The Bowyer's Journal/ Dean Torges Ambush Bow Contest Entry

June 15, 2006

The process of creating a hunting bow should be fun.  It should allow for personal design and flexibility.  It should allow us to influence it with our own talents and skills as well as let the medium speak to us.  Artists of all forms work with specific media in different ways.  Some we like; some we don’t.  That’s OK.  Your path is different than mine which is different than the next bowyer’s.  I like that.  This is a story about an endeavor to create the ultimate ambush bow; a short, quick bow that comes quickly to anchor and smoothly delivers a heavy arrow to the vitals of our prey at 15 yards or so.  If fun was the goal then this story of creation met it.  The application of skills, knowledge and creativity to a problem should always be so.  I hope all of you have as much fun as I did. 

I have been involved in making wooden bows for 10 years as of October 2006.  I joined the ranks of aspiring bowyers as, ironically enough, the internet created a wave of interest in the late 1990s.  The wave has subsided on the web I think but there is some deep-seated interest still pooling throughout the country.  In the murky depths of one of these pools sits an old-time wooden bowyer who has watched, I think in amusement at times and frustration at others, the waves pass over the heartland of the country.  His name is Dean Torges from Ostrander, Ohio.  He signs his internet postings as “Gepetto” on the web.  It's a fitting "handle" for many reasons.  His tagline is “Carve a little wood, pull a few strings, and sometimes magic happens”.  This may refer to the creation of bows but I wonder if that is what he really means.  I believe the true, Freudian reason this conniving gentleman’s web signature is that he likes to pull strings of all sorts.  Not just of bows; but of bowyers.  

Thus, the subject of this monologue is a little contest cooked up by Dean and Brian Halbleib, creator of the magazine “The Bowyer’s Journal”.  The contest, I think, is aimed at resurrecting some interest and applying all the lessons we greenhorn bowyers of the web have learned from the past decade or so.  It is good natured and fun but still serious business.  Open to anyone willing to abide by the parameters, it will surely be an interesting display of the spectrum of talents residing around the country and beyond.  The goal is to create a relatively short, hunting weight bow that meets a series of goals.  I will discuss how my entry meets each of these in succession.

Now for my entry



Nothing I did here is any surprise.  Nothing is new or extraordinary.  In fact, virtually any Native American plains style bow of the same length will return the same rewards to its creator.  Generations of experience can’t be wrong.  The main difference between my entry and most plains bows is the length.  While my goal is to shoot from a tree stand or blind, most Indians wanted to shoot from a horse’s back.  They also had no requirement to draw 28” nor pull 60#.  So adjustments were thrust upon me.  Happily I might add.

The Specifications:

Bow type:  Bend-in-the-handle Selfbow

Wood type: Osage Orange

Total Length:  59”

NTN Length: 58”

Physical weight: 16 oz.

Width: 1-1/8” for the center 12” or so tapering to ½” nocks

Thickness: 5/8” tapering to tips

Set: 1-1/8” straight off the string

Draw length: up to 29”

Draw weight: 62# at 28” of draw

The requirements:

1) It must be capable of staying braced for hours on end, day after hard hunting day, and not lose perceptible cast. The arrow you shoot in the early morning should strike the same mark in the late afternoon at a hunting distance. 

I have no chronograph or large field for the scientific measurement of cast.  I can only tell you that I shot an arrow in the morning, left the bow braced and shot an arrow in the evening.  My admittedly limited shooting skills showed no depreciation of cast at 15 yards.  I can place arrows in the same spot at both times without conscious adjustment.  It will kill any animal at 15 yards after staying braced all day, I will attest to that.  It shoots hard!

2) It must be quiet without the use of string silencers. Since most opportunities are close quarter at animals capable of eye-blink maneuvers, it shouldn't make more noise than a walnut hitting soft ground. 

We have large walnuts and hard ground here in Indiana.  This bow is quieter than that, I assure you.  It has a relatively thick, 14 strand, Dacron B-50 string with 2 extra stands in the top loop and timber hitch at the bottom.  It has tiny tips and a thick but soft strike plate.  A 6.5” brace height keeps the string off my arm.  The arrows are matched in spine.  Nothing else comes to mind that could be done to quiet it more.  You be the judge.


Both tips were narrowed from about 5" out to around a half inch.
   
I took as much mass as I could from the tips to help out with noise and shock.  You can see the thickish sting loops here too.

3) It must be easily braced. Even if you're sitting or lying on the ground, you should be able to brace it effortlessly and positively with one throw, without the string slipping from the nock or the bow jumping from your hand. 

1-1/8” of deflex, a short length, and deep nocks help us here.  I can easily string this bow from any position.  I am not an overly strong man either.

4) It must balance in the hand so it is quick to point of aim. Also, it must be short and maneuverable so you can bend into an awkward position and shoot from brushed-in tree stands or restrictive ground blinds without bouncing the bottom limb off platform cables, branches or the ground, or waving the top limb about like a semaphore flag. 

I can think of no better bow for this requirement.  Any bow can be gotten used to but this becomes an extension of your body within 10 shots.  It shoots where you want it to without too much thought put into it.  The bow in your hand stays put.  No diving of the top limb or settling of the bottom occurs as you carry it through the brush.  It is extremely light and so tiny as to make maneuvering a breeze.

5) It must be forgiving. If you need to turn to one side on a tree stand platform and tuck the lower limb between your legs for clearance, for example, or cant the bow in some unusual position, the bow must not want to torque or twitch from such an awkward posture or the likelihood of a tortured release. In other words, the handle must provide for a repeatable grip and the limbs must be of a stable design.

The handle is built up from the tiny limbs using leather lacing covered with ultra-soft buckskin.  It is rounded so that there is no question when it is being properly held.  A floppy leather arrow rest provides for a consistent launching pad for the arrow.
 

6) Even though it is short, no more than 58" nock to nock, it must be smooth to a 28" draw, so that no stacking hinders reaching full draw from any kind of awkward situation—cold, stiffness, or an unbalanced posture. 

The bend-in-handle design allows for a pretty steady force-draw curve.  It pulls less than 4# per inch through the last 5” of draw.  It is tillered to be round in appearance through its length with the exception of the last 5” of the limbs.  These were slightly reflexed with dry heat and made rigid to keep string angle around 75 degrees.


Drawn to 28" on the tree, string angle about 75 degrees I'd guess.

7) It must pull at least 60 lbs at 28".

The bow settled in at 62# at 28” on my scale.

8) It must shoot a heavy arrow, in excess of ten grains per pound of draw weight, and at 15 yards strike pretty much where a considerably lighter arrow does.

An unscientific analysis of this was performed.  While a cast difference was apparent, the end result was an insignificant difference in accuracy at 15 yards.  3 arrows of 10 grains per pound were shot followed quickly by 3 arrows of 8 grains per pound.

9) It must be of dependable materials and of a reliable construction, as simple as its pursuit allows.

It is osage and a selfbow.  Built as simply as possible.  It will not fail if played with nicely.

10) It must be pleasurable to shoot. No kick, no shock to the nervous system, nothing unorthodox to the shooting style.

The tips are as low in mass as possible.  The force/draw relationship is steady out to full draw.  The handle is soft.  The release is crisp.  It’s braced adequately to keep the string off the arm.  The string bisects the handle.  What more could you want?

The accumulation of knowledge, skills, and techniques over a decade of making bows has allowed me to judge a full range of bow designs on a fair basis.  I have my favorites.  I would not have thought this design of a bow would have been in the running but after an accident last year, I think I am going to be forced to retire my go to bow; a sinew-backed osage static recurve.  I plan to make a twin to it for this year’s hunting season.  This new bow, built for the purpose of exploration, makes that pursuit a little less critical.  I may have a new go-to bow.  And I had a whole lot of fun in the meantime.

The prize for the winner of this challenge is a deer hunt in Ohio.  I never entered to win but to learn and enjoy the process.  For that I win anyway.  If I am fortunate to get to make the hunt, then this will be a worthy weapon to face off against those whitetails.  If not, it may just accompany on an elk hunt to Idaho in September.


Drawn from the left side.  I'm pulling about 27" here.


And from the right.


And the view the deer in Ohio, Elk in Idaho, or the judges if they don't pick me will have :)