Kirk made a brief post about this bow in the “New Bows of 2023” thread but I wanted to expand on it a bit and let anyone interested in a Bigfoot Bow what to expect.
First a little history; I bought my first Bigfoot in 2014 after reading the many glowing posts TradGang members posted about their bows. I was lucky enough to live near a current customer of Kirk’s that was kind enough to allow me to come visit him and shoot his bow. To say I was impressed is an understatement. The bow I was shooting from another bowyer at the time was the same draw weight as the Bigfoot but had a least a foot drop in trajectory compared to Kirk’s. After that experience I ordered my first Flatliner and shot it off and on since then.
Like most of us, one bow is never enough and before too long I accrued bows of all shapes and sizes including recurves, longbows, and ILF risers and limbs. I’d rotate through them all at some point but kept coming back to the Flatliner. There was just always something about it, whether it was the graceful lines, the perfect grip, or the fantastic performance. I think really what it was is it’s just plain fun to shoot. This now brings us to 2022.
This is the year that I joined a club that has an extremely active Trad membership, and not by coincidence, some of the most genuine people I’ve had the pleasure of meeting. They have weekly Trad night every Thursday and my wife and I began to attend as regularly as possible. It was through shooting with this group on a regular basis that I discovered that I’m not a half-bad shot and started entering various competitions and found I enjoyed this aspect of archery and was fortunate enough to place well in most. This, of course, is a great excuse to buy yet another new bow. A bow designed to give the archer a competitive edge through added mass weight and performance.
I attended ETAR that year and the first thing I did was to find the booth of a bowyer who has quite a few well know archers shooting his bows in some pretty high profile tournaments. He had a bow on the rack that met my specs so I grabbed it and ran off to the practice range. Being a gap shooter, it’s pretty easy for me to gauge the performance of a bow if I’m using the same arrows. If it set my 20 yard gap and hit low it’s obviously slower that what I’m shooting, if it hits high, it’s quicker. Pretty simple test really and while the bow was beautiful and was what the “big kids” were using I was not blown away. It was not any better than the 8 year old Bigfoot I’ve been shooting even though the Flatliner was just glass and the other bow was carbon backed. It shot well enough but was not what I was looking for or expected.
After that experience I contact Kirk and told him what I was looking for. I was sure I wanted at least a 66” bow and heavy riser in a two piece for travel. Here is where Kirk sets himself apart from the others; he asked questions! Not just about riser woods and limb veneers but what I was going to use this bow for, what was my draw length, what was I currently shooting, and what was I expecting in terms of performance. When he found out I only drew 26.5” he immediately told me I needed a shorter bow to maximize the potential he builds into the limbs. I was concerned about going shorter than 66” because that’s what all the Big Guns shoot and promote but he explained how his limbs open up and how I would not need to be concerned about stability at my draw length. We discussed draw weight and while I thought I wanted to drop to 42# he suggested I stay around 45# to, again, maximize the bow’s performance. Since I was already drawing 46# comfortably that was not a concern. And because this bow is really going to be used primarily for 3D tournaments at unknown distances getting the flattest trajectory possible was paramount. He provided a couple of different options for the two-piece takedown feature and we settled on the one that made the most sense for how I was going to use it. We discussed riser options and what we can do to add some weight to provide some stability when acquiring my sight picture. When the discussions were over, a check was sent and the wait began.
Kirk’s turn around was only about 120 days and he kept me apprised of the bow’s build and progress. When it was complete he sent me finished pics and I was blown away with the results. It was packed and shipped a few days later and then the painful wait to see if USPS destroys it or not began. Fortunately it showed up a few days later, well packed, and thankfully none the worse for wear. After unwrapping I was absolutely blown away with the finished product. The pictures Kirk sent did not do this bow justice; it is stunning to say the least. The mass weight was exactly what I had in mind; heavy enough to “slow the float” when on target but not too heavy as to be fatiguing or cumbersome. I grabbed the same finished arrows I was using for my older Flatliner as well as a bareshaft and headed to the backyard. Gold Tip Ultralights, 500 spine, with 125 grains up front worked just fine on the old one but I was hitting right with this bow. Shot the bareshaft and WOW, were these weak for this bow! I had some 400’s cut to 30” and they flew like a dart but I was hitting high. Checked a bareshaft and at 20 yards was touching the fletched shaft. I wish tuning a bow always went that easy! The finished arrows ended up about 20 grains heavier than the ones I had been using but still hit about 4” high all the way out to 31 yards.
I had a competition coming up and just loved how this bow shot so much I decided to use it to qualify two days after receiving it. I did not score as high as I was hoping but did well enough to have the high score for the week and made the finals a few days later. While I’m still learning the bow and tend to shoot a little high, I was fortunate enough to take 1st place with a 24 point margin over the 2nd place individual.
This bow has exceeded my expectations. There are a ton of bowyers out there that can make a pretty bow and most of them will shoot just fine but if you want a bow that will outperform most, if not all, give Kirk at Bigfoot Bows a shout. Just as an FYI, I have nothing to gain from writing this review. I’m not a “sponsored” shooter nor am I receiving anything from Kirk. He’s just a really good guy that builds a phenomenal bow.
Topic: Bigfoot Flatliner Review (long read) (Read 865 times)
