most durable bow design?

[Mudd]

Shawn... I wouldn't have said it much differently.
It's just hard to beat a simple stick and string made out of a tough wood that wants to stay in it's original shape so when you bend it it tries its best to get back there and with that the arrow is launched with every ounce of authority it has... It's just that simple.. in my simple way of thinking.

[Northwest_Bowhunter]

Originally posted by Shaun:
I'll still take a good osage self bow for all around hog whackin', pole vaulting, spear chucking, fast stream wading and scream like a little girl self defense and keep on tickin' performance.

So you like an osage club with a string on it?  Works for me too, when I am holding my Hill style 70" longbow unstrung it still feels like a weapon.  Pointy end I am sure I could push through a pig (if it would hold still) and limbs I could knock anything shy of a grizzly bear senseless with.

[SpikeMaster]

Any narrow thick limbed longbow. A Hill.

[UnderControl16]

I have to agree with anyone that has said a solid self longbow. I make 70" longbows and from the 25# to the 43# i bet i could do anything to them and they'd still shoot. I've dropped them countless times, dug for arrows with them, hit a couple people   , and "thrown" them and then gone and shot them all the same. I'm going to have to try out that fish'n pole idea though   . Min are oak and i have no worries about how much i put them through.

[Shifting Shadow]

I had a almost straight limbed glass laminate longbow that I used for a walkind stick briefly one Winter. It had a rubber limb tip protector on the lower limb. It was sturdy and worked well until the deep snow sucked off the limb protector.

[Jim Wright]

Nightowl, if I came across as rude to you I sincerely apologize, it was not my intent.

[Stone Knife]

 I bet an osage Hill would last at least two pig whacks. haha  

With that being said, I would hate to take a hit upside the head with a piece of bamboo

[Bow man]

Originally posted by amar911:
Remind me never to loan one of my bows to Arwin!        

Allan

   That's why I got one in his hands I figured if it could survive a year with him. it could survive 30 years with any one else

[Chris Shelton]

hmm a lot of you guys like the longbows . . .which surprises me.  I love my longbow, it is so "traditional" lol.  But as far as the most "indestructible", um no, lol.  Sure recurve limbs can twist, crack, break.  But I just read an article in TBM about a primitive archer who strung his bow as the pronghorn was coming in!!!!  I think not . . . what about string follow, and all that jazz that comes with hickory longbows.  Now that aint bamboo or osage, but I am sure they have some too???  

Ya just cant beat a well taken care of recurve!!!  As far as durability!!!

[Ben Maher]

Chris , i like recurves and have owned many , but in thirty years of shooting both recurves and longbows , also acting as dealer for some "stickbow"archery companies i can pretty much assure you that purely based on limb design a deep cored longbow is more robust than a wide limbed thin cored recurve . That is why one has to watch for limb twist so much more on a curve than a Longbow.
And as for stringing up as game approaches, i pretty sure that Saxton and Pope kept their bows unstrung a lot of the time whilst hunting and i have often done so when hunting with my selfbow.

I would never use my beautiful recurves as a walking stick..my longbow don't get such dainty treatment and are seen afield being used for many uses of which I'm sure their makers did not intend! And all still going strong. Bows these days are very well made and are all durable, but to suggest that glassbacked deep cored longbows are not as durable as a  recurve is a bit too dogmatic .

[bmb]

i said that i thought an ilf recurve would be durable but now i'll say an ilf longbow will be more durable:) and yeah, even if a self bow has deep core limbs they are nowhere near as durable as a glass laminate bow. a selfbow, like stated above, has to be babied as far as leaving strung and even moisture protection. i wouldnt want to worry about stringing my bow in time to get a shot at an animal.

[James Wrenn]

A good osage bow can be left strung for many hours once it has settled in.Stringing one as you see an animal coming is certainly not needed any more than  with a glass bow.To think otherwise means someone has not used many osage bows.jmho

[Ben Maher]

James , didn't mean to suggest that leaving your bow unstrung[ selfbow ]  is a common nor necessary method of hunting . Rather that really the only thing you have to do with a selfbow in my albeit limited experience is occasionally unstring it to prevent excessive string follow / compression failures. Aside from that my selfbow is about as robust as it gets ...

[Spotted Quoll]

My 86# @28" 70" Kramer 'Autumn' Takedown longbow is a Hill style longbow (with good reason as the Kramers worked at HH archery for many years) and it is built like a tank.

Oh, it is also a very beautiful and functional arrow slinger as well!

[Chris Shelton]

Any bow that is 70# or higher is going to be built like a beast!  The extra wood has something to do with that.  Strip away 30 or so pounds and then which is stronger??  A recurve may be thinner but a longbow is also not as wide . . . so in theory if a longbow limb twists ever so slightly then it is bad news!

Either way they are strong!  You really have to mishandle any modern laminated bow to screw it up . . selfbows- still have to be babied a bit!  Well at least I baby mine . . .