Some may know of my great affinity for Centaur bows and the great fella who makes them, Jim Neaves. So far I have owned two, a used 58" Double Carbon that introduced me to Centaurs first hand, which I later sold, and then my current 62" Triple Carbon, which was funded by the sale of the Double, and is far more accurate and easy to shoot well than any 62" 1pc bow has a right to be. Since centering my sights on Leon Stewart bows and Centaur bows over the past couple years I have been steadily moving toward only having a couple go-to bows and go-to bowyers. There's still a strong drive in me to "try em all" but it has largely been tempered back so my time cruising the classifieds is now largely spent ogling and offering words of encouragement to sellers looking to part with a bow or buyers looking find their dream bow. If I could open up a bow match-making service, I probably would hahaha!
Well, I just have to share about this little gem of a Centaur I picked up from BOWMARKS a few weeks back. I'm not sure if he showed it off when he got it back around end of summer 2013 but I will step in and do it. He barely touched it and I basically received a brand new bow for a steal of a deal in my eyes.
I have been on a knightly (nightly?--->classifieds! LoL) quest to find a "short" bow that comes close to or actually defies the 'short bows are harder to shoot' notion for ME. Yes, everyone is different and one bow may work better for me rather than you or vice versa---I've tried most of the real popular short options and so far for me this little Centaur just takes the cake. There's one other make/model that is just about as easy to shoot, but in this case I'm just delighted that the shorty I've ended up with here is a Centaur!
The bow in question is a 56" GLASS Centaur with a riser made of Jim's proprietary Dark Matter material. The bow is dressed in bocote veneers and multiple horn accents. It's just one handsome little package and I'm pleased to report MAN does it shoot as good as it looks.
Now I draw right around 29-29.25" inches so some who know Centaur bows may be thinking 56"???!!! But that's way outside Jim's recommended bow length/draw length formula?! Well yes it is, technically speaking. I should be shooting 58"+ by all accounts. BUT, this little bow is only 45@27! I knew this when I originally spied the bow for sale. Smitten with the looks and excited at the chance to handle a bow incorporating Dark Matter, I referred to Jim's site and reviewed the chart and also the blurb "The maximum draw length will decrease as the poundage goes up and will increase for bows that are 45# or less due to the limb thickness ratio changing". Once I read that I knew I was on to something with this little 45@27 bow. I contacted Jim and he confirmed the statement on his FAQ and suggested that if I was up for it to try the little bow and see what I thought about it and then let him know. I think he probably had a little smile on his face when he wrote back to me...I think he knew what the result would be
Basically I have discovered the shortest possible Centaur for my draw of 29". With this combo the bow 'just' reaches its limit of smoothness. The string angle has not reached 90 degrees- there is some room to spare and I believe the real 'wall' is not coming until about 30". Basically I'm wringing every ounce of performance from the bow. With 10gpp man is this little guy quick!! My first glass instead of carbon Centaur and I can say with confidence, do NOT hesitate to get one of the glass models if you want lots of pretty wood to drool over but are worried that you're giving up a lot of performance vs the carbon models. Yes, the carbon models are kinda nuts speed-wise for longbows, but this little glass bow just runs circles around any other 56" bow at 10gpp that I have tried to date.
To me the real part of the recipe that makes this bow shine aside from the fact that I can draw it comfortably without finger pinch or quite hitting the wall is the Dark Matter riser. This stuff is awesome! It is noticeably heavier than phenolic. Noticeably. In a fashion, it reminds me of the solid-glass riser Habu I used to own. The stuff just screams 'durable'. Combine this riser configuration with the glass limbs having more mass than equivalent carbon limbs and you have a 'little' bow that just feels SO nice and solid in the hand with a heft that leaves it feeling anything but twitchy. This bow is noticeably heavier than either my wood riser 62" Triple Carbon as well as, interestingly a 64" glass cocobolo riser Toelke Whip I also have. And yet because of its small size it feels like it would be a dream to carry all day, and in the thick stuff to boot.
Speaking of the Whip, a bow that just shoots beautifully as many know, this little Centaur to my delight and hooting laughter is as easy to shoot as said Whip. I don't find myself having to worry about an extra clean release or anything like that. The lil guy just does the job without any fanfare. So much so that I am planning on taking it to a 3D shoot in Georgia tomorrow morning "if" the weather holds. I could take one of my longer bows, like my 68" Slammer, but I just HAVE to see how this shorty does on a course.
This bow is 100% a keeper I just enjoy it that much. Ironically, I have a Stewart Lil Slammer 56 on order that I have waited 6 months for and should be ready any day now. I have enjoyed a number of Leon's bows but took a gamble ordering the Lil 56 because of how good Leon's other bows are and his assurance that it's good to 30" and should easily remind me of the longer bows. I guess I got a little impatient and here I am with this awesome little Centaur now. No worries, I imagine I'll just have two shorties that shoot like a dream.
Anyway, sorry to be long-winded LOL and I know there's a bazillion of these 'bow porn' threads hahaha, but I just felt like sharing about how well this bow from Jim that is way shorter than 'should' work has worked out brilliantly for me so far thanks to the proper formula. If any of you are considering a Centaur, think hard on Dark Matter, if you want to keep pretty wood back and belly glass is gonna shoot beautifully (and you can still get the XTL lam in the glass bows!!!), and if you want the absolute shortest shorty for your max draw that just kicks butt, do Dark Matter for the riser, glass limbs for extra mass overall, and keep it pulling 45# or less at its recommended draw range...now of course Jim would have to confirm my theory through calculation/ building some bows etc., but I theorize it would look something like this:
54"
[email protected] 27"
***56"
[email protected] 29"*** mine!
58"
[email protected] 31"
60"
[email protected] 33"
62"
[email protected] ???
Food for thought and an interesting 'recipe'
Topic: The perfect short bow recipe...a thread for Centaur lovers (and those w/ 28+ draw) :) (Read 751 times)
