Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: Josh B on October 05, 2019, 11:16:54 pm
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I harvested this branch in the Arbuckle mountains in southern Oklahoma several years ago. It's just been laying around ever since, mainly due to the rippled surface that would have to be the back. Today I decided to give it a shot. It's not finished yet, but I put a couple hundred arrows down range with it. A few more hundred arrows and I'll finish it up. Right now it's 67" NTN and pulls 55#@26". Sorry no full draw pic yet.
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Nice job on that one. I make American Hornbeam bows that look like that ,and as rippled as the backs are they still tiller OK ,and make a bow.
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Nice job. I really like the look of the rippled back.
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Nice Josh. I have one in the possible phase right now. Interested to see this bad boy bent over when you finish.
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Thanks fellas! Put it through the paces this morning. It's still in one piece so I gave it a quick sanding and a few coats of Tru oil. I liked the grain in the handle so much I decided to forego the handle wrap.
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The money shot.
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the back is beautiful!
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Awesome bow! I dig it.
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That back is so awesome! Love it! ;D
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Thanks fellas! Momma caught me a couple inches short of full draw in the pic. It does come all the way back, I'm just a bit nervous about holding an unbacked juniper bow at full draw for very long. I've had a decent amount of success with various juniper varieties, but it's still juniper... ;)
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Sweet bow, Josh B!!
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Thanks fellas! Momma caught me a couple inches short of full draw in the pic. It does come all the way back, I'm just a bit nervous about holding an unbacked juniper bow at full draw for very long. I've had a decent amount of success with various juniper varieties, but it's still juniper... ;)
Are you going to back it? Do you back all your junipers?
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I would never make juniper bow without sinew backing :) .....
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I won't back this one. I rarely do back juniper limbs. If it was trunk wood, then I would definitely back it. I've had zero success with unbacked juniper trunkwood
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Good to know. The heartwood in the grip really cool. Did you have to take a lot of wood off the back to achieve that?
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I didn't remove anything from the back. This was made from the top side of a 4" thick branch. Juniper, like most conifers reacts differently to gravity. Instead of growing tension wood on the tension(top) side of a horizontal growing limb, it instead grows fat rings on the bottom side. This means the top rings are very thin in comparison. On this one, the center ring was only about 3/4" from the top surface. The bottom half of the rings was about 3" thick. All that to say the sapwood on the back is only about 1/4" thick and thus allowed the handle to be nearly all heartwood. My trucks been broke down for a couple days, so I had some time to give this girl a good workout. My son and I did a little flight shooting today and I was getting a little over 200 yds with 500 gr. Arrows. The best shot was 218. I realize that's not exceptional by any means, but I'm more than happy with that .