Hi everyone, been lurking around the forum for ages, but never posted a finished bow because i`ve felt the ones I have made were to generic and boring to to post, but I think this one might be worth a post and some interest. This project came about as I was getting bored of making 50# flatbows, and wanted to make a heavy bow but beeing to much of a wuzz to pull it.
Searching the web i found a few crossbows with wooden "prods", or bows, but they were all very short, 30- 50" with very low drawlength, looking like normal medieval steel crossbows. But as I`m not going to war, nor going hunting with it (illegal), I thought why not make not make a heavy bow, normal length, and slap it on a crossbow stock/tiller. This gives a lot more power than the short drawlenght ones, but maybe not as much as a normal bow of the same poundage because of drag from the arrow groove etc. It sure is big and cumbersome, but I`m only going to take it out in the backyard to shoot it. Not sure if this is the right forum to post it in but I suspect if i posted it in the warbow forum there would be a lot of spitting on the floor
It`s norwegian wych elm, 140 # at 28", 70" ntn. Did not measure width and depth before mounting it but its 49mm wide and 29mm deep next to the bindings and weighs in at 986 grams. The stock, or the tiller as it is called in the crossbow world, is made out of 3 bords of spruce (bad choice) and is 120 cm long, 3kgs. Dings and scratches just by looking at it from the wrong angle. Should be hardwood but too much hassle to cut, shape and dry with only hand tools and hardwood boards are nowhere to be found in my area. Buffalo horn nocking/string holder thingy, push pin mechanism. arrow is 28" long and 1/2" thick spruce, parallel and about 64 grams. Buffalo horn plate insert to prevent it from splitting, and nocking slot is repaced with just a slightly concave flat end. Thought the spine would be good but have some issues with fishtailing, mostly it flies perfectly, but last shot i made the arrow hit almost sideways and broke. The the bindings are hemp 3 mm thick, the back of the bow is protected from the string with leather and a cork layer i rasped out of a cork sanding block. The foot stirrup thing is just made out of a bucket handle, and arrow clip cut out of an old metal ruler. I could cock it with just pulling the string with my hands but it sucks pulling 140 # on a thin string, so I made this wippe mechanism to make it easier. String is 20 strands FF. Dont got a chronograph , but use my old car as a makeshift one. This bow shot through the side of it leaving less than half of it on the outside which is much better than what my 70# longbow can do
I`ll go back and edit in links to the resource sites I used for making this when I get time if anybody is interested or want to try making something like this themselves. Feel free to ask me anything
but be warned, making the stock was way more work than the bow, but then again I dont have a bandsaw.
Heres a video with some pictures and in the end a couple a shots being fired.
https://youtu.be/jslEpCA7K3M ( i know my shooting background is no good, have stopped shooting there now, before i ended up killing my neighbors) I`ll post the same pictures under here aswell. any criticism and comments are welcome
I made string horrible off center on purpose so I did`nt have to angle the bow too much in the mounting
figured i needed some kind of safety on the trigger, just one dry fire/misfire and the bow would likely break. So I came up with this, its just a plate with a hole drilled in it, so when i push it in it blocks the trigger from going anywhere
Got another one like this in the works right now, the bow is finished at 225 # @ 28 " , but the stock is taking its time to make again. Not sure what kind of arrows im gonna use on that one, 1/2 " might be to weak? no room for archer paradox when its lying in the arrow groove
