In the early 1900s, Dr. Saxton Pope met Ishi, the last of the Yahi Indians, and learned the art of making and shooting bows and arrows from him, before Ishi died in 1915. Using information learned from Ishi, Dr. Pope and Art Young carried the tradition forward and made many hunting trips together, taking game for museum specimens with homemade wood selfbows and arrows. It was never recorded that any of the early pioneers used stone hunting points.

Although Ishi made points of obsidian and glass bottles while being housed at Berkeley, Pope never tried using any of them. Use of wood bows continued to grow with new designs and changes being made right up until the time early laminating materials became available, and a whole new generation of bows appeared. A few die-hards continued to use wood selfbows, but for the most part they disappeared, except within Native American communities, until about twenty-five years ago.

When we were children, a lot of us used an old stick or board and a piece of string to make a bow. As adults, we got tired of the direction compound bows had led us, and decided to learn more about the bows which brought back childhood fantasies and allowed us to pursue the simplest of pleasures, shooting a wood selfbow. Skip forward a few years and today you’ll find abundant information, readily available in written and taped medium. About all you have to do to build and enjoy your first wood self-bow is to buy a book or tape, get a stave or billet, buy a few common tools, and spend some patient hours following instructions. No longer do you have to use trial and error, breaking a few bows at first draw, because you didn’t know about tillering or staying in the same grain layer on the back of the bow. Anyone with minimum skills can build a bow which is capable of shooting straight and taking game.

I’ve taken many deer and other game with wood selfbows, the last five deer with stone points. I don’t consider myself an expert on the subject, but do have views based on experiences I’ve had. When you build a selfbow, consideration must be given to the basic design that allows the bow to cast with enough speed to carry the projectile point to the animal and penetrate for the kill. Although I’m not particularly interested in speed alone, I do like to build bows capable of casting an arrow of hunting weight at least 150fps (feet per second). Hunting weight arrows, on average, should weigh approximately 10 grains per pound of bow weight, at your draw length. As an example, a bow pulling 65 pounds at 28 inches of draw should shoot an arrow weighing 650 grains, including broad-head and fletching, at a speed of at least 150fps. Most well designed self-bows will shoot 150fps to 180fps, depending on the limb design, wood used, and the tillering of the bow.

Osage orange, bois d’ arc, hedge apple, or any other name you want to call it is my favorite bow wood, and in my opinion makes the most consistent bow with superior cast and durability, over a complete range of designs. That’s not to say there aren’t others out there such as yew, iron wood, mulberry, elm, pecan, mountain juniper, and hackberry that will make just as good a bow. Choose the wood you like and use the design best suited for that type of wood and you will find success.

Flatbows tend to cast an arrow with greater speed than a longbow design and with less speed that a recurved tip design. My personal preference is a modified English longbow design, which closely resembles the more flattened American longbow design of modern fiberglass bows. Instead of a true D shape, it has a thinner, more flattened belly. Cast is sufficient and durability is superb. Often times I back my bows with deer rawhide, snakeskin, or a layer or two of deer, elk, or moose sinew. I prefer bows in the 65 to 70 pound range for hunting deer and bigger game, with a nock to nock length of 64 to 66 inches. Remember, the longer the bow, the smoother it will be to shoot. Find a length that’s right for your style of shooting and you can’t go wrong.

For arrows, I use everything from purchased Port Orford cedar to river cane and dogwood. All will work; I suggest you use what shoots the best from your bow. Remember, when hunting, the object is to take the game you pursue, not to look good. Where legal, I hunt with stone points I make and nothing else. Several states allow a bow hunter to use stone points, the number is growing annually. I live in Oklahoma and know of at least three other states, Missouri, Arkansas, and Texas where hunting with stone is legal. In OK, the only regulations concerning stone points are they must be no less than 7/8" wide at the base and a minimum of 1½" long. For those of you concerned about weight, I’ve found that if you make the points 4 to 1 width to thickness using the dimensions mentioned earlier, your point will weigh between 120 and 125 grains. On the other hand, a point made 6 or 7 to 1 width to thickness ratio, will only weigh 100 to 112 grains, using those same dimensions. Therefore, if you wish to make the point thin, you must increase the width and length in order to approach 125 grains. For additional weight, vary the size and width to thickness ratio, as desired.

A variety of materials can be used but untreated rock makes the toughest point. I’ve taken game with both treated and untreated rock, usually following the rule of making thicker points of treated rock and thinner ones of untreated rock. Although I’ve shot deer with triangular side notched points such as the Cahokia style, I believe the side notches catch more hair and produces additional drag coefficients that hinder penetration and possibly an entry/exit wound.

Perhaps the best of stone point styles is the corner or basal notched point. Both give the greatest amount of cutting edge and possibly lend to better penetration. The key to taking game with stone points is mounting them centered on the shaft where the shaft will spin without vibration, and leaving a fine serrated edge. Just for the record, I can shoot a 100 grain stone point and a 125 grain stone point out of the same selfwood bow and hit within two inches of each other, both in the kill at 20 yards.

Comparing steel broadheads and stone broadheads is easy. I’ve shot deer, rabbits, squirrels, beaver, javelina and hogs to date; I prefer the stone. Although the steel may be sharper, and notice I say MAY be, the stone with all its minute serrations cuts an unbelievable hole which won’t seal itself like the steel does. I have shot and penetrated both ribs of deer with a complete pass through, using a 65 pound bow at twenty yards, cutting gapping holes in lung tissue and skin alike. Stone points suffer little or no damage going through deer unless major bones are hit, due to a poor shot. In fact, I shot one arrow tipped with a cooked Burlington point of common Woodland design through two deer without having to retouch the edge.

When hunting with a wood selfbow and stone tipped arrows, shots should be limited to the expertise of the archer. Just because I feel comfortable to shoot at game at a given distance, you may not. Each archer has limits and should live by them. I usually will pass on any shot beyond 25 yards. Out to that distance, wood selfbows and stone tipped arrows are very effective. Limit your shots to broadside, double lung shots, or quartering-away shots and you will be a successful hunter. By the way, all of the deer I’ve shot with stone points have expired within fifty yards of the shot. Try connecting with your shot from the past, build a wood selfbow and use stone points. Good hunting.