Your shortest bow?

[dinorocks]

Wondering (for reasons below) what the shortest bow you have in your arsenal that is shootable.  Also, I would be interested in the bow details and some of the pros/cons.

I had a short stave of hickory that I “whittled” down to a short flat bow blank (56” long, pyramid profile, with 2” fades)…I was looking to make a 45# bow at 26” and had planned to back it with rawhide.  Well the tips cracked when I was trying to flip them a bit because I didn’t leave enough meat on the limb to rasp through potential cracks.  Now I have a 48” bow!  Does this mean that my son gets yet another bow or could this somehow work?  

Thanks!

Dino

[Roy from Pa]

62 is my shortest. I make all my bows 66 inches now.

[Pat B]

My most recent bow is a 53" t/t, sinew backed osage, 1" wide with kicked up tips. She pulls 55#@26". I'm working on a 47" sinew backed yew paddle bow. The sionew has been curing for a month now so I will continue with the tillering soon.
  My shortest selfbow is a 60" t/t osage static recurve pulling 56#@26".

[John Scifres]

I have seen a 48" rigid-handled bow made by Mickey Lotz' brother Randy.  If I remember right (this was like 13 years ago) it was 45# at 27".  It was painful to watch it bend and he said it was pretty uncomfortable to shoot.  It got way past 90 degrees in string angle so it was inefficient.  But it worked and was pretty fast with a light arrow.  He flipped the tips and added overlays to keep the string on.

The shortest 27" draw, rigid handled, bow I have made was a 56" sinew backed osage.  1.5" wide pyramid.  It still survives after thousands of shots but I can't stand to shoot it anymore.

If I were you, I'd go for a shorter draw, plains style bow and draw to your chest.  My buddy, "Burnt" here on tradgang, just made a paddle bow like that and it is a blast to shoot.

[Dan Landis]

My shortest is 55" and draws 55# @ 27".  Made from an osage belly split only 7/8" wide, bend through the handle design.  Took on almost 2" of set though, mostly due to not wating for the wood to dry enough (only 3 months from the stump) and not enough wood to work with....Dan

[Bowjunkie]

58" d/r bamboo backed osage tri-lam. String angle just hits 90 degrees at my full draw. 60# @ 28".

Shortest selfbow is 62" osage.

[Mike Mecredy]

I just sent out a recurve I designed, it's 45.5" nock to nock, measured along the curve, 42" measured straight.  44# @ 23".  I wished I'd have took a pic of it.  I call the design the "Machete",  because it would make a good brush bow.  It can be drawn to 25".  The gal I sent it to will probably post pictures next week.

[k-hat]

I have a 48" red oak backed with veneer and linen (just playin around with what i had in the garage), draws 50# at 25".  Has 2" of set (but a LOT of early tension) and i flipped the tips slightly to help with the angle.  It's fun to shoot, but a beast when i've been off it awhile.  

I say go for it!  Hickory can take it, especially if you back it with rawhide!  Flip those tips a little.  Is it too late to let it bend through the handle some? Mine has a narrowed handle section that's slightly thicker (less than 1/8") and barely bends at full draw.

Let us know how it goes!

[wildcat hunter]

A couple of months ago a friend had a 48" stave and we got 3 bows out of it. Two are well over 50lbs at 24" and the other is about 40 lbs. You sure can't pull a lot with them and 26" is pushing it.