Bow hunting with a homemade reflex deflex longbow: This is the bow I put together back in the winter/spring of 2015. I have a link to the build-a-long video below. It has a bamboo backing and ipe belly, is 68″ tip to tip, and is currently rightly about 59# at 28″ draw. I hunted with the bow a few times in 2015, but this past fall I used the longbow for everything that wasn’t a metro hunt (where I needed my compound to pass sharpshooter proficiency tests) or a firearm hunt (My Wisconsin gun hunt is a longstanding tradition for me).
This coming fall, I will not be doing any of the city hunts, which will free up more time to hunt with a trad bow. A 68″ tip to tip bow poses significant challenges from a tree stand relative to a parallel limb compound. It’s certainly doable; however, there were certain shot angles I had to cross off the list completely. The bow I’m finishing up for 2017 is a 58″ hybrid design between a longbow and recurve.
I hunted out of both a hang on stand and a saddle. This was my first season using a saddle to hunt out of. Moving forward, I will continue to use both the saddle and the hang on, as they are both specialized tools that have their own sets of pro’s and con’s for different situations.
Build-a-long video for the bow:
Shooting the Homemade Longbow:
Shooting the Homemade Longbow (Link)
DIY Saddle Setup:
DIY Saddle Setup (Video)