How to Make a Bow Within Three Hours

If you are facing a survival situation in the back country, you have need for food and emergency provisions. One way of securing the food is by hunting. Most times when you are facing emergency situations, you do not have all the needed gear, making it essential to fashion it yourself from available materials. Practice making a bow at home to hone your skills and be proactive instead of reactive. A basic survival bow takes fewer than two to three hours to make.

Things You'll Need

  • Survival knife or multi-tool
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Instructions

    • 1

      Cut a 5-to-5 1/2 foot section of a green sapling, no more than 1 1/2 inches in diameter. The straighter the sapling, the better. Make sure it is green and alive as the sapling branch has a natural bend and give to the wood tissues. Use a hardwood like ash, hickory or ideally, mountain or diamond willow.

    • 2

      Shave the bark of the sapling. If you are fortunate enough to have a willow sapling, use the survival knife to peel entire lengths down the length of the sapling. If you are using willow, set all long pieces aside .

    • 3

      Carve a small "collar" at each end of the sapling. These are the string nocks.

    • 4

      Braid the willow strips together and make a long, narrow "string" from them. As a rule, use at least three strands to fortify the braided bow string. If you do not have willow, improvise. Look for long strands of hanging lichen or any tree bark that peels off in long strips. Look for young and green trees to get these strands and then braid them into the string.

    • 5

      Remove stitching on a shirt or along one seam of your pants, if no bark is available. Pull out several full lengths of string from the stitching and braid them together to make the bowstring.

    • 6

      Make coiled loop knots at each end of the braided bowstring, just barely big enough to fit around the nocks. Place them over the nocks and make the sapling branch bend to accommodate the shorter bowstring. Your bow is now complete.