Well I went to the longbow shoot last night. I borrowed a bow and was shooting with a fellow who is close to 80 and another fellow who is a custom bowyer. I outshot the bowyer! I had only shot a longbow a few times before so I was pretty amazed. I was really pleased with my shooting, once I calmed down and realized everyone was there for the fun of it. The 0ld guy outshot me though....it was a real pleasure to watch him shoot. He's reduced his draw to 32 lbs due to shoulder problems but he's still a "dead eye." This was the who's who of longbow shooting for the Calgary area...lots of people there who I've read about over the years.
I've got a great longbow, I'm much, much better shot with my recurves so I fdon't practice enough with it.
From time to I think about selling it, I might hove only put 100 arrows on the string. But, it too darn noce and the bowyer (Saluki) has stopped making them. He's now only making Turkish type horse bows.
If you can't smell his breath, your're not close enough!
Posts: 980 | Location: Illinois | Registered: 04 January 2003
Calgarychef1: Agrred. Radical reflex/deflex longbows can achieve the speeds and performance factors of recurves and are starting to intrude on the speeds that were once only available to compounds. The true benefit of the r/d design is the higher performance obtained at the lower draw weights basically equating to speeds that are obtained by straight bows that are 10-15 pounds heavier. I have shot r/d bows that at higher weights (67#@26in) that can sling a 700-800 grain arrow at 180-190 fps. Speed was never that critical to me, but if i can get it and maintain stability and control of the shot, I'll take the speed every time.
