What is it about ILF

[LongStick64]

I'm trying to figure this out but whatever ILF combination I come up with whether it's my new Zipper Extreme riser and longbow limbs or my Morrison wood ILF riser with Sky lingbow limbs or my Mini Metal Morrison ILF riser and Tradtech limbs.....whatever,,,,,,they simply outshoot anything else I've shot, it's not even close. As far as I can tell there really shouldn't be a big difference after all it's just a limb to riser connection. Is it possible it's the way the limbs are made ????? I don't know but they sure damn work.

[Charlie Lamb]

I'd been wondering about that.

[ron w]

Well I like mine also.....but....I don't see where they are any better than any good quality bow. I do like the ability to experiment with different limbs and limbs from other makers all on the same riser. I think after going to Denton Hill I will sell my metal riser to get a riser made of wood....but that's just personal taste. They [ILF] are neat systems but better ...I don't know!  Have fun and shoot straight!!  

[katman]

Adjust-ability and being able to go back, along with the ease to change to different limb manufacturers/type and grip makes ILF work for me.

[Bill Carlsen]

Well, I've been shooting a DAS riser with ILF target limbs for almost 6 years now and IMO it has been the superiority of the limbs that make the difference. I now have Border HEX 5 limbs and the best performing hunting limbs I have shot to date. Another variable is the ability to set the preload on the limbs meaning simply that you get the most out of the limb with the preload at or near its maximum. My wife's bow uses ILF limbs that with the correct preload outshoots my old Groves bow which was 55# @ 28". Laura shoots 45# @ 26 and a 500 grain arrow. Two years ago she had a thyroid problem that robbed her of strength and we had to lighten up on the limbs down to 40#. This reduced the preload so much that I got her a new set of limbs such that at 40# the preload on the new limbs was near maximum. The difference in the two sets of limbs, even though they were the same weight and shooting the same arrows was palpable. If you shoot a fixed one piece or three piece take down the preload is set and you have little to work with if you are not drawing 28" or more. I know some of you will have issues to take with this point of view (I am not a physicist)  but I can only say that I have been there and seen it. In my nearly 60 years of shooting bows nothing compares with the ILF limbs I have shot. Some are better than others but they all seem to be better than the "rest".

[riverrat 2]

I love shooting mine also LongStick64,I can shoot
my ILF's better than my non versions also. I do not think it is a craftsmanship issue,and I pretty much shoot them all in equal amounts. I really think for me it is the long limb/short riser combination I use that works so well. A little more mass weight I enjoy also. The system of ILF is VERY nice. A lot of archers in the traditional ranks still have not heard of it. I always run into guys who ask "What do you mean its an ILF?" Some like the concept...others,not so much.

[ron w]

One thing I might add....I think the ability to adjust tiller to ones style or form is a factor that makes them unique and that's a good thing!

[Walter Mauney]

Originally posted by Bill Carlsen:
Well, I've been shooting a DAS riser with ILF target limbs for almost 6 years now and IMO it has been the superiority of the limbs that make the difference. I now have Border HEX 5 limbs and the best performing hunting limbs I have shot to date. Another variable is the ability to set the preload on the limbs meaning simply that you get the most out of the limb with the preload at or near its maximum. My wife's bow uses ILF limbs that with the correct preload outshoots my old Groves bow which was 55# @ 28". Laura shoots 45# @ 26 and a 500 grain arrow. Two years ago she had a thyroid problem that robbed her of strength and we had to lighten up on the limbs down to 40#. This reduced the preload so much that I got her a new set of limbs such that at 40# the preload on the new limbs was near maximum. The difference in the two sets of limbs, even though they were the same weight and shooting the same arrows was palpable. If you shoot a fixed one piece or three piece take down the preload is set and you have little to work with if you are not drawing 28" or more. I know some of you will have issues to take with this point of view (I am not a physicist)  but I can only say that I have been there and seen it. In my nearly 60 years of shooting bows nothing compares with the ILF limbs I have shot. Some are better than others but they all seem to be better than the "rest".

I have heard about this phenomenon with compounds also. A 50-60 pound bow will shoot faster set at 60 pounds than a 60-70 pound bow set at 60 pounds. It does seem to be about the preload in the limbs.

[Bill Carlsen]

Walter Having shot compounds briefly when they arrived on the scene I think I have to agree with you. However, with any bow, the longer your draw length the better performance you should get up to a point. The nice thing about the ILF is that my wife can shoot a recurve that performs so well that we don't have to "settle" on a compound for her to hunt with. She shoots 3 and 4 blade, 500 grain, 27" arrows with 200 grains up front and gets 2 holes in everything she has shot to date.

[LongStick64]

Outside of the pre load factor, what about the actual limb design on how it is made to fit an ILF riser, can that make the limb itself a better performer ?

[Rob DiStefano]

and i've been wondering why people have been wondering about ilf stick bows.  

it's just another form of stick bow that's not that geometrically radically different in physics.  

the reason for the initial creation of ilf was all about target archery - limb changes, tillering changes, perhaps holding weight changes, really wide and thin limb cross sections, mating to past center shot metal risers, and definitely about portability.  nothing at all about bowhunting.

i think the common denominator is the shooter.  i think it has lots to do with yer premeditated thinking and not yer shooting.

or maybe ilf's just are better, for you.      

[michaelschwister]

This is just my opinion, and I certainly do see the advantages of the ILF system, but the whole thing reminds me of the first years of the compound explosion.  The ILF system is too complicated, too many adjustments, and the bows are too heavy. For me, perfomance is not an issue and neither is stability, I shoot heavy longer bows (over 64# and over 64"). I know if I took one out and hunted with it for a season, I would not make it 2 months without something going out of whack or breaking.  That is why my compound career was short(77-82). I shot at ETAR with a fellow who was shooting one, something was broken in the limb pocket and the bow sounded like it would explode at any minute. Another friend had just got one, and it sounded the same.  That bow was brand new! They sure can shoot, but the weight, noise, and complexity is not for me. If 3d shooting was my passion I might go the ILF route, but for hunting light and simply is always best. Funny, the ILF rise follows a trend of shorter/ lighter draw weight bows.  In the late 60s the short/light craze came around, followed by the longer "stable" compound.  Next will be the long/heavy longbow trend (see bitten by the HH bug)

Cheers

[LongStick64]

Michael if we are talking about metal risers, I'll agree about the weight but the wood ILF risers weigh as much or little as any other wood risers so weight is not an issue. As far as longevity and strength of system, Olympic archers shoot ILF and shoot many more shots than we do in a given session, their success speaks for itself. As far as difficulty I honestly don't see it. I have a 60lbs ILF Sky limbs and a 17" ILF Morrison wood riser, it's light, it has enough oompf for any game in the US, it's quiet and it's deadly accutate. You need to give it a second look. Not every ILF rig is the same. The cheap stuff is cheap for a reason. But the ILF bows  from Morrison, Zipper and Dryad are exceptional.

[michaelschwister]

Olympic archers don't drag their bows through the brush, sit in rain storms, fall down hills/out of trees onto rocks, bounce around pickups, break ice to cross streams, or hunt for hours in below zero temps wearing heavy wool. I am not in anyway critcizing those who choose the ILF bows.  I am simply relaying my experinces and preferences. I prefer bowswith mass of a pound or less.  I use a sharpy to mark fitmele on my arrows. Some things to consider.

[Turkeys Fear Me]

I always kind of snicker when I read "that kind of stuff will work for target archery, but not for hunting."

First of all, ALL archery is "target archery."  The targets change but the desire to hit them remains the same.

Second, this idea that an ILF is somehow prone to failure in the hunting woods, is simply bunk.  An ILF bow doesn't need to be any more complicated than any other takedown bow.  It consists of a limb bolt and an alignment pin.  A limb bolt can come loose on any takedown.

If you choose to use an elevated rest or plunger, it's no different than those that use them on a one piece recurve.

There are a lot of misonceptions being promulgated by many who have never tried the system.

An increase in accuracy may just be mental.  If that's the case, so be it.  In every sport, what seperates the elite from the very good is mostly mental anyway, but there is a reason why the best shooters in the world aren't shooting Bear Grizzlys.

This takedown has just as many, if not more, moving parts...

   

as this one...

 

or these...

 

Yet the first one is known by many as the best hunting recurve ever built.

Go figure...

[Walter Mauney]

Originally posted by Bill Carlsen:
Walter Having shot compounds briefly when they arrived on the scene I think I have to agree with you. However, with any bow, the longer your draw length the better performance you should get up to a point. The nice thing about the ILF is that my wife can shoot a recurve that performs so well that we don't have to "settle" on a compound for her to hunt with. She shoots 3 and 4 blade, 500 grain, 27" arrows with 200 grains up front and gets 2 holes in everything she has shot to date.

That sounds very good for us short draw archers (less than 28").

[jeff w]

My ILF bow is about as light as any takedown recurve I have ever shot--and much lighter than many--something I like.   It is also much quieter than many recurves I have shot (and even a few longbows). I do remember G. Fred Asbell in his first book on instinctive shooting having a chapter or two on tuning your recurve--so adjusting something isn't completely new. I have never had an ILF bow/limbs to fail, but I have had a couple custom takedowns and a custom longbow too.   It is not complicated, but it is adjustable.

[Rob DiStefano]

before this thread becomes an "us and them", let's all recognize that we're still talking about stick bows used for bowhunting.  i should like to think that we are all in the same brotherhood in this matter - traditional bowhunting.  

all stick bows have their subjective likes and dislikes.  not one is better than the other.  there is no need to justify why one prefers an ilf or a hill style.  this is the same subjectivity as with endless bowstrings and flemish bowstrings, or recurves and longbows, or even hill style longbows and hybrid longbows.  

all of this good stuff has the potential to get the job at hand done, if we allow that to happen.  choose whatever makes more personal sense and happiness in your bowhunting.

is it the season, yet?   :D

[michaelschwister]

In april of 2000 I was hunting turkeys on quantico marine corp base VA.  I left the woods and was driving down the road at 55 mph when noticed my new 74# Byron Ferguson Patriot (Byron made it himself) bouncing down the paved road, strung.  That bow served as my # for 11 more years before I retired it. A friend had the same thing happen with his HH Wesley with the same results. I personally require "rugged"

[Green]

This started out as a really interesting thread to those of us who are considering an ILF rig but know little about the various configurations, bowyers, etc.  Let's carry on with the good info.