Next time you snatch a moose, scrape the hide (hair and flesh side), cut it lengthwise, and hang it to dry. You won't build enough bows to go through the whole hide as bow backing. If you don't hunt moose yet, talk to a person that can get you a hide. I prefer a backed bow with a toasted stave. The backing will hold splintering and back fracturing, giving the bow far more integrity to take a lot less careful overdraws (this will compress the wood, however). Backed bows are just hard to break. Contrary to what I have heard from a far more experienced bowyer, I don't find a very thick hide nearing the tips detrimental to bow performance. Hide has far more strength per ounce than wood, so a hide-backed bow can be thinner and lighter than a self-full wood bow of equal draw strength and speed. Again, however, this is just my very limited experience from building my own bows. Rough up the back surface before applying glue to increase the surface area. Regardless, the ...