Your Best Rookie Mistake?

[George Tsoukalas]

I started making bows in '89 of the last century. I can't remember rookie mistakes . LOL. All I know is I was a 3 year rookie. Jawge

[Christian Soldier]

Thinking the tiller was 'Good nuff' or thinking the back of a bow was "Clean nuff".

I had a 48" hickory self bow I was drawing 24" and I still remember that one blowing up and the limb flying right by my face. 

Also when I first started, the only things I knew about archer came from looking at FG bows and reading "Hunting with the Bow and Arrow". Well, I really skimmed the book and all I rememberd was that Ishi's bow was measured from hip to outstreched arm. Then Fiberglass bows were about an inch wide and had a stiff thick handle with a notch for the arrow.

My first couple bows when I was younger were made with this 46" 1" wide stiff riser, 1 hickory, 1 boo backed maple. By short drawing, one of them actually worked (the hickory), and after wrapping a couple of the back splinters with electrical tape, I had a bow that drew about 60lbs at 20" and it worked well for several months untill I made my next bows. I still have it today and it is unbroken, reminding me of where I came from a few years ago.
Hickory was good to me starting out and I still use it today. 

[crooketarrow]

  George you got me by a little ways. I start collecting fence posts in the winter of 89 but did'nt start my first bow to APR of 23. After 11 years I through my beloved compound away and had been shoot recurves and long bows for 6 years. I did'nt get to turkey hunt with my first bow was sinewed and did'nt thing about the time it would take and just missed gobbler season (DID'NT HUNT WITH IT AT ALL). Did kill a 5 point and doe that first deer season. With my second BL sinewed bow.
   The only info I had was a boy scout manel BUILD A INDAIN BOW (1959). Wish Id had innet back then. It took me a couple bows to find out not all selfbows wer'nt sinewed. Sinew not a good way to start out. IBoy was I happy to find out (PRIMITIVE ARCHERY CAME OUT NOT LONG AFTER MY SECOND BOW )you could build all wood bows.

   I GUESS MY WORST ROOKIE MASTAKE WAS. Not getting the weight I wanted. I have a bow scale and couple find out finished weight. And if I came out heavy I thought I was ok and I was takeing off wood going down to my disired weight. Did'nt know I was putting unneeded stress on my limbs doing it like this.
 Then I make a trillering tree with a scale and slowed way down when tillerig. Ever since then I can hit it with in a pound to dead on.

[Tom Leemans]

Don't stand anywhere near the overhead garage door rail when shooting in the bow. Upper limbs don't like it at all...

[vyadha]

Thinking I know enough

[DuBois]

    I

This sums it up pretty good.
I'd love to quote some others but there are too many, you guys are cracking me up. I love it.

[rossfactor]

Ha ha ha Tom,  done that one myself. Hit a roof joist too.

Gabe

[JW_Halverson]

Thinking I know enough

I still got that problem!

[turtle]

I made a bow that came in light so i decidec to pike it. Cut an inch off the first limb, reshaped the tip, cut in new nocks,went and got a drink, came back and did it all over again, then realised i piked the same limb both times.

[Poggins]

Not listening to that little voice in the back of mind telling me not to pull the string anymore till I put the bow on the tillering tree, third or fourth pull ended it then all I herd was that voice telling me " I told you so" then it laught at me ( that was my first white wood bow and first blow up ) and missed the poundage on my first bow by about ten punds , wanted a fifty and got a fourety .

[JW_Halverson]

I made a bow that came in light so i decidec to pike it. Cut an inch off the first limb, reshaped the tip, cut in new nocks,went and got a drink, came back and did it all over again, then realised i piked the same limb both times.

That's a bow style I like to call "double asymetrical"!   

Been there, done that, wore out the reunion t-shirt , and now use it for washing the car.

[Poggins]

Okay all you newbies , don't tell the others I said this but if you want to see them still make rookie mistakes go to one of the jamborees where they are teaching about one hundred or more new bowers how to build bows and you will see even the best make a mistake , you just have to know what to look for cause they know how to cover up little mishaps when nobody is looking ( seen a few little ones at OJAM while four or five newbies wher standing in line to get their bows cut out , handles can be glued back on) .

[AH]

my best rookie mistake...
I think it was my first bow, I was attempting a red-oak board bow. I found a board with absolutely straight grain and growth rings, but didn't look carefully enough and found that the board was like a sponge--not dense at all. and it had a pin knot.
I eventually got kind of miffed because the draw weight was real low, so I piked it. And it was already only 62" before I piked it...unbacked...
I still have a slight mark on my head where the top limb blow on me 

[Holten101]

I was working on a nice little, would be, yew recurve, and had steam bend one tip. Now....you have to be quick about it between the boiler and the form....I was so fast that I bend the other tip the wrong way:-(

Cheers

[soy]

Drinking
 Leavening the bark on staves
Heating the wrong side of the bow to bend it(the back)
Using the band saw as a tillering tool!!!
Rushing and using green unseasoned wood
I will stop there