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Has anyone hunted with short native american style bow?

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dogwood3:
I have been playing around with a 50" osage bow modeled from an actual native american bow.  It draws about 20 inches.  It has been a lot of fun.  It makes me curious if anyone has actually tried hunting with one of these, and how heavy the weight needs to be at that draw length to make a useful hunting bow.  I believe the bow is about 40 pounds and it seems pretty anemic for anything other than small game.  If anyone has had any experience with native american style archery please let me know how it worked.

Dogwood (John)

El Destructo:
Native American Pony / Horse Bows were made to shoot Pinch Style with a Short Draw and no real definite Anchor Point. Because they were only Shooting from a very close distance off a Horses Back...they gave up Long Distance Accuracy for the Mobility and Ease of Shooting from the Back of a Running Horse with a Short and easy to Wield Horse Bow...if there is anything easy about shooting from a running Beasts Back.... ::) I myself would never Hunt with a Bow of the Draw Length...and take a chance at wounding and losing an Animal ...only to have it die in Vain somewhere and not be found and used...I would not recommend one for Hunting anything besides a Blind at a Short Distance...JMO

crooketarrow:
   About 15 years ago I built my shortest bow ever at the time I wasn't thinking indain bow.Not 50 but it was 56"s nock to nock 58#'s @ 26"s.I killed a 3 point at 13 yards and a doe that season at 18,19 yards.I kept it for about another 4 years and took it down off the rack and shoot it once and a while.Traded it for a stave,strip of rawhide and 2 strips of bambo.I saw the guy about 2 years later and he still used it some he said.He dsaid he also killed 2 doe's with it.

Kegan:
There was an article about short bows back in PA. I thought it was really neat. They were about 48", using a 22" draw. They were, however, a bit on the hefty side, ranging- I believe- from about 65# to one at a hefty 80#. The one or two deer they mention being taken were pass throughs at close range (15-25 yards).

dogwood3:
I have examined several bows in  the Grayson collection at U. of MO, and have looked at the examples in Hamm's books on native bows.  Even most of the woodland bows (Fox, Osage, etc. )were very short by our standards, and I know they used these bows for deer, elk, bison,and black bear.  If that is true, wouldn't a short drawn bow of sufficient weight be  suited to tree stand and ground blind for whitetails?  Anyway, I thought making the bow, arrows, quiver, arrows, and points would make an interesting project.  Learning to shoot well enough to humanely take deer would be another project.  Maybe I could get some stimulus money.

John M. (Dogwood)

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