One of the things I love about primitive bows and bow building is the seemingly countless variations of this simple and effective primitive weapon. Primitive cultures from all around the world came up with bow and arrow designs to suit the materials and demands of their regions. In areas of the world where "good" bow wood is difficult to find, the Penobscot Bow design allows us to build high performance primitive bows capable of taking big game like deer or elk. The Penobscot design is essentially a variation of the cable backed bow used by several primitive peoples in the far north where high quality selfbow wood is hard to find. In addition, many species of wood can be force dried and fire hardened to yield even better performing archery equipment in a very short time which is exactly what you need for the ideal survival bow. This is also a great advanced survival or bushcraft project! If you're into gaming you may have seen a similar bow in Far Cry Primal, the double bow.