View Poll Results: Can you kill deer with 55lbs PVC bow?
Yes,it can kill it.
2
50.00%
No,it cannot.
2
50.00%
Voters: 4. You may not vote on this poll
Is hunting with PVC bow myth?
11-08-2014, 01:13 PM
#1
Spike
Thread Starter
Join Date: Dec 2012
Posts: 21
Is hunting with PVC bow myth?
Hello everyone,
Me and my friends were talking about PVC bow power and durability.
One of my friends told me to ask you(since i only have account on this forum)is it possible to hunt whitetail deer with 50-60lbs PVC bow and broad head arrows?
Also,how durable are those PVC bows?
Will they break after some time,or will they last for years?
I would like to know is it just a myth or is it possible to hunt with PVC bows?
I'll also put voting poll.
Every comment is welcome
Me and my friends were talking about PVC bow power and durability.
One of my friends told me to ask you(since i only have account on this forum)is it possible to hunt whitetail deer with 50-60lbs PVC bow and broad head arrows?
Also,how durable are those PVC bows?
Will they break after some time,or will they last for years?
I would like to know is it just a myth or is it possible to hunt with PVC bows?
I'll also put voting poll.
Every comment is welcome
11-08-2014, 01:44 PM
#2
Boone & Crockett
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: south eastern PA
Posts: 15,113
I don't know a thing about PVC bows. However, a true 50 lb bow, regardless of the material it is made of, is certainly enough power to drive an arrow through a white tail deer's vitals and kill it.
11-08-2014, 06:56 PM
#3
Spike
Join Date: Nov 2014
Location: Henry County,Virginia
Posts: 6
People are basically making recurve bows out of PVC tubing, if they are anything like the ones I made as a kid out of apple tree limbs they should be able to do the job.
11-09-2014, 09:45 AM
#4
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Kansas
Posts: 3,894
I've used PVC bows for a long time as "toys". We made them when I was a kid for bow-fishing, then I've taught my younger cousins over the years how to make them. I actually just built a pair of them for one of my nephews to keep on his boat so he'll always have them, but won't be as conspicuous as keeping bows on board. As a "speed freak" and an engineer, I've tried and explored a few different methods of construction to get them to be suitable and practical options, but really, they just aren't there.
1) They break over time - not much time either.
2) Getting to 50# draw weight is actually harder than you'd think. The problem is that you can't double sleeve the PVC inside itself with a small enough diameter to be practical and still have room for enough fiberglass rods to make it strong enough. A 50# PVC bow that will STAY above 50#'s requires a large enough diameter that it's ungainly in hand.
3) They're incredibly hard to shoot accurately. The round tube design and the irregularly bundled fiberglass cores lends itself to twisting as you draw, as compared to a flat limbed bow that resists torque much better. This means a very different
4) They tend to fatigue quite quickly, such that what started as a 50# bow is only a 35# bow within not much time, and then of course, they break shortly thereafter.
5) The quality of construction is everything. If you're involving electrical tape or duct tape - really tape of any kind, you're doing it wrong.
6) Parachute cord is NOT bowstring, and should never be used as such. It's about the slowest bowstring alternative possible.
7) There's a reason that REAL bows have cuts in the riser. Part of why PVC bows are hard to shoot is because they inevitably have a a big offset from centershot. This contributes to the torque, but also to poor arrow flight.
So.... With all of that said, I'm not very compelled to spend time building them anymore when $50 will buy a used recurve, or $100 will buy a new one.
Guys can kill a deer with a spear from 20yrds, and I'm confident that plenty of deer have been killed with rocks, but for my time and money, and considering my respect for the game that I am hunting I wouldn't ever take a PVC bow out after deer.
1) They break over time - not much time either.
2) Getting to 50# draw weight is actually harder than you'd think. The problem is that you can't double sleeve the PVC inside itself with a small enough diameter to be practical and still have room for enough fiberglass rods to make it strong enough. A 50# PVC bow that will STAY above 50#'s requires a large enough diameter that it's ungainly in hand.
3) They're incredibly hard to shoot accurately. The round tube design and the irregularly bundled fiberglass cores lends itself to twisting as you draw, as compared to a flat limbed bow that resists torque much better. This means a very different
4) They tend to fatigue quite quickly, such that what started as a 50# bow is only a 35# bow within not much time, and then of course, they break shortly thereafter.
5) The quality of construction is everything. If you're involving electrical tape or duct tape - really tape of any kind, you're doing it wrong.
6) Parachute cord is NOT bowstring, and should never be used as such. It's about the slowest bowstring alternative possible.
7) There's a reason that REAL bows have cuts in the riser. Part of why PVC bows are hard to shoot is because they inevitably have a a big offset from centershot. This contributes to the torque, but also to poor arrow flight.
So.... With all of that said, I'm not very compelled to spend time building them anymore when $50 will buy a used recurve, or $100 will buy a new one.
Guys can kill a deer with a spear from 20yrds, and I'm confident that plenty of deer have been killed with rocks, but for my time and money, and considering my respect for the game that I am hunting I wouldn't ever take a PVC bow out after deer.
11-10-2014, 01:40 PM
#5
Fork Horn
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Wisconsn
Posts: 406
Made a couple two summers ago with/for my two kids. Double sleeved one of them just to see what it would be like. I was pretty impressed at how it could penetrate a target at 15 yards with a field tip.
I've got no doubt that it could take a deer with a sharp broadhead, probably a 2 blade cut on contact.
We used them for some bow fishing, and while my little dudes never hit their mark on a fish, the target practiced into some logs just under the surface of the water and it could get into those a few inches even with single pvc.
I've got no doubt that it could take a deer with a sharp broadhead, probably a 2 blade cut on contact.
We used them for some bow fishing, and while my little dudes never hit their mark on a fish, the target practiced into some logs just under the surface of the water and it could get into those a few inches even with single pvc.
02-28-2016, 07:19 PM
#6
Spike
Join Date: Feb 2016
Posts: 1
I've used PVC bows for a long time as "toys". We made them when I was a kid for bow-fishing, then I've taught my younger cousins over the years how to make them. I actually just built a pair of them for one of my nephews to keep on his boat so he'll always have them, but won't be as conspicuous as keeping bows on board. As a "speed freak" and an engineer, I've tried and explored a few different methods of construction to get them to be suitable and practical options, but really, they just aren't there.
1) They break over time - not much time either.
2) Getting to 50# draw weight is actually harder than you'd think. The problem is that you can't double sleeve the PVC inside itself with a small enough diameter to be practical and still have room for enough fiberglass rods to make it strong enough. A 50# PVC bow that will STAY above 50#'s requires a large enough diameter that it's ungainly in hand.
3) They're incredibly hard to shoot accurately. The round tube design and the irregularly bundled fiberglass cores lends itself to twisting as you draw, as compared to a flat limbed bow that resists torque much better. This means a very different
4) They tend to fatigue quite quickly, such that what started as a 50# bow is only a 35# bow within not much time, and then of course, they break shortly thereafter.
5) The quality of construction is everything. If you're involving electrical tape or duct tape - really tape of any kind, you're doing it wrong.
6) Parachute cord is NOT bowstring, and should never be used as such. It's about the slowest bowstring alternative possible.
7) There's a reason that REAL bows have cuts in the riser. Part of why PVC bows are hard to shoot is because they inevitably have a a big offset from centershot. This contributes to the torque, but also to poor arrow flight.
So.... With all of that said, I'm not very compelled to spend time building them anymore when $50 will buy a used recurve, or $100 will buy a new one.
Guys can kill a deer with a spear from 20yrds, and I'm confident that plenty of deer have been killed with rocks, but for my time and money, and considering my respect for the game that I am hunting I wouldn't ever take a PVC bow out after deer.
1) They break over time - not much time either.
2) Getting to 50# draw weight is actually harder than you'd think. The problem is that you can't double sleeve the PVC inside itself with a small enough diameter to be practical and still have room for enough fiberglass rods to make it strong enough. A 50# PVC bow that will STAY above 50#'s requires a large enough diameter that it's ungainly in hand.
3) They're incredibly hard to shoot accurately. The round tube design and the irregularly bundled fiberglass cores lends itself to twisting as you draw, as compared to a flat limbed bow that resists torque much better. This means a very different
4) They tend to fatigue quite quickly, such that what started as a 50# bow is only a 35# bow within not much time, and then of course, they break shortly thereafter.
5) The quality of construction is everything. If you're involving electrical tape or duct tape - really tape of any kind, you're doing it wrong.
6) Parachute cord is NOT bowstring, and should never be used as such. It's about the slowest bowstring alternative possible.
7) There's a reason that REAL bows have cuts in the riser. Part of why PVC bows are hard to shoot is because they inevitably have a a big offset from centershot. This contributes to the torque, but also to poor arrow flight.
So.... With all of that said, I'm not very compelled to spend time building them anymore when $50 will buy a used recurve, or $100 will buy a new one.
Guys can kill a deer with a spear from 20yrds, and I'm confident that plenty of deer have been killed with rocks, but for my time and money, and considering my respect for the game that I am hunting I wouldn't ever take a PVC bow out after deer.
09-24-2016, 02:52 PM
#7
Spike
Join Date: Sep 2016
Posts: 1
They are good for hunting
If you keep the pvc round, it is fair preformer. But, if you heat treated to say a flat recurve shape they are awsome. By heating and flatening them you can use larger diamater size and make a cutout shape handle for the riser for acurate shooting, plus it evens out the imperfections in the pvc. I have one made out of 1 inch pvc. Pulls 60lbs and been shooting it for 3 yrs now and it kept its draw weight. There are better wood fiberglass composite etc. bows out there but pvc when done right ( notice i said done right) definately can hunt large game and be accurate. If they had good pvc bows back in the day before firearms, they would have worked just as good.
