The bow has been with mankind for tens of thousands of years both for hunting, as a weapon of war, starting a fire, and as a musical instrument.
For hunters, the use of the English longbow and recurve for hunting held a special place in hunting big game. Many called it hunting with “stick and string.”
Today, there are still many archers that enjoy arching an arrow with a simple stick and string. I still do, for target.
Yes, I love rifles too, hence my magazine.
It was many years ago that I made several hunting weight self-longbow/flatbows and recurves from hickory staves that I freed from New Hampshire trees. To my chagrin, a house fire destroyed many of them. I gifted my twin brother one of my self-bow’s and he shoots it to this day.
I have made a few recurves from hickory staves as well. I backed one of them with deer sinew and diamondback rattlesnake skin. Disappointedly, I traded it with cousins and it disappeared.
But eurika, I own a stave that I originally cut into a longbow, and a work in progress. It sat in my closet for 20 years begging for me to finish it.
In 2018, I decided to make a hunting recurve with it, by steaming the tips and bending them. A scary process that can destroy many hours of work. Well, I was quite proud of my new self-bow recurve so I backed that recurve also with whitetail deer sinew to increase its strength and made a flemish string for it.
At full draw, it is around 50 pounds. See it below. It throws a fast arrow! It is a work of graceful art as it has literally no deflex to this day.
I still shoot target with these bows.
In the end, I owe it to wild game to hunt with the most lethal bow I can handle thus most of my hunting is with a compound bow, rifle, flintlock and scoped muzzleloader or crossbow.
Good Hunting!
