I have been making selfbows and shooting both since 1991(I did build a selfbow in 69-70 from a lilac limb). I go back and forth all year in practice, but as time goes on I hunt with selfbows more and more. I also have trialed many backed and recurves. As I exceeded 25 years of selfbow making I go more and more with long osage selfbows than anything else. I prefer them for most of my hunting to include whitetails and elk. I have gone back to glass bows in the last three years only for Texas hogs. Reason is the place we go has big russians that are hard to kill, get chased year around with helicopters and machine guns, and it gets very windy often. I also hunt movement to contact and "jump shoot" them. Running/alert hogs at longer range in high winds gives advantage to s a center cut riser bow with high FOC carbons pushing big snuffers. Last trip I only got one shot, and a selfbow would have worked better as it was a very short range ambush of a pig that did not know I was there. Not that a selfbow could not work fine for such. My first several years I went back and forth when I had issues with MC in my selfbows. Super wet / humid late summer early fall followed by super dry house heated with electic heat would change my bow performance over time, change the draw weight , and bows would get brittle and break during winter. BBOs are high performance, but bamboo always seems to lift a splinter at the worst time. Toasting the belly on an osage selfbow makes them identical in performance, durability, and handling, both long and short term, as Abbott Mild R/D longbows (and other bows with similar profile and not cut close to center shot shelves). I prefer to carry selfbows as they are much more pleasant to carry and shoot, and are much quieter and stable in the current form under hunting conditions. I do not believe in high wrist grips or cutout shelves on selfbows. To be as successful with a homemade selfbow as a custom longbow and carbon arrows one must advance in his bowyer skills to the point his bows never change under hunting conditions, be able to tune/attain a consistant setup that gives true knock travel under all conditions, and be able to practice year around on a regular basis. Last 4 years I have gone out with glass lam longbows, hybrids, recurves, and my prefered design osage selfbows and shot arrow for arrow, changing bows/setups with every arrow, with the intent to hunt for the season with the bow I can consistantly shoot best. The past four years that has been an osage selfbow. Honestly, I could sell my glass lam bows today and never miss them at this point. I also have attempted to make the perfect glass lam bow the last 8 years. I can repeatedly make an osage selfbow exactly how I want every time, I cannot do that with a glass lam bow. If I order a custom glass lam bow I need to modify it significantly to get it to where I want it. In the end I have found the biggest obstacle to a complete and permamant shift is confidence in your own mind, that the selfbow is not only just as lethal, it is truly superior as a hunting bow. Took me 25 years to come to that reality.
Topic: Self Bows Quest and back to Glass Bows - What Say You? (Read 1064 times)
