Advice on Set up of Hill Style Bow....

[Jim Wright]

For what it's worth I shoot Dan Toelke Super Ds with brace height running 6 3/4"-7 1/4", nock height 9/16". I have never shot anything through mine except fairly heavy wood in the 11 or 12 to 1 range. I never use an arm guard and don't need one. They are smooth, dead in the hand stable, exceptionally quick and ridiculously quiet bows.

[Jakeemt]

I just don't like them in hot weather Charlie.

[Nala]

UPDATE.....

I changed the BH to 6 3/4" and the nock height to 5/8 and went out to try it this evening.  It shot 100% better.  NO wrist slap at all, not even a single time.  I'm liking that.

All the different arrows shot great except 3 aluminum 1916 LITE arrows I got from somewhere.  They were not flying so well and were going RIGHT each time I shot them.

So, I am going to keep tinkering and get it where it shoots best.  It probably would be best to use 1 type and kind of shaft with this bow and forget using a sack full of different shafts and save that for my Morrison 17 inch ILF aluminum shafted recurve that has an elevated rest.  All my shafts fly great in that bow.

Thanks all.

Nalajr

[Charlie Lamb]

I here you bud. I've been using one so long I'm just used to having it on my arm regardless.  

Chuck... they are cut about 3/16 out of center.

I am assuming that 5/8" has the arrow below the nocking point, if you are shooting split, you may have a heavy ring finger.  That would need to be adjusted if you shoot a fatter diameter wood shaft.  I cannot help but wonder what the upper and lower riser fadeout to the string would be on that bow if all else is quite normal.  The higher BH could be needed if the arrows were very stiff or if the grip is getting torqued, which is a possibility if the string never makes arm contact in a more normal BH.  John Schulz suggested 1/16" up on his nocking point, nocking the arrow over the nocking point, Ekin said about 1/8". On bows that have the 1/8" less measurement on the bottom limb fadeout to string measurement, the nocking point works out to be just shy 1/8" above level for me with parallel shafts and right at 1/8" for tapered shafts with old style Mercury arrow nocks.
Some bows can have slower cast with too much BH.  John Schulz said that it could be as much as 20 fps, we experimented with this some with one of my Schulz bows.  We found that increasing the brace to 1" over what John suggested with Acme cedar arrows that flew good at the suggested brace, did not lose 20 fps second like John said was possible, it lost 8 to 10 fps.  On another bow that had a suggested range of 6&3/4" to 7", Primal Styk, going from the top of the suggested range to the bottom, then to going under the range made very little difference.  It obviously has something to do with how the limb loads and unleashes its energy or the difference between a B55 string to a modern string.

[ChuckC]

Thanks Charlie.  

ChuckC

[Coach]

I too shoot a Dave Johnson longbow quite regularly.  It came with a B-50 string but I am using a fast flight now.  I am pulling 55# at 29".  It likes 2018's cut 30.5".  I measured the brace height and it is set at 5 3/4".  This is about what Dave recommended.  I always find what works for me as there are so many intangibles like type of string, spine of arrow, form, etc.  I have no problem with wrist slap and do not use an armguard.  Again how you are holding the bow is an intangible here.  I believe the woodies I shoot are spines 65-68# and again are cut 30.5".  Use 145 to 175 up front, just whatever works best.  Don't know if there is a lighter in the hand longbow than a Dave Johnson.  Hope you get it worked out!

[akbowbender]

I have two Dave Johnsons which I had the BH set at 6 1/2". Both shot fine, but after seeing that the recommended BH is about 5 3/4", I decided to give it a try. Both shoot just fine with the lower BH, and I can still shoot them without an arm guard. I did adjust one of them up to 5 7/8" for the one with the smaller grip (see next paragraph.)

One thing to note is that both of these bows have relatively deep grips at 2 1/8" and 2 1/4". If they had a 1 3/4" deep grip like one of my NM Classics, the BH at the current settings would measure out at 6 1/4".  This probably at least partially explains the recommended variation in BH's between different Hill Style bows, though I don't know if this holds true for reverse handle bows.

[tzolk]

I echo the ones above with at least a 6.5" brace up to 7". Mine ASL is set to just over 6.5 and I do not get arm slap. You'll have to work on your grip and form for that. With properly spined arrows, 10 gpp IMHO, you will have a great time shooting that bow.

[Producer]

I set mine at 6.25 inch with 3/8 nock point. I moved the nock up some and down some and the bow seems not to matter much shooting Gold Tip Traditional 400 at 57lbs. I have been told early on to always were an arm-guard because it is possible to have an arrow break on release and stick in your arm. That would hurt.

I saw a fiberglass arrow go once, it must have been crushed.  The guy was wearing an arm guard, he did catch some fiberglass into the back of his thumb.  There were tears.