repairing my selfbow

[Austin]

I picked up a fairly nice hickory selfbow at the etar swapmeet, and I've already put it out of commission.  I put about a hundred shots through it, and then the grip delaminated.  I suspect whatever adhesive was used was not strong enough.
  The grip came off almost completely, only holding on at the very top end. How can I repair this? (Nothing actually broke, I took the string off as soon as the problem occurred)

The bow is 72" and is marked 50# @ 28,  but i'd say it's maybe 43 @ 29.5 inches.  Am I overdrawing it?

[Dano]

Sounds like a common problem. Drawing it the extra 1 1/2" didn't help much. The problem is when extra wood is glued on for a handle, if there isn't enough ridgid limb before the handle fades, the handle will pop off. There is a coulpe of ways to fix this. 1. you shorten the handle piece so it doesn't bend with the limb. 2. Glue another handle piece out of a bunch of laminations like plywood, and that will help, still leaving this a little shorter. 3. You can form a handle out of stacked leather, glued together with super glue, sanded and shaped the way you like. 4. This does'nt always work,  but you vcan clean the piece that poped off and the bow, re-glue it and drill some dowel rod in a few places in the handle. But this will only keep it from coming completely off.

[John Scifres]

You are overdrawing it but at that length and weight, it might be able to handle it.  Selfbows are usually designed for a maximum draw and bending them farther is generally a bad idea.

It's probably bending in the handle which is understandable if it is designed for 28" draw.  It's tougher to keep a handle on it when it does that.  Can you give some dimensions suchs as length of handle and fade, width along the limbs and thickness at the handle?

[No-sage]

I'd go with Dano's #2 suggestion.  Use URAC for the glue and you should be fine.