My first 'shooter', Oregon Bay Laurel

[Accipiter]

Howdy, just wanted to share this bow, which is now completed, as much as it will ever be. Haven't given it a name yet, but I'm pretty happy with how it shoots - I'd guess almost half again as fast as my previous best bow. Thanks to all the helpful folks on this site for their advice - I've loved looking at the bow eye-candy on this site over the last year, hoping I can now give back in some small way!



Stats: 56" ntn, draws 52# @ 26".  1.5" wide at the handle, widening to  1 7/8" about 7" out and then tapering pyramid style to the tips. It weighs just over 13 oz (without leather wrap), which is a bit heavy I guess but the upside is that it has essentially no set after 500 shots. It did lose most of the reflex I heat-treated in, but it was a pretty badly done heat-treat and I scraped off most of what got treated. The nicest surprise as I finished this bow was that by raising the brace height a half-inch and switching the string from B-50 to SK75 (10-strand endless) with beaver balls it went from being quite loud to absurdly quiet, pretty stoked about that!



And the obligatory full draw:


Hoping to use this bow for my first deer season this fall, and was wondering what would be a good way to test its penetration. With these stats and drawn profile, can I assume that I can put a 500 grain broadhead arrow through both lungs at 15 yards or should I try to shoot through a rack of ribs or something?! Any hunters out there have ideas for a confidence building penetration test?

[lesken2011]

Nice bend on that one, for sure. At 52#, you should be able to get double lung penetration with no problem with a sharp 2-blade head and 500+/- grain arrow.

[half eye]

Kenny hit it right on the head.(pun intended) A scary sharp 2 blade broadhead from a 50+ pound bow will for sure penetrate. Been bow hunting since the early 1960's and 50#1`5 yards and 500+ grain arrows will most likely be complete pass-through.
rich

[Accipiter]

Awesome, I'm really glad to hear that. Now I just gotta get my accuracy good enough that I feel comfortable with a 15 yard shot. Closer is better, but I feel like thats a good maximum range to keep in my mind.

[NonBacked]

Great looking bow and excellent tillering! Any Indian would be proud to take that into the woods. With the right shot placement and 550 gr. arrow, it could double-lung an elk. You can always compare penetration by shooting the same arrow form several of your bows in to a foam target butt. The easy test is flight shooting – anything over 125 yd. with a hunting arrow is lethal on deer at ethical selfbow ranges (20 yd. max).

I couldn’t find any specs (specific gravity) on Oregon Bay. The bay trees listed in the online charts range from sweet bay at 0.46 to loblolly bay at 0.58. I’m guessing yours is somewhere in between. Since your bow is fairly short and has such low set, even with heat treating, Bay appears to be a very good bow wood, even though it’s fairly soft. Any comments on drying, how easy it is to work, and if the heat treating makes a difference?   

[H Rhodes]

That's a fine hunting bow.  Good work.  Good luck this season.

[Accipiter]

Thanks for the compliments NonBacked and Howard! The wood is California Bay, or Umbellularia californica, I just called it Oregon Bay because I harvested the tree in Oregon  I believe that the SG on this species is around .59. I really enjoyed working this wood, definitely easier to tiller than my previous bow woods (ocean spray and serviceberry) and I didn't have any problems drying it at all, went from live tree to bow in less than 2 months (caveat: I'm currently living in incredibly dry Eastern California). The heat treating seemed to work really well on it at first, but as I said before it eventually lost most of the reflex and my heat-treat was <15 minutes per limb  If/when I make another bow out of this wood I'm planning on using a stiff-handled pyramid design - since the wood is rather light the bendy-handle is pretty wide and intolerant of mismatched arrows. The other downside to my design here is that this bow does stack a bit right at the end of the draw. I think flipping the tips and using a longer stave would have made for a much sweeter draw.

[Josh B]

Nicely done sir!  I like it! Josh

[osage outlaw]

I like that bow.  It looks like it will make a fine hunting weapon.  Great job on it.

[blackhawk]

That'll hunt fo sho....nice bend

[SLIMBOB]

Sweet.  You'll lose that arrow in the bushes behind the deer.

[Lee Lobbestael]

Great bow! Don't even worry about it! I have shot completely through a few deer with a 40# selfbow. I never shoot with more than 50#. Just keep those broadheads sharp and make sure your arrows are tuned.

[Bryce]

That bow will get you a deer nice bow bud!

[adb]

That bow will kill any deer, if you do your part. No problem.

[Accipiter]

Thanks all! Now I just gotta shoot the crap out of it for the next two months until I feel really good with the 'my part' bit. Looking forward to getting some nice billets of Mock Orange Philadelphus at my hunting spot too for later this fall