You made a bow out of WHAT!?

[zenmonkeyman]

I thought the noobs (like myself) might be interested in hearing about all the experiments you "experienced" guys have conducted.  I know of a nice stand of understory caragana that's grown amazingly tall and straight, thinking of trying it out.  Which made me wonder, what's the wildest idea you tried, or the weirdest material you've made a bow out of?  And what was the result? 

[DanaM]

Made a D bow of Sumac it lasted for about a year

[cracker]

Yep Dana your the king of the offbeat wood. Ron

[George Tsoukalas]

Let's see. Australian pine, sassafras, yew, osage, red oak, white oak, elm, hop hornbeam, black locust, hickory, ash, maple, mulberry, poplar (lasted for 100 shots and then exploded). I think that's it. Jawge

[George Tsoukalas]

15 years ago it was, "You'll never believe that I just made a bow out of kiln dried red oak! Thanks to Tim Baker now everyone is stifling a yawn. Jawge

[Kegan]

I'll admit, my tree identification is pretty poor. So when I started I did a "twig test". I would go up to a tree and pull the twig down, then let it go. Medium sized ones, especially with leaves for some reason, were the best bet. Those that snapped back got consideration (like hornbeam), those that slogged back were ignored (like silver maple). I always liked trying that on trees I had no idea about, and then come back and try to identify it .

[wodpow]

My wifes friend had rose of Sharon planted along the driveway that had been there for over 50 years. There was one nice straight trunk limb that was as big as a baseball. When I found out  she was going to take them out  I offered to help and cut the straight ones and set them to dry but not before I thinned the belly wood down to pith that wood really made me think, the bow I made shot really hard.  It had one mean looking back looked like a trolls bow all warty and knarlley. It broke when my nephew thought he would show us how strong he was and pulled it back about 32"or more.

[El Destructo]

I would have to say...one trunk of a multi-trunked River Birch ....and I was told it would never work.......

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[shamus]

I've read about people making bows out of PVC.

Jim Fetrow made bows out of bamboo flooring.

[zenmonkeyman]

I read an article a while back about how to make a 40# bow out of fiberglass driveway markers from Lowes... Unfortunately I suspect the bow weighed nearly 40# too.   

[Badger]

Years ago I cut a tree from one of our local swamps. very common willow like tree. I made the bow about 6ft long, 3" wide, looked like an elephant bow but only drew about 30#, maybe 3/4" thick. When it broke it just kind of popped, no splinters at all just a clean pop like I sawed it in half.

[aznboi3644]

first bow I made was with 6 fiberglass driveway markers.  took a couple tries to get the arrangement right for the "tiller" and draw weight.

It pulls about 25lb @ 22" and stacks hard after that to about 24"

Just a mess around bow...fun though.  bound with hemp and I made a hemp string for it.

[Del the cat]

I made kids bows out of hardboard backed with cloth.
I've seen a bow made of concrete! Yes! It was in a concrete museum and it was made to show the properties of prestressed concrete, it had steel cables running through the concrete.
Del

[sailordad]

I made kids bows out of hardboard backed with cloth.
I've seen a bow made of concrete! Yes! It was in a concrete museum and it was made to show the properties of prestressed concrete, it had steel cables running through the concrete.
Del

wouldnt wat ot lug that thru the woods on an all day hunt.
byt ime ya got a shot youd be too damn tired to shoot it