Really short bows

[Juniper Bow]

A few years ago a neighbor gave me a chunk of osage that he had laying around. He thought that maybe I could make a bow out of it, however, it had been laying on the ground for quite some time and had alot of splitting and insect damage. I worked with it for a while and got one small (maybe 44") character bow out of it, only about 25lbs.

Then, I took a small piece that was left over and started whittling. Slowly a small, very small bow emerged. At 28" in length it is just plain tiny, but it tillered nicely with 35lbs.@11". I then made a 13" arrow for it, I do not know the weight (it has since been broken). I was happily suprised to find that I could hit a stuffed animal with some consistancy at about 10 yards. This got me to thinking:

I love to just hike (or snowshoe this time of year) around in the woods, but wouldn't it be nice to have a bow handy if I needed it. Grouse season runs almost 4 months long, rabbits are non-game in MT and sometimes a stump just needs shooting. A little bow and a handful of matching arrows could just be slipped into my back pack.

So has anyone else done this? I think I once saw an article about very small bows in a magazine, but don't really remember it. Do you think that a setup with a slightly longer (another 2") and more powerful bow with a little longer arrows tipped with sharp points would do the job on small game? Any tips on shooting a short bow accuratly?

Anyway, just a thought. Enjoy your Christmas everyone, Juniper Bow

[Shawn Leonard]

Yup, it would work fine if ya can shoot it accurately. Ya can kill grouse with a thrown rock. 35#s at 12"s would work with a sharp broadhead. Shawn