Happy birthday to Howard Hill!!! And congrats to your son on his success!!!! Humbly Jacques

The one in the Hill picture was not quite a full reverse, the belly side had a piece of wood in it.  However, if you like fixing broken nocks and replacing feathers, the JD Berry Morningstar will keep you busy. 

I agree with that.  I love my Northstar.  It is the most forgiving bow I own.


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That's right, I forgot that you had the Northstar. I can shoot really tight groups with the Morningstar.  To me the duo shooter 'sunset' allows me to be more fluid with faster accuracy with either left hand or right hand.  I am mostly a right hander when I am on the move, still hunting for pheasants and deer, but when hunting deer from a stool, I am most often left handed.  The next full week the 'sunset' is going meat hunting for deer, I have not found a good recipe for antler stew anyway.   My 12 pointer seems to have disappeared.  A nice fat doe will taste better anyway, this late in the rut.

So I joined the club and bought me a beautiful H.H. Legacy Stick, 65@27" and it shoots soooo good!  My son has been shooting H.H. his entire 28 yrs. of hunting but I hung on to my recurves until now.  I guess at my retirement age I wanted a bow to go with me!

welcome to the club and enjoyment

I was halfway expecting the pros and cons of Jerry Hill's little book that came out on Howard Hill's birthday.  For those that do not have every word that Howard Hill ever published and has all of the film work as well, it may be of interest for some. 

My momma said if you can't say anything nice.....

Now Greg, don't get your skirt all ruffled, I know you would not buy that book.  I am just curious to see what folks think that have purchased the book. 

I just noticed something curious.  I often wonder what makes certain bows perform the way they do, things that are not often obvious.  I loaded up a few bows today just check the various tunings with the proper arrows.  My one string follow, my Sunset Hill, has a very stiff brace strength.  It takes more strength at brace than all but one of my other bows, the brace height is actually lower on it than some of my other bows.  How does brace energy equate to performance?

Usually, the more poundage at brace (the more early load) the more performance.  Setback increases the early load.  String follow bows are usually just the opposite, i.e., they are rather soft at brace; they don't have a lot of early load.  You have an anomaly. 

I received a more technical explanation, it is not so much an anomaly as a bow design that gets the most out of my 26" draw. 

Does anyone shoot their Hill style bow with a fixed crawl or stringwalk method?  Does it work with this style of bow? 

I'm going to call up Mr Berry in the next day or so and order a bow.  I've read all the benefits of the forward handle bows, Mr Berry even said as much when I spoke with him.  But they just look darn weird to me, I'm having a hard time getting over it. 

Also how big of a difference is there really between his backset and stringfollow bows?

If you shoot with a crawl, a Hill style longbow is not for you.  They shoot best with split finger.  If you like to shoot with a sighting aid, learn how to use Hill's secondary 'imaginary' aiming point to groove in your shot.  It is not difficult and gets to an automatic response level very quickly.  Jerry Hill amazon. The reverse JD Berry bows forgive bow hand inflections and some release problems.   You will not sacrifice speed with a JD Berry Morningstar over a standard grip longbow.  My Jd Berry Morningstar changed my standards from what I expect from myself when shooting targets with a longbow.  I measure all bows for group tightness against what I can achieve with the Morningstar.  If this is your first Hill style bow, start with watching the John Schulz You Tubes, what he says is more important than what the You Tube videos show, but what they show is very impressive.

Nice I want an hh

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Ordered this Wesley Special in August 68" 49#@28" with carmelized bamboo.

That's a bummer to hear Pavan. I'm still cutting my teeth with traditional and really sturggled with instinctive and gap, the fixed crawl has really helped me.  Do they just not tolerate being tillered that way?  I will certainly look into that aiming method. 

Danbow I've never been a fan of plain bamboo Lam's but dang!  That bow is lovely. 

NotD:  I'll have to disagree with Pavan re using a fixed call on a Hill style bow.  It may not be optimal, of course, but can use a fixed crawl with any style bow. Now many, perhaps even most, Hill style bow shooters use a split finger hold and swing draw, which involves a fluid motion from the beginning of the draw through the release.  There is no static aiming period of a few seconds.

Though I don't shoot with a fixed crawl (I'm usually a split-finger, split vision shooter), I have played around a bit with 3-under and the fixed crawl.  I've found that bows that have the arrow shelf cut 2 inches above center, meaning equal length limbs, as opposed to those with the arrow shelf cut closer to 1 1/4-inch above center, meaning the top limb is longer than the bottom limb, seem to be more comfortable and quieter with a fixed crawl, but either can be shot that way.

BTW, I've been measuring the arrow shelf distance above the center of the bow on all the bows that have come through my hands for the past 30 years or so.  What I've found is that some bowyers tend to build with the arrow shelf about 1 1/4-inch above the center of the bow, others build the shelf 2 inches above the center of the bow.  Some do both.  For example, two of the J.D Berry Hill style Vixens I have and an R/D Taipan are cut 2 inches above the center of the bow, while another Vixen and my forward handle Valor are cut 1 1/4-inch above the center of the bow.

Of course, tiller also varies with where the arrow shelf is cut and the resultant comparative length of the upper and lower limbs.  Those with a longer upper limb usually have positive tiller, while those with equal length limbs usually have an even tiller.  Perhaps that's why 3-under/fixed crawl works better for me on bows built that way. Too, a fixed crawl would place the drawing hand closer to the center of the bow (bending the limbs more equally) on a bow with the arrow shelf cut 2 inches above center

Re back set versus string follow bows, all other things being equal, the backset bow will generally be a bit faster, about 5 fps or so, which translates into 2-3# of draw weight.  String follow bows, because there is less early load vis-a-vis a backset bow, also build draw weight just a tad faster than backset bows. 

Some have argued that the softer feel at the beginning of the draw of a string follow bow makes the bow a little easier to draw when the shooter is most out of alignment at the beginning of the draw.  By the time the bow starts to build weight at a slightly faster rate (vis-a-vis) a back set bow, the shooter's alignment is more in line and better able to handle the slightly increased stack, so much so that it's basically unnoticeable.  Isn't very much to begin with.  Too, the string follow bow has less hand shock at the conclusion of the release.

"the string follow bow has less hand shock at the conclusion of the release"

This is what I prefer best...such a joy to shoot a well behaved SF.  My backsets feel a bit "harsh" in comparison at the shot. 

Dylan, is new to trad shooting, why try get him to try to reinvent something from scratch? If he likes shooting crawl style, an ilf would be a far better choice than trying to convince a Hill style bow to behave.  Fix crawl works best with a vertical center shot bow.  Hunting with a side shot vertical longbow is very limiting at best, such an attempt robs one of the advantages of what a good longbow can do in diverse hunting situations.  Butter knives are pretty good with butter, but everyone, sooner later, tries to use one for a screw driver.