Stickbow Target Archery Forums

Gerard, the best thing about life is that it's always in flux ...
I still have a straight limbed Hill-style longbow around for aesthetic pleasure. I'm a bit more into "hunting mode" these dayze and a hybrid longbow is more efficient and better suited for lobbing out a hefty arra weight. And my latest launcher is a dandy ...

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I dunno exactly why, but speaking strictly for me I've always had problems finding the right carbons to match up with my longbows, straight limbed or hybrids. Less of a problem with the hybrids, but still hard to figure out what spine range will yield the best flight, both bareshaft and arra.

Also, add in arra weight. I shoot for at least 10gpp, and with a lightweight carbon that can be hard to achieve unless you go to added point and shaft (tube) weights. The Beman 500's I'm primarily using are considered way underspined for my bows, yet 29" bare shafts fly almost like darts out to 20 yards - and consider than there's 300 grains of point weight alone. I went down to 500's after trying the 340's and 400's - both were just too stiff for me and all ended nock right in the butt. The 500's bare shaft dead straight into the butt - and keep doing so when fletched with feathers (*any* feathers).
Beman Ventures are cheap, and that was also a prerequisite. The Arrow Dynamics tapered Trad shaft is killer and works very well from all my bows, with no tweaking, but they're Expensive.

Anyhoo, the four fletch seems to work quite well for me, and I can get a pair of fletches outta one full length feather - another good thing.

rob

that is one sexy looking riser. can you give any more details/pics on that bow?

My "new" hybrid r/d longbow was built in January of this year by custom bowyer Troy Breeding (my understanding is that he builds very few custom bows per year and only to folks that know about him). The feller that ordered this bow shot it for awhile and then I believe he got news his Adcock ACS was about to happen, so this bow, and it's twin, went up for sale.
The riser is bloodwood with maple and black phenolic accents. The slim handle is wonderfully sculptured to fit very ergonomically in the bow hand. The limbs are bacote veneer over bamboo, under clear glass. Limb tips are black phenolic and bocote under clear glass. The grip is a rubber sleeve. 64", 50# @ 28". Extremely smooth drawing and shooting. I love this longbow.

As noted above, my carbons range in weight from 535 to 620 grains.

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Rob -- thats a real nice looking bow. Love that shield burn shape, as well.
Almost all my arrows now, woodies, carbons and aluminums have three 4" feathers on them and get good flight out of all of them. My hunting arrows last year only had three 3" feathers on them and they flew like darts. I use the three 4" feather setup for everything from 3D, indoor spots and Field shoots.

I know the current bowyer for Stotler Archery uses four 3" feathers on his hunting arrows. I have been thinking about going to four 3" feathers for hunting -- hey, you dont have to worry how the arrow goes on the string do you?n
My favorite carbons are Carbon Express Thunderstorms, they are a youth arrow but spine out close to a 500. They are straight and consistent and have to be THE toughest arrow I have ever used. They come in 28 and 29".

When did Troy start making bows, again, it really looks nice.

I'm still experimenting with four fletch and have dropped down to 3-1/2" fat shield LW feathers with a slight helical twist. This work really well so far, with broadheads and field points, and might just be the ideal fletch arrangement for me. Yep, with a four fletch, no need to be concerned about a cock feather!n
Also, using Bohning fletch tape is a snap - I don't see going back to gluing feathers for carbons. I still like Duco for fletching woodies, however - my concession to aesthetics!