I have just gotten into shooting longbows the past few months, and being an info hound and tuning geek. I have come to a few conclusions concerning recurves v.s. longbows.
I am a long time curve shooter with lots of tournament wins under my belt, over 15 years.
My interest in longbows was an accident...............a very happy one.
If my curve is not tuned perfectly, it will string arrows on a horizontal plane..........I realized this long ago.
I shoot a Palmer Legend 50#@ 28" w/ a draw of 26 1/2. I shoot Gold Tip 3555 arrows @ 26 5/8" w/ 100g tips (app 340g). 202 fps average, and very consistent for 3D.
(For hunting I use a much heavier tapered cedar shaft w/ Howard Hill broad-heads)
I recently acquired two Bushman American Native Longbows, a 64" pulling 45# at my draw, and a 58" carbon pulling the same.
http://bushmenbows.com/ I am so blown away that I have already sold one of my Palmers!
The Bushmans by Steven Jewett are amazing.
I set both up for 3D, and chose the bows specifically to shoot a .600 spine arrow in competitions. (app. 300g)
The 64" Bushman chronograph average is 197 fps.
The Bushman Carbons average is 220 fps, and shoots right where I look like a laser!!!
The stiff tips on the longbows seem to mitigate the archers parallax, and shoot to center w/ amazing consistency using a variety of arrow spines. I do find that the fps of the Bushmans will be affected by the consistency of my form, and length of draw, as indicated by the chronograph.
Simply drawing this Bushman Carbon to a full 28' yields speeds in excess if 230 fps !!!
WOW!
If my anchor is not consistent, the arrows will string on a vertical plane accounting for the velocity differences, but still hit to center perfectly. Practicing w/ the chrono has solved that.
Anybody else have any experience with these bows?
My mouth was hanging open gasping for air after the initial testing.
I will be shooting a 3D competition this weekend, and cannot wait to shoot my new longbow!