HH BUG GOT ME - Part Two!

[Green]

Another beaut Charlie!

[MikeNova]

Charlie that is a sharp looking bow is that maple or myrtle in the riser?

[JDBerry]

Now that's class, Charlie. Is that pic. in the back ground of you and your Mom?   ...James

[Charlie Lamb]

Paul_R... The core is lamboo(carmelized) the riser is 15" fade to fade and it's fiddleback myrtle... wish I could find that stuff in something a little darker, but this one turned out ok.

I pre-stressed the core on a heavy backset form and then add the glass and riser on an almost dead straight form. It's very smooth out to 28".
I sure didn't know what to expect but am very pleased with her manners.

Mudd... I'll be heading west next week for some ground squirrel and rock chuck action. I'll let you know how it goes.
Heck, I'm going to be spending the night of the 18th in Columbia. Maybe we can hook up for a while.

Scouter Mike... hope I answered your questions in the previous answers.

Caboo... Nate did mention John's draw length and I believe it was 26". Certainly not more than that.

Mike Nova... Fiddleback Myrtle.

James... thanks for the compliment. Means a lot coming from you.
Yes, that's a picture of me an my mom. We lost her this past Christmas. She was a special lady.

[killinstuff]

Nice buff leather arrowplane on that Hill. Great texture. Jack Harrison did an HHC with wrapped crocodile and matching strike plate that is just stunning. I believe Gil has that bow now. I've been keeping my eye on the auction site for just the right croc skin belt to cut up and wrap one on my HHC's with.

[cmh]

127 pages of post...... Could someone help me along and explain what is so special about a Howard Hill style longbow? I don't mean that smart aleck either...... Must be something pretty special about them for so many to shoot them. Only longbow I ever had was a Mohawk and found I shot them better than recurves...... Thanks in advance  

[centaur]

You will probably get lots of opinions/definitions, but to me, they are beautiful in their simple lines, light in the hand, stable and forgiving, hard hitting, and classic. To me, they define 'traditional', and bring me back to a simpler time in my life and in our country. With the exception of selfbows or possibly the English style longbows, you can't get much simpler than a Hill style, yet they still are challenging in trying to master. As have been stated before, 'simple isn't necessarily easy', and Hill styles provide an ongoing challenge to master while at the same time being a lethal and effective weapon. My 2 cents'.

[Green]

Originally posted by cmh:
127 pages of post...... Could someone help me along and explain what is so special about a Howard Hill style longbow? I don't mean that smart aleck either...... Must be something pretty special about them for so many to shoot them. Only longbow I ever had was a Mohawk and found I shot them better than recurves...... Thanks in advance    

Go up to the top of the Pow Wow and find the first section....1000 pages of posts.  There's a whole lot buried in there.  But to be honest with you, grab a HH or HH style bow and shoot nothing but that for two days, then come back and give us your impressions.     :D

Nothing wrong with Mohawks, there must be something in your shooting that is complemented by the Mohawk but fights you with a recurve.  People can do minor things to adapt to different bows.  When those adaptations are done with a Hill style bow, good things can happen.  Besides that there is magic fluid feel when a longbow is grooved in, it is not so much the bow as it is more that the bow allows the shooter to develop a fluid confident shooting style.

[Paul_R]

In my younger days I shot recurves. Self taught and as I later learned, making pretty much every mistake in the book. And yet I shot pretty well (or so I thought). After a decades long break from archery I picked up a longbow, a bear Montana somebody was practically giving away on Craigslist. I'd long since forgotten my bad habits and with the help of some great YouTube videos and forums like this one I learned a whole lot and in the process, I've collected about a dozen Hill bows and with few exceptions, I can't shoot a recurve to save my life now! Hill bows just seem to fit me and I enjoy reading everything I can about them. I'm a hillhead and apparently I'm not alone!    

[Homebru]

Originally posted by cmh:
127 pages of post...... Could someone help me along and explain what is so special about a Howard Hill style longbow? I don't mean that smart aleck either...... Must be something pretty special about them for so many to shoot them. Only longbow I ever had was a Mohawk and found I shot them better than recurves...... Thanks in advance      

This thread (and the previous one) are what's known as "therapy" for those who are afflicted with.....well..... Hill envy.  I say that because every time I look at this thread, I think "you guys need therapy".
homebru

[ron w]

You either like'm......or you don't. I shoot a bunch of different stuff but I always grab a Hill style when I just want to have fun and feel like an Archer.......  

[cmh]

Had a great weekend..... I read all 128 pages hear and it really piqued my curiosity even more. Have even perused a few buyers pages such as Howard Hill Archery, JD Berry, and Northern Mist. I like bamboo ...... The Mohawk longbow I had ( I sure miss that bow) had multiple bamboo laminations that almost had a brownish green hue to them...... Much different than the lite and bright bamboo I'm seeing so what is the name of what I am looking for?

[Brianlocal3]

Vince just dyes his bamboo like that

Maybe "dirty bambo " is what he calls it

[Paul_R]

Yup dirty boo. I have a Dave Johnson Thunderbird with 2 lams of yew inside and 2 lams of dirty boo outside under clear glass.. What a sweet shooter!

 

[cmh]

Yes Sir...... Dirty .....boo is what I'm talking about. The face of it concealed itself well as I hunted on the ground in a natural blind.

[Shinken]

Originally posted by Charlie Lamb:
In a recent discussion of bow length with my friend Nate Steen of Idaho I decided to experiment a little.
Nate had related how in a discussion he'd had with John Shulz, John admitted that he used shorter bows than what people normally thought of when choosing his style of bows. John was using 64" longbows of his own make.

Nate had tried bows of that length and was impressed by both their smoothness of draw and their speed.

I went an inch shorter. This bow is 63" ntn and 55#@28" draw. So far it seems to be a sweet-heart.

     
   
     

OOOOooooooooohhhhhhh.........

NOW that is SIMPLICITY!  Beautiful SIMPLICITY!

Would luv to run a few arras through a LH model.....

               


Shoot straight, Shinken

   

[tg2nd]

Originally posted by Charlie Lamb:
In a recent discussion of bow length with my friend Nate Steen of Idaho I decided to experiment a little.
Nate had related how in a discussion he'd had with John Shulz, John admitted that he used shorter bows than what people normally thought of when choosing his style of bows. John was using 64" longbows of his own make.

Nate had tried bows of that length and was impressed by both their smoothness of draw and their speed.

I went an inch shorter. This bow is 63" ntn and 55#@28" draw. So far it seems to be a sweet-heart.

     
   
     

Charlie,
if RDS is reading this you will get banned!!

SACRILEGE!!!

HERESY!!

You know I wrote this in the first HH-Thread and RDS didn't agree! Nate offered him to build an AFL-Bow/HH-Bow to his specs (THIS SHORT!!)!
But it never went this way!!
Because what works/functions will work/function ever!!!
There's no progress/advance in bow building or bow hunting!

[tg2nd]

John Schulz had 26" DL.
The bow in his video was 64", 14" riser.
I builded HH-style bows (all of them stringfollow) in 62"-66" for 25" - 26" DL (depending on the grip).
In my opinion:
HH's rule (DL + 40") shouldn't be changed by more then 2" +/-. For a reverse handle or stringfollow bow max -2".
If you go below this bow length, you will loose the advantages of an HH-style bow (forgiveness, stabillity, etc.).
Just my 2 cents.

It is a bit more complicated than that, much can be done with taper slope and tiller that will change the dynamics.  As an example, 68" of bow to a 28" draw gives a ratio of 2.43" of bow for every inch of draw.  If you take reverse grip that gives a 2" or greater reduction relative draw stress to the limb.  In a reverse grip to a standard grip of 2&1/8" comparison for a 28" draw, that would equate to a 25&7/8" draw stress which would require a 63" bow to get that 2.43 ratio for a 28" draw.