curious why all bows arent cut to center???

[**DONOTDELETE**]

Originally posted by Kirkll:
There is a lot of dynamics to consider when getting good arrow flight Matt. The closer to center shot you are, the less the arrow needs to flex to get around your riser with out having contact. Theoretically with a completely center shot bow an arrow would need no flex at all to it....A stiffer shaft is desirable in a hunting shaft for durability during penetration. I have field tested many different shafts of different spines though a totally center shot compound bow in search of perfect arrow flight. The differences are found in tip weight vs arrow spine, and the FOC. How all my testing over the years relates to traditional style bows is an on going experiment for me right now. due to the inconsistency of using fingers instead of a mechanical release, i'm finding arrow fletching is a big factor too. espeacilly shootiong off the shelf......But my findings were that an arrow that absorbs some of the force of the string...flexes slightly, and snaping back... out performed the stiffer shafts having virtually no flex at all.It has something to do with "Spring tention and elastic collusion" calculations...(Whatever that is?....i'm no engineer by any means...LOL!)....But i argued with engineers for a long time over that one anyway.... Keep in mind the only way you can get these stiff shafts to fly good is using an arrow rest of some kind that allows complete fletching clearance at the time of release. A lot of these arrow field tests I've done over the years will not even apply to a traditional style bow at all unless you use an elevated rest with a burger button, and are drawing 84 lbs.....

Regarding never seeing hunting recurve bows cut this far past center..... I think you may be mistaken on that one bro.....Here is a quote from Wes Wallace on his web site:

"The wide limb design and long fade outs on my recurves create a total working limb that tapers to a narrow tip for superb smoothness. The sight window on my recurves are cut 3/16" past center for the best arrow flight. Both the shelf and the sight window are radius cut. With a brace height of 7 ½" the bow is extremely quiet shooting with stability and speed unsurpassed"

Keep something else in mind here Matt....when a bow riser is cut past center it allows for a wider variety of shelf and riser pad materials to be used, as well as a wider variety of arrow shafts by adjusting the pad thickness, vs arrow spine... much easier to put a nice thick piece of beaver skin or leather in the riser than to buy lighter spined arrows.....I use a piece of cow hide with the fur on that is at least 1/8th inch thick on mine....Just because i like the looks.... i hope i ansewered you question above.....Kirk

OOOOPS! I went to edit this post and replied with a quote instead.....Kirk

[NorthShoreLB]

Bill, I was wrong, it's 380gr of broadhead, insert and weights,...plus I have 2" of 1/4' plastic tubing attached to the weights, that takes the total weight up front to well over 400GR