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DIY Longbow?

donnieballgame

donnieballgame

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 31, 2017
Messages
1,872
As a DIY enthusiast, who has been thinking of making the leap to a traditional bow. I just ran across a youtube video of a guy making a longbow. Having seen Byron Ferguson talk about the advantages of a longbow over a recurve, in reducing or eliminating torque, I have been intrigued, to say the least.


Has anyone else gone down this road? I know there is a thread on trad bows and a lot of knowledge on here. I don't think I'll be building a bow for next year or for several years, to be honest. I will probably have to purchase one, but I was curious if anyone else has thought about this or even done it.
 
donnieballgame said:
As a DIY enthusiast, who has been thinking of making the leap to a traditional bow. I just ran across a youtube video of a guy making a longbow. Having seen Byron Ferguson talk about the advantages of a longbow over a recurve, in reducing or eliminating torque, I have been intrigued, to say the least.


Has anyone else gone down this road? I know there is a thread on trad bows and a lot of knowledge on here. I don't think I'll be building a bow for next year or for several years, to be honest. I will probably have to purchase one, but I was curious if anyone else has thought about this or even done it.
Click to expand...
This was one I built from a kit a couple years ago. Reflex deflex, so there is some curvature set in the glue up vs just a straight board to start with.


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Nice!! I feel like I just jumped into a rabbit hole, seems like a lot of info out there. I'll try and finish your video later before I start asking a billion questions.
 
I've made self bows from Osage and even a hickory board from a wood store. If you think working on saddles and equipment start making your own bows.
The best shooting bow I have is a Osage that's 64 inches long and 53 #@28 inches.
An absolute blast to shoot.
Took about 4 weeks to build from splitting a dried log and shaping the bow.
 
My biggest piece of advice is don’t get stuck on shooting instinctive. To many archers tend to believe you have to shoot this way to shoot traditional. It’s not like throwing a baseball I can tell you that lol. I literally beat my self up physically and mentally for a year trying to get consistent with shooting instinctive just never work. I started shoot gap method groups instantly shrunk in half I shoot my hybrid longbow all year long andI’m good out to 30 yards ( pie plate size groups) then switch to my compound in July to get ready for hunting season for extended range.


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20ftup said:
My biggest piece of advice is don’t get stuck on shooting instinctive. To many archers tend to believe you have to shoot this way to shoot traditional. It’s not like throwing a baseball I can tell you that lol. I literally beat my self up physically and mentally for a year trying to get consistent with shooting instinctive just never work. I started shoot gap method groups instantly shrunk in half I shoot my hybrid longbow all year long andI’m good out to 30 yards ( pie plate size groups) then switch to my compound in July to get ready for hunting season for extended range.


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Click to expand...

I agree 100% with this. There is a reason all the top 3d shooters use a dedicated aiming method. Once I stopped shooting instinctive and started gapping, my shots on targets and live game improved drastically.


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donnieballgame said:
As a DIY enthusiast, who has been thinking of making the leap to a traditional bow. I just ran across a youtube video of a guy making a longbow. Having seen Byron Ferguson talk about the advantages of a longbow over a recurve, in reducing or eliminating torque, I have been intrigued, to say the least.


Has anyone else gone down this road? I know there is a thread on trad bows and a lot of knowledge on here. I don't think I'll be building a bow for next year or for several years, to be honest. I will probably have to purchase one, but I was curious if anyone else has thought about this or even done it.
Click to expand...


I've built a half dozen longbows ranging from about 55lbs all the way down to kids bows. While not an expert by any means, I've been happy with the results. I feel totally comfortable hunting with it in terms of power, just gotta stay sharp on the practice and aiming methods like the other guys said.

The cheapest way to see if you'd like it would be to build a "board bow." You can use a red oak board with really straight grain from a big box store and get a decent result. I learned a lot from tradgang and other sites like that. On the U-tube Clay Hayes has a good video series on making bows. If you have a draw knife and a good board you can have a bow pretty quick
 
Thanks for the advice, again no idea what I'm getting into, lol!

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donnieballgame said:
As a DIY enthusiast, who has been thinking of making the leap to a traditional bow. I just ran across a youtube video of a guy making a longbow. Having seen Byron Ferguson talk about the advantagesEDIA=youtube]zNIucoFHzIc[/MEDIA]

Has anyone else gone down this road? I know there is a thread on trad bows and a lot of knowledge on here. I don't think I'll be building a bow for next year or for several years, to be honest. I will probably have to purchase one, but I was curious if anyone else has thought about this or even done it.
Click to expand...

There was a famous archer from Alabama years back, Howard Hill, that went to Japan to learn how to use bamboo for longbows. He killed elephants and most everything huntable on several continents. There is a shop that still sells his bows in finished, semi finished and I think even raw materials. A lady nearby won a world championship with one.
http://www.howardhillarchery.com/
 
Last edited:
Sipsey said:
There was a famous archer from Alabama years back, Howard Hill, that went to Japan to learn how to use bamboo for longbows. He killed elephants and most everything huntable on several continents. There is a shop that still sells his bows in finished, semi finished and I think even raw materials. A lady nearby won a world championship with one.
http://www.howardhillarchery.com/
Click to expand...

Wow those look awesome..... and expensive, might not take something that nice into the woods!
 
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