows. His facebook page's name is Primal Africa. He is also from South-Africa and lives in the Western Cape. The bows are heavy to draw and efficient enough to hunt with.

[paco664]

he said he chrono'd a oryx *(looks like gemsbok) at 190fps with a 570grn arrow... i dunno... that sounds pretty darn efficient and huntable to me...

[mullet]

What was the draw weight, 90#?

[paco664]

What was the draw weight, 90#?

i dunno eddie... didn't say

[Parnell]

I suppose if you miss you could always run down the animal and stab it to death...