Meare Heath bow

[bassman211]

I just roughed out a Meare Heath  designed bow that was found in the pete bogs of England that was made roughly 2600 years BC according to experts. It was a broken  bow that contained part of the handle ,and one limb. It is 75 inches long, 2, and half inches wide most of the length of the limbs, and tapers at the tips. The real deal was made with English yew. I used black locust, because it is what I had at hand. If I would have had a good piece of birch that would be what I would have used because of it's light mass. The rough cut bow is currently drying. I went to Utube, and saw a few well made examples by an English bowyer. The bow seems like it will be really heavy, and come with an excessive amount of  hand shock by it's very design. Has any of you on this sight made ,and shot one? Just curious as to what results you may have had. Can't wait to finish mine, and get shooting it. Bob.

[stuckinthemud]

Search this site using Meare as the search term, it’s been a very popular topic over the past few years

[WhistlingBadger]

The Meare Heath bow is a LOT of wood.  I've never shot one but I can't think it would spit an arrow very fast or feel good doing it.  Narrow down the tips and you have a Sudbury/holmegaard -ish design, which in my limited experience are better shooters that don't beat the daylights out of your bow arm.  Those wide limb, narrow tip, narrow handle bows look really nice, too.  And I find it fascinating how similar the designs are on opposite sides of the Atlantic.

Sometimes I wonder if some of those ancient bows got chucked into a bog for a reason...