What are your views on Fiberglass bows?

[Josh B]

I don't have anything against FG.  I just prefer my sticks.  There are some beautifully made FG laminates out there to be sure,  but I don't know how to make one.  I'm also a bit frugal(alright, Mrs. Doc is frugal but I have to answer to her) so I can't bring myself to buy materials to make a fancy bow when I can harvest wood for free to make my simple sticks and miss the target just as much.  Although, if any of you folks have any fiberglass tree seeds for trade, I might give it a try if they grow in KS. 

JW-at ten to fifteen bucks a shot, shooting a Barrett isn't a very prolonged fun experience.   At least its not on my ammo budget.  And just for the record, I have never shot at any four-legged critters with a Barrett.  Josh

[hammerstone]

  i shot fg for several years because i just could not stand the sight of those wheels on the end of my brothers bow thing.Then one day i spied the first issue of primitive archer.something about that snake skin backed bow and stone pointed arrow really hit home, and i have been home ever since

[jonathan creason]

I like glass, and wood , and horn, etc. Here is the profile I'm building with glass bows. Smooth, fast, and quiet. Thinking of trying all organic material in the form.
Jeff

I love that profile, looks very stable.  If you ever find yourself in need of a sharp object and an extra lefty laying around let me know. 

[Wolf Watcher]

My Opinion:  My first bow was a brown mat fg bow I got from Herter's when I was 15 years old.  That was many many years ago and since that time I have been thru all the stages of bow hunting.  While teaching and coaching in Reedsport Oregon,  several of my wrestlers and students made fg bows on a form the school had stored in the wood shop.  The materials came form Bingham Archery.  I susposed in a three year period we made around fifty of these recurve bows not all of which were successful.  I hunted with that bow for many years in Oregon and back home on the ranch in Wyoming.  I loved that bow.  I won a check pool and with that money I bought a Martin Cougar wheel bow.  Was surprised at how quickly I became a much better archer, but not a better hunter.  Trying to pack that thing on a back country horse back hunt was a real pain.  I had one of our PA advertisers build me a "Prong Horn fg" bow.  It is my back up bow and carp fishing rig.  When I met Mike Hawk Huston and watched him harvest elk with his stick bow my bows became wood and bamboo.  I really don't need to kill another elk or deer so hunting has became one of just spending time in the hills buguling elk and hunting sheds.  We still eat the meat, so harvesting is necessary.  I appreciate everyone's feelings towards the bows they hunt with and realize that we cannot completely be free of some modern tools we use to make these wonderful bows.  Pappy says you should "never fall in love with a piece of wood," but I have never been able to do that.  Thanks for reading!  Joe

[okie64]

Interesting thread here. Ive always wandered how many of the guys on here still shoot or build fg bows. Like many others over the years I worked my way backwards through the bow lineup from compound to recurve to fg longbow and finally to selfbows. I still have a couple of fg bows hangin on the rack but they rarely ever get shot. If putting meat on the table were number one priority then I would hunt with the most technologically advanced weapon I could, but Im not that concerned with just simply killing deer anymore. I would rather kill a doe with a selfbow than a 140 class buck with a rifle. Not many others in the mainstream, commercialized hunting world share these same views but I guess thats what makes the folks on sites like this a little different and why I enjoy PA so much.

[Pappy]

Pappy says you should "never fall in love with a piece of wood," but I have never been able to do that.  Thanks for reading!  Joe ] Thats before it's a bow Joe. I am in love with all my selfbows, like a lot  would be a better term for my Glass bows.
   Pappy

[Christian Soldier]

Thanks Guys!

I think I'll go through with it. When I hunt, I'll probably hunt with self bows for the satisfaction/challenge.

But I'll probably by the Sage soon just for target practice and to round out my bow collection a bit.

[seabass]

i have heard that the sage is a good bow at a good price.

[Christian Soldier]

i have heard that the sage is a good bow at a good price.

Yeah, the reviews are Great. I haven't shot it yet, but from what I've read/heard and seen, the Sage is good bow at an unbeatable/fantastic price.

[Fred Arnold]

I can't help but like fg bows. I've only had the all wood selfbow bug for a little over 10 years but my first bow was an old Pearson wood longbow and that's all I had to shoot until around 1966 when a friend and I used his fg bows to shoot carp along the tail race and canal diverting into the Platte River.
Back in the late 80's and early 90's I stored away a couple old wood riser Bear and Browning compounds and started trying every old recurve that I could lay my hands on.
Beginning around 2000 I had a booth rented in a large antique center and I was buying and selling bows as fast as I could get my hands on them. I started a collection keeping the ones I was partial to and cleaning up or refinishing the others to sell.
Around the time Cabela's was expanding they would come around and purchase everything I had on hand to use on displays in some of the new stores.
Looking back I realize that I sold some of the old Bears and Brownings way cheap. Those were the good old days when you could pick up what are now considered relics for 20 to 30 bucks a pop. Back then the most I ever sold one for was probably 100 bucks and that was high. Most went for around $50-$75.
The past 6-10 years have had me trading and selling everything and trying to learn to make my own and I've still got only a few under my belt but I will admit it's addictive and self fulfilling.
I still have a couple old fg bows hanging on the wall. And I do shoot them occasionally. But a 63 Red Wing Hunter and recent 60 Kodiak were not meant to hang on walls to be ignored
That being said I really do enjoy shooting the ones I've made more. They are more personal to me.
 

[BowEd]

To me making FG bows is taking the easy route[a recipe involved]even though I don't know how to make them but do have friends who make them for themselves.Love my natural material bows even though they are harder to make without a recipe.More hands on type of work makes it more fulfilling for me.

[Olanigw (Pekane)]

Competing in school, everything was about precision.  I will always drool over the top-of-the-line carbon limbs for olympic recurve.  Modern materials make it so that the only variable is me.  If my grouping is larger than a quarter, the only thing to blame is me.  This helps me to truly perfect my technique, to become a machine.  With the right equipment on an olympic recurve (good sight, v-stabiliser, Soma tab), I can take out poker chips at 18 and even 30m.

But at that point, I'm a robot.  Everything is sterile, and it doesn't translate to any real world application.

I shoot a wood/FG lam. recurve, I would like to shoot an old FG longbow my grandad owned, pending repair, and I will soon be buying a Kaya KTB to practice my Gung-do.  But beyond that, I won't be buying anything glass until I've gotten bored with the local bow wood choices.

[Roy]

I've been building BBO bows for 10 years and a few self bows. But I love my old Bear takedown I bought new in 1971.

[coaster500]

At sixty, if it shoots I've shot it....  never really cared what anyone else shot as long as it was legal. Started shooting a glass bow in my childhood and have come full circle back to one as a hunting tool. I'm new to bow building but and have not taken an animal with one but will soon, this I know. I am scheduled for an MRI on both shoulders next month so I may be out of business for good and I will not have a problem using a tool that will keep me in the hunt whatever that might but I'll probably opt out on the Barrett ....  I will try to get in one more season before surgery next winter. It would be nice to hunt a bow I built even if only once.......... it will sadden me but what ya gonna do when age comes for you .....

I am a carnivore, and a hunter, by what ever legal means that gets me out in the woods ..............

[n2huntn]

To me making FG bows is taking the easy route[a recipe involved]even though I don't know how to make them but do have friends who make them for themselves.Love my natural material bows even though they are harder to make without a recipe.More hands on type of work makes it more fulfilling for me.

   easier to repeat, not easier to develop. red oak boards are bent into bows by nearly everyone. not everyone doing fg.