School of hard knocks

[Stick Bender]

I built this bow last winter my first Maple/sinew bow & my 3rd bow over all it's had about 1600 or more arrows threw it since then loved every thing about it dead in the hand, quite , reasonably   fast with B50 ,153fps 62 ntn & accurate so I had it at the range today tuning my hunting arrows this was going to be my primary hunting bow this year but after about 50 arrows the sun gleamed off something on the limb and noticed these 90% sure chrysalis so I brought it home and took a look at it and noticed in that area the limb tapper had dips in it  ,failure do to poor tiller have to be honest to learn in this game  this one hurts but dusting off moving on.

[willie]

does it still retain it's desired tiller profile and shoot well?

[Stick Bender]

Yep !

[willie]

could the critters you are hunting eat you for lunch, if the bow were to suddenly let you down?

[Stick Bender]

Nope just hunting pigs & white tails but I have 2 other back up bows one that shoots just as nice as that one so no worries there just have switch gears a little

[willie]

If everything is tuned and you like the bow, I would stick with the plan and get out there and hunt.
confidence in shot placement is hard to replicate. Also, If the bow gets hung on the wall, it would look nice alongside the trophy

[BowEd]

Yes I've seen them before.Like said earlier.I'd just keep shooting it till the tiller begins to change if you want.

[bradsmith2010]

good advice from above,,
you could even the tiller to reduce the strain in that area,,
or just use it for hunting shots and not practice with that much
you could probably take the strain off loosing less than 5 lbs,,
why did it just decide to fret,, did you pull it further today,, has it picked up poundage since you made it,, I am just curious what has changed,,

[Stick Bender]

Nothing changed Brad just shot it the same the only thing mildly different was holding at anchor a little longer was shooting against the wheel guys & was holding longer just letting the string slip off while my bow arm was solid  don't know  noticed just a slight dip in the tapper in that area  but why after 15-1600 shots don't know trying to figure my self was thinking with the 2 in wide limbs maybe maple being that thin didn't take the stress  don't know there's a pretty fair amount of sinew on that bow wasn't weighing sinew at that time but it was about 14 white tail leg tendons on it ?

[bradsmith2010]

ok I think that is it,, if you are holding longer, it put a  bit more strain on the wood,, that has to be it,, but it must have been on the edge of design,, or that spot was a little out of tiller,, whats your back up bow,,???

[Stick Bender]

The hickory/sinew Mohegan bow it was a coin toss between the maple & the hickory any how been working hunting arrows up for both plus the osage bendy as back up to that no worries for hunting just was attached to that bow is all  rather than chase a fix I got three maple staves down in the shop just make a improved vertion after hunting season  the one that shoots the best just goes to the top of the list is all

[bradsmith2010]

well I could make you a bow,, but you cut the time too close,, maybe next time,, I am gonna tiller it out to 32 just in case you get carried away with those compound guys,,,

[mikekeswick]

My advice is to learn from it and hang it up The spot with the chrysals is bending too hard and or it is stiff towards the tips from that spot.

[Stick Bender]

Be carefull what you say Brad might take you up on it if its comming from some of that antique Hedge you have,your right Mike poor tiller got me on this one the sinew masked it for a while in the end it gave up the ghost it was my first stave bow so it was a little sentimentale for me but have came a long way since then with you guys help ,this craft rely is the school of hard knocks but fun & challenging . Just have to dust off & move on !

[PEARL DRUMS]

You will often hear folks suggesting a simple build for the first few bows, good reasons for that advice. This bow is no good. The tiller will change faster than our gas prices do. I can see in your pica that a lot of bending is happening at the tips. By chance is that were these compression fractures are?