my latest little hunter 50" hard maple (50# @ 26)

[half eye]

Getting bored so I made up a little hunting bow. The main reason is that Don Burchette gifted me a couple of eastern diamondback skins that come from some FULL GROWN snakes. The skin on this bow is one piece and there is enough left to make 2 more.....all from one skin.

I made this bow a little wider than usual at about 1-1/8" but did not want it too heavy. What I did was shorten the strong center section and leave the tips a little stiffer than normal. It came out right at 46/47 pounds @ 25". As you know most of my bows are circle tillered so this "bell" shape looks wierd to me, but it shoots very nicely at my hunting range, and still stayed under 50#. The bow has 3/4 inch of set.

2 sets of pics, the usual plus some close ups. See what yall think.
rich

[half eye]

second set

[ajbruggink]

Excellent!

[lebhuntfish]

Very nice, I love the finishing touches! What is the bow string made of? Hard to tell in the picture but it looks to me like rawhide!? Patrick

[burchett.donald]

Rich,
         Gorgeous bow man, love the profile on that bend, looks fast...Skins look awesome and the buttons set it off with the mink fur...Looks like some strong medicine...Love it!
                                                                                                                        Don

[half eye]

AJ, thank you
leb, just my usual artificial sinew string, rubbed over with the pitch/grease bow finish
Don, glad you like it for sure. Them are the most gorgeous skins I have seen, was real nervous about cutting it up for such a skinny bow. Think I'll take a picture of the regular one next to the bow.....them babies is huge.
rich

[JonW]

Nice Rich. Reading your post I admit I was a little iffy about the skins but they look good on that bow.

[half eye]

Thanks Jon, This bow is 1/3 of one skin. They are/were more than 6" wide, hell the diamonds are bigger than any of my bows are wide. May need to think about it a lot more before I get into the second one.
rich

[ajooter]

I love that bow rich!  I have a bow going on the sidewinder build along I wanted to pick your brain for.  I'll shoot ya a pm.

[Aaron H]

Very cool, the skin is beautiful

[half eye]

Thanks Falcon, I think so too.

AJ, send away bud be glad to help you if I can. My TX: (231) 587-8542 or email is rousseau.rd@att.net
rich

[adb]

Hey, Rich. I'm a bit confused by your design philosophy for this bow. You basically have no width taper, and no thickness taper. That being the case, of course the bow is doing all of its bending right in the middle. Wouldn't it be better to have some taper, and spread the bending stress over more of the mid and outer limbs?

[half eye]

adb, my bow is tapered, both in width and thickness. The only difference in this one is that the center 10" is full width instead of the normal 1/3 of the bow. Also it was tillered center out and not my usual tips in. If I had made the bow the usual way I would have had to make it not as wide (for my mid 40# desire) and would have even less skin pattern.

[Josh B]

She's a beauty Rich!  Lovely...simply lovely.  The bow is lovely that it is....not all that white stuff.  Josh

[adb]

Also it was tillered center out and not my usual tips in.

I don't follow. What do you mean by 'tillered center out?'

Also, if you had made it your usual way not as wide, wouldn't it have even less width taper, causing it to bend even more in the handle?