How to make your bow center shot

[longbowben]

Had some problems with my HH Wesley special shooting to the right im a lefty.So called up Craig at HH bows and told me to remove the rest plate and file the bow until it shot where i was looking.Wow it worked great.Im a split vision shooter and could not make my self move the bow over.Arrows of different spine length and tip weight where added,none worked.Dont be afraid to do this if you have a bow that shoots to the right for lefties and left for rights.  

[Rob DiStefano]

just exactly what howard hill did to 'tune' his bow.

[Apex Predator]

It's a little easier to just shoot a lighter spined shaft.  

[yamapup]

Dang, and I thought altering a Hill bow was some kind of heresy or treason punishable by --------! In any case, I guess Craig suggesting it makes it OK. Pup

[longbowben]

Lighter spined arrow didnt work as i stated.Craig said he could do it or i could so i did it my self.I have made self bows before.

[Bowmania]

Would love to do that, BUT I have snakeskin on my window.  I increased the brace height to just over 8 inches and that pretty much solved the problem.

[Orion]

Unless specified otherwise, Hills are usually cut 1/8-inch from center.  Leather strike plate adds a little more.  At the buyer's request, some Hills are made with no shelf or a very little shelf.  Was yours one of these?

[longbowben]

Yes hardy no shelf at all my arrow hung off the bow now its on the shelf.It was the smallest shelf i have ever seen.This is the finish product.

[Apex Predator]

I'm glad you got it to work for you.  I was just funnin' with you brother.

[longbowben]

Believe me i wished that would have worked, it was kind of tough picking up a file and putting it to your new bow.

[Eugene Slagle]

I have my daughters new Recurve & I had to contact the maker to be sure it was OK to file & sand the window a little to bring it to center "only removing roughly 1/16" for tuning purposes since almost any arrow she shoots is going to be stiff she needs all the help she can get.

[Dick in Seattle]

Longbow Ben...    Fascinating,and a surprise to me.  Not something I'd ever thought to do.  I think this is good info for the Hill folks.  May I post your comments and pics to the Hill Longbowmen site so they will be an available resource for the gang in the future?

I can sure sympathize with your nervousness.  When I got my Hill blank, back before I started building, I came to the decision that I needed to knock about 5 pounds of weight off it.  Touching those limbs to the belt sander raised my heartbeat and blood pressure significantly!   Had a similar feeling the first time I cut a finished bow (The one I got my javelina with) in half to make it a take down.   Kind of thing that makes you feel great when it works.   Sure hope I never have it go the other way!

[longbowben]

Yes you can Dick, I dont think i would try to take 5 lbs off a bow myself it would be firewood.

[Orion]

Yep, Ben, I think you had one of the bows that was ordered with virtually no shelf.  Most of Howard's early bows didn't have a shelf, or had very small shelves.  Person who ordered the bow originally may have been trying to duplicate that model/style.  Glad it worked out for you.      

[longbowben]

Orion had me shakin for a minute.Didnt want to make any firewood.But i knew if i did it myself that i could get it right where i wanted it to shoot.I would do it to again with no problem.

[Zbone]

Was told years ago by an old school bowyer, anything cut to within 1/8" of center was considered center shot.

[AdamH]

Yep, seems pretty relative to me, obviously the further ya go, the weaker the handle gets, but you all already knew this ...

[Ben Maher]

Ben , I think you'll find that the boiw had the same shelf that all of Craig's comes with . I actually found that due  to the t/d the shelf was actually larger than the 1 pce bows but still the same 1/8" approx from center .
Glad your having fun with it.

[longbowben]

Im happy with the bow just not as center shot as the rest of my bows.But now it shoots right where i point it.It didnt take very much off less than 1/8 is what i had to remove.I will be getting another one.And that changed my impact 6 inches.

[Ben Maher]

Awesome . Growing up we often took files to our bows to 'customize' them . Surely your gonna post up pics of a freezer ready doe soon ain't ya ?