hickory flight bow. # 56, flight shoot results

[ken75]

makes me wonder what effect the temp and rh difference would have on flight between here and utah
thanks Rich
thanks john k

[ohma]

great numbers there Ken.

[Badger]

Ken, cut your feathers down to 4" and 1/2" high. Use an active release, in otherwords draw the bow back until the broadhead hits the bow and then release while your hand is still drawing the bow, kinf of rip your finger off the string. Also if you remove 10 grains it might add 1 more yard and if you drew it back to a full 50# you might add a few more yards, I bet I could get that thing out to 215 yards. Steve

[Del the cat]

Just seen the pic of all that timber, must've been one heck of a tree...
Shame we don't get Hickory growing in the UK .
Del

[PeteC]

Nice bow ken.Your flight results sound very good as well. God Bless

[Little John]

Yep, was pretty sure this bow was going to be a shooter, congratulations.    Kenneth

[bambule]

Maybe you treat the bow with a gun and get a little more wood bending from the fades and try to pull to 30" - I think the bow can handle that when you tiller carefully after treating. And as Steve said, try to get 50#...

Greetz
Cord

[ken75]

thanks ohma

steve i was going by what i thought was within the rules for the broadhead flight shooting , guess i need to search more on feather length heigth and so on . im going to build another similar but longer and keep the lbs up round 50 and maybe heat treat the belly . always time for another expirement bow. im releasing like you suggest .

del thats one of two stacks and only the bottom 12 foot of the log the rest went to smoking boston butts , unfortunately. i was just informed by my pops we have to cut another one so i get the pick and its gonna be big.too bad u dont have hickory its fine bow wood in my opinion.

thank you Pete
thanks john
Bam im happy with the stress this one has withstood , im gonna build another (force myself to)

[Badger]

  Ken, I have always shot the 5" feathers as well, someone recently told me I could legaly go down to 4" I guess i didn't read the rules very well. Steve

[ken75]

Steve im goning to build a set of six arrows before the next flight bow ,most of mine start at 3/8ths but i can turn them down and taper them also . would you have a suggestion on best wood and best taper ...barrel ,bobtail . also i think ill use secondary feathers mounted straight and stick with four by half as you said.

[Badger]

 Ken, just an opinion here but for broadhead arrows I believe that a straight shaft is fine, about 11/32 poc is what I normaly use with a 100 grain point, slightly less foc seems to help carry a bit further. Are you thinking about attending the flight shoots at some point, I have a feeling you would enjoy it, just the people who attend make the trip worthwhile. I think the 7,000 ft elevation may aslo give the distance a little boost. I was shooting a modern longbow at sea level that was measured to be about the fastest any longbow has ever shot and was only getting about 215 yards.  Steve

[RyanY]

Sorry I'm so late to comment. That's a mighty fine bow ken. For as little set as it looks to have taken it must be a screamer. I hope to get into making a flight bow sometime soon.

Badger - what kind of selfbow's have been winning at flight shoots? Baker style bows, recurves, R/D, holmies/molly's?

[avcase]

Ryoon,
I hope it's OK if I jump in here.  The recent winning self bows at the Bonneville Salt Flats in the regular flight classes have been molly's.  It is a much more mixed-bag with the broadhead classes.  Some of the broadhead record holding bows of the past may be considered thick pyramid (like Jeremiah Retherford's) or deflex-recurve style such as Marc St.Louis is known for.  I may have some pictures of some past winning bows somewhere that I can post if I can find them.

Ken,
I hope you consider giving the Salt Flats a shot.  It is a lot of fun to tweak the bow, arrows & shooting technique to see how far you can get them to go. 
-Alan

[ken75]

Steve , on down the road when i have more experience building and designing i think it would be great . right now im still a newbie just finished my first year building and need a lot more work. if it gets to the point i can come close to the record distance where i live in south GA with this humidity then i would definetly consider it. seems like a lot of fun and some great info shared among the shooters.

thanks Ryoon its a great shooting bow ,although i always find room for improvement.

Alan one of these days .

[avcase]

Ken,
Georgia to the Salt Flats is a long trip!  Another option that we've done in the past is mail in the bow so that it can be matched up to a flight archer who will be at the competition.  Not all archers use all of their allotted rounds so this gives a chance for some of the archers to have a little more fun while they are there.  The down side, is they might set a record using your bow that you might find very difficult to beat yourself at a later date. 

Another flight shooter, Jaap Koppledrayer often drives in from Odum, GA.  I don't know how far that is from you but he makes some beautiful horn bows and Japanese Yumi type bows.

-Alan