HH bug got me ... Part One!

Wow!
Dick, you wasted no time finishing that one!  She's gorgeous....and apparently sweet too.

[Oliverstacy]

Originally posted by Arwin:
I've been bitten!!! Pics of the infection later this week.

Nice...can't wait to see it!

Oh and shoot it!

Josh

[Rob DiStefano]

dick, longevity that's functional and fun is all that matters.  too many heavy hitter archers these dayze need to take a wake up call from you.  

"knitting needle" alums do seem the way to go.  i once had a mid-60's bear alaskan freestyle target recurve rig that was 29#@29.5" and mated it fine with xx75 1616's fletched with 1.5" spin wings.  shooting split finger wasn't really a problem, and my tab was near paper thin.  i also shot it with a thumb rope release i made and that made a huge difference for a super clean release.  i shot naa, paa and nfaa events with that bow, out to 80 yards - yep, EIGHTY yards.  i did all right with that bow in the tourney's, too.  

[Looper]

Originally posted by Wannabe1:
I had a Half Breed last year I let go of.       It had a Bubinga riser with ebony limb tips. One smooth shooting bow!

Look forward to your thoughts on it.

TW, you must have been talking to me, seeing as that bow is my main hunting bow.  I've taken a coyote with it, a dozen or so squirrels, and a few rabbits. I did miss a buck last year with it (lower limb hit a stump).  It's got a few nicks now, but it's still a sweet shooter.

At 69", it's as short as I'd want to go.  I draw it 30.5". On my scale, it pulls around 50# at my draw length.  It's marked 45@29".

I'm shooting some full length 60-65 spine surewoods out of it.  With 145 points, they weigh around 620 grains and hit really hard.  I just got a few 55-60 cedars and, with 125 grain heads, are flying great, too.  The cedars weigh around 550 grains.

"Fine Sixty-nine" is a quiet, smooth shooter.  The grip is a little too small for my big mitts, and when I grip it, my hand doesn't naturally fall into the correct position. The grip needs to be a little deeper (from back to belly).

At any rate, I still shoot it pretty well. I centerpunched a squirrel at 42 steps back in February. I also shot a running rabbit right through the neck at about 15 yards.  That shot was really pretty lucky and happened really quickly.  I'm a pretty deliberate shooter and definitely not the snap draw type, but I busted that rabbit before I really had time to think.  

I'm think I'm going to order a Sunset Hill.  Anyone know how long the wait is?

[David Mitchell]

Looper....At the present time Nate is not even thinking of taking orders.  I want one BAD, but last time I asked him it was maybe like 2 years and at my age that's a big part of the rest of my life.     Now he isn't even thinking about when he will resume order taking until he gets caught up.  Looks like I am just not getting a Sunset Hill in this lifetime.   :(

[Nate Steen .]

Looper,  Dave is right.  I'm not taking any orders right now, just trying to get caught up from the last few years backlog....

David,  you had your chance buddy...lol.  A couple of years ago you debated getting a bow...you would have one by now but you put it off thinking you wouldn't be around long enough...lol.  you're proving that theory wrong    

Mt Longbow....I'm neutral eye (no real dominate eye, either eye takes over for whatever I'm doing) and I learned to shoot lefty or righty, switch baseball hitter, etc....  if you use both eyes open, you will learn to shoot well instinctively without having to put the eye over the arrow.  Lining up the dominate eye helps, don't get me wrong, but not totally necessary.  You can throw a ball, shoot a basketball, etc without worrying about eye dominance because your mind uses triangulation to figure distance and accuracy correction. being one-eyed is a shooting hinderance in a bigger way because you limit your peripheral vision and triangulation for calculating distance judgment and therefore your hand-eye coordination for shooting suffers. In other words, don't squint.

If you leave both eyes open, and concentrate on the target only, don't concentrate on the arrow or tip whatsoever.  Let the peripheral vision see the arrow, at rest and in flight.  watch the target only until the arrow hits it.  DO NOT watch the arrow in flight as you learn this.  close range shooting helps because the arrow doesn't arc into the vision line as much.  The reason behind this is....if you concentrate on the target and not the arrow in flight, then your peripheral vision sees the arrow flight in relation to the target you are wishing to hit and then the mind makes corrections for your hand-eye coordination to adjust.  If you change your focus from the target to the arrow in flight (even for a split second), then the arrow flight and target become synonomous because you have been telling the body to shoot where you look.  This confuses your mind and body. For instinctive shooting to work, especially at long ranges, your mind has to be able to see the difference between the straight line from eye to target and the arched line of the arrow in flight.  this is why many instinctive shooters are good shots at close range, (where the arrow flight is a straight line) and bad shots at longer range(where the arrow flight is arched above the eyesight line)...the reason is they switch their focus from the target to the arrow in flight....

MT,  Just keep shooting, using both eyes open and concentrating on the target only....you can do it...your body can do it.  It's kinda like hitting (or missing) something in the road with your car tires...purely instinctive and both eyes are open and you aren't using a dominate eye, yet somehow you do it while travelling at high speed....

[MT Longbow]

Sunset, thank you my brother...I am a decent shot out to 35-40 yards with squinting...I will keep bothe eyes open and just force my hand to come to the right a bit more each shot that isleft while focusing on the target intently...its going to take some doing...I dont seem to have the left issue with my Toelke as much as with my HH.....now thats got me flustered...but thats another story and not for this HH forum.....I love my HH Robin Hood, and cant wait for my New 70 Inch 56-60 (dont know yet) Black back carmelized Wesley.

Patrick

[David Mitchell]

Yeah, Nate.....should have ordered then....you snooze you lose.
 

[Looper]

I'm thinking about building my own.  I've been following Mr. Wightman's progress over the years and he's inspired me.  

Is there a formula for figuring out the right grip size based on hand measurements?  The grip on my Halfbreed is definitely too small for me.  When I have the bow correctly on the pads of my fingers, my hand rolls too far inward.  When I have the hand placed correctly on the belly side, my fingers wrap too far around the grip and cause me to torque the bow.  I have to compromise my grip position and make it work, but it's not ideal. I can really tell that my hand position affects my accuracy at longer ranges.

[Nate Steen .]

Looper,

everyone's hand size is different, obviously, but it's the size of your palm vs. finger length that is the kicker for a straight grip.  Best thing for you to do if you're going to build your own.....take off your leather wrap, get some medium weight veg-tan leather and contact cement the it completely around the grip in several layers.  Then take a wood rasp and go to town, shaping the grip to fit YOUR hand...and shoot the bow during the process.  When it's what you want, measure all the dimensions,  circumference is the main thing, and you can build your next bow just right....

the leather is stiff enough to get the right feel, and you won't tear up your bow...you can even cover the leather with another wrap and shoot your Halfbreed that's been now customized...lol.

[Dick in Seattle]

Nate's right... shape and shoot is the way to go.  I have a situation upcoming where I'm going to be building a bow for a shooting friend who happens to be one really tall guy, with huge hands and a 30" draw.    i warned him that I wasn't real comfortable going into this territory.  I think I can handle tillering out to his draw with a new tiller pole with a pulley system.   (My 25" draw ain't gonna cut it!)  However, the hand size problem is another deal and I've told him that he'd have to come by at the right time and spend an afternoon working with me on that.   We can start with him holding the rough riser, then my rasping, then him shooting, then me rasping, then....     Well, here's hoping it works.

P.S.  Thanks for thinking of what i'm doing as progress.  Sometimes I wonder!    

[Looper]

Nate, that's exactly what I was planning on doing.  As a matter of fact, before I read your post, I was cutting up some leather to build up the grip on my Halfbreed. I'll post some pics of the results.

On another note, I was drawing up some plans for a form. I'm planning on using a straight form. Am I correct in thinking this will produce a some slight string follow?

[xbmedic]

Originally posted by looper:
 I'm planning on using a straight form. Am I correct in thinking this will produce a some slight string follow?

Last night I pulled my second Hill style bow off a straight form exactly like Dick Wightman's 1/8" wall 1.5" square aluminum one. The first bow is a 64" 52#@28" that has about 3/8" of string follow. That bow is a shooter. I shot a 3d tournament with it on Saturday. I just ground the glue off the new one this morning. I am on call for work now, so I hope to be finishing this bow next week.

[Dick in Seattle]

I figure this way...   a large number of Hill shooters favor some pre-set.   Another large number favor some string follow.  So...  laying up for right in the middle, i.e. straight, can't be all bad.  If by chance an aluminum form turns out to give you 1/4" to 3/8" string follow with an easier form to make and an easier layup, who's complaining!?   Should be noted though that the same phenomenon can occur with a wood form, maybe not as much so.  That aluminum square tubing form is a dream, though.   It's not refined and I don't think you'll see commercial bowyers going to it    , but for beginning garage and basement bowyers, it sure saves a lot of problems and gets you started right up.  Combine it with an overpass riser to avoid the problems of sharp angle clamping on the fades and you've given yourself a heck of a jump start.

[xbmedic]

Originally posted by Dick in Seattle:
 That aluminum square tubing form is a dream, though.   It's not refined and I don't think you'll see commercial bowyers going to it     , but for beginning garage and basement bowyers, it sure saves a lot of problems and gets you started right up.  Combine it with an overpass riser to avoid the problems of sharp angle clamping on the fades and you've given yourself a heck of a jump start.

Absolutely! My first used a traditional riser, but with the second, I switched to the overpass style. Much easier and took less time to clamp up. I ground the glue off this morning and ground off the top part of the overpass at the same time.  Much faster.

[Looper]

With the overpass style, is there a risk of the riser separating from the belly glass?

[xbmedic]

Originally posted by looper:
With the overpass style, is there a risk of the riser separating from the belly glass?

Captain Dick has made several this way and I haven't heard of any failures yet.

Here are some pictures of the bows I made on my form. This picture shows the new blank next to the first bow. Both bows have black glass on the back and clear glass on the belly.

     

This pictures shows the different Hawaiian hardwoods I used for the risers. The bow on the right has a milo riser, while the new bow blank has curly koa.

   

[Looper]

So is the clear belly glass going up the fades on these bows?  I can't really tell from the picture. I was thinking that we were talking about the riser being glued on top of the belly glass.

[Mudd]

Totally awesome looking bows Al!!!!!

     

PS: Thank you for sharing with us.

[xbmedic]

Originally posted by looper:
So is the clear belly glass going up the fades on these bows?  I can't really tell from the picture. I was thinking that we were talking about the riser being glued on top of the belly glass.

The glass goes up the fades on the riser. I just didn't run the belly lam up the riser because I wanted to show off the riser wood. I built the new bow exactly like Dick Wightman shows in "How I Build a Bow 2" on his site. Plus, if you email Captain Dick, he will give you additional guidance.   :cool: