Hallo you friendly people!
(sorry this is a pit long)
From my previous post u would see that I opened the door to the world of selfbows, and promised myself that I would use trad equipment for hunting in the future.
So far I’ve build 4. Unfortunately only 2 are actually still in one piece.
It’s been extremely enriching and wonderful, even though I’m still learning the hard way.
U guys and the inet have been quite helpful, thanks again.
To get to the point… I was busy building a laminated flatbow, while waiting for the glue to dry I started fiddling with a Maple wood board. I knew the grain was not perfect, running of at a few places, very tight on the one limb near the knock. Anyway I tried my best and the bow actually came out quite pretty. After playing with the tillering, it turned out 71” 62# @29. The best thing about it, it shoots like a dream, smooth. I had to shorten the bottom limb to compensate for the grain. The purpose of building this bow was to gain some experience, but now it shoot and look so nice I just can’t keep it as a ornament.
In the little spare time we have, me and a buddy managed to breed some European Wild Boars. When we started out a few years ago some of them managed to escape but with all the predators around we were quite sure that they would not survive. My friend called me last Saturday (30/08) with the news that he actually managed to locate them on a remote section of the farm bordering the neighbors maze field, bad news. We somehow had to catch them and decided to build a small camp with a trap door, the contraption didn’t work properly and we only managed to make them even more skittish[&:].
On Friday (02/09) I decided to show my new (Experiment) bow and arrows (build everything myself except the zwicky’s of course) to my buddy, and drop off some feed for the pigs.
The pigs did not enter the pen again, and we decided to rather hunt them before we get trouble from the neighbor or the authorities - because of the pigs being from a different country. The original plan was that he would use his bowtech black night and I would use my selfbow as backup for him and handle the video cam. instead. I only shot about 50 arrows with this new bow and would not even consider hunting something this early. Things did not go exactly as planed and after 3 unsuccessful stalks through mud, water and very dense 8 feet high reeds, he finally had a near “open” shot. Somehow some reeds redirected his arrow and his shot hit the boar in the right hindquarter. It was extremely difficult to follow the slight bloodtrail through the dense reeds and we eventually agreed that he would go and collect the dogs and 2 hunting guns. I would sit tight and make sure that the pigs don’t exit the reeds. To do this I had to clime a huge old willow tree to get a better view of the surrounding aria. I got comfortable on a thick branch not to high-up and waited for his return that would take an hour or so due to bad roads and the distance to the farmhouse. While standing up and concentrating on some movement I located 120m (had a range finder) ahead I heard something approaching. In some places the reeds made place for small ponds of water connected by tiny streams with mud everywhere. The sough stopped before crossing one of these ponds 5 yards from my tree. Without thinking over the situation my finger touched the corner of my mouth and a cedar arrow was on its way. The angle was quite hectic and I was aiming for her left side on the belly to be able to get to the business part. The shot was a bit to high and she dropped like elephant s$%@, on the spot. Somehow, immediately after the shot a lost my footing and me and my bow hit the mud beneath us much in the same way as described above. My arrows was still hanging on a branch in the tree, luckily I didn’t need any more arrows for the sow was already dead when I got to her. By this time I started shaking – no, its got nothing to do with the fall, but that “something” I started missing with my compound was back, and it hit me harder than ever, yes, it felt like I was now standing underneath the elephant. First, indescribably exited and happy, then sanity came back and I had a word or 2 with myself for not following my own rules, what would have happened if the shot was not decent.
We later discovered that I managed to hit one lung and the zwicky smashed through the neck vertebra and exited on the opposite side.
We were completely stunned by the penetration power of trad. equipment.
My buddy already put in his order for a bow; I just hope that I will manage to build something decent.[&:]

We did not locate the wounded pig aftersurching for the rest of the day.Some workers we send did spot him again on Sunday and he looks OK, just a extra hole in his bum.
we alsomanaged to judge the number of free roaming pigs we spooked, to be more than 20 (only 4 originally escaped). Meanwhile, the local butcher agreed on a decent price per kg for wild board meat.
This would force me to start practicing and get those groups tighter. We’ll start the serious hunting in October. !!!!!

Now to get back to the problem I have…
If I manage to take some decent photos of the grain of the wood from the required sides and so on, will someone be able to tell if this bow will last or not? Will it help to put on some backing and what material?
Here is some, not to wonderful, photo’s of the bow and the pig. She was not pregnant, and her piglets were on the brink of being weaned.
The handle is made of horn with 2 thin strips about 4” long on either side of the handle. The handle itself is raped with kudu hide.