Anybody ever back a bow with tanned deer hide?

[SEMO_HUNTER]

Just curious if anyone has ever used a tanned deer hide on a bow as a backing?
If so, what glue and a bit on the process if you would.

I brought a tanned deer hide home from my brother's house today that he had in his basement that suffered some water damage. The hide wasn't damaged by the water, but when I asked about the hide my bro said take it home with ya. So that got me to wondering what else it would be good for besides lacings, gloves, knife sheaths, and such. Maybe it would make a good bow backing also?

Any thoughts, advice, comments, discussions, experiences, are all welcome.

[macbow]

Semo, I don't see where it would benefit the bow.
It would add weight. Using rawhide is thin and as it dries it would shrink to a tight fit.
Be interesting to see what some of the more experienced guys have tried.
Ron

[SEMO_HUNTER]

Well having never actually held a slab of rawhide in my hands I don't have anything to compare the deer hide to, but it's fairly thin. Somebody with experience using the two would have to clue me in on how the rawhide compares to deer hide I guess?

If not a bow, then what about a bowstring? I've seen them made from rawhide before in videos, maybe deer hide would also make a string using the same procedure? I dunno, just fishing for info here.

Thanks for the reply Mac. I might pose this question over on PA also and see what those fellas have to add, I swear some of them must be half Native American with some of the stuff they come up with. It just blows my mind the things they make out of natural materials.

[Ranger44]

Just read a thread previous to this one about using a tanned snake skin to back a bow. Consensus is that tanned skins don't work.

[Pat B]

You can back a bow with tanned skin but there is no benefit and tanned leather loves to soak up moisture.   Make yourself a quiver or possibles bag from the skin or just use it as a rug or wall hanging.
  I know a guy from Fla that has a side quiver made with a deer hide. When he ground hunts he hangs the quiver on a branck to the side of where he is set up and uses it as a decoy. He has killed a few deer that walked right up to the quiver hanging on the branch.

[Roy from Pa]

Geeze you Rebels:)

[SEMO_HUNTER]

Thanks for the input guys. You don't know till you ask right?

I've got lots of uses for the deer hide, just wondering about the bow aspect of it.

Thanks for stopping by Roybert, been wondering about you since I haven't seen ya around lately.