My bow, would appreciate some thoughts on it w/pics

[hoppy]

17.6 yards, the average range on trad/primitive bow kills in the Eastern US, some study maintained

Aha, thanks.  I couldn't figure that one out. 

[George Tsoukalas]

I think the tiller looks pretty good. I agree about getting the inner limbs working more on your next one. Also, a flat belly is probably best.   Congratulations on our first hunting bow.
Jawge

[scp]

Not bad for an early bow. 138 FPS is about right but can be better and chrysals need to be addressed immediately. I would scrape them off and heat treat the belly, even if the bow becomes a 40 pounder. Not sure your backing can handle the heat treating. You can probably just scrape off the chrysals and make the bow 68 inch long. Once your tillering is good enough, you might be able to avoid chrysals and make it a 45 pounder that way. You can always leave it alone and make another. Good luck.

[Del the cat]

... chrysals need to be addressed immediately. I would scrape them off and heat treat the belly.... You can probably just scrape off the chrysals

IMO, scraping will do nothing... chrysals go surprisingly deep about 3/16"
If you go deep enough to take 'em right out, i will need a belly patch
Del

[bjrogg]

Welcome to Pa hoppy. That's a pretty nice first bow. Or first adult bow.

I agree with Del. I wouldn't scrap off crystals. If it's still shooting good I'd leave it alone. If crystals are in one specific area, that would mean that area is bending to much already. Removing wood only from that spot would compound your problem. In that case you'd be better off to re tiller each side of spot taking some stress off spot. I would highly recommend you just keep right on building bows. I remember the terrible feeling of not having a bow after I broke my first one. Believe me that was worst than breaking the bow. No chance of that happening again. I've got piles of them now.
 
I think 138 fps is adequate with good sharp broadhead and good placement of it from close range. That's always more important than speed anyway.
Once again welcome to PA and Happy Hunting
Bjrogg

[hoppy]

Guys, thank you!

Very helpful comments.  In fact, I'm working on another kid's bow and I need to get the fades bending.  I do have trouble taking it slow though and have weakened a bunch of limbs.  I just cut up one that exploded last winter.  It was looking good on the tree right up until bam.   

Thanks for the encouragement on the hunting part.  I was looking through the bone points sticky and that looks like fun.  I have knapped glass into arrowheads before and I may try that again. 

I have a compound bow that a friend gave me.  My arrows stick into my arrow target just as far as those do and they were doing 210 fps so that made me feel a little better too. 

I think I'm going to leave this bow as is and enjoy it.  I'll know in the back of my head that it may not last forever. 

I do have plans for a new one, but not sure when I'll start it. 

Thanks for the welcome, feedback, and encouragement!

[scp]

When I said "scrape off the chrysals," I meant that the cause of chrysals has to be addressed first and the whole bow has to be re-tillered. There is a good chance that the 50 pounder would become a 30 pounder in the process. That's why I would heat treat the belly first. Anyhow I would hesitate to use the bow for hunting. If one does not mind not being "primitive" enough, he can even try wood hardening epoxy on the weakened section after heat treating it. Still I usually end up making a youth bow out of hunting bow this way. Good luck.