I've been wanting to make a bow for my brother, but his draw length is 31 inches--and that's to the corner of his mouth.
Well, I gave up looking for good stave that was long enough and made a take-down that is 71" nock to nock.
It's not really primitive. I sawed and planed a pair of Osage slats a touch over 3/8 thick and glued hickory backing to each. The hickory was about 3/16 thick.Then I glued Osage blocks to the handle area of each limb and worked from there.
The limbs are about 1-5/8s wide at the fades and a little over 3/8 at the nocks, straight taper. The bellies had to be scraped in a slight taper toward the tips to get the bend spread over the length.
The arrow in the full-draw image is 31" to the back of the point. I'm only drawing about 30", but have tillered it to 32".
The draw weight is about 47 pounds at 32". It shoots a 23/64 by 32" BoP arrow with 5" parabolic feathers very nicely--no flirting or porpoising.
It has no string follow at rest and about 3/8 immediately after unbracing.
I used to draw 30" and dropped down to 28" so I could use normal bows and arrows. I shoot with a slightly flexed bow arm. It was a trip back in time to straighten out my arm and shoot this bow and these arrows.
Some day, I'll try making a wider shorter bow that will still be able to do a 31" draw.
