One Hill Of A Year (Week 1 Done!)

[rmorris]

I have chosen to make a TradGang New Year’s resolution. For the next year my goal is to shoot only one Hill style bow. I have learned over the years that if I stick with one bow my accuracy along with my comfort level increases, but once I start jumping back and forth between bows I start missing more and loose the bond I had with one bow.
This journey started back on page 300 or so if the Howard Hill Bow thread when I noticed what a following these bows had. I went down to my local archery shop and test drove the only flat longbow they had and I absolutely hated it! The shockwave had me reaching for an aspirin and I thought all you were plum crazy!  Around page 700 I again realized that there must be something to this style of bow you all love so much. I began to inquire with some other Tradgangers and after asking a million questions about sizes and dimensions I did a small makeover on my shop and was off to build me a Hill Style Bow! My first attempt came out great at a whopping 35# but that was all the information I needed to figure out my stack to get my desired weight on all future Hill Bows.
For the next year I plan on learning as much as I can about this bow through practice, hunting, 3D shoots, stump shooting and spending good times with friends; while at the same time sharing as much as I can with you all about my journey.

[Ben Maher]

Very cool stuff ... look forward to seeing the highlights of the journey !

[rmorris]

Now let me introduce you all to the bow I will be shooting this year...

This bow is a 68" backset bow. The bow is 55# at 28" , I am not sure what it is at my 30" draw but I will put it on the scale this week sometime to find out.

This bow has 4 caramelized bamboo tapers for a total taper of .004/In. and Pau Rosa veneers under .050 clear UL glass. For a little contrast I choose a deep purple Cocobolo riser and I gave it a slight locator style grip. The shelf is cut to 3/16" before center and I put on a simple leather rest.

Here are a few pictures and I am sure you will be seeing much more of this bow.

 
-
 
-
 
-
 
-
 
-
 

[Brianlocal3]

Very nice work.  That is a gorgeous bow and I kme I'll be excited to follow your journey.

[mdwatts]

Real nice, rmorris.

[hardwaymike]

Rmorris, that is a beautiful bow. You did an outstanding job on it. If you need a babysitter for it anytime, just let me know. I am in the same boat you were on page 300. I figure I must be missing something by not having tried a hill style bow yet. I going to try them all out at kzoo, well try to anyways, lol. I've already started saving my she-money. Can't wait to hear the rest of this bows story. Good luck, Mike.

[Mudd]

     

 

[ron w]

Nice one.....enjoy your journey!

[razorback]

Ralph,
that is a sweet looking bow and I applaud you for the discipline to undertake this goal. It should result in some wonderful shooting.
You going to make one of them for the poor soul who has you in the swap this year  

[rmorris]

Thanks for the encouragement guys!
 
Tony,
I plan on build a Hill Bow for the bow swap this year and also doing a fairly extensive build along with it, but I am not sure I like ya hanging around the "One Hill Of a Year" thread. I seem to remember fairly recently ya choosing not to conspire with me and it ended up costing me my sanity   ! I also remember ya having plans of revenge and this is a serious topic with no place for shenanigans  

[David Mitchell]

Now that is one good looking bow!

[lt-m-grow]

You are off to a good start.  Great bow and one of the best thread titles ever.

Have (more) fun.

[dtarbell]

Thats a beautiful bow you made best of luck with it.

[Sam McMichael]

That's a great looking bow. Be careful! Hill style bows can be very addictive.

[canopyboy]

Nice bow Ralph. The hog hunt will mark one year for me of shooting only a hill bow, a 51 @ 29 tembo.  I've seen a lot of improvement in that time, but still feel I've got a ways to go.

I need to chew in your ear some about that bow you've accomplished at some point.

-Dave

[rmorris]

David, there is nothing I love more than shooting bows and talking about building them. Send me a PM anytime and we can share some contact information.

[rmorris]

I finally got around to choosing an arrow for this bow. Over the years I have made an attempt to get my hands on one of every type and spine of arrow I could. As soon as I get a new arrow I don't have in my stash, I fletch it with 3-5' feathers and place it in my pvc tube with all the others. When I make a new bow or have friends having bad arrow flight due to using the wrong arrow , I pull out the stash and go to work on seeing which arrow has the best initial flight. I then take all the similar spine arrows in that class and start playing with tip weight, I typically shoot full length shafts due to my longer draw.

I found that this bow did best Gold Tip 55/75, Beman ICS 400's  and  mfx 400's. I have recently had problems with GT arrows cracking at the nock and the mfx arrows were a little more than I wanted to pay at the moment so I went with the Beman ICS Bowhunter 400's!

I glued up a dozen with 3- 5" RW feathers and put on some massive 300 gr  tips for a grand 610 grain arrow.

 
-
 
-

I went down to the local archery shop and shot for a little over an hour today with good results. It took me a little while to get back in the grove of shooting and I had some fairly consistent groups after about 15 minutes but after about 30 minutes the increase in draw weight was starting to get to me and I was getting sloppy. I continued to shoot for another 30 minutes with mixed results. I was getting some amazing arrow flight and could not be happier with my choice in arrows.

looks like I will be back down to the shop earlier than expected due to a gift that showed up on my shop door step ( I will share more as I know more) and I plan on getting some exact weight on the bow and pull out the old chronograph and get some speeds while I am down there.

[rmorris]

Alright, I made it down to the shop today and put the bow on the scale. She is 57 # at 28" and 61# at 29.5". This bow is a 12# increase in weight from what I have been shooting the last few years.

I also put a few arrows down range and got some chronograph numbers, but it was a balmy 17 degrees here, a temperature we rarely see at our coldest, so I made quick work of getting my chrono number and went back inside to stand by the fire!

 Shot 1- 172 FPS
 Shot 2- 171 FPS
 Shot 3- 171 FPS

Here is a video of the test, hold on to your  chair,it gets a little wild!

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqqwWdtu38U&feature=youtu.be  

I found the numbers to be fairly respectable for this style of bow. HH Archery claims 115 FPS plus the weight of the bow, but they dont give a GPP of arrow. According to that my bow should of performed at 176 FPS. I am assuming they were using a 10 GPP arrow and that is  what I was using.

If anyone has some chrono speed for a similar bow set up, I would be very interested in seeing your results.

[phil_des_bois]

Nice bow, did you had to order a big bag of aspirins with it ?    

[rmorris]

Phil, I didn't need any aspirin, just a beer  

All joking aside, the hand shock on this bow is more a mild thump at the end opposed to some bows I have shot that make your elbow and teeth hurt. I am not sure I actually paid any attention to it today as I am getting use to this bow and how it handles.