Welcome to the March issue of Archers Review Magazine
Last months monthly magazine was such a success we decided to do it all over again. This month we have pulled out all the stops and got you some fantastic interviews with two of Archery's true greats. If you are looking for that extra edge to your shooting you won't go wrong by reading the first item as that is in our opinion where the competitions are won and lost. We also talk to Herb Meland, one of our favorite bowyers, about his bows and his archery philosophy. There is also something for the beginner as we talk about what to consider when buying your first bow. We hope you enjoy this months magazine as much as we did putting it together, we would love to hear from you and don't forget you can subscribe and we will let you know when future editions are published.
Heroes of Archery
When it comes to archery heroes I imagine that like me most archers will have their own, it could be Fred Bear, Saxton Pope what about Howard Hill or Byron Ferguson ( I like Byron but imagine he is in fact his own hero ), the list is seemingly endless, mighty archers taking their place in the hall of fame. There would be a strong claim too from those bowyers that are constantly improving and making innovations to the bows we use both in performance and handling.
Here is someone though that will make more of a difference to your archery than the most expensive bow, the most gifted coach or the latest nick nack or gizmo offered at your local dealer, strangely enough someone you may not have even heard of.
It's often said that any bow will cast an arrow but a crappy arrow will make even the finest bow a worthless stick in the hand and the most important piece of kit for me is the arrow I shoot.
So here he is, the answer to your arrow prayers, the guy that will save you bundles of cash in wasted trial and error arrow testing sessions and the one who took the pain and frustration out of tuning arrows and choosing the right shaft.
Fellow archers, I give you one of my heroes of archery Stu Miller. Right now there will be folks nodding sagely and muttering "yes indeed - I use his calculator, it's on the money". There may well be others saying " Stu who ?", it's to these folks I say " the information Stu is about to give you will change your archery forever, this is the best archery gift you ever had and he is going to give it to you for free !"
You see Stu created a calculator in to which you enter all the bow data and your draw length and a number of other variables regarding your personal shooting - it will then tell you what dynamic spine you will require - it doesn't end there though because the other part of the calculator will tell you what bare shaft to take, how long to cut it, what weight point to use and even the size of Fletch that will give you an arrow as near to perfect as has ever been designed... what about that then !!
I had been shooting for over 15 years when I first came across his calculator, because I tend to shoot a lot of different bows, sometimes getting through 5 or 6 a year ( I just like bows, in fact my own personal collection at one point approached 60 bows) I have a lot of arrows, but even so when I get a new bow or when I am setting one up it still takes time to test and fine tune the right arrow for the bow and even a small error can mean shooting an arrow which is almost but not quite there. Any experienced archer will tell you that the difference between an "almost there" arrow and an arrow that is "bang on" is incredible and will often mean the difference between a medal at a 3D shoot, winning or losing at a target event or even the difference between the trophy on the wall and the tall tale of the one that got away - oh yes, forget clothes making the man it's arrows that maketh the archer.
Nowadays when I pick up a new bow I head straight for Stu's calculator, just seconds later I have the spec for the arrow... 99.9% of the time you won't have to mess with it at all and in all probability they will be the best arrows you ever shot and you will see your target scores take a leap, you will see the number of 3D kills going up and you will see your broadheads flying better and cleaner than you ever dreamed.
Now before you go running off to check out how bad and out of tune the arrows you have been shooting really are -( and if you haven't been using Stu's calculator, I'll bet that when you make Stu's recipie up they will fly better than your current ones.) you should know a little more about the guy who just gave you one of the toughest parts of archery on a plate, in fact the first time I used Stu's calculator to prepare some arrows I had to go sit down and I even said to my wife - " I have 15 years of experience, I've shot more arrows than were loosed at Agincourt, I've made 10's of thousands of arrows both commercially and privately and as archery is my business I eat, sleep and drink it.... and Stu Miller just put all that and more in an excel programme- how I wish that this had been available when I first started"
We tracked Stu down for you and put a few questions to him on your behalf...
Where are you based ?
I am located in Kalamazoo, Michigan USA.
What do you do for a living ?
I work for a German based global company named MANN+HUMMEL as the Product Design & Development Manager. Here is the US we specialize in developing Air Filtration Systems and Intake Manifolds for the automotive market. We supply all the major automotive manufactures including General Motors, Ford, Chrysler, BMW, VW, Toyota, Nissan, etc.
When and how did you first get in to archery ?
I remember shooting a recurve at a very early age but quickly fell into hunting with firearms. The majority of my adult life I collected firearms, mostly German and Austrian machine guns. As I got older, my interest in these began to diminish and I cam full circle wanting again to hunt and target shoot with the bow. About four years ago, I made the conscious decision to put the guns away and only focus on traditional archery. I focused on firearms for 25 years and Lord willing I will now do the same with the bow!
There must have been a very good reason and a lot of frustration to make you design the tool in the first place, can you tell us how it all came about ?
As an Engineer, just shooting a bow didn't fully satisfy my thirst so I quickly took to making my own equipment. It started with arrows and then transitioned into bows. I greatly underestimated the amount of factors that went into the dynamics of good arrow flight and, needless to say, my first attempts at tuning a traditional bow/arrow combination were less than spectacular. Frustration quickly turned into an engineering quest to "Find the Better Way". I began gathering as much information on the subject that I could find and also began to document all of my personal experimental results and data. Soon, the quantity of data became overwhelming so I set off to define a method of storing and arranging it electronically. That was really the turning point where I could start to clearly see quantifiable causes and effect of all the specific variables. God defined the physics of how these things work together and gave me the perseverance to define and mature a set of equations that balance all the variable into an output I called Dynamic Spine. From the beginning I wanted something simple enough for all to use so they were defined in such a way that you could simply match the bow's dynamic requirement to the arrow's dynamic spine number and that bow/arrow combo would be tuned close enough that excellent flight could be obtained in short order.
How long did it take to design ?
It took about a year to gather information and empirical data from my own experiments. From there it took nearly another year to "tune" the equations and mature the user interface. The current release is actually the fourth version with the "new and improved" fifth version to be made available in a few weeks.
Was there a lot of trial & error ? or did the science just get you straight there ?
It was truly a combination of both. Science got me half way down the road, but tuning the equations took a lot of trial & error.
What is your current bow and set up ? your arrow spec ?
I have many recurves and longbows and it is quite fun to change periodically between them. Sometimes when I pick one up that has been on the rack for a while, it is like getting reacquainted with an old friend. Sometimes it is like arguing with your big sister! Currently, I am shooting a deflexed/reflexed longbow made by a Bowyer here in the US named Bateman. It draws right at 47# for me and is an AMO 60" length. My favourite arrows are ones I make from Douglas Fir, a great wood shaft for durability and hunting.
As regards your archery….do you hunt, 3D &/or Target.
I do all three when the season permits. Mostly, I consider myself a target shooter not for competition but for the pure joy of the sport. When not shooting, I spend my free time making custom designed wood arrows for fellow archers. I rely solely on the calculator to define the appropriate arrow specification needed. Typically, the recipient of the arrows cannot believe how well they fly right out of the box!
Do you get a lot of feedback from archers ?
I do get a lot of feedback for the archery community, usually on a weekly basis and sometimes even daily! Some provide suggestions for improvements, additional shaft selections of added features, and I greatly appreciate their inputs. Some write with questions on what set up I would recommend or for help in tuning the bow. Other simply write to say "thank you" for saving them the frustration and money wasted in wrong arrows.....the same things I went through as a beginning traditional archer. Often a question will be asked about why I dedication so much time an effort into making something valuable and then just giving it away for free. These are the ones I like most as it gives me to opportunity to explain my motivation. God has blessed me in many ways. He reconciled my relationship with Him, He gave me a loving, understanding family and also provided the discernment and skills necessary to make this Dynamic Spine Calculator. He did all this for me for free. To honor Him I try my best to do the same for others and consider it a privilege to pass along any gift I can for free.
We note you have recently revised the calculator with some fine tuning to variables, are there plans for another version ? is this an on going project ?
As mentioned above, there will be a new version coming out that will offer more shaft selections. It also will incorporate the recent studies done with "skinny" fastflight string materials. The string type drop down menu will contain a selection for fastflight strings ranging from 14 to 6 strands. This is now very popular here in the US and makes a significant difference on the dynamic spine required in an arrow as well as the predicted speed and energy it carries. I do look at this as a "living project" and will continue to take into consideration all request for improvement.
Here is the link to the Stu Miller calculator:-
Stu Millers Dynamic Spine Calculator
Stu tells us that his new 
tweaked and revised version is out soon and we here at Archers Review will be getting it first to test run so stand by for the full review coming soon. Stu's passion for perfection and minute attention to detail also shines through in the stunning arrows he produces, so not only do his arrows fly right they look sublime, if you want him to make some for you, you better get in the queue...
Stu, here is a raised glass to you - a true archery hero...... hip hip... Huzzah!
Skinny Strings & Silencers
This article should really be called "taking the crap off the bow". At pretty much every shoot I went to last year I had Andy standing behind me on the range and inevitably at some point he would berate me for having 4 spider silencers and 2 limb saver dampers on my bow, he was convinced all the stuff was sapping the speed from my bow. I had put it all on almost the day I got the bow just to see what it looked like and it looked super - I don't need silencers when shooting 3D, it was purely a decision based on what it looked like, they stayed on the bow all year. Partly it was me just being perverse and part of it was that I was shooting pretty well and if I was missing out on a small amount of speed - so what ?
So a couple of weeks ago I thought I would make a few new strings for this year and tune them in to the bow, at the same time I figured to see exactly how much speed the "stuff" was costing me.
First though I ran a speed test with the standard arrows I generally use to test bows with the current set up.
445gn 11.12gn/# 174fps500gn 12.50gn/# 168fps
530gn 13.25gn/# 159fps565gn 14.12gn/# 146fps
Currently on the bow was a 12 strand DF97 string, the figures didn't look too bad so I was interested to see what the chrono had to say. The string prior to the one I currently used had been a 10 strand and that was what I intended to make, whilst I was at it I went back to a project I had been experimenting with at the start of '09.
It always seemed arbitrary that string makers put 10, 12 or 14 strands of material into a string so I tried to find out why. It turns out that at some point years ago folks decided that to be safe they needed a string that was 4 times as strong as the bow weight, so a chap with a 50# bow should use a string with a breaking strain of at least 200#, sounds pretty sensible. With the materials available at the time this meant a string of around 12 to 14 strands.
However, since those days things have changed, there have been advances in string materials with the invention various formulas of Dyneema and Vectran and stuff that doesn't even have a name, just a number. What impact have they made on the world of strings ?
You would think a huge amount and in truth they do, they perform better, have less stretch characteristics and offer higher arrow speeds, not least of their properties is the higher breaking strains, where before one might expect a single strand to offer a breaking strain of under 40#, there are now materials which offer a thinner diameter and yet will take 165# on a single strand.
Yet still we are offered and recommended to use 12 strands, which can equate to 780# breaking strain, far in excess of what the average archer draws ( even when times'd by 4)
Back last year I had made myself several skinny strings, initially I had used 10 strands of D75, then moved down to 8 strands, 6 strands and finally 4 strands.
Each strand has a breaking strain of 125# and comes in at a diameter of .016 - at 4 strands you have a very skinny string, more like a cheese wire.
Now putting 4 strands on my current bow of choice, an ACS CX 45#@28" on an RC 16" riser could prove to be a very costly experiment if it should go pear shaped. I decided to take as many precautions as possible - 4 strands gives me a breaking strain of 500# - using the 4X rule I only need 188# so the theory says I am safe. However the effect of 4 strands on the limb tips would no doubt be noisy if not catastrophic so I padded the loops out to 18 strands with Dacron which I felt would offer some additional cushioning rather than use D75 for padding.
Once served and string on the bow you have a bizarre looking set up with what appears to be a string at each limb tip and a centre serving and nock point hovering in mid air, I like to serve in my nock points and to my eye the skinny little string in black & white looked beautiful.
After tuning I was sure I could feel a marked improvement in performance but before I had a chance to test it out over the chrono I noticed that after an hours shooting or so the nock had moved - despite being advertised as "no stretch" it appeared that the string had grown, only to be expected on a new string as even at 12 strands a string needs to be shot in. After putting in a few twists I set about shooting again. By the end of the shoot the nock had moved once again. This happened again the next time I shot so I left the bow strung overnight before my next shoot, reset the brace and went off to a 3D shoot, by lunch I had lost yet another 1/4" - the string seemed to be "creeping". By this time I was fed up with it and a little worried that something more sinister than just creeping or stretching was going on so I took off the string and put it to one side.
Over the year though, I hadn't forgotten that the skinny string appeared to have improved the performance by a noticeable margin, so as I said two weeks ago I returned to the project and now that the "crap was coming off the bow" this would be the ideal time to test out another skinny string.
This Flemish string was made with the utmost care and again padded out at the loops with Dacron to 18 strands, this time to avoid any nonsense on the bow I pre stretched it on a little home made jig and then the bow was strung, it was left for 3 days strung and shot intermittently. Stringing a modern Longbow for long periods of time is not an issue given the materials they are made with - I would feel very differently about leaving a wooden bow strung but I have many hunter friends in the States who leave thier modern bows strung for the whole season with no ill effect.
There was some small amount of creep but once the brace had been reset just twice in that time it appeared to settle.
So to the test - the first set of figures show the bow with "crap on", the second with the same string but "crap off" the third with a naked 4 strand D75 string and the bow retuned to the lowest possible brace with good tuning, drawn to 28"
450gn 11.12gn/# 174fps 180fps 190fps500gn 12.50gn/# 168fps 174fps 178fps530gn 13.25gn/# 159fps 167fps 173fps
565gn 14.12gn/# 146fps 159fps 166fps
If you are looking at those figures and thinking "yeah right" I don't blame you, I had to go and sit down and then do the test all over again, same bow, same limbs, just silencers off and most notably with a heavy arrow you gain 13fps !, with a light one 6fps.
Once changed to the skinny string I gained 10fps with a light arrow and 7fps with a heavy one - I would have to add that this is not a scientific test, this is me with my chrono trying to get to the bottom of what the hell is going on - Obviously the weight of a string will have an effect on the speed at which it returns to the bow, there may also be an issue with resistance, more surface area of a fat string vrs a skinny string, with regard to the weight, a brass nocking point or even a couple could have a significant effect of string speed - all very interesting and warrants further investigation. This is a topic I am sure we will re-visit before too long. I would be very interested to hear from anyone else who has experimented with skinny strings especially if they might have some light to shed on the whole matter and any correlation between string weight and arrow speed.
What I can tell you with out any shadow of a doubt is that the 4 strands of D75 outperforms anything I have ever shot before. The difference between the bow I had with crap on and the one I have now with the new tune is 16fps with a light arrow and 20fps with a heavy one - that equates to 7.5# to 10# of draw weight - the ACS was a fast bow anyway and I may have dampened down it's capability a little with the addition of the crap but the increase in performance just by changing the string is still worth 5# to 8# of draw weight that you don't need to hold, over and above the standard string - INCREDIBLE.
I am not suggesting that everyone rush out and start cutting their strings but for me the experiment will continue over a longer period and for the foreseeable future I will be using a skinny string. Just for fun I put an Easton legacy arrow at 420grns and 4" very low profile feathers on through the chrono to see if I could get 200fps from a 45# bow ( this weight is still well within the minimum recommended weight (8gpp) of an arrow at 9.4gpp. 196, 196, 197 was as close as I could come at 28"of draw.
There are several things to note regarding this whole experiment serving a skinny string will leave you with a skinny knock point, the way around this would be to either double serve which to my mind is a little daft if you have gone to the trouble of making a skinny in the first place, perhaps just double serving the area of the nock could be a solution but not one I would favour. You could use tie on nocks which I do like and maybe use some dental floss to build the actual nock between the tie on's or search for a nock with the slimmest groove - something I should really check out.
The next thing is pre-stretching strings, I usually give my fatter strings a moderate stretch and let the bow take care of it over the next hundred arrows or so, with the first skinny I made I found that it was stretching all over the place, however this had more to do with the number of twists in it than anything else, using my usual formula for length I actually found the string to be a little long once made - this was because there was less bulk in the whole thing to take up the length. Because it was too long it had more twists in it I am assuming they had the effect of a coiled spring in that once the string was taut they added a sponginess, leaving the bow braced seemed to cure it but taking it on and off the bow meant that the whole process started again. The second string took an age to make and had to be re started twice, when I eventually did get it right with the right number of twists that's when I started the chrono test.
On the first string I served the nock in, which turned out to be a pain because it stretched much more than I anticipated, on the one used for this test I actually stretched it before serving and then used tie on's which I served over - I took a chance the brace wouldn't change drastically and I was right - perhaps luckily, that the nock point ended up exactly where I thought it would - in future I would not serve over the nock point but just use tie on's after it had been served.
The next thing was that the string made virtually no noise, I say virtually becasue I thought it made no noise and those who I asked to listen to it said it was silent, but I am not going to claim it made NO noise whatsoever but it did seem to make the bow almost quieter, with just that lovely low dull thud of a well tuned bow.
I am almost tempted to say it reduced any "noise" in the hand too - I mean an ACS is just about as shock free as you could get and I was worried that the skinny would introduce some kind of shock or feedback through the hand, however the addition of the Dacron padding must have really done the job as there was no feedback at all.
A skinny string won't make you a better archer but it will add some speed to your arrow which can only be a good thing - I really couldn't say what extra stresses it put on the bow limbs and I would have to advise anyone thinking of using one to perhaps talk to the bowyer first, I actually can't see many bowyers saying " sure, stick a skinny string on" unless with the caveat " .. oh and by the way if it breaks the limbs then it's your problem and not mine !"
By no means is this the end of the story on this particular topic, in the process of this whole experiment it's only fair to say the bow probably wasn't in a state of "super tune" when I had all the gear on the string and in the process of re-tuning I was able to lower the brace height considerably whilst getting excellent flight and that probably added a little something to the speed. I must now go back and test the strings I used, I want to get them weighted, I want to compare the number of twists per inch and also test the draw weight of the bow with each string and at each stage. Stu's new and improved calculator with the tweak for skinny strings is fortuitous and timely as I will also need the work out the spine for the bow now that it has been "super-tuned". So I shall look forward to another few days in the workshop playing with bows and arrows.... what a chore !
Shot of the Month
This months wacky shot comes from Wayne Cotter who shoots with Invicta. After the first 3 targets he was sitting pretty with 3 solid kills, the next shot was this one, a Delta deer downhill at 32 yards through some thin trees.
.....get right down behind the arrow, and it would have been another clean shot..
....Still, never mind eh?
Buying Your First Bow
Last month we looked at how to take up archery, hopefully some of you might have taken those first steps along the process or perhaps you are here because you have already started the process of becoming an archer. No doubt then that you would have been using a club bow or one borrowed from a fellow archer and you may well be itching to get your own. I'm now going to make this article seem a little redundant but bear with me, the best thing you can do is to go to your local archery supplier, get all the advice you can from them and let them help you decide what will be the best bow for you. So what is the point of this, well that first trip to the shop can be daunting and there are so many things to consider it would be a good idea to at least familiarise yourself with as many as you can before you visit. Hopefully our brief introduction should give you some pointers and at least give you some confidence that what you are buying is really what you want.
First up is bow style, Archers Review is based around more traditional archery and bow styles and while we have shot compound bows we are by no means experts in them. Therefore we shall leave those to the experts and focus on the more traditional bows. Broadly bows fit in to one of two styles, longbows and recurve, and while it is also not a hard and fast fact historically longbows turn in to recurves as you transverse the globe from west to east. The traditional American flat bows, English Longbow and then on to the radical recurve shapes of the Hungarian and Mongolians. Recurves tend to shoot an arrow a little faster and are less forgiving of bad form, they also tend to be shorter, obviously, than a long bow and are therefore a little easier to shoot for the beginner. Some long bows have something called reflex and deflex and this is in effect a half way house between a longbow and recurve, often called a hybrid. Reflex is where the tips of the limbs curve away from the archer and deflex where they curve back, however when strung the bow looks for the most part the traditional D shape. Most beginners would start with a recurve as this offers the best experience when starting out and a number of cheaper starter bows are available of this type.
Bows can be made form a number of materials, traditionally this would have been wood, yew for example was exceptionally good for making English longbows, in the past it was the wood which produced the power however in more modern bows wood now provides the underlying structure and a number of different materials are used to provide the power potential. On most cheaper and medium range bows this will be glass laminate, the advantage is that unlike wood the material is consistent and bow manufacturers can build bows of a set poundage without too much trial and error. The higher end bows tend to use carbon but there are also many other materials such as ceramics which can be used. As wood no longer forms the full function of perfomance a number of different woods are available to give bows the traditional look but with all the power potential of modern bow building methods.
One thing that will be mentioned is the poundage of the bow. Poundage is the amount of force measured in pounds it requires to draw the bow to a set distance, this distance is normally marked at 28" and you will see that used on almost all mass produced bows, however some bows will measure it to another distance if the person buying the bow has specified it to be so, more on that in a moment. Bows can be any poundage from the low 20's all the way up to 100+ in some cases however as a beginner you will be looking at between 26 and 34 pounds as a starting point. Once you have been doing archery for a while you should be able to pull the string back with little problems, this presents a problem as soon you will grow out of your bow and possibly looking to increase the poundage. Most beginner bows will be a take down bow, this means the bow can be taken apart, the limbs which do the work and the riser which acts as a handle and holder for the limbs can be detached. This has two advantages, firstly it means the bow can be easily transported but secondly and more importantly in the context we are discussing you can fit new higher poundage limbs without having to replace the riser. The more expensive bows often have a system called International Limb Fitting or ILF which allows you to fit limbs made by one manufacturer on to a riser produced by somebody else, this means you get the best of both worlds and it can become more important when we talk later about grips.
Another consideration is draw length, this is the distance that you draw the string back to you anchor point. There are a number of methods to determine your draw length and this is definitely something you should ask help with when purchasing your bow. It is likely that when starting out on a course the first thing to be done is work out a rough draw length, however this is likely to change as you master archery and settle on a technique that works for you. Draw length is a vital nugget of information when buying arrows, but it is also important when buying a bow as it will determine what length of bow you will need, in general terms the longer the draw length the longer the overall length the bow will need to be. Again working out draw length and length of your bow is best left to the place you are purchasing the bow from as the ratios will vary between bows.
Grip is another consideration, depending on what sort of bow you choose there may be a choice of grip styles. In broad terms there are three hand positions, low, medium and high, longbows will tend to have a low hand position and recurve a high hand position. In terms which are easier to understand a low grip tends to be flat, for example if you held a tennis racket up right in front of you, a high hand position is more like holding the grip of a pistol and is much more angular. Which grip you choose will be a personal preference, but you may be limited by what is available in the style of bow you choose, as mentioned previously purchasing a riser which is capable of accepting ILF limbs will allow you to purchase a riser which fits your hand but also maintain your preference in limbs.
The best advice we can give is get out there and try as many bows as you can. There will be no right bow for everbody and also no wrong one, you just need to try them, get a feel and take the plunge. Hopefully we have give you some pointers to get you past the basics of understanding.
10 Minutes With...
This month it's 10 minutes with Herb Meland of Pronghorn bows, he kindly took the time to talk to us about himself and his bows. I have owned and shot several of Herbs terrific bows and was interested to know a little bit more about the man behind them, Herb has been making bows since 1969 ........
How long have you been involved in Archery and how did you get started?When I was in 3rd or 4th grade one of my older brothers brought a longbow home-I think it was thrown out from the girls gym class. i was 9 or 10 and shot the bow almost daily-wood target arrows were available from Montgomery/Wards(early mail order)for I believe 39cents each. So 60+years in Archery. My first good bow was a 1954 Bear Grizzly static recurve. I shot bows of most makers in the 50s and ended up buying recurve bows made by Bill Pyle (Staghorn) Merrill WI. He was in my opinion the top bowyer of the time.
When did you make your first bow and what was the result?
My first attempt at building a laminated bow was a short hunting recurve -It shot OK but was very crude-my brother-in-law still has one that I would like to take to the landfill.
What's the one tool in your workshop which you couldn't do without?
Most work is done with various belt sanders. the bandsaw is also used daily. plus lamination grinder-pattern sander-and several dust collectors.
What do you think the next big innovation in bow building will be ?
I'll let you know after I unveil it-I constantly think of possible new designs-tapers-mtl.etc. I thought of something today that I'll try-subtle thing that won't show.
What materials do you enjoy using the most ?
Red elm is my favorite core but I use bamboo-osage amberboo and certain veneers. I wish someone would produce a truly high-quality clear fiberglass.
What is it about your bows or the way you make bows that sets you apart from other bowyers ?
First I'm a Bowyer-not a bow cloner or bow builder-there is a big difference. My designs are ones that I have taken from the drawing board to bow and in a lot of cases to the garbage. My current 3PCTD is the last of roughly 40 designs I have built and I feel the best. I Try to get better all the time.
Do you still have time to shoot ?
I try to draw bows several times daily to maintain muscle tone. I rarely shoot an arrow.
What's the best shot you ever made ?
Because of the target I can't tell you what my best shot was.
How many bows do you make a year ?
I'll probably settle in at about 100 bows a year because I am only able to work half days.
What bow are you currently shooting and what's the spec on the arrows you shoot, if it's wood which one ?
-If I shoot I still shoot my old 60" 1PC that I have reduced to 60#@28".
I have all kinds of arrows but my very favourite are compressed-footed tapered cedar.I like stiff arrows and generally use 15# over the weight of the bow (yes they fly good) I stick with mass weight in the 550 to 600 grain weight. 5" helical or maxi fletch. broadheads in the 125-50 gr. range.
New Reviews
This month has seen a raft of excellent product reviews, Legend Archery were kind enough to send us a range of their equipment and the first few reviews have started to appear. We also got our hands on a couple of bows which we took for a spin around the woods.
Royba Japanese Saw
The first in what hopefully be a longer running series of articles related to bow making. Japanese saws have an excellent reputation for quality of cut and ease of use, this one is no exception.
Click Here to Read the Review...
Great Northern Gritter Getter 56" 58#@28"
It's not often we get our hands on a genuine one piece American bow, and this isn't one. But it's about as close as you can get as it's a folding two piece bow and feels just like the real thing with the practicality of a takedown.
Short, small and deadly. I had the pleasure of spending the day shooting it and boy did I enjoy it.
Click Here to Read the Review...
Roy King Self Yew Bow
It was with great sadness that we heard of the passing of a true legend in the bow making world at the start of this year. Steve got up in his loft to dust of one of the great man's bows.
Click Here to Read the Review...
Legend proTour Backpack
Packed with features, great style and maximum practicality, that's the Legend proTour Backpack summed up perfectly. We were seriously impressed with this and I'm sure you will be too.
Click Here to Read the Review...
Legend X Large Arm Guard
If you are looking for a longer arm guard then this one is for you. Seriously well made and at a fantastic price the Legend X Large Arm Guard is a real winner.
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Archers Review is dedicated to carrying on the great tradition of sharing archery knowledge, in many ways we are still re-discovering the skills of our forefathers, unlike just about any other competitive sport, in archery the learning never stops, as we grow as archers the enjoyment increases, so we invite you to share with us all the skills, tips and hints that will help us all to be the best archer we can be.
If you have something to add feel free to mail in your articles, it can be on any aspect of archery from training to bow set up, a quick hunting tip or a specific archery question you would like to know the answer to, someone somewhere will have an answer for you.
MAGAZINE
March 2010
In this months Magazine
Heroes of Archery
Skinny Strings
Shot of the Month
Buying Your First Bow
10 Minutes With...
New Reviews
Click the links to jump to any part of the magazine
