What do you think about Alum. handle trad. bows?

[koger]

This weekend at the KY classic was great, i was trading around and ran across a beautiful BW, Wilson Bros, take down with an Alum. riser. I have always liked wooden handles, never gave the metal ones a second glance. This one reminded you of a MA-ll, with hollowed out sections to reduce the weight. When strung it balanced like a dream and the vendor told me to take it and shoot her, but warned that the price was low because she was loud. When shot it the arrow was corkscrewing, bow was loud so I unstrung the bow, gave the string about 8 twists and strung her back up. She shot like a dream, quiet as a mouse,#51@28" and smoking fast. I was shooting quarter size groups at 15 yards, snuff cans at 20 yards. My buddy shot it and turned to me and said, if you dont trade bows, I will buy it. I ended up doing some swapping on the bow and today shot it some more, tried aerial targets, hit the 3rd one center and then about 50% for the next 20 tries! I feel like an idiot for not being more open minded and trying some of these bows sooner, just liked the wood riser. It is slightly heavier than a wood handle, but balance is great. Any body out their have the same experience I have?

[Joseph]

The first recurve I owned was a Sky Archery Hunter Supreme (I think) anyways it was a good bow and there is nothing wrong with metal handled bows.  My only complaint was that the handle was awfully cold feeling in the winter time.  I prefer wood for the look and warmth but there are many ways to skin a cat.  Joseph

[vermonster13]

I like them all and have several aluminum handled bows and wood. I have a couple of Black Swans with aluminum handles that will always be with me, they are fast, quiet and a whole new level of dead in the hand. As far as being cold, well I wear gloves when it is cold and put a wrap on the handles. I like bows that perform as they should and kill stuff. Pretty bows I enjoy looking at but tend to baby. My aluminum ones are tanks that I have no worries of scratching or anything else.

[R H Clark]

Koger
I like both wood and metal riser bows.The last year I have been shooting only metal risers.Like Vermonster said,the aluminum risers are pretty much indestructable.With ILF connections,I can have a new set of limbs in less than a week if I have some accident and I can get good limbs in three different lengths for about $200.00 a set.My aluminim risers aren't as pretty as a custom exotic wood riser but it is hard to ignore some of the benefits.

[koger]

I am pretty new to this site, what are ILF limbs?Do they make them to fit any bow?

[R H Clark]

Koger
I don't know any way to adapt ILF limbs to your BW riser.Thoes BW limbs are nice though and should last a long time barring accidents.

ILF just stands for international limb fitting.They have been used on target-olympic bows for years.There are a few risers available now in shorter than olympic lengths more suited to a hunting bow that will accept ILF limbs.About the only draw back is that 60# is about the limit unless you go to a much more expensive custom limb in the $600 dollar range.

One feature of ILF limbs that I really like is the ability to adjust tiller.Because I shoot 3under,I have found this very helpful.This same adjustable tiller feature allows anyone to adjust the preload of the limbs for better performance at different draw lengths.

[Dick in Seattle]

I just recently decided to try both recurves and ILF... now I'm kind of going crazy on two fronts...  old Bear recurves and ILF risers/limbs.  (One has nothing to do with the other...)  

As to ILF, I got the Trad Tech Titan and really like it, and shoot well with it, which is more to the point.   After years of just Hill longbows, it's an adjustment to the weight, but as someone mentioned, it's a tank... you aren't going to hurt it, and I'm having a ball with the changeable limbs.     I also got a TT Pinacle riser, which is a lot less expensive, and wood if aluminum bothers you.  I like the Titan better, because it fits my hand better.   The Pinnacle is a bit "massy" for me, and actually, I resold it... not because of that, but because I was lucky enough to get two Morrison ILF risers...  best of both worlds... beautiful custom wood and ILF.

So, my ILF stable will consist of a 16" Morrison riser, 17" Titan riser and 18" Morrison riser.  With five sets of limbs, both recurve and longbow, I can literally "build" a bow in the bow room each time I go out to shoot.

What I'd really like to see is someone bring out an ILF riser that is shaped to longbow norms, rather than recurve.