How To Make A Survival Bow In A Few Steps

You can never be too prepared for an emergency situation. However, it is in such cases that you wish you had some survival skills on your fingertips. The ability to craft a survival bow is one such skill that could easily determine your fate.

Unlike other traditional weapons, a bow is a crucial resource as it increases the distance between you and the target. Another advantage is that it employs stealth, another important factor in survival. You will love to know that the steps you will learn here will equip you with the knowledge to make a survival weapon. These steps combined with some bow hunting tips can come in handy when you least expect them.

Picking The Best Wood

The very first step in your procedure is selecting the right wood for your bow. The best pick should be sturdy but not rigid. Therefore, when it comes to choosing wood, your ideal choice would be from hardwood. Some examples include Osage orange, black locust, beech, hickory, maple, yew, and Ash among others. For those who may be challenged identifying their trees, here is a criterion you can apply to come up with the best choice.

Take a small twig the size of your pinky finger. Bend it to some extent and allow it to snap back. As you do this, observe how it responds. Is it quick or sluggish? Next, bend your twig into a c-shape and see if it breaks or it remains intact. Lastly, break it. You will know if it is of high quality by how it breaks. If it snaps easily in two, it is of poor quality. If it fails to break completely but instead kinks, it is an ideal choice.

Parts of Your Bow

Now that you know the wood to use for your bow, you need an outstanding piece of it to make your weapon. This piece of wood is known as the bow stave. A good bow stave should be;

• Straight
• At least 5 feet long and 2 inches thick
• Without side branches, knots or cracks

Next, you need to figure out the belly, back, and handle of your bow stave. How to do this;

• Set the stave on the ground upright and hold the top loosely with one hand
• Push the middle of the bow lightly and allow it to rotate revealing the slightly curved part
• The inner part of the curve makes the belly
• The outer part of the curve makes the back

To determine the handle, you need to find the center of the stave and mark three inches from each side of the midpoint. What you have in between is your bows handle.

Shaping Your Bow

This is the crucial stage where you give your bow stave its perfect curve. To do this set the bow on the ground, hold the top and push it slightly outwards. Your other arm can assist to push outwards from the belly side of the handle. You want to observe how the limbs bend. Start whittling away wood from the areas that do not bend easily while leaving the sectors that bend a lot intact. As you do this, remember that you are only working on the belly side.

Whittle away the wood slowly until the limbs are bending evenly. When you finish, your bent bow should assume the shape of a parabolic curve.

When you are satisfied with your bows curve, you need to carve small notches on the tips where you will tie the string. You do not want your bow cord sliding off when you aim. Therefore, cut a 45-degree notch not too deep on the top and bottom side of the limb ensuring not to touch the back.

Stringing Your Bow

Before you can add the bow cord, you need to find to find the ideal one as not any string can serve the purpose. Some good materials include; Rawhide, sinew, nylon rope, milkweed, dogbane, yucca, twine and nettle among others. You should know that any stiff synthetic cord will do the trick. An elastic cord will only interfere with your bow’s power. As you string the bow, ensure that you have at least five inches between your bow cord and the handle.

At this point, if you have some handy arrows and a few bow hunting tips, you can make your first kill. What’s more, with the best hunting rangefinder, you can easily spot and drop your target as you maintain your distance. Additionally, if you are not in a life-threatening condition, you can tiller your bow, check its draw power, sand the belly, or even apply some oil on it for longevity.