A hunting bow is the most affordable weapon that is not so difficult to make with your own hands. Its advantage over the purchased one is in cost, and also in the fact that it can be made “for yourself”, taking into account individual characteristics. The only thing that needs to be taken into account when making a bow for shooting with your own hands is that the maximum tension force of the string, established by law, is no more than 40 kg/s. You can learn more about how to make a hunting bow with your own hands.

Homemade bow

Before you make a bow with your own hands, you need to prepare the material. Wood for making archery weapons must have such characteristics as strength, flexibility, and elasticity. The material for the workpiece must be straight, even, without knots or any damage. In principle, any tree is suitable for making a bow: birch, oak, apple, juniper, maple, hazel, ash, elm, yew or teak.

The branch for harvesting must be cut down in winter, at sub-zero temperatures, so that the tree sap is preserved inside. The length of the workpiece should be the required length of the future onion, plus 30 cm for cracks during drying at each end, the occurrence of which is very likely. The bark is not removed from a cut branch. Its ends are coated with oil paint to avoid internal defects in the wood when it dries, which should occur evenly.

After this, the workpiece is left to dry for up to five months in an upright position at room temperature. In this case, the surrounding air should not be too dry, otherwise the workpiece will be deformed.

How to make a hunting bow with your own hands

After making the initial blank, you need to determine the natural bend of the wooden bow. This is necessary in order to make it convenient to use the weapon in the future. To determine this bend, you need to press one end to the ground while holding the other end with your hand. The frame will turn to its natural side.

Make a bow with your own hands, diagram

It is necessary to make a future hunting bow from a round blank. The width of the bow frame is usually 3 cm. It is better to cut off excess wood with a knife, while simultaneously checking for knots and other defects.

Since a simple bow consists of a solid frame, it is worth shaping its bends while processing it with a knife. Using a knife and a plane, its side and front parts are formed. The ratio of the width of the frame and the width of the shoulders should be 3/2. The size of the shoulders should be the same so that they are not inferior in elasticity to each other. At this stage of work, do not bend the bow to prevent its deformation.

Next you need to form the bend of the bow. For this, the water steaming method is used. In particular, the arms of the bow are steamed to give them the desired bend shape. To do this, the bow is fixed with special stocks (wooden blocks) in the desired position of the arms and treated with hot water steam. In this fixed position, the weapon dries for about one week. After this, the stocks are removed, and places for the bowstring are cut out at the ends of the arms.

It should be noted that all this time the bark was not removed from the onion. After steaming it begins to peel off. It must be carefully removed without damaging the wood fibers. The remaining bark is removed with sandpaper, and the surface is covered with fat, hot wax, varnish or paint.

There is another option for how to bend a bow:

• It is necessary to make a special board with cuts, which is attached perpendicular to the center of the frame.
• Both ends of the bow are connected with a thread.
• The thread clings to one of the cuts on the board to bend it according to the required radius.

Manipulations should be carried out slowly, because sharp bending may damage the wood fibers.

Making a bowstring

It is better to make a bowstring from multi-layered rope. The bowstring for hunting must be durable, made from several threads of Kevlar, nylon, lavsan, fishing cord in reels, and other artificial threads. A thin strip of rawhide, 3mm thick, will also work. The main requirement for a bowstring thread is strength, resistance to abrasion and stretching. It should be shorter than the length between the limbs of the bow to keep it in a tight position at all times. First, it is attached to one notch of the shoulder, tightened with a knot to the bow, then stretched to the other end and tightened there. A correctly tensioned bowstring should be 15 cm from the middle of the frame of the hunting bow.

Making arrows

Arrows should be of such length that it is proportional to the length of the bow and the maximum tension of the bowstring. In practice, this means that when the bowstring is taut, the arrow tip should protrude several centimeters beyond the frame of the weapon. The diameter of the arrow should be approximately 6mm, the shaft should be perfectly straight. The materials for making arrows are spruce, pine, birch - for hunting small game and birds, as well as ash, hornbeam, oak, and other heavy and dense species for hunting wild animals. You can chop them from logs, use boards, glazing beads, or wooden square slats. Then they need to be shaped into cylinders and sanded so that the surface is smooth. The smoother the surface of the arrow, the more accurate its flight will be. In the end part you need to make a small slot for the bowstring in accordance with its diameter.

The shape of the arrowhead is made depending on the type of prey. If hunting is intended for a bird, the tip is made pointed. If you plan to hunt larger game, the tip is made of stone or triangular metal.

The arrow will also need to be fletched. The simplest one is from bird feathers, but it can be made from other materials - plastic, paper, etc.

Compound bow

A hunting bow may have a composite design, i.e. consist of two or three parts. It is easier to find material for such a workpiece than for a simple one. Typically, a composite structure consists of a central frame to which are attached two arms (“horns”) that end in string mounts. For normal shooting, they are made the same size, but for shooting from the knee, the lower shoulder should be made shorter than the upper one.

To make the arms of a composite bow, you should choose bird cherry that grows near a pond. The blanks are cleaned of bark and dried in a dark place, or even better, in the fresh air. After cutting out the main parts, the workpiece can be dried in the sun.

The component parts are glued together; in camping conditions this can be done using fish glue (made from crushed fish bones). The frame is impregnated with resin and fat, and the joints with the shoulders are tightened with animal tendons (you can use fishing line, strong rope), and again soaked in fat. When all the parts are glued into a single structure, the onion is processed with a sharp knife. To give even greater strength and durability, the surface of the onion is covered with boiled birch bark, glued along the fibers.

The hunting bow is one of the oldest human weapons, used by our ancestors. These devices reached the apogee of their development in the Middle Ages - and the most powerful and accurate were not English ones (as was presented in literature for a long time), but oriental bows: Arabic, Korean and Japanese. The target range of their shot, taking into account the simplicity of the design in comparison with modern high-tech products, reached 200–220 meters, the maximum flight range of the arrow was 870–880 meters, and the tension force was up to 80 kg! Hunting bows are still used today, but some models are quite expensive. Therefore, we suggest you make such a tool with your own hands.

What is a hunting bow and its varieties

Initially, hunting bows were made exclusively from wood and had a simple arched shape. Somewhat later, simple models were replaced by composite ones, which first used ends made of bone, and then more complex designs from separately assembled parts: a central handle, a pair of shoulders and ends. Nowadays, block compound (or Olympic) options have been added to them. However, they are not used in hunting.

Collapsible bow design

In general, the current classification of hunting bows is the following division:

1. According to the material of manufacture:
   • traditional (made of wood);
   • composite (from several materials).
2. According to the structure of the main part:
   • classic (D-shaped in a bent form, that is, with one bend);
   • recursive (M-shaped, with several bends).
3. By number of components:
   • simple bows - made from a single piece of material;
   • collapsible models - from several components.

Photo gallery: Modern hunting with industrial bows

Mathews Bow Compound Bow VilingStore Compound Bow Mathews CREED

Principle of operation

The principle of operation of classical bows (both traditional simple and recurve) is based on the creation of a pushing force that is imparted to the bowstring when the shoulders are straightened and provides the arrow with an initial speed that depends on the tension force. Moreover, the initial speed of the boom in a simple design also depends on these factors, while in block models, eccentrics located at the ends, synchronized with each other by a system of separate cables, are responsible for accuracy and speed.

A professional compound bow is made mainly from expensive and high-strength materials (carbon and fiberglass, magnesium and aluminum alloys, etc.) and contains a separate optical sighting system. In this regard, it is extremely difficult to make such a device yourself, and most importantly, very expensive. Therefore, further we will consider the assembly of hunting bows only of the classical type - both simple and complex recurve ones.

Photo gallery: Various designs of simple models

Materials and tools for manufacturing

To make a bow you will need the following tools and materials:

• hacksaw;
• plane;
• strong rope (for the bowstring);
• insulating tape;
• plastic tube (for PVC bows) or wood (for traditional options).

As for wood, yew is considered the best - it was from this wood that the famous English bows were made in the old days. In the absence of this rare species, you can use larch, rowan, ash, hazel, willow, cedar, juniper or elm. In other words, the material must be homogeneous, flexible and beautiful.

Believe it or not, this is a homemade compound bow!

Manufacturing instructions

Simple model

To make a simple PVC hunting bow, you will need a piece of SCH 40 pipe about 2.5 cm thick and a length equal to the distance between the middle of your thigh and the fingertips of an outstretched hand. Measuring 1.5 cm on both sides, make cuts. Insert and fasten the string into them so that the maximum tension is approximately equal to the length of the bow.

The length of a simple bow is longer than a compound bow.

Attach to the string so that the maximum tension is approximately equal to the length of the bow

Unfortunately, a simple plastic bow can hardly be called a full-fledged hunting weapon - this will require a much more complex composite structure, in which 2 short pieces of a thin tube (to strengthen the shoulders) about 10 cm long will be inserted into the main pipe. For the handle, you will need 1 piece of slightly larger diameter.

Homemade bow made from PVC pipe and wood. Bowstring - silk thread

When making a structure from wood, it will be necessary to cut (plane) the main part of the bow, about 5 cm wide in the central part and 1.5 cm in the sides.

Photo gallery: Making onions in the forest from improvised materials

Simple homemade bow design

Video: Homemade bow using PVC pipes

Composite

A real hunting bow should be composite, and in shape as close as possible to modern high-class sports products. As a base, it is better to use flexible and non-layered wood from the lower and dense layers of trees growing in dark areas of the forest. For example, bird cherry, growing in open, dry clearings far from water, is good for “horns.”

The length of all three parts that form the bow (the base plus both horns) should not exceed 1.5 m - otherwise the bow may have greater range, but much less accuracy.

The step-by-step manufacturing technology will be as follows:

1. The cleaned blanks are dried (not in the sun!), all 3 parts are planed and dried again. Then the base and horns are given their final appearance and dried in the bright sun.
2. The kibiti elements are glued together with special store-bought glue or homemade fish glue (from digested bones or swim bladders of large fish).
3. The finished kibit is dipped in melted animal fat (or cedar resin) for impregnation.
4. The joints are additionally tightened with tendons or a dense flexible cord and soaked again, after which the finished bow is processed until smooth with a knife and, if desired, polished.

It is also possible to cover the base with strips of birch bark, and the horns and ends with overlays made of natural horn (or metal). However, such strengthening and creation of multi-layering is only relevant for weapons with a very high (more than 20 kg) tension force, which is hardly meaningful when hunting birds and small animals with a bow - except perhaps in terms of decoration.

Photo gallery: DIY compound bows

Compound bows drying after sizing
Homemade compound bows

Video: How to make a compound bow at home

Accessories

Making all the components of a bow at home is even easier than the main structure.

Bowstring

It can be twisted from nylon cord, although real hunters prefer natural material. Which is usually blood-soaked and dried rawhide rolled into a tube, 3-4 mm wide. Although it is inferior to modern, even inexpensive synthetic materials in terms of performance characteristics. The skin can be replaced with tendons from the vertebral part of large animals - elk, cows, etc. Or a bunch of natural silk threads can be used.

The bowstring is simply put on - first with a loop on one horn, and then, bending the end of the bow resting on the ground, on the second. For a recurve bow, the distance between the string and the handle should be about 15 cm, and the string must be removed when storing the bow.

Video: How to make a bow string

Arrows

The length of the arrows should be proportional to the length of the bow and the maximum tension of the bowstring. In practice, this means that when the bow is drawn, the arrow tip should protrude at least a few centimeters beyond the bow.

The diameter is approximately 6 mm, and the entire axis of the arrow must be perfectly flat. For small game and poultry, light wood is used - spruce, pine, birch. For larger animals - heavy and dense species (ash, hornbeam, oak). Arrows, like a splinter, are split from logs, after which they are shaped into long and thin round cylinders.

A slot is made in the end part for the bowstring, about 0.5 cm deep and slightly smaller in diameter than the bowstring. This is easy to check - an arrow mounted on a bowstring should not fall out of it, even if it is held vertically down. To do this, the feather is split in half, a 6-8 cm long section is cut out from the middle, the ends of the feathers are trimmed, and at a distance of about 1.5 cm from the edge they are completely cleaned (for tying the feather blanks to the arrow axis). For one arrow, 3 blanks are taken, evenly spaced around the perimeter.

Plastic can also be used as a material for plumage.

In principle, instead of feathers it is allowed to use plastic, thick paper and even hard leaves.

Arrowheads

At first, you can hunt small birds with arrows without tips. The main thing is that they are sharpened and hardened over fire.

The tip can be any hard material that can be sharpened to the shape of a narrow rhombus or triangle. Previously, these were pieces of flint or bone, now you can use tin shells from cans and even ordinary nails. Spoon arrowhead

Making your own hunting bows of good quality is a completely feasible task. Of course, they will be inferior to professional combat models, but they are quite suitable for hunting birds or small animals. Good luck!

Archery- one of the most interesting activities for all the guys. Even from childhood we know what it is, because every boy once had a homemade bow in his childhood. Today, we will tell you how to properly make a bow and arrow yourself at home.

What is an onion made of?

The bow consists of several parts:

Lever;

Shoulders (upper, lower).

What are onions made from?

As practice shows, it is best to use the following types of wood:

White acacia.

Pay attention to the absence of cracks, flaws and knots, so that in the future your bow will be strong and not break!

How to make a collapsible bow? Instructions.

How to make a bow handle:

1. We take a small birch or beech beam (60x40x400 mm) and draw a sketch of the handle on it, after which we begin to process it.

2. Using a drill, we make holes for the bolts to secure the bow arm.

3. We sand and varnish our handle.

How to make a bow shoulder:

4. For this we will use plywood, the layers of which run lengthwise. We make two symmetrical arms, 700 mm long.

5. We process our blanks and screw them to the handle.

6. Using small pieces of the same plywood and glue, we will make a shelf for the bowstring. To do this, we need to glue them to the arms of the bow and trim off the unnecessary parts.

7. We cover the entire structure with stain and varnish.

8. You can use a Kevlar climbing lanyard as a bowstring (available at any travel store) or you can make it yourself.

This article will be useful for novice reenactors or skilled fathers whose children have longed to play Robin Hood. So, our goal is to create something that shoots, has an acceptable appearance, with low costs for materials and a minimal set of tools. The easiest to make, but very effective and impressive model is the compound longbow. The product consists of a shoulder handle and a bowstring. In order to make onions at home, you must have:

• screwdriver or drill;
• plane;
• confirmat (furniture) drill;
• chisel (semicircular) or knife;
• electric or regular jigsaw;
• a large amount of sandpaper with different grain sizes;
• rasp.

Step one - handle

The material from which the handle is made depends on the expected tension force. If it is less than 10 kg, then you can take a solid wooden block of dense wood. It can be beech, cherry, oak (very difficult to process), or in extreme cases birch. Conifers - pine or spruce are not suitable for this element. If the arms provide a tensile force of more than 10 kg, then a composite of several types of wood glued together is required. Usually beech and walnut planks are alternated.

For a monolithic handle, take a block of dry, seasoned wood 30x50x400. The wood fibers should run along the long side. There are many anatomical handle designs. Let's focus on the most ergonomic of the simplest.

Using the template provided, we mark the wide side (50mm). Then mark the narrow side (30 mm). Divide into four parts across, into two along. On the second quarter from the top, select a shelf for the arrow, as indicated in the photo. On the first and last quarters we mark the places for attaching the shoulders. They are located at a distance of 25 mm from the edge of the quarter.

We cut along the markings with a jigsaw, then rough the edges and corners with a rasp and chisel. The main thing is not to get carried away with the “refinement of forms” when processing, otherwise the handle will not withstand even one shot. We process burrs and blemishes with coarse sandpaper, then bring the gloss to zero. We drill holes for the bolts with a confirmat drill bit M6. It is advisable to install a leather pad made from an old belt between the handle and the shoulders.

We cover the semi-finished product with stain and varnish. A regular furniture polish or wax may work. In the end, the product should look something like this.

Step one and a half - making a blank for a composite handle

Let's prepare thin strips of different wood - beech and walnut. All of them will be of different thickness: walnut, two strips of 15 mm and one 5 mm, beech, two strips of 7 - 8 mm. The fibers in all laths of a composite preform designed for bending must be oriented along the long side. For a high-quality, tight fit, it is necessary to process the boards with a plane and sand them with medium sandpaper. For gluing, any specialized composition for wood is used. The substance is applied in a small strip along the entire length and rubbed in a thin layer over the surface. Carefully read the glue instructions; some compositions require applying the substance to both surfaces. Next, the planks are connected and fixed with a clamp, making sure there are no gaps between the elements. Excess, protruding glue is removed.

Step two - shoulders

This element accounts for the greatest load and percentage of breakdowns. There are many options, let's look at the most popular ones.

Skis

Before shredding a pair of skis into pieces, make sure that no one else needs them. For a handle of 40 cm, it is optimal to use ski cuts of 60 cm. Considering that 10 cm of the shoulder will be used for fastening, the total length of the bow will be 120 cm. This calculation is suitable for plastic cross-country skis with a metal insert. Using a square, we mark and make a cut with a hacksaw. We also drill holes for fastening with a metal drill. At the ends of the skis, we cut out grooves for the bowstring on both sides. The final product will be more powerful and durable than a wooden one, however, its aesthetic component leaves much to be desired. Even when painted, the arms of such a bow can be seen as a recycled product.

Lamella

Another peaceful element that can easily be adapted for “militaristic” purposes. The lamella is an elastic structure made of plywood, in which all layers are glued in one direction, along the product. You can buy it in any reputable furniture store, but it is better in a specialized one that sells fittings and goods for furniture makers. The cost is more than modest, about 10 rubles per piece, dimensions: length 120 mm, width 50 mm with a thickness of 12 mm. The optimal length of one arm should be 700 mm.

Since the width of the element at the handle should be 30 mm, and at the far end 20 mm, there is no need to purchase two elastic elements. We cut the future shoulders along the entire length diagonally and get what we need. Taking into account the 10 cm overlay on the handle of each element, the total length of the bow will be 160 cm.

It is not advisable to make the arms of lamellas shorter, since bending too sharply during tension increases the likelihood of breakage. The tension force of such a product will be in the range of 10-12 kg.

It is possible to significantly strengthen the bow. To do this, you need to purchase 2 elastic elements 8 mm thick and glue them together. You can use epoxy as glue, adding a little less hardener to the composition to maintain the mobility of the mixture, otherwise it will begin to burst and crumble when stretched. It is better to use a special glue with high viscosity - PVA - Moment from the manufacturer Pritt Henkel. When connecting lamellas, it is advisable to use clamps along the entire length as often as possible. We process the resulting blanks in the same way as the previous ones. The tension force of 16mm arms will be up to 18kg. To use them, a reinforced composite handle is required. In order to give the arms of the bow absolute symmetry, we put them together, secure them with a clamp, and make the final adjustment with two elements at the same time.

Another important detail is the shelf for the bowstring. It can be made from scraps of the same lamella.

This is done as follows:

• Two parts are cut out slightly wider in size than the ends of the arms;
• We attach the part to the end of the arm and drill two holes;
• We coat the surfaces of the parts with glue, and hammer furniture dowels, also pre-treated with glue, into the holes;
• We fasten to dry;
• Draw an arbitrary shape;
• We cut off all excess with a jigsaw;
• We carry out final cleaning with sandpaper;
• We make cuts at the end of the shelf 3 mm wide and 7-8 mm deep.

For such a reinforced bow, a Kevlar climbing sling with a thickness of at least 3.5 mm is used as a bowstring, which can be purchased at any tourist store. But if you are not looking for easy ways, you can make a bow string yourself.

Step three - bowstring

It is quite easy to build a bow string that has the necessary characteristics and an authentic (well, almost) appearance. To do this, you will need a spool of nylon thread, you can take Chinese ones from a fishing supply store for 25 rubles. You will also need a board a little longer than the bowstring, two nails without heads and a spool. Having measured the required distance with a rope, transfer the size to the board. We drive in the nails and carefully wind the nylon thread with uniform tension until a total thickness of 3-3.5 mm is achieved. Using a spool, we wrap the edges and center of the bowstring with the same thread. We remove the finished product from the nails.

Step four - final

We put all the details together, enjoy the resulting product and the respect of our friends.