Main Discussion Area > Shooting and Hunting
Has anyone hunted with short native american style bow?
Kegan:
Steve Alley, I believe, has used West Coast replicas to cleanly take deer. I personally think that if you can get a 400+ gr. arrow moving quickly with a razor sharp broadhead, and you can routinley hit accurately with it, there would be no issue. Personally, I think the hardest part of the whole thing would be getting used to shooting with a short draw and floating anchor.
billy:
I have used a 40-lb osage self bow that is 56" long and I've killed a number of animals with it. It draws about 28", but it only pulls 40 lbs. It even has a sinew string and it shoots very well. As stated earlier, Steve Allely has killed several deer with his short west coast replica bows. In fact, this past fall he killed a blacktail with a 42 lb sinew backed juniper bow that was a copy of the one that Ishi used. That deer ran about 80 yards and collapsed. Steve told me that his arrow hit exactly where he wanted it to go, and therein lies the key: accurate shot placement. Even short bows are deadly on big game if you put the arrow in the right place. My advice is to use whatever you are most accurate with, because that is the most important part. Of course you must have arrows that fly perfectly and have sharp points.
dogwood3:
First of all, Billy, how did you learn to make sinew strings?
Second,I've noticed that a short draw is often very accurate, at least for me. I've been fighting target panic for years,especially while hunting. Some of my best shots on deer, I'm embarrassed to say, were short draws. So, the idea of native archery seemed to fit my situation.
Third, it is interesting we don't take native american archery more seriously. We seem to discount it completely in favor of English archery.
John (Dogwood)
jbnizzle:
Hey Billy
I love short bows,my perfect idea for a bow is a horse bow. Check out some
of the Korean bows. You can get some great glass ones at a decent price. I own
of those and also a Hunish type. They are short fast and depending on your choice
very strong. The rest is up to you.
billy:
I've been making sinew strings for years. Basically, making a sinew string is just like twisting up a piece of 2-ply cordage. Of course, the sinew is much shorter then a bowstring, so as each little strand runs out you must splice in additional strands. Sinew bowstrings are time consuming to make, because you have several strands in each ply, and all the strands decrease in diameter as you twist the string. you have to almost continually add sinew strands to each ply in order to maintain even diameter (which is very important).
I have an article I was writing for Primitive Archer that shows how to make a sinew string, but it's been sitting in limbo for months. Maybe I should finish it and send it in.
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