Friday 27 February 2015

First Test Shots BBY Longbow

Whew At last I've got the longbow shooting, I've had endless tweaks to get it behaving, but it seems very fast.
I'll try not to count my chickens before they are hatched though.
I put some masking tape round the arrow pass and shot it right handed, it seemed much faster than the flight bow, but then it it about 50# as opposed to 35#. Seems very smooth too.
I'm leaving it strung for a few hours and shooting more arrows through it to get it shot in.
There's a slight ping on a knot near the grip in the belly of the lower limb, I'll just keep and eye on it to make sure it stays stable. Pinches at knots are fairly common, a knot has a hard core and a thin layer of bark like substance, it';s like a branch growing through the parent wood. The bark has no real strength and will compress causing the wood covering it to buckle and form a tiny ridge. I've seen warbows where every knot had a pinch yet it was fine. Because the belly is in compression it's not a problem. However, if the bow was bent the wrong way the pinch would just crack open, mind bending a bow the wrong way is likely to break it anyway.
I've shot 40 arrows through it now.

I've been working on the flight bow too, getting the limbs coming back a tad more, especially the right one by reducing the belly mid and outer limb, also and taking some weight off the tips. It seems to shoot very true and it would be nice if I could tease it out to my usual draw length so I could use it at field shoots.
I might take it up the club tomorrow and see how how it shoots.

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