Author Topic: Show Me your First Bow ! Good ,Bad & Ugly ?  (Read 9272 times)

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Offline Stick Bender

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Show Me your First Bow ! Good ,Bad & Ugly ?
« on: March 12, 2018, 05:54:17 am »
A friend of mine sent me some pics of his first bow that he ever made so I thought it would make a interesting thread to see every bodys first & a little story behind it so here is mine,
It is 70 in. 80 lb @31 , Hickory, the only bow education was a copy of PA magazine at the time, the unbraced says it all !
« Last Edit: March 12, 2018, 09:13:56 am by Stick Bender »
If you fear failure you will never Try !

Offline Stick Bender

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Re: Show Me your First Bow ! Good ,Bad & Ugly ?
« Reply #1 on: March 12, 2018, 05:55:05 am »
Unbraced
If you fear failure you will never Try !

Offline osage outlaw

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Re: Show Me your First Bow ! Good ,Bad & Ugly ?
« Reply #2 on: March 12, 2018, 06:03:59 am »
I'll post some pictures of mine tomorrow.  It's baaad.
I started out with nothin' and I still got most of it left

Offline Stick Bender

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Re: Show Me your First Bow ! Good ,Bad & Ugly ?
« Reply #3 on: March 12, 2018, 06:09:16 am »
Lol...its humbling Clint !
If you fear failure you will never Try !

Offline Eric Krewson

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Re: Show Me your First Bow ! Good ,Bad & Ugly ?
« Reply #4 on: March 12, 2018, 07:33:42 am »
Mine was a sinew backed osage board bow so poorly made that it blew after 30 shots. I put it on a pile of bagged leaves for the city to pick up and haul off. I looked out abuot a half hour later and someone driving by had seen it and took it with them. It is probably on someones wall being displayed as an "ancient Indian bow".

Offline smoke

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Re: Show Me your First Bow ! Good ,Bad & Ugly ?
« Reply #5 on: March 12, 2018, 07:41:39 am »
I wish I had a picture of mine.  It was a board bow and I finished it up to look very nice - and shot it about 200 times.  At about shot 201 I thought to myself, "Man, making a bow isn't tough at all."  The archery gods heard that thought and reached down to touch my top limb - and blow it up in my face!  After I realized I wasn't really hurt, I laughed, picked up the pieces and went into the house to start working on bow #2. 

Offline leonwood

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Re: Show Me your First Bow ! Good ,Bad & Ugly ?
« Reply #6 on: March 12, 2018, 07:46:04 am »
Mine is a 27 lbs pine boardbow, still "shoots" today. Here some pics of my daughter shooting it. It was both her and my first day of shooting a bow ever! We had no idea what we where doing but it was so much fun!




Offline BowEd

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Re: Show Me your First Bow ! Good ,Bad & Ugly ?
« Reply #7 on: March 12, 2018, 09:27:01 am »
Pretty good looking bow Leonwood for a first.
Rich...Yours does'nt look too bad either for 80#'s @ 31".
I've still got my first self bow.It was osage.I was'nt on this forum back then and no full draw pic but resting and brace pic.I made bows on my own for 2-3 years before joining the PA forum.I've also just tillered  and shot in an osage bow lately.Waiting to put finish on it.I'll show both when I post the latest.I want to show the difference.
Well on second thought here's a couple pics.Not good pics though.


« Last Edit: March 12, 2018, 06:12:05 pm by BowEd »
BowEd
You got to stand for something or you'll fall for anything.
Ed

Offline Dvshunter

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Re: Show Me your First Bow ! Good ,Bad & Ugly ?
« Reply #8 on: March 12, 2018, 05:02:16 pm »
Looks just as good as the latest ed!
"There is a natural mystic blowing through the air; if you listen carefully now you will hear." Robert Nesta Marley

Offline BowEd

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Re: Show Me your First Bow ! Good ,Bad & Ugly ?
« Reply #9 on: March 12, 2018, 05:17:50 pm »
Well I'm a slow learner....Ha Ha Ha.I'll try to show how much I've learned in few days ok?
« Last Edit: March 12, 2018, 05:23:30 pm by BowEd »
BowEd
You got to stand for something or you'll fall for anything.
Ed

Offline gfugal

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Re: Show Me your First Bow ! Good ,Bad & Ugly ?
« Reply #10 on: March 12, 2018, 07:14:33 pm »


Sinew backed Juniper branch. Was a measly 20-25 lbs, but it shot. I wanted to increase poundage so I applied another layer of sinew. I didn't bother re-tillering and took it to full draw as soon as it dried. Since the new sinew threw off the tiller, it was enough to break it. It wasn't much of a loss, but it was my first broken bow too haha. Those breaks just demoralize ya.
Greg,
No risk, no gain. Expand the mold and try new things.

Offline Pat B

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Re: Show Me your First Bow ! Good ,Bad & Ugly ?
« Reply #11 on: March 13, 2018, 11:37:04 am »
Neither of these two were my first bows but the short one was my first osage bow. It is 42"t/t. It shot pretty good at about 20". I built it in late 1989. While we were building our house in Brevard in 1990 I was showing it to the guys working on the house. I told them not to draw it far but the 19 year old lummox helper, a 6'+ muscleman decided he could draw it farther. Yep, you guessed it it went kablooy. It was an osage board and broke right where it should have.
 The other bow is black locust, 62" t/t, 1 1/2" wide at the fades tapering to about 3/4". I was so proud of this bow it was going to be my first hunting bow. It has 3" of set and plenty of frets. Needless to say I never hunted with it even though I called it "Killer".




Make the most of all that comes and the least of all that goes!    Pat Brennan  Brevard, NC

Offline Springbuck

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Re: Show Me your First Bow ! Good ,Bad & Ugly ?
« Reply #12 on: March 13, 2018, 04:23:25 pm »
Jeez, I wish!  Do you know how many times since then I have destroyed a phone while fishing or something, since then?

I will confess, it was basically a copy of a fiberglass takedown, R/D boo-backed bamboo flooring, reverse trapped because I didn't understand the principle.  Pretty little walnut and purpleheart handle, pulling about 32 lbs.

Offline Badger

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Re: Show Me your First Bow ! Good ,Bad & Ugly ?
« Reply #13 on: March 13, 2018, 04:33:05 pm »
  I don't have a pic but my first bow was actually a success followed by a long string of failures. I had zero idea anyone else made all wood bows. I went by memory from my childhood on what a fiberglass recurve looked like. I purchased some 1/8" by 2" strips of hardwood with no regard for grain run out. Maple was my back, walnut was my core and Brazilian rosewood was the belly. I think my riser was a solid block of maple but not positive now. The bow was 62" long recurve with the tips slightly behind the handle. I did no tillering beyond narrowing the outside 1/2 of the limb. I used gorilla glue to glue it up. The bow shot great for at least a year and was about 47# at 28". I had an archery shop run it through a chrono and he was impressed but I have no idea what it was reading.

Offline Stick Bender

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Re: Show Me your First Bow ! Good ,Bad & Ugly ?
« Reply #14 on: March 13, 2018, 04:42:52 pm »
That's a. Interesting story Steve a zero taper recurve and it held together, I made mine back in 1995 when I could pull a 80 lb. bow ,if I pulled it now I would need to use my senior discount at the chiropractor  :)
If you fear failure you will never Try !