Building a Yew Crossbow from Scratch

Clay Hayes October 22, 2022
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Clay Hayes

@clayhayeshunter

About

We make the best traditional archery, bow building, recurve bow hunting, bushcraft, and survival skills videos on the web. Join Clay, Liz, and the kids on outdoor adventures from bowhunting deer and elk in the Idaho mountains to chasing wild hogs in Florida to practicing bushcraft and survival skills. We hunt and fish because we love to but it's also how we get the majority of our meat. Hunting is how we live. We also grow a big garden on our Idaho homestead. That, in combination with hunting, fishing, and foraging is how we get the majority of our food. #survivalskills #bowhunting #bushcraft #AvantLink #1462705

Video Description

This week I'm mixing it up with a recurve crossbow build. We'll be using an old board and a junk piece of Pacific Yew left over from building a longbow. With just scrap materials and hand tools we're building a yew crossbow from scratch. Although I've build hundreds of selfbows, longbows and recurves, this is the first crossbow I've ever attempted. It was a fun project and definitely not the last one I'll build. Anyone with basic woodworking skills and a few simple tools could build a simple crossbow like this in a day. I'm pretty impressed with the performance of the wooden crossbow. The cast and penetration on a foam target isn't nearly as good as one of my longbows but for hunting at close range on small to medium game, it should work just fine. Heck, I may even build one and take it hog hunting this winter. If you're into gaming, you might see something similar in the games Elden Ring or Albion online (I have no idea what that is but it's a pretty popular search term haha...). Towards the end of the video I shoot it a bunch with some slow motion thrown in for good measure. Don't forget to subscribe to the channel. We're uploading a new video each week that features one of the following topics: archery, bow hunting, bow building, survival skills, bushcraft, self reliance, primitive skills, primitive bows, hunting, camping, fishing, and a lot more! Surviving Alone by Clay Hayes - https://amzn.to/3Qqou3l Big thanks to our partners who help support these videos! Backpacks - https://kifaru.net/ Archery Gear - https://www.3riversarchery.com/ Tents & Tarps - https://seekoutside.com Binoculars - https://www.vortexoptics.com Arrow Shafts - https://surewoodshafts.com/ Clothing - https://www.firstlite.com/ You can also connect with me on my other media outlets! Website: https://www.twistedstave.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/clayhayeshunter/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/clayhayeshunter/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/clayhayes

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