First of all I want to thank Mark and PA for letting us have this site. We will see how it goes. Flight shooting in not just about the fastest bow, it is a sport just like target archery that requires tecnique and arrow tuning. Good tecnique for flight shooting I would say is quite a bit easier to learn than becomming a top target shooter, but once you get into the finer aspects does require some knowledge and practice.
Building a competitive flight bow at this point is not a big deal, several proven designs will easily cast arrows into world record ranges. Hopefully over the next several years this will become more difficult. I would say the biggest challenge right now is building arrows that will shoot properly from the bow. Light arrows will loose velocity very quickly if they don't come out of the bow just right. The faster the bow the harder it is to properly tune a light arrow.
Last weekend I confidently brought my fastest ever bow to Utah for the 2014 annual shoot. In the first round I get beat by a little girl shooting the first bow she ever built which was about a 20# english longbow. I did redeem myself later on by selecting better matched arrows but it does demonstrate the importance of good arrow flight. Durring practice I saw one arrow go about 50 yards and suddenly do a loop-de-loop and come right back at the archer. This was a 100#+ bow he was shooting and we were diving for cover. Note: Arrow tuning and properly built arrows are a big deal!
At present I seem to get my best distances from moderatly fast 60ish inch long bows with skinny tips. They seem to tune easier and hold less mystery for me when tuning. Last year I broke a record with a broken down broken r/d bow that had previously been one of my better bows. The bow just shoots clean, it is also an excellent target bow.
The bow I shot this year was by far the fastest I had ever built that held up for a series of shots, I was hitting 260 fps with it on the chrono not hitting full draw. I drew the bow an extra 3" for the flight shoots and should have easily been able to exceed 400 yards. I think about 348 yards was my best shot. I plan to dedicate this year to tuning and not worry as much about the bows as long as they are decent.
Broadhead flight shooting is much more straight forward. You need a good clean crisp release and the fastest bow you can build. Arrow tuning is important but not at all difficult with properly spined arrows. I currently hold the 50# self bow record with 221 yards and the 50# simple comp record which I just barely got this year at 230 yards. After building about 4 bows for this event I wasn't satisfied with i decided to just put a bunch or reflex into one and if it held the reflex screw the testing just take it and go. The bow I got the record with is boo backed osage, wth abotu 3 1/2" reflex. I gave the bow away at the shoot so no photos. I have seen many bows here I could have done just as well with. All the records in the primitive classes are still very attainable.
