took the plunge...rawstring No.1.
details:
Small coues whitetail hide, the holes being fragments of rifle shot front leg bone, from my rifle, in 2009, the running shot at 22 yards.
Strips cut to a length of 18 to 24 inches, twisted up following Huntprimitive's video, three ply reverse twist.
Four attempts to get splices right. Then, I took this string with a 55" bow to AZ's Eagletail Mountains for short survival trip. Made the arrow out there, from mulefat shaft I brought along. Sinew binding on nock and fletch, but Duco glue, as I forgot my hide glue. Shot the bow with string in wash about 10 times before I noticed a splice coming loose. Shot well, quiet like all others say. Decided to hunt with modern string, and I put the rawhide in a bag to fix later upon returning to civilization; I figured that some beeswax and/or tallow "conditioner" would be needed in the arid climate.
The weight I hung it with is 49 pounds and it hung about 24 hours each time. At the nocking point, string is 5mm, about 19% of an inch. The sinew backed bow is about 46.5# at 25", at room temperature (...heat and sinew bows, that is another story!).
(Last photo: The saguaro fruit is what survivalist/primitive archers eat when they are not successful at hunting
. 170 calories for five of those fruits, very tasty. 25 grams carbs, 5 fat, 4 protein. (Quail not in season, nor desert mule deer, could have shot quail, and glad to see a mule deer out there).)
