Miss HOPE and FAITH from Black River

[jbpharmd]

I got a chance to shoot her at the Louisiana Traditional Bowmen North vs South shoot last weekend and she is wonderful. No other way to describe it. Thanks Daniel for the opportunity!

[CRS]

Originally posted by Will Cocke 2:
CRS.  Looks like you need a little help up there!

Hope should be along here in the next couple weeks.    

[mangonboat]

Faith arrived in the North Carolina mountains today. Just enough daylight left to put her together, check nock and brace height, try out a variety of arrows. At my 28.75" draw, 2016 XX75 with 125 grs. up front flew best. A mighty handsome bow. More to come.

[fnshtr]

I "Hope" and have "Faith" that the girls are getting some quality time in with the current participants!!!

See what I did there?        

Bisch

[DanielB89]

Welp,

my time with Hope is coming to an end.  I am about to ship it out to the next person.  I did not manage to kill anything with it, except foam.  The frogs and hogs did not cooperate in the least bit.

If there are any specific questions anyone would like answered, please feel free to ask.  

Overall, I would say it is probably one of the nicest bows I've ever held in my hand and everyone wanted to shoot it and complimented it sexiness.  The finish was fantastic.  The curves and lines with all the light accents contrasting the dark woods help make the bow "pop".  

First thing you'll notice is these limbs aren't your standard straight limbs.  They have almost a wavy design to them.  This pic kind of shows what i'm talking about.  You can see it with the bottom limb.

[DanielB89]

One of the first compliments I have to give Will is the grip here.  It is nearly perfect for my hands.  Not that that matters, but it did make my experience with more enjoyable.  

After shooting it, the first thing I notice is the speed.  It's crazy fast.  I have a set of Morrison Max 4's, and i'm guaranteeing you that this bow is within a few fps of that bow with the same weight arrows (morrison is #46@28, this bow is #47@29).


You'll also notice that the longbow limbs are not your typical longbow limb design.  I don't know how legal this bow would be in some tourneys due to the string could be touching the limb if the brace height isn't set high enough, making it have to be shot in the recurve class instead of the longbow class, which wouldn't be a problem due to the speed.  


With that speed, there does come a little noise.  Not much, but definitely some.  It's not as loud as a recurve, but definitely not as quiet as most of my longbows.  

There may be the slightest amount of handshock but fwiw, I don't know that i've ever shot a bow I would say has "NO HAND SHOCK".  I'm sure I could adjust the brace height a little and quieten it down some, but it was shooting so good at the 7 3/8" brace that I didn't mess with it.

I shot a variety of arrows from it.  The first set was a 30" 500 spine with 225 grains up front.  The second set were some 32.5" .400 spine heads with 175 up front.  Both shot like darts out of this bow!

[DanielB89]

here are just some random pics of the bow:

[DanielB89]

[DanielB89]

Here's a buddy, Jacob Bergeron (also a member here) shooting the bow:

 

Daniel, can you please explain how to "whoot" a bow??            

That thing is a really good lookin' stick!

Bisch

[DanielB89]

quote:Originally posted by Bisch:
Daniel, can you please explain how to "whoot" a bow??            

[South MS Bowhunter]

Ah come on Bisch

[CRS]

Daniel,
Sent you a PM with my address.

[fnshtr]

Ok Chad, you're up next. Get the mojo going! I got good news today, my knee replacement won't be happening until May 22nd! Now I have our entire season to chase turkeys!!!!

Good luck!

[CRS]

Lots of plans for Hope..... details to follow.  

[mangonboat]

Faith has been with me for several days but rain and work have limited my time with her. Our NC turkey season begins Saturday, so I'm planning to get serious about this pretty quick.

In the meantime, I'll share some impressions about this bow, in no particular order of importance. The fit and finish are top shelf. When I was assembling the bow, the limbs fit to the riser with a very precise fit..not sloppy, not too tight. The fit and flow of the limbs and riser is very well-executed, and it gives you the impression right off the bat that you're dealing with an expertly-crafted weapon.

The riser woods and limb veneers are rich and subtle, handsome rather than pretty, classy rather than rather than showy. My photography skills are lousy and taking pictures as the sun sets bleaches them out, so I haven't come close to capturing the deep, subtle pattern of the limb veneers, like carmel, milk chocolate, dark chocolate and fudge layers .


As a package, this bow reminds of a 1960's Diana Grade Browning over and under. The finish is matte and feels like it was rubbed into the woods.


The first impression as you pick it up with your right arm is of mass. This riser is big and it's dense. I love the mid-1960's bows with the big risers, and this one has that sort of feel.  


I am still getting to know the grip. The palm swell and thumb rest are very subtle and minimal, so you aren't forced to hold the bow in a certain way. I'm finding my best results by letting the bow find its place in my hand while I barely hold it. Suffice it to say it is solid and steady at release.


The "hybrid" limbs, as described above and in the pass around thread for one of Will's bows a few months ago, are not recurve, not semi-recurve and not typical longbow when strung up, and as you draw you know they are something different. The only way I can describe it is that you sense the tension building in the limbs more like a coil spring winding up than a leaf spring bending, and as you get to full draw the sensation is that the limbs are  coming alive rather than stacking . I draw 28.75" and while there is room for more, I am definitely in the sweet spot for this bow, because things happen in a hurry on release.


The bow comes with one of Daniel's Hunter's Choice skinny strings with dense yarn puff silencers , and she's plenty quiet. The note on release is a bit sharper in tone than some of my bows but not louder. Shooting from 25 yards, the whir of helical fletching is more noticable than the string noise.

I tend to be a fan of "flat-shooting" bows rather than striving for 11-12 gpp and significant FOC bias, and I am  shooting well and leaning toward 30" XX75 2016 arrows with 135 gr Zwickey broadheads for turkey season. The bow is set up to shoot off the fairly wide velcro pile shelf, so nock height is critical.  My preference would be to remove the crimp-on brass nocking in favor of dental floss, but that makes it harder for the shooters down the line to set up the bow to their preferences.

[DanielB89]

I have searched all over and emailed Terry and can't figure out what were supposed to insure the bow for.  Can anyone help me out here?  

I am confident in my packaging ability, but I want to be sure it is done properly!

[mangonboat]

Opening morning of turkey season was gray and windy on top of the ridge at sunset, so Faith and I started sneaking down the south-facing slopes, with the wind at my back to cover the noise. I snuck up to withing 75 yards of a mixed group of nine turkeys including at least two nice toms, but....they were on the other side of brand new horse fence in a pasture I don't have permission to hunt. While I was contemplating a strategy, a truck drove up to the gate of the pasture and the turkeys ran out the other end, away from me. Oh well..that's hunting. We'll keep after 'em.

[mangonboat]

Funny postscript for opening day. Around noon, I was in the car with my wife headed to Raleigh, and that same group of turkeys had made their way across the pastures to the road and I passed the two toms, strutting on the edge of the road, at less than 10 feet.