Home Forums Campfire Forum Found some venison…

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    • Dan Sweeney
        Post count: 94

        Got a little eight point here in the hills.

        attached file
      • BuckyT
          Post count: 138

          Congrats on a great kill!!!

          😀

        • skifrk
            Post count: 387

            Congrats on the shot did you have along blood trail to follow.

          • lyagooshka
              Post count: 600

              Congrats!!! Beautiful deer.

              😀

            • Troy Breeding
                Post count: 994

                Good deal, and with a selfbow to boot.

                Troy

              • Dan Sweeney
                  Post count: 94

                  Not terribly long. Maybe 50-60 yards. Average. I’ve had one that was no blood trail. Just a couple steps, a confused look, and a flop. Had one a couple years ago that was around half a mile. That was brutal, took all night, and some inductive reasoning to find once the actual droplets faded out. But most are about like this: spotty/splotchy with periods of light drops and usually under a hundred yards.

                • Jason Wesbrock
                  Member
                    Post count: 762

                    Congrats. I’d love to read more about that bow.

                  • Dan Sweeney
                      Post count: 94

                      It’s an Eastern Redcedar (a type of juniper actually) that my uncle cut to clear out a walking trail on his land a couple years ago. I happened to notice it as I was walking back from hunting and asked would he mind if I tried to coax a bow out of it. He didn’t mind, so I took it home and spent the next ten months dithering about it and taking a few scrapes here and there. Finally sometime last Augustish I put three straight full days into. Took off about an inch or so of sapwood so that there would be some of that beautiful red heartwood left after tillering (You can get whitewood anywhere, but that red sapwood is hard to come by.), backed it with rawhide, and tillered it to #52 lbs at 28″. It’s 66″ long tip to tip and shoots really well. This is my second year hunting with it and it’s shot several thousand arrows with no additional set at all. Got a couple does with it last year and some assorted small game. I’ve made several other decent bows, but that one is my favorite by far.

                    • tailfeather
                        Post count: 417

                        Very nice. Congratulations!

                      • Jason Wesbrock
                        Member
                          Post count: 762

                          Wow, now that’s cool. Thanks for sharing.

                        • William Warren
                          Member
                            Post count: 1384

                            Nice deer! So Eastern Red Cedar. I’ve heard of bows made from it but not as common as the usual hardwoods. Usually backed with something. You have me interested in trying it. How long did you let it dry? Did knots give you any trouble?

                          • WyoStillhunter
                              Post count: 87

                              A tip of the hat for making your own bow. And that buck is what I call a “trophy meat buck.” That is the prefect size/age for high quality eating. Congratulations!

                            • Dan Sweeney
                                Post count: 94

                                ERC is a actually a type of juniper, hence why it does make a very good bow. It’s tough to find a good piece though. I have been actively looking and not found another that I wanted to try and work with. That particular piece has many knots in it, but they don’t go all the way through to the back. I just smoothed them off on the belly side. ERC typically needs to be backed with something such as rawhide or sinew. A very thin hickory backing can work, but if it’s very thick the back will overpower the belly and cause compression issues.

                                There is a guy over on the Primitive forum who drilled out the knots and filed them with osage orange pins. That gave his bow a really neat touch and prevented the problem of the knots crumbling and causing a weak spot over time.

                                If you do try ERC, make it fairly long and fairly wide. It’s a great wood, but is relatively tension weak, so needs to be long/wide, and usually backed with something. It is a great wood though. It’s very light in physical weight itself, so it shoots harder per pound of draw weight than you might expect. That bow pulls around 50 pounds, but shoots faster than my other 50 pound bows of red oak, elm, hackberry, etc. (Of course, that could be due to something I did wrong on the others that I managed to escape on this one. I dunno for sure.)

                              • Ben M.
                                  Post count: 460

                                  Dan,

                                  Congrats and good job to you, too…for many accomplishments! Bowyery (bowyerism? Nah, sounds too much like a disease) and stone points are where I’d like to go next. I’m impressed with your work!

                                • Wexbow
                                    Post count: 403

                                    Great achievement Dan, I admire your craftsmanship.

                                  • wildschwein
                                      Post count: 581

                                      Conratulations Dan! Great job on the bow and the Buck.

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