What is the smallest practical hunting bow?

I am curious about how small a bow can be before it becomes impractical for hunting.

I am not a bowhunter at all, so apart from messing about with homemade ones in the woods as kids, i've not done any hunting with a bow.

However this would most probably be the way i would go if i needed to in the future. The thought however of lugging around a huge bow of a significant length seems "annoying" unless neccessary.

Have any of you ever used shorter bows before? Does the length have anything to do with accuracy and power?

Thanks in advance for any advice on this one.

CX.

Great question.

For hunting, what makes the grade is force. Force is achieved by using the leverage of the bow against the string. I imagine you already knew this or had a good idea about it.

This leverage can be achieved by having long levers (a long bow) or mechanically enhanced levers(a compound bow)

The compund bow will almost always deliver superior force for it length. They are adjustable and compact, but at a price. If it breaks, it done.

A Long bow has the disadvantage of less power, but it's as simple as they come. A newer, recurved long bow can deliver great force and is far less prone to malfunction.

To your question.... A short bow? Absolutely. Compound bows are strong and powerfull.

In a survival situation, a recurve long bow is going to be more reliable. As far as the length of a "long bow".... short = unstable. That's why a short "bow" is normally attached to a stock ( a crossbow)

Hope this helps.

A great explanation there, thank you.

See this brings up another point, one about the distance you can realisticaly get to your target. I've never hunted deer before, but i know how hard it is getting up close to them.

If i sacrificed length in a bow (not a compound), would i be able to get the power to even reach and kill my target?

Also, when your bought bow breaks, what method, and how big do you make your homemade bow in the woods? There must be a world of difference between a bought bow and one you have had to knock up yourself from a tree limb.

Lots of things to think about if you are making a bow from scratch out in the wilderness.

Thanks again for the advice, has definately given me food for thought.

CX.

A good bow with about 60# of draw is good for about 30 yards accurately. Bow hunting is all about scouting ahead, picking a tree, and sitting in the stand and waiting. The challenge is all in the scouting and tracking, learning their habits and picking the right place to wait.

A home made bow is a tough one. Most bought bows are laminated and formed. The only tips I copuld offer regarding making a bow is, light strong hardwoods. Hickory works good, maybe maple, aspen, cyprus... it all depends on where you are. Start big and wittle it down to what you really want. Straight grain is good. If you have time to curve and dry it, you can improve the power a little.

Me, If my bow broke I'd take the string and make a nice snare out of it.

reply to post by CX


For the wilderness, a bow can be easy to make, you want a strong flexible wood, such as ash. As is a very strong and flexible wood that keeps its structure very well. For string, nylon rope works well, you should have it in your survival kit, but if you don't, heres a good guide to making cord and rope from dead plants! Making rope from dead plants no tools required!
Another good natural resource to make a bow out of is bamboo for the same reasons, but it wont be as durable.

For arrows, I would suggest cyprus, it's grain and structure make it excelent in flight and stabilizes well against wind. For fletching of the arrows, you can split the end of the arrow and wedge feathers or dead leaves in. For the arrowhead you can either sharpen it, or split it to become 2-4 sharp prongs. Though i suggest either animal bone (knives come in handy) or scrap metal, hell anything sharp works, make sure it is heavy enough.

For the bows, you want to look for saplings, they are more flexible and cure better. For the arrows, branches. Hope this helps a little.

Disclaimer: I'm a theist but not of the Abrahamic faiths. I have minor biblical scholar and scriptural skills. Also I am not a scientific/legal or medical expert in any field. Beware of my Contagious Memes! & watch out that you don't get cut on my Occams razor.All of this is my personal conjecture and should not be considered the absolute or most definitive state of things as they really are. Use this information at your own risk! I accept no liability if your ideology comes crashing down around you with accompanying consequences!

Explanation: You DON'T need no "ADVANCED" coke bottle bow!!! Check these survival masters bows and arrows out and the look about as bad as the # toy versions. You only need the bow to get the arrow to the target and pierce the skin/hide. Note to self: poison toad darts kill just as lethally and cause negligible physical damage to the target!

See them here...



And for a closer look...



Personal Disclosure: Sigh! The "God's Must Be Crazy!!!" is sure APT right now! Watch out for falling coke bottles everybody...the movie clearly shows that "advanced western consumables" can FUBAR a society pretty quickly!!!

reply to post by exfed


The bow woods of preference are English Yew or Osage Orange. Work from a split billet of a length of your choice. It must be split and not sawed. The back is tapered from the grip to the tips. The face should be scraped so that it is does not cross even one line of grain, if possible. Arrows are a different matter.

You may also wish to look into a Mongolian or Horse bow. The over length between the tillers along the bowstring is less than even modern fiberglass composite recurves and has a desirable feature of a feeling of let-off similar to compound bows.

For hunting of larger game of deer, boar, etc. I would say nothing less than 45-50lbs of draw if shooting in the 30-40 yard range. Bow hunting without using weighted stabilizers or especially bow sights does require immense practice to learn how to fire in an arc at various distances for accuracy.

One disadvantage of both compound and Mongolian bows is that they have to remain strung whereas longbows and recurves can and should be unstrung when not in use. Both Mongolian and reurves can be made "in the field" over time with a moderate amount of skill of the bower. A traditional longbow is naturally easier to do requiring less effort and skill and (most importantly time and materials) to be effective.

A throw away emergency quasi-effective longbow can be fashioned in less than 30 min. Poundage of course will be in the 20-35lbs range at best, but if disparately needed is better than nothing. It would also be worth noting that in the same time a very functional atlatl could also be made for larger game.

For small game such as squirrel or possibly rabbit on the large end, blowguns are very effective. Again this does require practice and breath control. But darts are easy to make by whittling, as are throwing darts for short ranges for larger targets.

A 30 to 35 pound pull bow is about the bottom end of what you would want to use. I had a 70# recurve that I shot a lot and hunted with. However this weight of bow is hard on arrows. We have a 35 # bow that my wife and I both shoot. Arrows are much easier to make for this smaller bow as they to do not need to have as stiff a spine as arrows for a larger bow. Flight feathers from geese make great fletching. A fletching jig is a big help. With a lighter bow I would stay away from four blade broad heads and might just stick to two blade heads.

great thread, ive actually been thinking alot about bow and arrows lately as ive realized, someday modern society will fail, maybe not today tomorow or even a 100 years from now but someday it will more then likely, and things will revert back to ancient ways, such as spears, swords, bow and arrows

we will have guns for a while, but eventually they will fail break and run out of ammo, etc

bows are something that can always be made and dont require a factory and plastics/metals etc

so really looking forward to seeing more information here in this thread about bows




but to be honest the reason im replying is because i cant believe that one poster mentions "the gods must be crazy" LOL, thats a great movie LOL @ the coke bottle reference, funny yet very applicable to society and even this thread

Originally posted by CX
I am curious about how small a bow can be before it becomes impractical for hunting.

I am not a bowhunter at all, so apart from messing about with homemade ones in the woods as kids, i've not done any hunting with a bow.

However this would most probably be the way i would go if i needed to in the future. The thought however of lugging around a huge bow of a significant length seems "annoying" unless neccessary.

Have any of you ever used shorter bows before? Does the length have anything to do with accuracy and power?

Thanks in advance for any advice on this one.

CX.

I reccomend you do a wiki search on archery, I recently have been reading some articles on bows used by the Bulgars and Hungarians which are very very very similar to the short laminated hunting bows used by the Mongolians cavalry of old. These recurve bows were designed to be used by short people riding horses so they are very compact.

Originally posted by CX


Have any of you ever used shorter bows before? Does the length have anything to do with accuracy and power?

Thanks in advance for any advice on this one.

CX.

I had a short bow a 50# pull, I really liked it however if you go with a short bow make sure that the draw length is what you need. A short bow will "stake" very quickly. That means that if you are drawing the bow longer in inches than it was designed for it adds pull weight very rapidly. As an example my bow was designed for 50# at 28 inches of draw length, I pulled 31 inches, as a result the force or weight pulled was on the order of 60 pounds. This was great for hunting however it reduced the life of the bow. I kept it unstrung when not in use but one day I took it out to shoot and the bow blew up, the limb shattered on me at full draw. A short bow is less forgiving than a longer bow.

My standard target was a 3 inch circle. I could hit that almost all the time at 30 yards. That is about the size of a deers heart. At 40 yards I could not hit it. 30 yards was my max range with that bow.