Does hunting in high temperature/hot sun affect selfbows?

[shaun748]

Curious if anyone has noticed any thing in this regard..Was out for opening weekend bear season and temps were about 95 degrees in the afternoon and the sun would warm up the bow quite a bit... I have a hickory flatbow so it probably helped the moisture content.
 I keep my bow braced for several hours in such conditions, though I have not noticed any excessive string follow, I am curious if this could induce additional set.

[Pat B]

I'm sure heat and humidity effect self bows. As a matter of fact, a yew bow should not be used in very cold conditions because it gets brittle and will explode. I have made 2 sinew backed bows(one osage, one hickory) and depending on the heat and humidity, they could change in weight from 45# to over 70#. I think that a self bow is less effected by heat and humidity than a sinew backed bow, and that depending on the wood as to how much or how quickly this can happen.
   When we correct crooks in a stave or want to add reflex we use heat...some wet, some dry.      Pat

[Justin Snyder]

It depends a lot on the bow I am sure.  I have taken my osage selfbow out and kept it strung in the extreme heat, and I was not happy with the results.  It feels sluggish when it gets really hot.  It also takes it longer to recover back to the 1" reflex after being unstrung.  It does eventually come back to the same profile, but you have to wait.  Justin

[George Tsoukalas]

I've shot selfbows in 95 degrees and 0 degrees. Nothing happened to them that didn't happen to me at those temps.  Humidity, depending on the wood, does affect their performance. The 2 extremes are osage and hickory. Hickory gets really sluggish in the humidity and does  take a set. Osage not so much. If I've had to leave a selfbow in a hot car I'll wait until it cools in the shade before stringing it. In the cold, most wooden bows get a little harder to draw in the cold. Pretty stiff. Just like my joints. Jawge

[Pappy]

What Jawges said,If I am hunting or just out shooting in extreme weather,hot/cold/wet
I just rest them when ever I get the chance.If I take a little break I give my bow a break also.
   Pappy

[MattE]

Yes, temperature change will affects a  selfbows performance and it doesn't take much! I shot a tournament with a self bow I made. It was early in the day about 8:00 . I could not keep my arrows from going left. The arrows were spined to stiff. They wern't when I tuned the bow? I stepped down in spine to 45# and the arrows were dead on. We shot a novelty shoot about 12:00 now the bow wanted the arrows I originally set up for it. I now keep two to three different spined arrows in reserve.

[a finnish native]

I have been shooting when -45 centigrade to 30 centigrade and have not noticed any difference in the performance of the bow.

[mullet]

i've had hickory bows turn to a noodle in 90 dg heat and the swamp starting steaming around 10 in the morning.Also had two bamboo backed osage bows blow to hell in back when it was below 35 dgr.here.I don't know if the humidity when it was that cold contributed to it or not.But I don't hunt with my laminated bows when it gets cold.

[Justin Snyder]

I guess I should specify what extreme heat is.  It is not unusual to see temps of 113*. If your bow is in the sun, it can get so hot you can hardly touch it.  Its kind of like heat treating a bow on accident.  Justin

[Marc St Louis]

I've not noticed any difference here. I don't use a bow at less than -20 C as it gets hard on the fingers to shoot and I don't hunt when it's hot.

[mullet]

  Marc,Our archery season starts Sept. 22.It usually is in the low 90's and about 65 percent humidity.Forget scent block here,just hunt the slight breeze. and change into dry clothes at lunch.

[Robinwho]

I have never had any problems, i hunted pigs down here when it was 97 last week 105 in the sun and left the bow for hours on the ATV and nothing changed.

[mullet]

   ATV, Oh my You live in Fl?

[Rich Saffold]

Just don't leave the bow in the car with the windows rolled up when its over 100 outside. No selfbow, or laminate likes to hang out in  130+ from what I have seen. (It wasn't pretty )

Rich

[shaun748]

Interesting replies and experiances..I am in California so the area I was hunting was about 45% humidity at 95 degrees and my bow got hot to touch so I would sit it in the shade for a a minute to cool it down.

I was expecting more set( though I use a low brace height which helps in this regard), but no more than 1/8 inch change at most, however today I put it on the scale and it had gained about 2 pounds...

As someone said I basically toated the belly so mabye it gained from the heat/low humidity..