>>1957954I'd strongly recommend something else. A christmas tree is usually covered in knots too.
Here in Washington, we have vine maple, ironwood (ocean spray), and Pacific yew as reliable sources. Does your area have these, hickory, red oak, or osage orange? The english also used their local yew, blackthorn, and elm (or was that last one hemlock?).
Hickory and yew grow very straight. Osage and yew are top shelf woods. Oak and blackthorn make sturdy weapons. Vine maple is sluggish without sinew, but tolerates mistakes. Ironwood, the west coast shrub, is literally the strongest bowwood I can think of, but requires careful curing and stave sized pieces are rare.
>>1954203You can achieve great draw weight, with a heavy and sluggish design. Have you ever heard about the Chinese exam bow? It's intentionally too heavy to use, and shoots like garbage.
In a hunting bow, durability comes first. Followed by speed, then silence.
And all I said is that old boy needs to reach out to a real bowyer if he wants wood. Check ebay, the Facebook marketplace, and the back page of primitive archer magazine.
>>1953332Alibow made my fiberglass. It's tanky as fuck, doesn't mind practicing in the rain, and accommodates my 34" draw.
It also through and throughs this bag target with field points. They also sell cheap practice arrows, quivers and thumb rings. I don't use a ring, but these arrows are pretty durable. Self nocked bamboo, straight three fletch, crimped on points. The holster/quiver from the same order had the group separators come undone, but still holds arrows snugly enough for static practice.
9/10, the arrow pass cover has disintegrated. But I practice every day since getting back into the sport. Pretty brilliant for $80.
