Among the different types of weapons, one of the most ancient and still used today, along with modern firearms, is the common hunting bow. Such a bow can be a good helper for every hunter who, with its help, will be able to hunt medium-sized game as effectively as with a regular gun. You can make a hunting bow with your own hands.
Instructions
Step 1
The quality of the finished bow depends on many parameters - for example, from what the bow itself is made of, how the bowstring is stretched, how well the arrowheads are selected. Yew is the best material for onions - due to its uniformity, flexibility and strength, this wood is well suited for this purpose. However, finding this wood is not easy today, so you can try to make onions from elm, willow, ash, hazel, and even birch or cedar.
Step 2
If you want the bow to be strong and functional, it is recommended that you make a compound bow from three different parts. If you want to make a simpler bow, one piece is enough, but the tree should be long.
Step 3
To create a simple bow, take strong wood and measure the size of the future workpiece - for this, place the end of the wooden branch against your thigh with one hand, straightening the other hand and pulling it to the side.
Step 4
The hunting bow should not be too big. When making a blank for the bow, make sure that the thickness of the bow in the central part is at least 5 cm. At the ends, the thickness of the wood should be 1.5 cm. At the ends of the bow, you also need to cut grooves for tying the bowstring.
Step 5
Before processing the workpiece, remove the bark from the tree, and then, after finishing, apply oil or fat to the surface of the workpiece.
Step 6
Composite bows, unlike simple ones, consist of three wooden parts - a frame that serves as the basis of the bow, handle and horns. Both horns of the bow must be the same length. For the handle - the middle part of the bow - choose strong wood with straight grains from the hardest part of the tree. Dry the wood blanks in the open air, then cut out the onion components from them and process them. Glue the pieces together with fish glue and saturate the frame with resin.
Step 7
Strengthen the gluing points of the bow pieces by wrapping sinew around them. Re-saturate seams with grease or resin. Modify the onion and, if necessary, cover it with strips of birch bark freshly boiled in water. Having dried, the birch bark shrinks and tightens the bow.
Step 8
Grooves for the bowstring should be made in the tips of the bow horns. You can make the string itself from different materials - for example, take a strip of leather 3 mm thick or twist a string from animal tendons. Having made and pulled the bowstring, make arrows with tips and plumage - now the bow can be used for its intended purpose.
