Today I was finally able to test Allen Boice's (Liberty Bows) new Prototype deep cored/narrow limbed American Semi-Longbow based on his current English model.
First a little background - While spending some time with Allen at the Rancho Neblina Shoot this year, he told me he was toying with the idea of building a new bow model based on his interpretation of the Hill Style ASL. As luck would have it, the next morning Allen was able to borrow a Howard Hill longbow (a Tembo, I think) from Art Grabowski for part of the course to get some ideas. That opportunity worked out great for Allen, Art and ME. Art ended up shooting Allen's personal "All-Tonkin" English longbow for that stretch of the course and ended up taking it home, Allen recuperated some gas money for his trip back home to Oregon and it was good for me, because I also WANTED that English BAD and my Wife would have nailed my hide to our barn if I had bought it.
Fast forward a few weeks and I received a call from Allen. He told me he had a new Prototype ASL inspired longbow built up based off of his English model/form. He asked if I would test drive it and give him some feedback. He also wanted me to start a "PASS AROUND" here on TradGang after I was finished shooting it. I hemmed and hawed a bit (I think right about .00000043 seconds) and hesitantly agreed to the very generous offer. A few days later, the Prototype was in my hands. As what normally happens, life kept getting in the way of a good solid day of shooting.... until today! So, I broke out the new Prototype and shot it side by side with my Contender and my Northern Mist Shelton, built by Steve Turay.
All shooting was done at 15yds with factory strings braced at my fistmele (7"). Arrows were 31" Easton 2016's with 145gr up front. Here are the specs for each bow...
Liberty Prototype - 68" All Tonkin Cane Boo with Myrtle Riser #46@28"
Liberty Contender - 66" All Yew with single Bocote veneer on back and Bocote Riser #50@28"
NM Shelton - 68" All Elm with Stabilized Yew Riser and Gambel Oak overlays #46@30"
The Bows...
Obviously, this IS NOT an "Apples to Apples" comparison, just a feeling and idea of how each of "THESE" bows feel in the hand when shot side by side. Specs, weights and materials may or may not have played a factor in how each of these bows shoot for "ME". What follows is a meat and potatoes review for brevity. Those of you who know how excited I can get about this stuff will appreciate my attempt at keeping it brief (and after proof reading this just now, I may have failed miserably at that goal).
Overall Fit and Finish
What can I say, Allen and Steve aren't in high demand because they turn out poorly built bows. All three of these bows have excellent glue lines and a VERY NICE utilitarian finish (semi-gloss/mild matte). They all look great, but if I HAD to pick the bow that "bleeds" perfection, I'd have to give it to Allen's new Prototype. I think a large part of this is due to the fact that the clear glass on this bow looks absolutely "clear" over the very light colored Tonkin bamboo and I can't find a single streak or spot on this bow. The other two bows show an occasional subtle streak or a tiny air spot under the clear glass because the dark color and knots in the veneers. As you can see in the pictures, the design of this prototype is not 100% Hill Style ASL, as it doesn't have the sweeps on the belly side of the riser and the riser is encased by the core woods, but again, this is Allen's take on the longbow featuring deep cores, narrow limbs and thin tips. Aesthetically, I prefer this "centered riser" look, but I also think making another test bow with the riser a little deeper front to back and placing all the core laminations on the back side of the riser might make the bow easier to identify as an ASL and could help make it more appealing to many of the "Hill Style" purists. I don't know what positive/negative impact those modifications would have on its shootability though.
Mass Weight
The lightest to heaviest mass weight for the bows was the Shelton, the Prototype and then the Contender. The Shelton and the prototype are both narrow handled bows and feather light in the hand. The Contender has a wider limb and riser profile and the Bocote riser is heavier and for me, gives the bow a little more stability after the shot.
Grip size, shape & material
As mentioned above, the Shelton and the Prototype are narrower than the Contender with the contender having a more "round" oval feel as opposed to an "elongated" oval feel of the others. The Contender filled my hand better and its subtle locator grip was to me, the most comfortable while shooting. I have big hands, so the extra length and girth of the Contender handle "felt" better to me because its wider grip distributed the pressure over a larger surface area of my palm.. With that said, I think the narrower straight grip on the prototype maybe allowed my hand to "index" the grip better and was more consistently accurate for me shot to shot. Of the three bows, the Prototype has the thickest material in the overlays over the glass. This increased the front of the bow's handle depth-wise and was shaped in way that provided a more subconscious "point-ability" in the bow hand, since the front of the handle has a semi-narrow ridge under the laces (similar to a well designed knife handle that tells you exactly where the edge runs on the knife while holding it in complete darkness). The leather used on the Contender grip is my favorite of the three bows, it's a little thicker and has a tad more texture than the thin soft leather on the Prototype and the super smooth leather on the Shelton.
Feel during the draw sequence
The Contender to me had the most consistent "feel" during the draw, the Shelton was light early on and got progressively heavier (as all reports about these stringfollow designs have said in past reviews... it was nice to really feel the difference though while shooting these bows side by side) and the Prototype had a smooth draw all the way to the back of my anchor, then I could feel it start to hit a wall around 30 inches. I may be crazy, but I think this helped give me a cleaner release and more consistency with this bow over all the other ASL's I've shot in the past.
Perceived Sound
All three bows shot quieter "Split Finger" than when shooting "3 Under". The surprise was that the Prototype didn't care if you shot it Split or 3U, the sound was about the same, that is, pretty durned quiet with a barely perceptible high pitched "ping". As expected, the Shelton was the quietest out of the three bows when shot Split and the Contender was by far the loudest when shot 3U.
Feel at the shot
The Shelton had the classic Hill Style "Thump" at the shot but was more subtle than straight limbed ASL's I've shot. The Prototype has the same subtle residual "ping" feeling in the handle at the shot as it did with the perceived string noise, but I can't over emphasize how little this was felt and how short it lasted (I was really paying attention to this for comparison sake and I probably wouldn't have picked it up had I not been shooting these bows side by side. The Contender, well the Contender was... DEAD IN THE HAND!!! I think this had to do with three things, The Reflex built into this design, the heavier draw weight and the heavier "mass" weight of the larger riser. Just wanted to add a thought about Limb tips vs. Wedges... Allen told me he narrowed out the tips quite a bit more on this prototype compared to his current English model, but the overlays are pretty tall. I'm wondering how much effect removing of the overlays and just adding a couple of thin wedges would have on the perceived "Ping" sound and feel (actually, a simple string change could make a bigger change, but it's something I just thought about while typing this up).
Accuracy
This one is a tough call and purely subjective. I was using the same arrows for all three bows and two of the three had straight narrow handles vs. a wide roundish oval mild locator grip on the Contender. That said, ALL three of these bows shot the 2016's nicely. The Contender was the most consistently accurate for me while shooting 3-Under, the Shelton preferred it when I shot Split and like the string noise observation above, the Prototype liked being shot either Split or 3U pretty evenly (I might have been a little more consistent 3U with the Proto, but I usually shoot that way, so no surprise there.)
Best combined group of the day (3 Arrows from each bow)...
Final thoughts and overall best shooter for "Me"
Allen's Contender for me, until now, has been the only longbow I can pick up and shoot reasonably and consistently well. I WANT to shoot the ASL's like I can the Contenders I've shot/owned, but I haven't found one yet I can shoot the same way (most of them shooting good one day and bad another... and sometimes good and bad in the same day). The REALLY COOL thing about this new Prototype is that it shoots as quiet and as consistent for me whether shooting Split or 3U...I REALLY LIKE THAT VERSATILITY in one bow!!! I have some ideas I'm going to share with Allen about the riser shape and size, but I don't want to post them here yet as Allen wants me to send this bow to another T-Gang member and then make it available for another one of his "Pass Arounds" so he can get more feedback from other shooters (Like he did when he came up with his prototype for his "CLASSIC"). I think he has another winner here, and although it doesn't currently have the "lines" of a Hill Style ASL, I'd say his first trial with deep cores and narrow limbs is VERY VERY PROMISING!!! I KNOW I'll be back on Allen's list sometime next year and I'm hoping I didn't just unintentionally bump my wait to over a year. I may just have to combine the best things from both of these bows and order a 68" narrow limbed/deep cored Contender with a black leather covered straight grip and a centered Ebony riser with thin overlays (or wedges) sandwiched evenly between Yew and Tonkin Cane cores (4 lams- a strip of yew and boo on each side of the riser). Maybe if I REALLY beg, plead and (possibly cry a little), Allen will take pity on me and to try to squeeze a 70" bow out of his form...Talk about SMOOOOOOOTH.
Or
I can just wait to see what other input you folks have and test drive the final version of this new bow!!!
Now for the
"BESTEST" part of this post....
The PASS AROUND Plan...
If you want to try this bow out, all you have to do is type "I'd like to try this bow too Please." in a post and the person who has the bow will contact you after they have had a chance to try it out to see if you still want to test drive the bow. If you can't test drive it due to family/work obligations, let the person who contacts you know so they can contact the next person on the list. Once you've had a chance to shoot the bow, it's your turn to contact the next person who typed "I'd like to try this bow too Please." and send it off to them (we pay to ship the bow to the next person). Please let Allen know who you shipped the bow to so he know's where it is going and who has it. I know we'd all like to hear more feedback and impressions on this forum, but if you don't feel like typing something up that's okay, I just ask you give Allen a call to thank him for the opportunity and give him your impressions over the phone. He's open to new ideas and wants to know what people think of this new venture, good or bad.
THANK YOU ALLEN for letting me try this new prototype out, I look forward to seeing/trying the final design!!!
Mike
Topic: New Liberty Bow Review & Test Drive Opportunity for ALL (Read 8321 times)
