okay thank you for the ideas and when i mean sluggish i guess its just mine everytime i shoot it it gets less and less heavy i just want a bow thats will really snap back maybe i just need alot more weight and marc st.louis im guessing the pow wows in golden lake? .. if so ya that would be great ive heard of people using ironwood to make bows and it is around here but i dont know were and what it looks like
That sluggishness and weight loss is from not building it properly. I actually built a 50# red oak board bow that, side by side with a 50# fiberglass laminated longbow, out shot it with the same arrows. I later gave the bow away. I've also built red oak bows pulling 60-70#, and have a made a couple bows from hickory that outshoot glass laminated bows with the same grains per pound arrows- and I'm not really that careful
!
What you want to do is make your red oak bows
wide or
long. Try one of these:
D bow without wooden built up handle: 66-68" nock to nock, 1 3/8" wide in the middle 20" (no difference in handle), tapering to 3/8" tips. Thickness should be about 3/4" in the middle 4" tapering to 3/8" at the tips.
Pyramid flatbow: 66" or so nock to nock, 2 1/2" wide from the ends of the fades for about 10", tapering straight to 3/8" nocks. Thickness should be about 7/16" over the entire limb, with the section under the handle left thicker to prevent it form popping off. Handle can be whatever you want, I like 1" wide, 4 1/2" long, about 1 1/2" thick, with 2 1/2" long fades.
Those dimensions and slow, careful tillering should yield a good, hunting weight bow. Pictures from past bows here should give you an idea what to shoot for, no pun intended.
