Well, my Kanati died a few weeks ago. I was bummed to say the least. I still have my recurves, but I'm a longbow guy at heart. My problem is lack of funds at present due to building a house on my hunting property. As luck would have it, I found a 60" Bamabows Expedition Hunter III, born in January of 2015 for what I consider a steal of a price. I sold some stuff I didn't need, and she arrived today!
Specs are 60", 48# @ 28", actionboo cores under black glass, bubinga riser with ash and bubinga riser overlays, and bubinga and phenolic tip overlays. The riser is probably as pretty a piece of bubinga as I've seen. It is a relatively plain hunter's bow, which is exactly what I wanted. The 60" seems kind of long. I'm used to my 58" Kanati and 56" Orion recurve, but it's not in any way unwieldy.
Here are some pics. I don't have too many yet. The mailman came at about 1:00, so by the time I had some arrows tuned and took a few shots, it was time to change clothes had head to the blind. No luck there...it started to rain and lightning, so I headed back down early. All I saw was a big tomcat.
Here are three shots at 20 yards after I figured out an arrow that she liked.
Pretty bubinga!
She likes a fairly heavy arrow. I got bullet holes in the paper with 28 3/4" Beman ICS Bowhunters with 225 grains up front. I haven't checked FOC yet, but I suspect it will be pretty good...20 percent or there abouts. They weigh in at 480 grains, which would be 10 gpp at the marked weight, but I don't think I get 28" anymore, so it's more like 46#. I can tell you one thing, it really slings an arrow! I haven't run her through the chrono yet, but seat of the pants chrono says she's fast!
With these arrows, she's also VERY quiet! The PO had the brace height at 7 3/8". I suspect that was an attempt to keep the bow quiet with lighter arrows. I dropped it to Nate's recommended 7" BH and just get that little longbow thunk on release. The hiss of the feathers is almost as loud!
So far, I'm impressed. The finish is second to none. The grip fits pretty well. It's not a Kanati, but it will do for now. For what I paid, I won't be shy about customizing the grip to fit perfectly...not that price has ever stopped my from doing that before, lol! At this point, I think she's a keeper.