I got to the expo about 8:45. It was 0 deg. when I left the house. 5 on the highway and 3 at the fair grounds. I don't know how accurate the truck temp reading was, but I would say it was cold. There was a good group ready to go. They didn't open the doors one minute early. I got in right off because I had been there the day before and had the weekend stamp. I was able to get around well for the first hour. Then it packed up and stayed that way the rest of the morning. Shooting bows was not all that bad until about noon. Then the lines got a little longer. Not all that bad though for how may people were there.
As requested I got to the Tall Tines booth. I don't normally go of the larger riser bows particularly recurves. However, these are very nice bows. The grip is very different from bows I have shot in the past. It has a wide radius palm swell, a nice throat and a dished area your bottom three fingers wrap into. I thought maybe it wouldn't quite work all that well with my hand. I was wrong about that. It is very solid and repeatable. Unlike the PCH were I could tuck in my bottom finger into the riser if I wanted to when shooting, the TT's wide large radius palm let my hand just sort of comfortably cup the grip in a real relaxed fashion. The bow shot very smooth so I had no tendency to grab the grip. I could let my hand just naturally relax into the grip. The best way I can describe it is if you were to reach out your arm and just let you hand hang there relaxed letting your palm cup and fingers curl naturally you would be on the grip with full contact; at least for me I would. I like the small riser TD bows so I tried the one small riser bow he had, which was 60" and I think 50#. It shot fast and hit hard like the BW PCH. I was real curious to try one in a 62", but there was not one in my weight range. Very nice bow! The closest thing I handled at the show to the TT grip was probably the Sky Hawk wood TD riser. It has a somewhat similar feel to the palm and throat.
Speaking of Sky archery. I shot the 17" and 15" riser bows with curve limbs. The 17 was a real shooter, but with no silencers it was a lot louder than the other bows I was shooting. It was very accurate, but too large and heavy of a riser for me. Too much of a target feel for me. The 15 felt much better in my hand. More compact and not so much weight. However, it just got set-up to shoot off the shelf ,and the plunger was about 1/8" past center. My arrows were coming out with a hard weak tail, and I was shooting 1' right at 8 yd. so I don't shoot more than a couple arrows. I thought I would really be interested in shooting more of the metal ILF bows, but they just didn't do it for me. I guess I am more of a Morrison type ILF riser fan.
A couple more go arounds with the shrew CH and PCH. Those two were very consistent shooters for me. I also shot a selection of other bows I had not tried Friday. I shot Arwin's St Joe River bow of last deer season. To short for me, but it was a hard hitting bow. I couldn't resist shooting the 54" recurve today. At 58@28 it was heavy for met at 29 1/4", but so easy to shoot for that length and weight. That will be a nice bow for the short recurve fans. A 56" could be in the future. I would like to try that one.
I had to take a break to come home to get the kids so the wife could get out for the afternoon. Sunny and 20 deg. when I came back out. Felt like spring compared to the morning. I think I will pack up the kids and head back.