Steve Tallant (Sixby on Tradgang) just built and sent me my new EagleWing longbow. It is a beauty! See pictures below.
I want to give you my impressions of the bow and of working with Steve. When I first called Steve, I knew I wanted a longbow, and I mentioned that I liked leopard wood. I left the rest to Steve. When I first opened the bow, I was overwhelmed by the beauty and finish of the bow. It has five woods: Brazilian Rosewood, Leopard Wood, Osage Orange, Maple, and Frog's Hair Myrtle. The bow is also double carbon and is extremely fast -- over 195 fps @ 9gpp. It smokes an arrow!
I strung the bow. Without silencers, and at 6 1/2", the bow was as quiet as a field mouse. That impressed me! Then I sent a message to Steve who suggested a brace height of 7 - 7 1/4". I adjusted the brace height accordingly, and I added silencers -- perhaps out of habit. But this bow doesn't really need them.
Next I set the nock point at 5/8", which is a pretty standard setting on most of my longbows, and I started shooting. Although the bow was amazingly fast, I struggled with consistency. And the more I shot, the more I started to question my nock point. Another message to Steve, who recommended 3/8", and what a difference. I'm not a great archer. The picture below shows my third grouping of arrows at 17 yards. But this is a big improvement. When I lowered the nock point, the bow suddenly became a well-mannered, high-performance bow. My guess is that this bow is so much faster than my other longbows that the lower nock point makes sense, but I haven't confirmed this with Steve.
I have only been in archery for a little less than two years, but I have purchased and tried close to 30 bows. With the addition of this EagleWing, I now own 7 very fine longbows. The EagleWing longbow is an amazing combination of performance and beauty, and is my new favorite.
And something else about Steve . . . every bow he builds, he builds to the absolute best of his ability to glorify Jesus. When faith and artistry come together in bow building, sometimes the result is very special. Thank you Steve. I love this bow.
Rob