What wood, speed,durability, design ?

[Stick Bender]

This conversation I have had many times over time but I was wondering here for opinions what wood has been the best performer in terms of speed & durability making it past the 1000 arrow mark and still maintaining it's speed ether backed or self bow , in the self bow category it's durability/speed it's been osage for me and in the backed category hickory/bamboo , the hickory bamboo bow is probably one of the most consistent bows that I have made it shoots the same from arrow 300 threw arrow 1200  so for speed/performance /durability what's your bow ? and what do you attribute the performance to ?

[bowster]

1:Osage
2:Osage
...

[Del the cat]

A while back I contacted the guy who wins all the NFAS primitive class shoots asking him how many arrows he shoots per week.
Over the length of time he'd had the bow it was over 30,000 and the bow shoots as well as it did when I made it for him 
It's Yew.
Del

[Badger]

  I made a yew longbow for a friend about 20 years ago, he shoots it regularly ( couple times a week) It looks just like it did when I gave it to him. Has lost 2# weight which it lost right off the bat.

[leonwood]

Shot my yew rd for over a year three times a week. Rough guess 400 arrows a week. Just measured it last week because I want to give it to a friend of mine and it has still exactly the same poundage of 52@28

[DC]

I make too many bows and don't shoot them enough to make a real good judgement but bamboo backed Yew is top of my list.

[Dances with squirrels]

1. Osage
2. Bamboo backed Osage

I love yew too, but it's not as durable as osage.

My oldest and by far most-used Osage selfbow has been my go-to bow and been shot at least several thousand times since I made it 14 years ago. It's narrow, deeply radiused, and had actually gained 3 or 4 lbs the last I checked.

[youngbowyer33]

Well I hope I can get my hands and tools on some Osage some day

[Mo_coon-catcher]

I haven’t had it very long yet. But my black walnut English long bow is probably my most shot bow. It probably has a couple thousand arrows since I built it about a year ago. It’s been left stein for 12 hours at a time while hunting. It’s still pulling the same 68# at 27” and chronied at the same speed. Not fast, but stable at about 150fps from a 9gpp arrow.

Kyle

[bradsmith2010]

I am sure many woods will last,, my experience is with osage,, and  it will stand the test of time very well,,

[Pat B]

I think more depends on the bowyer, the tiller and how the bow is cared for as far as longevity. My wood preference is osage with elm, hickory and HHB. I like yew also but don't have much experience with it.