Sunday 27 May 2018

Yew ELB Flight Bow Comparison

I've been doing gardening and tarting up the front of the house lately,so not much activity on my blog.
Today I went out and observed my mate JT testing the short Yew flight longbow (62.25" nock to nock) against his usual 120# Yew warbow which he uses for flight at the end of roves.
The 120 was shooting 32" arrows (actually 32.5" to the very tip) and the shorter yew ELB nicknamed " the bastard bow" 'cos it's bruised his bicep a couple of times was shooting lighter 28" arrows.
Well there was little to choose between 'em and in fact the warbow shot slightly further, mind it was a slight headwind and maybe the angle of launch was a tad high.
The conclusion was that the shorter flight bow wasn't really any better and so we might as well try drawing it a tad further and shooting one of the longer arrows to give a like for like comparison. This time it seemed to be a good 10 yards further.
Now a one arrow test isn't really fair, but it proved that there is more draw and poundage in the shorter bow, and that JT found it much easier to control at a longer draw (about 31" ? ).
Anyhow, I shall ponder long and hard about maybe heat treating the bow, and checking the tiller at 30-31". I shall also make up some 31" flight arrows using the one I shot as a reference.
I won't rush into anything...

Out of interest 31" draw from a 62" (1:2) bow is pretty much the maximum safe ratio* for a well made bow especially an ELB which works pretty hard.
* Obviously this can be exceeded but twice the draw length is a reasonable guide for bow length for an experienced bowyer.
Newbies should be looking at more like 2.5 times the draw length e.g 70" for a 28" draw.

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