Show us one of your favorite selfbow pictures. If you want to say something about it that would be fine too.

The ugly guy in the photo takes away the beauty bow the bow

Follow the grain and all is well.

Public hunting area, off the ground in a brush blind with an osage bow I made, wood arrow with a Magnus head, he went about 100 yards after the shot.

AMAZING snakey bow there Jeff!

My third selfbow, 64" snakey Osage, fun stuff, funner to hunt w/! Arrow also made by me, from dowels from the hardware store, amazingly straight!

A doe i shot last week, she was pretty Wiley and skittish

For the record. The bow I Posted is backed with snakeskin. So technically not a “Self” bow

Still a self bow, Jay. The skin is just decoration. It wouldn't be a a self bow if it had rawhide, sinew, boo, hard wood backing or silk on it.

:^))))

BowAholic, I would love to have a crooked stick like that. It would be so much fun to toe the line with the guys and their fancy bows even compounds at the indoor range. >>>----> Ken

Best thing for those damn yard diggers, Bob. Nice shootin'.

Brave shot, BowAholic. Nice bows guys.

I knew it had a bad spot, so I wrapped it with sinew. It lasted a couple years. Time to build a new one.

Black locust bow. ..47# at 26". I left a layer of sapwood because there was not enough heartwood for a bow. Jawge

I dug out all of my selbows I made back in the day....all way to heavy for me now!

Nice thing about being a maker of wooden bows is, you can just scrape some pounds off if ya want.

My favorite rawhide backed osage bow I made a few years ago.

Ya I used to could....don't have the dexterity anymore...I'd just screw them up! I have one that I roughed out years ago..but never got any further with it!

Love these. I'm about to build my first self bow, hickory. Gonna be doing the clay hays/beckham fire hardened in 24-48 hrs. Going to be instructed by a seasoned bow craftsman.

Nice bows & pictures!

Some years back in South Africa.

Awesome nyala Arvin. Saw a few when I was in SA but never got the opportunity.

Working on number 21 MiKmaqs.

Steve they are beautiful animals for sure. And selfbows will get the job done on large animals. That’s a fifty pound selfbow. It also shot a wildebeest.

Mulberry staves I finished splitting today. The 3rd step of many steps towards a future story.

Cool pic dannyboy. Guess that answers the question about bone breaching penetration from a selfbow.

Great Photos!

I thought the story the first photo told was that someone fell out of their stand. Glad to see I was mistaken.

This is where the buck I posted above met his demise, another selfbow picture.

I should have explained the blind which is a bunch of beech limbs I had cut and tied to a few saplings to make a shoot through blind. I set up the blind in an hour glass funnel where the hollow went from 100 yards wide down to 20 yards wide and then back to about 75 yards wide. I shot the buck when he stepped out from behind the white oak in the foreground at maybe 10 yards.

Nice scene description

Nice scene description

One more.

Oh sorry that’s not a selfbow. It’s a boo backed selfbow. It has a continuous growth ring under the ??????

How far did it fly Arvin

Steve Gardner (Badger) held the flight record for self bow at one time. Whe holds the record now? Anyone know?

Not me. Mine will only send one 339.5 yards at 50 lbs

Early morning mist rising.

It shot 260 yds in broadhead. Steve’s record was 230 I think. It shot short in flight 337yds.

Very nice Arvin, Of course I was being a smart a$$.

Congrats Arvin!

Altitude remember I’m from Tx so I’ve got thick skin when it comes to comments . ????????

Some sweet bows and awesome pictures posted, guys. Here's my 2nd/3rd osage bow. I say that because I was simultaneously making my son a bow from the belly split. The stave was a gift from our own Mr Jon Stewart. Thanks again, kind sir! Sorry no draw pics, this was after being shot in and getting some medicine.

And of course my son's bow, anybody wanna guess his favorite superhero?

And some action.

Great picture wooddamon. Unique Hulk bow

Thanks AS!

Nice snakes guys.

Osage self bow on its first hunt.

Osage bow with riverscane arrows

Killed 6 deer that season with that self bow. I called it the Hackberry Hammer.

That is an early season squirrel with one of Ed Scott's bows. It was a hackberry bow. Ed made some super bows. I also killed a big doe on opening day with it.

Ron that’s hunting the cooooold way. My hats off to you.

Awesome Bows and pics and I saw a couple of Tennessee boys in there Pappy and Shawn and some of the Twin Oaks gang!!!! Love those guys. That's who got me started carving up sticks of wood and tying strings to them......:)

Hey dannyboy-- I knew that was you! No not me cuz YOU R DA MAN!!! Hey when I last saw you, you were working on two billets you literally pick up from scrap on the floor and was making a beautiful bow, almost fully tillered.... How did that rascal finally turn out?

Thanks for everything you, Pappy and the guys do for archery in general and especially for helping so many of us here in Tennessee getting started.....

dannyboy-- you da MAN!!!!!! Oh dannyboy!!!! Oh dannyboy!!!!...:)

Love you! Hope to see you soon my friend.....

Happiness is a truck bed full of yellar wood.

dannyboy-- wow you killing me over here, incredible.... That's a serious truck load my friend....I need to get some chucks of Osage from you maybe 1-2 ft blocks for handles, overlays etc If you got something like that I might pickup? Maybe stuff you not gonna use, no billet length piecses though..... Great connecting with you on here. I've met some really great folks and a couple I already knew we reconnected.....

I got to get down ya'lls way soon to say hello to the gang....:)

dannyboy-- wow you killing me over here, incredible.... That's a serious truck load my friend....I need to get some chucks of Osage from you maybe 1-2 ft blocks for handles, overlays etc If you got something like that I might pickup? Maybe stuff you not gonna use, no billet length piecses though..... Great connecting with you on here. I've met some really great folks and a couple I already knew we reconnected.....

I got to get down ya'lls way soon to say hello to the gang....:)

Cool and I'll see you soon! Keep on doing the good stuff that you do!

Awsome

1st attempt at making my own Osage selfbow. Started out at 57# , 63”ntn. Lifted a big splinter at a cluster of pin knots on lower limb when initially shooting it in. A bit of loctite and wrapped. After shooting for 5 years, I reduced it to 48# due to a shoulder injury. Just finished it’s 10th hunting season and still producing meat. My 2021 buck.

Had it out today hunting with stone point on a Douglas fir.

Gotta just mention Dean Torges.

Here is my lastest osage selfbow. This one hasnt even made it to the woods yet.

Some nice looking bows.

You guys are slick.

Selfbow making has been the most rewarding pastime I have ever partaken of. Just the idea that you can cut a tree, split a stave from it and make a bow that will hold it's own against any of the top of the line bows out there is downright incredible.

For those of you who think, "I don't have the patience to make a bow", "I don't know where to start" or "I don't have that kind of talent", I will share with you a simple phrase that an amazing cartoon artist at work shared with me that opened the door for me to peruse my many creative endeavors.

Jerry was a caricature cartoonist, a quick wit and an expert in capturing an unflattering depiction of all our bosses in his work, much to their dismay.

I was admiring his incredible work one day and said "man, I wish I had your talent". He looked at me and actually got angry, He said "I DON'T HAVE ANY TALENT, I HAVE DONE JUST THE SAME THING OVER AND OVER UNTIL I GOT IT RIGHT?

I backed off and thought about what he said, I had always thought people that did creative things had special inherited talent that allowed them to be so artistic. Some definitely do but the rest of us can accomplish amazing things if we don't give up and like Jerry said; "do the same thing over and over until we get it right".

I was a serious duck hunter at the time and really admired the old gunning decoys, I collected some reference material and tried to make one, it looked like I had hacked it out with a hatchet. My next one was a little better as I learned what not to do, by duck #18 they looked like they could fly away, I did take an art class to learn what brush to use to make a certain type of detail and how to mix paint colors.

Next it was bows, again, my first was a disaster, my second was shootable. I found I made some good bows and some lousy bows and didn't know why. I kept plugging away and found out what I was doing wrong, now I only make good bows.

Lastly it has been building period correct flintlock rifles, I don't show off my first one, by my 4th I had the process figured out.

From teaching bowmaking I have found that fear of failure stops most students dead in their tracks. We all have failures in bow making, I still do occasionally, so what, there is always another stave waiting in the wings.

I read somewhere the oriental women have an incredible natural patience and focus for detail work, the rest of us, we have to learn it over time.

So, get out there and give bow making a try, it doesn't take a shop or a bunch of tools, you could make a bow with a hatchet or a manchette, a pocket knife and some sandpaper. My best friend has made almost all his bows (hundreds) sitting in a lawn chair with the stave across his lap while he works them down with a 4 way rasp after he roughs them out.

Very nice guys,,,thanks for sharing.

Some great photos for sure! jimmy I think you've got it figured out!

The one and only self bow I ever made.

Selfbows and shooting are such a great part of my family's life. Daughter, granddaughters, and son in law. Cant post just one.

One more for now.

Bob, you have a fine group there. Thanks for the pictures. Shic

Now there’s a story.

Awesome Bob.

Bjrogg

Great photo, Bob, awesome to see families enjoying archery together.

Thanks guys,much appreciated. Shot with you once at strictly sticks George, along with my freinds Chuck, Larry, and his son Josh. I dont know if the quality is good enough here to show the slack string that just hit my arm on this picture.

Indeed 205lbs

Nice wiggles on that bow. Is that a drop tine on the buck? Congratulations.

Main beam. He was a hoss daddy. Had to winch him in truck.

Very nice. I want to learn how to do that.

My favorite selfbow picture is from October of 1997. I was 16 and I had hitched a ride to central Kansas in 1996 with a guy from the archery store in my city to harvest some osage. I had been building bows all my life, but this was the first time I had any "real" bow wood of high quality. I made this bow in March of 97 and shot it all summer. Fall of 97 was the first hunting season when I had a driver's license and I was fortunate enough for everything to come together and this little ten walked by me along a brushy fenceline in northern Iowa near the Minnesota line. I used this as my primary bow for 20 seasons until it lifted a splinter in 2017 and was retired to a well-deserved place of honor on my bow rack. It is almost black now from UV changing the color. It was 60" long and 67# @ 27". Sorry for the long message, just a special bow for me.

I wish I had that kind of dedication at 16 years of age. Great picture and story.

Flntnp17 great story. You must have been a pretty strong kid shooting a 67# selfbow at 16.

Wow that’s a great story.

Very nice Flint

It’s threads like this that made me want to try a selfbow. And even try making one. ;)

Tim , when I saw that bow it the TBB I was really wowed! I’m glad to see you posting here again. It’s helping to rekindle the primitive spirit in me.

What are the details of the “Gar” bow

Cool bow Tim

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