Again, I must apologize for my tardiness here. My co-worker whom shares a great deal of my work load has been on vacation, and I've had to work long hours to get things done on time. In hind sight, if I'd have known that the bow was going to arrive the week he was gone, I'd have passed on my turn with the bow. It will however, be shipped tomorrow.
All that aside, I was able to spend some time in the evenings with this bow.
I will agree with most of what has already been said about this bow. The fit and finish is good. The craftsmanship is also good. It is obvious that there was considerable thought and effort put into the design of the package. As a whole, I believe that this is a platform that has lots of potential. I only draw 27", so I was nowhere near the optimum draw length of either set of limbs. But they both performed rather well. I had to step up in spine to get close to proper arrow tune with both the hybrid and recurve limbs. I have a few arrow set ups that have been quite tolerant of similar draw weights, and I was surprised to see that they showed weak. A sure sign of good performance.
I typically shoot both hybrids and recurves, so this bow is right in my wheel house.
As far as the recurve limbs go, I feel that they are top notch in feel and shootability. They were a tad louder to me than some of my other favorite recurve designs, but only marginally. And likely remedied with brace, string and silencer optimization. I really enjoyed their smooth draw and performance.
The hybrid limbs were a little closer to my comfort level for everyday shooting. My observations closely mirror those of the recurve limbs. They were great performers comparatively speaking, and balanced well. They too however, were a tad louder to my ears than comparable hybrid limbs. Again, likely fixed with brace, string and silencer position. The draw was not as smooth as some, but smoother than most. A great feel for a hybrid longbow.
The riser, while well crafted, was large and heavy. It almost seemed as though it had too much mass in the limb pads. And that was greatly amplified with the heavier and wider recurve limbs. For this reason, I much prefered the overall balance and feel of the lighter mass weight hybrid limbs. For me, the grip was comfortable and repeatable, but it was too deep back to belly, and a touch too narrow side to side at the throat/thumb ledge. All in all though, a good and adaptable shape.
While both sets of limbs were ran through the gamut of brace heights and shot with light to heavy arrows, I did experience a bit of a buzz after the shot. Not at all unpleasant, or excessive, just a little surprising given the overall mass weight of the bow. Don't take away the wrong impression with that last statement! This bow is still smoother than any one piece or small risered bow that I have ever shot, just, I have a couple comparable bows (that are super tuned) with much less mass weight that have the same or less buzz at the shot. It just surprised me a little with this much more mass in the bow.
Overall, I would rank this bow towards the top with its competitors. With this particular bow, I preferred the overall performance and shootablility of the recurve limbs, but the balance and pointability of the hybrid limbs. With a much lighter mass weight riser material, I think this would make an excellent recurve in every category. But the hybrid also leaves very little on the table. It is a tough choice, but my nod goes to the recurve.
Topic: Black River Pass Around Bow Info/Review Thread (Read 6720 times)
