[American Flatbow] Just been reading up on flatbow stability...

BorderBows

New member
What makes a flatbow stable in your opinion?
What makes it easy to shoot?

How is one flatbow more stable than another?

How does form affect stability on shooting a flatbow?
 

BorderBows

New member
ok, here is my thoughts,
take a fishing rod, and add a fish to the line... its all good and dandy, now bend the rod upwards, so that when the same fish is on it it still points upwards and try and keep it that way. It will want to twist round...
NOT good.
If you added some weight to the end of that upturned rod, to make it bend downwards in a continious fashion just like the normal rod, then when you added the fish, the rod would be stable and not want to twist. it would be as stable as the original down turned rod. but it would require a bigger fish to bend the same amount.
So to get it to bend the same amount you need to take some of the stiffness out the rod, so you end up with a lighter rod (except for the mass to make it bend downwards.)

What im trying to illistrate is that as long as the limb at brace height has a continious curve then the limb is stable.
If you have a little flick in the end of the limb, then there is a % of that limb that will want to twist round.

so if two bows have a continious curve then they are both stable so far.
If the grip is infront of the bow, ie the bow is closer to you than the grip, then the bow becomes even more stable.
Take a Longbow. It can be twisted, and still shoot within reason, it will just want to twist in your hand as the bow tries to straighten out.

So the next question in my mind is repreatability of hand position. and a bow with a pistol grip is more repeatable than a non-descript tube like shape.

So id look for continious curve limbs at brace height, pistol grip, bit of deflex in the riser, and then efficency of the bow, which is speed vs arrow weight vs energy stored. so that i can get my arrow to the target as fast as i can without interfirence...

Now, to combat that limb tip flick, you can make your limbs wider, this would make the limbs more resistant to this left right pull of the tip, Howard Hill bows are a excellent example of this in that they are not swept forward, and hand very thin limbs, as they do not need any left right help, as the bow has a continious curve to it.
Its also one of the reasons the US Hybrid bows come with some wider limbs than the likes of the HH style bows.

Anyone want to add to that, as thats 98% of what "we" think a flatbow has to offer for stability.
 
Take a Longbow. It can be twisted, and still shoot within reason, it will just want to twist in your hand as the bow tries to straighten out.
If a longbow is slightly twisted, can it be straightened out easily ? or will it always be that way? and if the problem is not sorted out, can it then get worse, as time goes on ?
 
Top