A "Really Really" Long Longbow ?

[huntsmanlance]

I understand why bows are kept as short as possible....for stands, blinds and making it easier to sneak though the woods with but...i have been wondering....what would be the difference "performance" wise if one was made 72" or even longer?

After shooting a 73" osage self ELB for so long i like the length and keep thinking..."hmmm, i wonder what a bow this length but made with  modern materials, carbon, bamboo cores and such  would be like".

Thanks for any info!
Lance

and btw....almost Merry Christmas All!!!

[b.glass]

I was just reading about that and looked it up to confirm. As far as self bows, they tend to decrease in performance after about 69-70" in length. This was per TBB I, page 69. It also says that being made of other materials wouldn't effect that much either.

[b.glass]

Merry Christmas to you!

>>>---------->   Bona

[Crash]

Lance, I don't know about 72" bows, but A&H Archery's ACS-CX is faster at the 66" length.  I believe that Black Widow also found that on their longbows.  You would think that at some point their would be diminishing returns due to the extra mass in the limbs and the drawlength not getting the full measure of the limbs capability.

[trashwood]

well the key to preformmance in long long osage self bows is build a Jim Hamm bow.  Jim has a long draw so to make osage bows work for him he build a longer "riser"  and tillers the limbs the same lenght limb as usual.  his bows end up looking whip tillered but they have the sam amount of limb work for the lenght of the limb.

He cleverly (and artistically) fashion the riser so that it looks like a usualy selfbow.  he just makes sure the limbs don't start bending till he want them to.  

His speeds are very good for selfbow speeds.  

rusty

[Paul WA]

back in 2002 at the longbow safari in Montana someone had a osage self bow between 8 and 10 ft long, it was a novelty but very interesting..PR

[Jason Jelinek]

Really long bows work well as Rusty mentioned when there is a lot of taper in the limbs and a stiff inner section.  The taper forces the outer limbs to do most of the work and since they are thinner are more efficient.  To prevent stacking the bow needs to be made long.

If you look at the dimensions of Mary Rose ELBs they are 1.5" wide and 1.375" deep at the handle and taper to 0.5" wide and 0.5" deep at the tips.  This makes for a bow that is a bit whip tillered, but since they are 75" long and made for a 28"-30" draw they won't stack much and end up being pretty efficient.  A big mistake many make today when building ELBs is that the inner limbs do to much work (a mistake I've made myself).  ELBs were meant to be a bit whip tillered and long.

Jason

[non-typical]

Hmmm....I guess you could use a bow bolt at each end of the riser for a takedown model on something like that.

[flint kemper]

I know the Black Swan Classic 66 inches longbow has great performance. I have never heard of any over 72 inches so I am not much help. Flint