I challenged the "mad scientist" of Mulino Oregon

[Bjorn]

Beautiful looks like it was made from solid wood-love that look! Great performance too!

[**DONOTDELETE**]

Hey Scott,

A 32" draw can definitely get excellent performance, but the poundage of the bow can make a big difference.

Everyone seems to think the power stroke of the longer draw length is what makes the difference, and it does help a lot. But in reality, the stored energy in the bow is lost or gained in the transfer from the string to the arrow shaft.

a quick example without going into a lot of tech talk would be this.... Take a 64" Flatliner 50@30" bow with excellent preload that stacks up at about 31" and shoot a 500 grain arrow drawing that full 30".....Lets say we hit 195 fps @ 10 gpp.

Now we take a 66" model that is 50@32" that doesn't stack till you hit 33" and shoot the same arrow through it.... I would be really surprised if we got the same 195 fps. it would be close, but  i doubt very much it would be faster.

The reason being is that you have more limb mass traveling forward with the 66" model, and the preload, or tension on the string at brace is less than the 64"  50@30" bow. Just because you have a longer power stroke, it still comes down to stopping the limbs clean, & transferring the energy into the arrow shaft.

another good example would be taking a HH style bow at 40# and testing it with 400 grain arrows, and taking a 60# HH and test it at 600. I can guarantee the 60# bow is going to be at least 15-20 fps faster just due to the higher preload.

With the Flatliner design. i can build these things draw length specific to a certain degree and maximize performance at any draw length by balancing the mass limb weight to the bows draw weight. But unfortunately the length of the bow restricts how far you can draw this limb design. a 32" draw would require a 66" length, and we'd need at least 55-60# to get the preload required to ring the 200 fps bell. That & a little luck....200 fps at 10 gpp is a tough one to pull off at any draw length.

[96ssportsp]

Thanks for the explanation. One of these days I need to make a trip over to the wet side. Scott

[petalumapete]

Today I finally finished tuning woody's for this bow. I couldn't be happier.
I ended up going with Sherwood 50/55 shafts cut to 29 3/4 inches with 100gr up front.
Rockets!
Before any one ask's I have not put them on a grain scale yet. But these wood arrows are zipping along just as fast and flat as the carbon.
For a long bow this baby hits with some authority.I have no doubt of blowing right through game even with this light of an arrow.

Now that I've had a few weeks to shoot this bow I continue to be impressed. The workmanship is spot on. I find no flaws, all the wood joints transition smoothly. Kirk is using Thunder Bird Epoxy for his finish's leaving a hard as nails finish.

It's smooth as silk on the draw. No stacking at all.
There is no hand shock. The bow does not jump.It sits guietly at the shot. It is one of the most quiet bows I've shot both indoors and outside.The sound is not so much a thunk as it is a swish sound.
 At 20 yards this bow hits exactly where I am looking making it very easy to stack arrows.

I would say any one sitting on the fence looking for that go to long bow take a good long look at Big Foot. You will be suprised.

Oh yea, If I sound like a fan your absolutely right! In my opinion Kirks bows set the standard all others aspire to.