Calgary - I have actually been practicing with 5 feathered and one bare since i first tuned them and they all shoot the same. I had not shot an A&H before this so it is a bit of an adjustment - tend to shoot straight handled pronghorn-type longbows and recurves well.

I left one bare so I could watch if my form is faltering with the additional weight of the bow. Currently without fail, I start out about 3-6 inches right and work myself back in. I am about 6ft, have a pretty deep anchor, but had someone work with me early on and that's where it settled.


Ozzy - You think I will gain any significant performance/penetration with another 100gr or so?

with my the bob lee i used which was 69#@28" (i draw 26") i found the point of diminishing returns for momentum was about 1000gr. That's 15gr/# at my draw. With your setup being 800gr out of a 70# at your draw high efficiency longbow, yes in my opinion you have gains that you can make with a heavier arrow. It has to be balanced with a trajectory that you are happy with. You can get away with a loopy arc with buff as they are big and you can usually get close. Remember structural integrity trumps even accuracy with buff. Perfect shot is no good if it breaks on the ribs. This i know! Hence my new design of buff arrow for my next hunt.

Txnrog i draw the same as you but a lot less weight and even with lite weight i need a lot of spine the guys with short DLs have a lot more shafts to work with.
Have you tryed to build out the riser a bit i would say you are still under spined a bit that is why when you start shooting you go to the right(a strong shot) but after a few you hit middle that is i bet when you get a bit tired you may be short drawing a bit.
Thanks Shane

Thanks Shane - that makes sense. I am getting a bad rub on the outside (left) edge of the shelf. To the point that all the the felt is gone, and I haven't had the bow that long. This makes me think I may be a bit weak still. It also seems to be shooting better the times I know I am short drawing a bit - i.e. when I get fully into my back muscles and pull through - high left every time. Short stroke ir a bit and right where I want to be.

Battling a bit with trying to tune and get used to the weight at the same time.

Getting closer to 'comfortable' with it, but still not as consistent as I know I can shoot.  

I may be able to get away with shortening the arrow by about an inch - been going with full lengths so far @ 32 in.  I would really like to get a little more weight in these arrows and trying to figure out how to stiffen them even more. May play with the footing a bit more, though it already feels long and hasn't stiffened it like I would think it should.

Just something to pass along to you guys-you seem to be rediscovering Asian pointing, especially such as Turkish arrows had.  Many had internal tangs of 6" or more, the tang could be cut to tune an arrow, and with a horn cushion behind the point and a bone collar on the cane behind it, those arrows have been proven to kill a cinder block.  There's lots of experimentation that's been done, a lookup of the free e-book Saracen Archery will tell you lots about how their integral head/footing worked.

I shoot whenever I can with heads like that, and I'm finally dropping the coin to try and make them, but mine won't probably be ready for a long time.  My point is, with their tuning and durability advantages, I prefer that type of point over anything else.  If it worked for fully armored humans, it might help you guys, too.

So I have to say I was really pleasantly surprised today. I had Larry at A&H archery put together a new set of limbs using their new design. Was  hoping to get a second, heavier set of limbs for the buffalo hunt.

Well, he undershot the weight but sent them to me to try out along with another heavy set of the older design he had in stock. Dropped 8lbs in draw weight and picked up the exact same performance as my current limbs - pretty darn decent trade off. The 66lb, 63lb, and new 58lb limbs all shot within 5fps of each other using my 815 gr arrow - between 170 and 175 fps. Keep in mind I'm picking up another 4-5lbs at my draw length.

Gonna monkey with the setup one more time, but think I am pretty close - need another 50gr up front to have the best selection of broadheads and the addtl weight can't hurt if I can get it to fly right. Once I get confirmation that my inserts are gonna be ready, I can move onto broadhead selection.

Well, I might be in the minority... my favourite buffalo arrow is the Grizzlystik Safari. They fly beautifully for me, and are simple and straight-forward. With the internal weight system, they are easy to get nicely nose-heavy and still fly great. They can handle a range of point weights and be shot from a variety of heavy bows.

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well i've been doing some tuning again. looks like an axis 340 with my supadapters, 300gr tuffhead and 5.75" 2020 footing. 33.5% FOC. 1006gr. more fine tuning to come. chronoed it at 155fps. .6917 Momentum. 70# border recurve.

the balance point is within the footing. this should eliminate breakage behind the footing.

Another way to do it is to forge integral heads all one piece from high carbon steel to get any weight or shape you want...tippit