First try at Osage

[Muskyman]

Put the arrow rest on yesterday wrapped it and the handle with rawhide then today I put jute over the rawhide and glued it on with TB III rawhide was glued on as well. Now I need to put something on the jute and finish the wood with tung oil or something and I’ll be finished with it. Then I can have some fun shooting it and finding a good arrow spline match

[superdav95]

Looks good

[PEARL DRUMS]

Brush that jute thoroughly with wood glue. I think you'd like it. It will never move, rot or loosen up.

[Muskyman]

Thanks PD. I was actually thinking about putting the Massey finish on it. I’ve read some people saying that TB III gets gewy, I’m not sure what might cause that, it is supposed to be waterproof glue. I have used devcon on 2 ton epoxy on my fishing lures for years and have some, so I’ll probably go that route for my first one. Might try a beaver tail handle on my next one. Also got some tru oil yesterday to use as my finish for this bow. Being basically my first bow I’m kinda sticking with stuff I’m somewhat familiar with and trying to use all the great advice I’ve gotten on here.
I’ve noticed quite a few people naming their bows on here and this one has to be named (scrap pile) because that’s where I pulled this piece of wood from. If not for some of the posts I read on here it would have been firewood. I dug it out and thought I’d clean the bark and sapwood of it and see what it looked like. Glad I did.

[superdav95]

Congrats mike on a great build.  Now make another one!  

[Muskyman]

Okay, so I’m dredging up this post. I let this bow sit for a few months to dry. Harvested in late September last year. Was a piece of scrap from my harvest.
Anyway I finished it off tru-oiled it and it’s pretty nice but, it shoots left constantly left. I have two test arrow kits from 3 rivers from 35 to 80 lbs. all shoot left. Some nock left and some nock right. Always to the left regardless of nock position. Is it me or the bow? I can’t my bow pretty good and am going to set my phone up so I can see myself at full draw to check my alignment.
Could it be the bow itself? Seems to shoot good, the few shots I’ve taken. 55 to 60 lb arrows seem to stick in the target the straightest. Bow is around 46-48 lbs. shots were from about 20-24 feet. Raining here today so shooting indoors.  Maybe it’s my form but never had a problem before. Made a hickory bow about the same weight and it seemed to shoot straight enough.

[bentstick54]

My handles are very similar to yours. Handles are 1” wide, fades are 1-1/2” at widest point. The arrow will point hard left when sitting on the string at brace. I shoot a 12 strand D97 string, and have a full 28” draw.
Shooting DF, I cut my arrows 28-1/2” to back of point, and run 35/40# spine out of my 46# bows,and 40/45# spine out of my 50# bows. This is with 125 gr points, and 3-3” feathers.
When I first made the switch from recurves to this style of selfbow, shooting instinctively, I would always shoot left 4-6 “ depending on shot distance. I had to learn to look down the entire length of the shaft consciously to get things moved to the right. Eventually my brain recalibrated to subconsciously point the whole shaft to the target, and not just the end of the shaft.
Not saying this will work for you, but just my experience.

[bentstick54]

Here’s a photo of my last bow, for handle comparison.

[Muskyman]

Thanks bentstick.. I’m not 100 percent sure what I’m doing while aiming, I’m pretty much instinctive with shooting. I do see the arrow with my peripheral vision but don’t consciously site down the shaft. Probably line the tip up but, I think my shooting form is more of how I line my arrow up. Never really thought about it much honestly. I did make a discovery today, I think. Had a test kit of arrow tip weights and put a 190 grain tip on. Old ones were 125. I’ve only shot 1 shot so far but it seemed to shoot pretty much right on for left and right. Seemed to have a little nock high. Still have to do some more shooting but hoping it does the trick
Thanks for the reply though. Let you know what I find out later today if I can do a little shooting.

[bentstick54]

 Nock high should mostly be string nock adjustment, or possibly brace height adjustment.

[PEARL DRUMS]

Hitting consistently left with fletched arrows is telling you they are too stiff.

[Muskyman]

Okay, I did some more shooting today and am still not sure what is up yet.. I took one arrow and took the fletching off it. It’s 55-60 lbs spline according to 3 rivers. Bow is 48-50 pounds at 30 inches. So you’re saying you shoot arrows splined less than your bow’s poundage? With 125 grain field tips.
I took some slow motion videos of my arrows flying but they haven’t loaded onto my iPad yet and are hard to see that great on my phone with these old eyes 👀. I’ll look them over when they load up. I think I’m part of the problem because I’ll get a few shots that seem really good bare shaft then some not so good. Might be trying to see what they are flying to quick.

[bentstick54]

Yes, but I’m only drawing 28”, and I cut my arrows to 28-1/2” from throat of nock to back of point. If your bow is 48-50# @ 30” it’s probably closer to 42-45# @ 28”.  How long are you actually drawing, and did you take that into account? Lots of variables, form, arrow length, point weight, type of string, are just a few.

[Muskyman]

My draw length is 30 inches. Arrow length is 30 1/2. I been trying different tip weights. 14 strands D97. I have test arrows from 35 to 80 lbs. I’m narrowing it down. Best I’m seeing so far is a 55-60 lb spline wt. 160 grain tip. Still playing with it but getting better results. Probably do more testing tomorrow.