Faith has been with me for several days but rain and work have limited my time with her. Our NC turkey season begins Saturday, so I'm planning to get serious about this pretty quick.
In the meantime, I'll share some impressions about this bow, in no particular order of importance. The fit and finish are top shelf. When I was assembling the bow, the limbs fit to the riser with a very precise fit..not sloppy, not too tight. The fit and flow of the limbs and riser is very well-executed, and it gives you the impression right off the bat that you're dealing with an expertly-crafted weapon.
The riser woods and limb veneers are rich and subtle, handsome rather than pretty, classy rather than rather than showy. My photography skills are lousy and taking pictures as the sun sets bleaches them out, so I haven't come close to capturing the deep, subtle pattern of the limb veneers, like carmel, milk chocolate, dark chocolate and fudge layers .
As a package, this bow reminds of a 1960's Diana Grade Browning over and under. The finish is matte and feels like it was rubbed into the woods.
The first impression as you pick it up with your right arm is of mass. This riser is big and it's dense. I love the mid-1960's bows with the big risers, and this one has that sort of feel.
I am still getting to know the grip. The palm swell and thumb rest are very subtle and minimal, so you aren't forced to hold the bow in a certain way. I'm finding my best results by letting the bow find its place in my hand while I barely hold it. Suffice it to say it is solid and steady at release.
The "hybrid" limbs, as described above and in the pass around thread for one of Will's bows a few months ago, are not recurve, not semi-recurve and not typical longbow when strung up, and as you draw you know they are something different. The only way I can describe it is that you sense the tension building in the limbs more like a coil spring winding up than a leaf spring bending, and as you get to full draw the sensation is that the limbs are coming alive rather than stacking . I draw 28.75" and while there is room for more, I am definitely in the sweet spot for this bow, because things happen in a hurry on release.
The bow comes with one of Daniel's Hunter's Choice skinny strings with dense yarn puff silencers , and she's plenty quiet. The note on release is a bit sharper in tone than some of my bows but not louder. Shooting from 25 yards, the whir of helical fletching is more noticable than the string noise.
I tend to be a fan of "flat-shooting" bows rather than striving for 11-12 gpp and significant FOC bias, and I am shooting well and leaning toward 30" XX75 2016 arrows with 135 gr Zwickey broadheads for turkey season. The bow is set up to shoot off the fairly wide velcro pile shelf, so nock height is critical. My preference would be to remove the crimp-on brass nocking in favor of dental floss, but that makes it harder for the shooters down the line to set up the bow to their preferences.
Topic: Miss HOPE and FAITH from Black River (Read 31665 times)
