Quickie bow ?

[Saxton]

Im looking to make a bow quick from a green tree or limb around 50#. What's the best way to go about this . I Know good things take time . What I am looking at is a kind of survival situation challenge / want something to take a deer with by Oct . Also half dozen arrows . I leave the head steel since I haven't done much knapping .

[aaron]

any bow made from green wood will have disappointing cast- that is it will not shoot an arrow as fast as one made from dry wood. your 50 lb bow will shoot like a 35 pound bow. If you must do it, rough it out to about 3/4 inch thick and let it dry as long as you can. By the time you tiller it out, it will have several inches of set. choose a wood that tolerates fast drying, like vine maple.

not that you asked, but i I wanted to test my survival ability, i would practice trapping small mammals.

You could make a quickie bow out of an oak board.
do you have another bow you could use for hunting?

[twisted hickory]

Go find a 4 inch sapling such as hickory. Cut it down, split in half, debark both halves and draw knife the entire bow profile. Next polyurathane the back and ends only. On day two floor tiller the bow staves. Let them set in a cool place with air circulating over them for a week. Next put both floor tillered staves in a car with the windows up to quick dry them. Watch for cracking if they start to crack they are drying too fast rehydrate. This should get a shootable bow in about 30 days. At 30 days tiller the bow and go huntin

Note: this is not ideal but will get a shootable bow in most cases. I always end up w cracks when quick drying.
Greg

[Joec123able]

Yep as stated a bow from green wood will shoot incredibly slow and won't put a lot of energy into the arrow. You got realize there's no rushing in bow making your best bet is a board bow but still if youve never made a bow it's gonna take a few try's. I doubt you're gonna make a decent bow get accurate with it and then take a deer by October just not going to happen

[Thesquirrelslinger]

its possible.. IF you buy pre-seasoned wood :0
buy a red oak board 1x2 70" long and make a bow out of it. Unbacked. Shoots good...
my fave is a #55@28 red oak board bow 68" long, bendy handle. Shoots really fast... and the funny part is... I re-tillered it 3 times.

[JW_Halverson]

+1 on Twisted HIckory's description.  I've done this with a hackberry stave and got pretty lucky, it made a great shooter.

[DavidV]

+2 for Twisted Hickory. I did it with walnut and although it took some set it had incredible cast.

[huisme]

This ash thing went from tree to bow in one month.

http://imgur.com/a/HfHii

Split and belly split, debark, and profile in one day, floor tiller two days later, half tiller a week after that, finish tillering one week later, apply finish after three days, using a closed up car in the sun after floor tillering to speed drying.

[sleek]

You want a survival bow? Go directly to Lowes, buy a package or two tomato stakes. Tie them togeather into a bundle bow. I made a 50 lb bow like that and it shoots great. Took all of 30 min.

[Del the cat]

I made the 'One hour bow' from Hazel with just an axe. But like everyone has said being green it wasn't a great performer.
Go wide and flat.
Del

[twisted hickory]

Jw and David,
Glad to see someone agrees w me I have made 4 that way and it works great. Just gotta watch for cracks. I am going to be down to quick drying maybe cause I went through 14 staves so far this year. 
Greg

[artcher1]

I don't know what your skill level is, but you can make MORE than a serviceable bow in the time allotted. Wood, once dried quickly, is still soft wood. Performance will degrade quickly. Now, if you don't want that to happen, then do this:

Do as advised, cut you some hickory, shape the bow out immediately, and seal (I use painter's tape myself) the back, ends and fades. Here, you want the bow as close to finish dimensions as possible. It'll dry quicker that a way. Finish out the handle and fades. Trick is to remove as much wood as possible for quick drying.

Now, in 4 weeks, if kept in the house between 40-50% RH, you can then induce some reflex as you heat temper it's belly without fear of checking from the heat. That'll make for a better performing bow. But, you can do better. Depends on how big of a gambler you are. Belly may be hardened at this point but most of your set will come from the back's fibers stretching. Gotto tighten those up as well. A very light heat tempering will take care of that. A backing of some sort will provide some extra measure of confidence here.

Good luck, and keep us posted...........Art B

[Saxton]

cool I have a palmer recurve as my main bow . Just thinking it was a fun idea , challenge to see it done by Oct 1st .

[Saxton]

artcher1 I was thinking of adding the the reflex with a hot rock I think I remember reading Ishi used this method any advice? also can I heat temper with just a fire ? and I also have a bunch of HHB growing around here not much hickory but I could find some

[JW_Halverson]

 Well, what are you doing wasting time in here...clock is ticking. tick tock, tick tock!   

Don't forget to post pics as you go!