Vince Migliorato has been crafting longbows for many years as hobby for himself and friends, and now he's gotten more into bowyering since retiring.
I'm a huge fan of all longbows (in fact, I don't even own a recurve), particularly those of the classic "D" braced type, and that's Vince's specialty. Not having one "Hill style" longbow in my sparse collection, I decided to find out more about Mohawk Bows and rang Vince up at his Colorado home and we had us a good chat. Vince essentially builds classic "D" braced mild r/d longbows, with a heavy utilization of Tonkin cane limbs. They should be perfectly IFAA legal.
The upshot is that yesterday a pair of Mohawks arrived at the ol' homestead - 64" and 47# @ 28", 62" and 49# @ 28". Both bows have Tonkin cane limb cores AND veneers under clear glass. Both have cocobolo risers, one with thin white swoop stripes and the other with a hefty layer of bocote. Each has both front and rear riser and tip cocobolo overlays, with added micarta and wood layers on the tip backs. The bows are well built for modern string fibers.
Handle shapes are always a concern for me, and Vince shaped them perfectly to my taste - thin and narrow, with leather laced grips. Just a joy for me to hold.
Vince uses Fullerplast for his bow finish, spritzing on at least six coats. When I pulled the first longbow out of it's thick velour sock I was kinda shocked to feel a rough, dry finish - heck, it felt as if he forgot that last smoothing step, for a slick but matte feel. But therein lies the beauty of this finish method - it's DEAD FLAT NON-REFLECTIVE. No matter what kinda light you shine on a Mohawk bow, there is zero reflection - the finish totally absorbs the light. What better finish to use for a hunting stickbow? What started off as a heavy concern has now become positive and desirable. I love this finish!
Hefting these light longbows is one thing, but the rubber meets the road in use - drawing, holding, aiming, releasing - and man, these Mohawks deliver the goods!
The doubled Tonkin cane limbs are incredibly smooth drawing - in fact, I've never drawn smoother longbows. Each felt a good 5lbs lighter in draw weight but my digital scale didn't lie and each bow hit the listed weights on the money. With my 29" draw, there was literally no difference in the draw feel between the 64" and 62" bow lengths.
I wish I still had my bow chronograph to check the speed on these bows, but suffice to say they're plenty fast. And they seem to love heavier arrows in the 550-650 grain weights, better than lighter weight arrows. No "hand shock" to speak of, they're fast pointing and extremely stable longbows that shoot where ya point.
I tell it like it is with bows, and usually I'll find something to pick at, but not this time. It was a pleasure talking with Vince, I'm now a fan of his bowyering skills and his longbows, and I'm poised to order out yet another. Nothing else to say. Well, yeah, one thing - his bow prices are way more than reasonable for what ya get.
longbow. Check out STAF classifieds ...
