In my opinion, your best bet is to back either red oak or white oak with hickory. This greatly increases your chance for producing an all wood bow that shoots well, is durable, and much more pleasurable to make. Some of the best advice on making self-bows is in the Bowyers Bible series. Cutting green wood for bows is something you should try after starting with more reliable wood and construction methods. After you cut a tree, dry the green wood to a suitable level for a bow, demention it on your home woodworking tools, you still may end up with a scrap bow. Starting out with dry and dementioned(as well as straight grained) lumber you can build a good bow on your first try if you work slowly and tiller it to your liking. Then you will know what you want out of any type of wood/tree that you want to fashion a bow out of. Usually adequate quality hickory boards are avilable with local suppliers, and oak is easy to find, just look for straight grain.
This is kind of long, though I’ve had many failures before I began making good shooting bows and thought this may help you out. Good luck.
