self bow set-up

[bowmaster12]

i made my first self bow this past spring and thoughts of taking a black bear with it are filling my head i should draw a tag next fall or the year after the bow is 50lbs at 21 i usually like to shoot my arrows 1 inch longer than my draw but dont have to i was wondering what you guys thought would be the ebst set up or starting point for spined arrows and wieght heads i for sure want to stick to wood shafts thanks for the input

[Jake Fr]

i would stick with wood arrows and an good bh of your liking is good. i was just given 2 billets of pacific yew and am gonna start on a couple other ones here later good luck and have a blast with your adventure jake


p.s in the how to section om here mike at maddog archery was shooting birch dowls outa a 50lb bow with no shelf and doin good just some thing to look at

[Looper]

So, just to confirm, it's 50@21"? If so, why so short of a draw? Do you have physical limitations or is that what your form allows. For reference, my normal sized 10 year old neighbor draws 21".

Or is this the type of bow styled after some native american ones? If that's the case, I'd go with some bamboo shafts and the smallest legal- width 2 blade broadheads you can find. I think I'd leave them much longer than 22", though. You'll need the extra mass and it will be easier for you to tune the arrow. If you cut them to 22", you'll probably need 15-20# spined shafts.

Now, that being said, that is awfully light to use on black bear. They aren't hard to kill, but they are a lot tougher than a whitetail. The last thing you want is to only penetrate one lung.

I think I'd do some testing first to see how the bow actually performs. Others can chime in here, but I think I'd want to send a 500 grain arrow at least 150 fps at a bare minimum for black bear, and that's pushing it.

[bluegill]

Jesse,
I have hunted with selfbow exclusively the last decade and have built them for the past 18 years.
Typically I start 10 # under measured draw weight and adjust point weight until I get good arrow flight.
The problem is the 21” draw or 22” arrow. Wood arrows are spined on 26 inch centers, and the shorter you cut the shaft the higher the spine.  In order to get a desire effect for your set up with a 125 grain broadhead at 22”, you are looking for shafts in the 10-15 # range, they simply do not exist.

You could shoot longer shafts with a high point weight. I would buy the lightest spined shafts you could and start with a heavy point 190 or better and then start cutting down to 26 “, and see what your flight does.

35# at 26” will be close with a 200 grn head.

I have no experience with cane arrows.
Good luck!

Sean

[bowmaster12]

the bow is what i woudl called fashioned towards native american style bows the people that helped me make the bow showed me how to hold and draw one is much taller than me and he drew to 21 my recurve draw is 27"  I apreciate the help and the info like i said im open to suggestions i like the idea of a heavy point a longer arrow is fine i did have an old cx heritage 150 with 100 grain brass insert and 125 type seems to fly pretty good out of the self bow.