HH bug got me ... Part One!

[David Mitchell]

Bud, good one.  Man I thought at first you were speaking some native American language.  

[ChrisM]

I like that one bud!

[dragonheart]

Chris that hill is a cool looking longbow.  Can wait to see it.

[Nate Steen .]

Rik...not to be insinuating anything here...but maybe you missed all those muleys this year because your arrows were flying slower...lol.  it could not possibly be because they were more stable and accurate...  

[Rik]

Miss?

Me Miss?

Surely you jest.

I was just practicing for this year.

[Rik]

Nate’s comments got me thinking back to the days when I shot fast bows. Really fast bows. I had three 80-pound Wilderness recurves that shot my 550-grain cedar shafts 212 feet per second. Without a doubt I did the best shooting of my life with those bows, and a lot of that accuracy was due to the flat trajectory. Plus it was fun to watch people’s surprise when they saw how fast my arrows streaked toward the target.

Those were great times, both for hunting and for 3-d shooting, but the day I shot my first bull with a longbow was the end of my love affair with fast recurves. I can’t explain it in words, but when I watched that arrow sink deep into the 6x6, and when I watched him fall to my longbow, something stirred in my soul that I didn’t even know was there. I became a died-in-the-wool longbowman right then and there.

Sure, I could pick up a smoking-fast recurve right now and shoot tighter groups at longer distances, and it would be fun. But it wouldn’t be a longbow, and my soul would know it. I have several hundred premium Douglas Fir shafts that will become arrows and get to go hunting someday, but for now, I am really enjoying the flight of these heavier ash arrows. And MAN do they go THUMP when they hit home!

I would be ecstatic if my Hill bows could shoot my 750-grain arrows over 200 feet per second, but that’s just not going to happen. So. . . I will just have to learn how to sneak a little closer to make sure those heavy ash arrows hit with authority exactly where I am looking.

As Jack Harrison would say, “That’s just more unnecessary fun!”

[Mudd]

Rik... I think you nailed it!!

I've said it before and I'll say it again......

"It's not so much how the bow feels when you shoot it.... but how the bow makes you feel when you shoot it!"

I am transported to someplace special in my heart when I put my hand to my longbow.

God bless,Mudd

[Nate Steen .]

I get the feeling that you guys think I was promoting fast shooting longbows or something....not so.

I was just putting out some food for thought from another perspective...we've heard so much in the last few years about ultra heavy arrows that it's good to sit back and look at the whole picture and determine for ourselves what we want from the sport.  I personally enjoy a smooth stable shooting longbow above all else.  "a slower bow will be easier to shoot"... Hill didn't mean shooting a dog of a bow....no, back in those days, a faster bow meant lots of reflex and jumpiness and instability.  However, with today's technology, you can have a stable, accurate, smooth shooting bow that also shoot quite fast....and there's nothing wrong with that, in fact, it makes accurate shooting much easier in my opinion.

[Rik]

Nate, you speed demon you. (just kidding)

I know you weren't promoting super-fast bows. I just had a long, sloooow commute this morning in the snow, and while crawling along at about zero miles per hour, I got to thinking about fast arrows and slow arrows and fast bows, and it brought back memories of my old recurves and how flat they shot.

I did truly revel in having the fastest bows around back then. Guess I've matured a bit since then, either that or I've just gotten hooked on the idea of what these 750-grainers are going to do to a big Australian boar.

[ChrisM]

My Hill will shoot right with my 4lbs lighter recurve, and that one is pretty quick for a recurve.  And with a string follow I am shooting top notch groups.

[Rossco7002]

I'm tying myself in knots right now trying to tune some new arrows - cannot seem to get definitive 'your tuned' type arrow flight. Can someone who has a lot of experience tuning carbons to Hill bows drop me a PM so I can run things past them?

..... And yes, I know, 'wood would probably shoot better' lol. But I'm flat broke from spending my money on bows so I've gotta be content to shoot my old carbons for now..... ;-)

[tradlongbow]

Ross sent you a pm.

Darren

[smoke1953]

Rik, I've been shooting my 775 ash shafts for a few years now out of a 58# Hill. This is of course way beyond Howard Hill's formuala(gr/lb) and I stay away from a chrono but that being said I'm addicted to the feel, thump or just how they pass through the animal. On the 3-D course my buddies give me a hard time because I don't change a thing when I shoot with them but it's what I do. Any frustration I have comes with finding good ash and I'm pretty much resigned to 50% of what I get are unacceptable quality but that's what it seems to be if you shoot ash.

[Nate Steen .]

Rossco... being the subjective person I am,  I tried carbons a few years ago to see if I like them.  I never had to have arrows sticking out in front of my bow to get proper tuning...I abhor that..   I adjusted spine with arrow tip weight only.  Of course I only shoot with fletching, I don't bare shaft tune, because I don't hunt with bare shafts...   to me, the carbons were just as easy to tune as woodies or aluminums.

Smoke,  I've shot alot of fir shafts, and use the surewoods when I want a fairly heavy arrow.  You can get dense 11/32 shafts for 60# bows and be around 600 gr. - 700 gr. really easy and not have the arrow straightening issues associated with ash.  Fir is pretty durable too....

[MikeNova]

Nate Owen Jeffery was never big on bareshafting. I went hunting with him a few times in 2006 and he had the most mismatched arrows I had ever seen in a Quiver but that year at age 81 I believe he shot a doe at 40 yards.

[MikeNova]

If I had any grammer skill's I would have written. Nate...Owen Jeffery and...at age 81 I believe,......Reading my post someone might think I'm a 5th grader who stayed home from school.

[Rossco7002]

You could well be onto something there Nate, bare shafting is either the Holy Grail of tuning or a tool designed to cause insanity. I've yet to figure out which.....

Perhaps I just need to 'get close enough' for now and then confirm my set up when I get to the cottage and can do some long range shooting this spring.

[swampthing]

Another alternative is Hickory. Not as brittle as ash, tends to bend before it breaks. At about 20gpi for 65# shafts, a typical 160g head on a 28" arrow will be about 750g.

[Looper]

I just finished mounting a few broadheads for a hog hunt in the Francis Marion.  I've decided to use a 70" Cheetah, 50#@28", b50. For arrows, I'm going to use some full-length Surewoods, 60-65 spine, and a mix of 130 grain Stos and Zwickey No Mercy single bevels. These arrows weigh between 620 and 650 grains.

Hopefully I'll get a shot on a pig or two.

[3Under]

Guys I posted this question on the "2013  Hill/Hog hunt. What do ya think?

All you veterans hog hunters, got a question for you.

With all I read about the "body armour" that the hogs wear, does the 53-55 lb hill/type bows (using 10gpp arrows) do a good job killin' the hogs or is the "combo" on the light side??
Excuse my lack of experience.      :confused: