I will answer with examples of my own bows. I have a Grooves Spitfire recurve that is stated 47 at 28, that man that sold it said it was 49 at 28. With a three strand flemish B50, my own very tight make, it is 45 pounds at 27", I weighed it with weights hanging on similated rope fingers. I had a string follow for a while, with the same arrow a 50 pound cedar cut to 27" bop with 145 grain point the 56@27" string follow would shoot those same shafts, but it needed 160 grain points to fly. My Robertson right hand Purist which is 52 at 26 with a fast flight will barely shoot those same arrows with 145 grains up front, it is better with 125 grains up front. My left hand Robertson long bow that I pull to 51 pounds or 50 pounds depending on how stiff my neck is will shoot those shafts perfectly. My reflex Hill style bow that is 55 at 26&1/4" of my own tiller will also shoot these arrows with 145 up front. Now for the shooting. If I lock out my right arm to get that left hand recurve to a maximum draw, even though it has virtually no hand shock, it bites me in the bowarm elbow. If I accidently load up my ring finger going for over a 27" draw with the recurve, my arrows will porpoise and nor be accurate. With the string follow that did not happen, nor does it happen with my two 62" Robertsons or any of my reflex Hill style bows. None of these longbows have much handshock with fast flight strings, the string follow with the B50 string had more. The one thing that notice with the Robertsons versus the Hill style bows is that the arrow needs to be at least 1/16" higher nocking point than the Hill styles, which is exactly 1/8", I tillered them to be that way. If you choose to get a NM Hill style bow or a reverse, look very closely how Hill holds his bow and how he bends his left arm. If you have been shooting a recurve with a fairly straight arm that will equal a loss in draw length of an inch or more when shooting the straight grip bow. You may very well find that you are much more accurate with the straight grip if you intentionally bend the arm and duplicate the Hill form with the Hill bow. However, a Hill style bow can be shot with different form that is more like a standard recurve form. I believe that when doing that you will not get to the advantages of the entire Hill concept, which is the ability to get off an accurate shot with very diverse situations. Even then it is more about the form than the final shape of the limbs, a longer straighter gripped R/D can take those same shots when using that same form and I would bet that only Howard Hill could tell which one was more accurate, I cannot. My son swears the best shooting bow he has ever shot was a NM Whisper, but he said the NM superior was faster, but still not quite as fast as his 64" Robertson. The question is which one would work best for you and what are able to do or willing to do to adjust to any particular bow. The problem is they all work.
Topic: Which do you prefer straight or reflex/deflex (Read 1574 times)
