Making your own straw boss?

pentrekeeper

New member
I was wondering if anyone knows of a tutorial on the making of a straw boss.
It's that time of year when the combines are out and after the straw has been bailed up there is always waste left of the field. Seems like an opportunity to gather it up and make a boss, but not sure how to go about it.
Any help, advice appreciated. :ill:
 

not dead yet

New member
Ironman
hi graham

as your in north wales, have you actually done a beginnners course.
are you a member of any club.
or have you just bought a bow and you not a member of GNAS or any other archery governing body.

any chance you can p.m. me where you live
this post is purely for the safty aspect of questions you are asking

pete
north wales V.P.
 
G

GilliesDP

Guest
hi graham

as your in north wales, have you actually done a beginnners course.
are you a member of any club.
or have you just bought a bow and you not a member of GNAS or any other archery governing body.

any chance you can p.m. me where you live
this post is purely for the safty aspect of questions you are asking

pete
north wales V.P.
Pete, Hi

This thread seems to have died?

I have the same query, being surrounded by fields of short-straw barley. I suspect that wheat straw is the solution, though. That, and an enormous amount of patience and application making the column before winding and stitching and flattening it.

Perhaps there is a reason why foam, carpet, and correx are popular!

But if you do have a knowledge of how a straw boss is formed, I am interested.

And before you ask, I was an GNAS Instructor with GWAS in the 1960s / 1970s while a member of Kingston Archers, and am now a member of Soar Valley Archers and card-carrying GNAS!

regards and thanks

Gillies DP
 

pentrekeeper

New member
Pete, Hi

This thread seems to have died?

I have the same query, being surrounded by fields of short-straw barley. I suspect that wheat straw is the solution, though. That, and an enormous amount of patience and application making the column before winding and stitching and flattening it.

Perhaps there is a reason why foam, carpet, and correx are popular!

But if you do have a knowledge of how a straw boss is formed, I am interested.

And before you ask, I was an GNAS Instructor with GWAS in the 1960s / 1970s while a member of Kingston Archers, and am now a member of Soar Valley Archers and card-carrying GNAS!

regards and thanks

Gillies DP
Sorry Gillies,

Pete hijacked the thread to ask me some questions because I had a contraversial thread going on about shooting in the back garden, which was winding people up a bit.

Incidentally I do not shoot at home as I have access to a field to practice in 10 mins drive away.

Regarding straw bosses, it just seemed an opportunity to save a few quid by trying to make your own but no one on here has been able to explain how they are made.

I bought a 60cm one and can confirm that the straw is compressed quite a lot and also has some sort of binding agent in it. I believe the straw is made into a rope which is bound with string, the rope is not round but has tapered sides to resist the energy delivered by arrows hitting it. That is why there is a definate front and back to straw bosses. The rope is then coiled to form the boss and string is used to hold the coils together.
I am not sure if some also use a wire to bind things together.
Thats as much as I know or been able to find out about them I'm afraid.

I image some machinery is involved in order to comress and form the straw rope and am not sure this could be achieved by hand.

I have not tried to make one but would love to know how they are made.

Sorry can't be more helpful.

Graham
 
G

GilliesDP

Guest
Sorry Gillies,

Pete hijacked the thread to ask me some questions because I had a contraversial thread going on about shooting in the back garden, which was winding people up a bit.

Regarding straw bosses, it just seemed an opportunity to save a few quid by trying to make your own but no one on here has been able to explain how they are made. Thats as much as I know or been able to find out about them I'm afraid.

I have not tried to make one but would love to know how they are made.

Sorry can't be more helpful.

Graham
Graham, Hi

Thank you so much for the explanation. As a club we mainly use the foam target bosses indoors. But with straw so eco-friendly and available .. and ideal outdoors ..

I'll see if further research winkles out the straw boss-making process in detail!

Regards

Gillies
 

sylvanus333

New member
making straw bosses is a closely guarded secret first they make straw rope then coil it i tried to visit their factory and was told no chance
 

Rik

Supporter
Supporter
Making a straw rope is easy enough (if tedious); it's basically like laying in a bowstring.
[video=youtube_share;wAAw4AVgL04]https://youtu.be/wAAw4AVgL04[/video]
 

williamsga

New member
Back in the mists of time I recall taking a trailer down to the factory to collect some new straw bosses for our club. After the bosses had been loaded I asked if the manufacturing process was now fully automated. The guy laughed and invited us in have a look at the process. From what I can remember it was very much as described earlier in this thread.
There was a large hopper full of straw. In front of the hopper was a trough into which the operator pushed the straw. There must have been some mechanism to move the straw along the hopper. As the straw left hopper it was bound by string. I'm pretty sure it was then coiled vertically on a large jig (Katherine Wheel style) and a very large weight placed on the top. Im afraid I can't recall the stitching process but one of the clever bits was to taper the end of the coil to make the boss round. A plug of straw was then hammered into the centre. An electric sander was then used to remove any odd bits of straw that were left sticking up.
I was told the quality of the boss was determined by how well the first operator compacted the straw in the trough.
 

Timid Toad

Moderator
Staff member
Supporter
Fonz Awardee
Ironman
The new owners of Egertec have gone a long way to improving the process of making straw bosses. They even grow old varieties of wheat so the length of the straw is good (modern wheats are short so they get blown over less). They are much stronger, more consistent and reliable than they used to be so I don't blame them for protecting their investment.
If you want a straw butt, buy one. That's my recommendation!
 
Top