archery shops and selfbow-whats the deal?

[david w.]

i went to get my selfbow weighed at the archeryt shop.  When i asked the man to wiegh it he wouldnt pull it to a full 28" he stop at 23". He said he  didnt want to pull it anymore.  it seems like alot of archery shops are anti selfbow. maybe its becasue they moslty deal in compound bows.

i was suprized though that my bow pulls 50# @ 23"  what do you think it would project to at 28"?

[JackCrafty]

I would guess 3 lb per inch......so 5" x 3# = 15# + 50# = 65# @ 28" if there is no stack.

And I don't think that the shop is against self bows....only against breaking them accidentally (and the fear of owing you $ for being careless). 

[david w.]

ya alot of owners alot of them are afraid of them breaking. i dont really think they are against them

[Sparrow]

 Yep ! You don't want to pull your self bow past your draw length,thats asking for trouble.  Frank

[Eric Krewson]

Bow scales are a necessary tool if you build bows. Buy your own and you will always know exactly where you are at during the bow making process.

[George Tsoukalas]

3 Rivers has the Hanson Hand Held. You can attach it to the string as you draw. You can also attach it to the rope of your rope and pulley. The other thing is be absolutely sure your shooting draw is 28 inches. Often our pose draws are different from our shooting draws.  You can have someone watch you draw and shoot. Jawge

[david w.]

3 Rivers has the Hanson Hand Held. You can attach it to the string as you draw. You can also attach it to the rope of your rope and pulley. The other thing is be absolutely sure your shooting draw is 28 inches. Often our pose draws are different from our shooting draws.  You can have someone watch you draw and shoot. Jawge

thanks this helps alot. i will definately check my draw i built this bow to be shot out to 28" so it was perfectly safe to pull but the owner wouldnt do it

[huntertrapper]

hillbilly told me a way, take your tillering tree put the string on the 28" mark and leave the bow free, put it all on a scale and push the riser down to the scale and the weight will register like that, ive done it and it works fine... need to be explained better?

[George Tsoukalas]

I like the Hanson Hand held because the weight registers and stays on the scale so you can read it after relaxing the bow. Jawge

[Kegan]

I've seen shops that won't even let you test a selfbow on their range, or even string it up on their property. Many people still think wooden bows will explode at any second, or aren't really bows at all.

Guess thousands of generations that came before, all living off the wooden bow didn't count ?

[nailbender]

  I had a bow on consignment at a local archery shop a while ago, just to see if it would sell. It didn't. When I asked the "archery pro" shop guy why he thought the bow didn't sell, he said most people thought it looked cool, but were afraid to draw it, thinking it would snap. To this I replied "Do you want me to shoot the bow right now to prove it's safe?" He said that that wasn't necessary since he had shot the bow several different times himself, although when I asked him for some feedback on how it shot, he said he really couldn't give me any. He shot mostly compounds and had no frame of reference to critique a traditional selfbow. He also said "You know how people are nowadays, if it isn't made in a factory, they just don't think it's safe." And on that note, I took my bow back, and gave it to someone who would appreciate it. I don't think that people are intentionally prejiduced towards selbows, but thanks to the advertising campaigns of big archery companies, people who don't know any better are led to believe that they are "unsafe", "unreliable", or "substandard".

   Dale

[Dano]

Gotta have thick skin when it comes to self bows. My archery shop back in Illinois was owned by a guy that just loved old traditional bows, Hoyts, Bears and the like, so I thought, I'm going to make him a bow. I made him a snaky osage bow that I was proud of. When I handed it to him he said, "is it supposed to look like that" I was hurt. On top of that he didn't want to shoot it either. To say the least I was done with that shop.

I got pretty tired of hearing "do ya hunt with that?" or I'd take a doe with that. God bless our craft and sport.

[david w.]

thats really too bad Dano i think some people are biased against selfbows

[El Destructo]

I have gotten nothing but respect from My Flatbows....but then most of mine are Native Bows....not Twisty Snaky  Awesome looking Works of Art.....the Only Problems that I ever get is the Monkey that thinks He needs to Anchor out behind His ears with a 48 inch Pony Bow!!!!!!!!!!!

[david w.]

I have gotten nothing but respect from My Flatbows....but then most of mine are Native Bows....not Twisty Snaky  Awesome looking Works of Art.....the Only Problems that I ever get is the Monkey that thinks He needs to Anchor our behind His ears with a 48 inch Pony Bow!!!!!!!!!!!

ditto except i havent made a true Native Bow yet but i plan to soon