Strip the Wood
We have the will to outlast everything!
No matter what happens, it is always important to be ready.
Being stranded in the woods is not the best scenario, and at that point, you need to act. The first step is
knowing how to get food, and this is why when your energy is up, you need to
know how to craft a survival bow and arrows. Doing so may save your life.
The first step when making a survival bow and arrow is
making the bow. At this point, if you’re lost in the woods and don’t have a way
out, the key is ensuring that you have the tools to survive. If you know the
different types of trees in the area, then you have a distinct advantage over
someone who doesn’t.
Selecting the right piece of wood is critical. The wood should be something that has great strength but also can snap back to its shape quickly. This is the hallmark of any bow. Because there are no ideal materials, there are no ideal accouterments like fiberglass arrow or a bow sight. Everything must be made out of this piece of wood.
The key is to find a sapling. In order to check the sapling’s suitability, bend the sapling into
a “C”. Once it is bent, then release it.
It should snap back into its shape quickly. If it takes too long to get into the
C or too long to snap back into shape, this isn’t the right piece of wood.
Once you have found the ideal piece of wood, the next step is to fashion your survival bow. This is easier said than done.
The good news is you found the wood, but the bad news is you only have one shot at making the survival bow correctly with this piece. If you mess up, then you have to start at square one again. There’s no guarantee you’ll find something as suitable as what you found, so be careful.
If you have a knife on you, start to cut off the extra branches and roots. They will do nothing except get in the way. As your cutting, be careful. If any cracks get into the sapling, then your survival bow is ruined. Remove what you can and if there seems to be some branches that are a bit stubborn at the ends of the sapling, leave them be.
Once you have the wood ready, the next step is to identify where the different parts of the survival bow will be. This is important because you will begin to fashion your bow afterward.
The parts of the bow you need to identify are the belly,
back, handhold, and limbs. Here is a rundown of what they do:
Now that these areas have been
identified, the next step is to shape the bow. Critical to bow shaping
is knowing what you can and can’t do with the different parts of the bow.
At this point, make sure you
have a sharp knife with you
because this knife will be put through the paces big time. You will begin to
start cutting off different parts of the wood. The key is to go slow because if
you go too fast then you could end up cracking the wood and that would make the
bow useless.
Here are some places you can’t cut – the back. This is the part of the bow that must be
strong. It will bear the tension as the rest of the bow bends.
The way to start shaping a bow is by standing it up and seeing where the bow bends and where it doesn’t. Start removing wood from the belly where there is no bend but keep wood where there is much bend. This will allow you to begin shaping the bow, so it is able to shoot with some degree of accuracy.
Once you finish one side, work on the other side. Stop to check and see if your survival bow bends evenly. A proper bow bends like a parabola. The curve will be even, and there will not be any type of distortion. If the curve is distorted, the bow will fire incorrectly. The shape you are looking for is similar to a satellite dish. If the bow bends in this way, then the shaping has been properly achieved.
There are a couple of things
to watch out for. First, the handhold
needs to be somewhat thicker. This should
be about 5.5 inches in diameter. Wood should not be removed from there, and this area should be pretty stiff.
The survival bow should be frequently checked to see if the areas of no bend are removed while the bent areas are left intact. The bow should be even. At the end of this process, you are ready to do the notched for the string.
This might seem easy, but the truth is carving string notches is anything but. The key is the notches must be deep enough to keep the string in place but shallow enough not to break the survival bow. Carve the notches at the tip of the bow, but make sure the notches are on the side, not on the back.
These notches will be where the string is placed.
Now your bow is starting to
better resemble a traditional bow and arrow. As you string the bow, it
will bend. The goal with the string is simple, make sure from the end of the
string to the handhold is just between
5-6 inches. This distance should be measured
on the string.
At this point, many bow creators get in trouble because they
want to shoot the bow. Resist this urge because the next step allows you to
ensure your string is right while keeping the bow intact.
At this point, you now have to tiller the bow. The way to do this is setting up the survival bow so that the string is level and horizontal. At this point, pull down on the string, and you will most likely notice the bow does not bend evenly. The way to correct this is to slowly take out the wood that prevents the bow from bending evenly. This will take some time, so be patient. The key when tillering is taking the time to make sure the bow bends right.
Now, the next step is figuring out the draw weight. Basically, the farther the survival bow can be pulled back, the heavier the draw. For a deer, a draw should be about 40-60 pounds. If by some strange circumstance, you have a bathroom scale with you, checking the draw is easy.
All you need to do is find a piece of wood and place it on the scale. As you pull the string back, the scale will begin to register a weight. Remember, the key to a heavier draw is a flexible survival bow. If your bow is too stiff, there won’t be enough weight on the draw. Plan accordingly. Remember the minimum for a deer.
Smaller game requires
a lighter draw just like heavier game requires a heavy draw. When you are done with the tiller, remember the one rule
of proper bow making – never dry fire a bow. This
could crack the wood, and all that hard work you did will be for naught.
Now that you have a proper survival bow, the next step is to make arrows. There’s little sense in having a bow without the arrows to make it useful.
Arrows are a bit easier to make than a bow. The key is
making sure to find a straight branch or twig. Once it is found, then strip the bark off of the branch. Once the bark is stripped, the next thing to do is check the
arrow for how straight it is.
These shoots can be a bit crooked, so it is important to
make sure that your new arrows are all going in the same direction. If there
are deformities, the fire method is the best way to straighten the arrow. All
you do is hold the aspiring arrow near a fire and bend it the opposite way. As
long as it doesn’t scorch, that’s a job well done.
The next step to creating this survival bow and arrow is finding the right arrowhead.
Arrowheads can come from rocks or other objects. The key is
making sure they fit some certain measurements. An arrowhead should be 1.5
inches long and an eighth of an inch thick. The shank – what is inserted into the arrow shaft should be 5/8
inches long. The shank is the same width as the arrow itself and this is basically
the measurements of the arrow.
Now shaping arrows isn’t the easiest. You will need
something that can grind them into a point. The goal is to get the arrowheads
sharp enough to pierce the skin from a shot. Once they are sharp and the
arrowheads have been inserted, it’s time
for the final part of creating arrows – fletching.
Without fletching the arrows, they would not fly straight.
The easiest way to do this is finding the
feature of a bird and remove the feather material from the quill in three separate
sections. Once this is done, you are ready to
put the feathers on the arrow. This is
critical to the arrows flying correctly
when shot.
Now, if you were at home, this part is easy – just use glue to attach the feature to the back
of the arrow and make sure the sections are equidistant from each other. In the
wild, use the sap from a tree as resin. This
will allow you to affix the arrows in a
very easy way. Of course, using sap from
a tree is not ideal but, in a pinch, it’s a great way to make sure your arrows
will work.
After making your own survival bow with your own arrows, you are now ready to hunt. Be sure to take care of your bow. Make sure to keep it properly oiled and don’t let it get in the water or other compromising positions.
This bow could be the key to survival, so show it the love it deserves.
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Strip the Wood
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