Fastest traditional bows on record?

[Hunter Van Winkle]

What are some of the fastest traditional bows you've seen or heard of?

What style/dimensions were they?

The one in TBB4 is impressive, it's the record holder for broadhead flight bows. It's an osage Holmegaard style bow, I believe 62" long, 6" grip/fades, bends a LOT right out of the fades, and the outer limbs are completely stiff. I think the draw length was 32" long... FPS started at 178 and was broken into 173 (off the top of my head).

[boughnut]

what was the draw weight and arrow weight?  That can make all the difference.  I know some folks that have made them pushing light arrows well over 200 fps I made a bamboo backed osage about 2 years ago that was 72 pound draw at 28 and with a light arrow consitantly got 214fps till it broke.  It had alot of back set with narrow limbs and after hundreds of arrows the belly failed and hinged.  What I have always wanted to know was how fast the english warbows are say 100 to 120 pounds I have never been able to find any info on it.  I built a 80lb warbow once and it was no faster than some of my 50 pound hunting bows.  I was not really impressed but I am not war bow builder so I may have made some mistakes on getting top performance out of it.

[JW_Halverson]

I built a 80lb warbow once and it was no faster than some of my 50 pound hunting bows.  I was not really impressed but I am not war bow builder so I may have made some mistakes on getting top performance out of it.

You may not have had enough arrow for the bow, too.  A low mass arrow out of a warbow is kinda like throwing a Mike Tyson punch at a snowflake.  On paper, you should punch that snowflake across a town and still break a plateglass window when it gets there.  In reality, nothing much happens.  Just lotsa wasted energy and effort. 

[fishfinder401]

i cant give any figures now, but i just found out my friend who lives near me has a chrono, so when i finish my yew warbow im going to check the speed

[Carson (CMB)]

I wonder how fast that bow Chet Stevenson shot, when he sailed a broadhead arrow some 329 yards 6 inches with a 95lb yew "bent-end" long bow at the 1936 Pope and Young shoot.

[Marc St Louis]

Some of the top performing bows have broken into the 190 fps range using 10 GPP arrows on a 28" draw.  I've built 3 or 4 bows that performed that well and there are a few others, Steve Gardner being one of them, that have done it as well. 

Like everything else you have to quantify performance statements.  To just say that you have built a bow that will shoot an arrow at so many feet per seconds doesn't say much.  I've made many bows that have shot an arrow at well over 230 fps but those arrows were very light for the draw weight of the bow, something in the order of 5 or 6 GPP.  Shooting light arrows or having a long draw will most certainly boost arrow speed considerably.

[Hunter Van Winkle]

I 'spose i'm not interested in flight archery, but hunting bows & arrows.

[boughnut]

Some of the top performing bows have broken into the 190 fps range using 10 GPP arrows on a 28" draw.  I've built 3 or 4 bows that performed that well and there are a few others, Steve Gardner being one of them, that have done it as well. 

Like everything else you have to quantify performance statements.  To just say that you have built a bow that will shoot an arrow at so many feet per seconds doesn't say much.  I've made many bows that have shot an arrow at well over 230 fps but those arrows were very light for the draw weight of the bow, something in the order of 5 or 6 GPP.  Shooting light arrows or having a long draw will most certainly boost arrow speed considerably.

yea that is what I was saying.  I have found also that even though that same bow show a light arrow with alot of speed when I did a distance test with that bow the light arrow flying much faster did not travel as far as the heavier arrows traveling slower.  I am no flight shooter by any means so I could have made mistakes on angle and all.

[crooketarrow]

    I have'nt CHONOED a bow in a dozzen years.
  But my best was a OSAGE 64"61#'s 26" sinewed, not don't remember the arrow weight. But it was hunting arrow, zwicky, likely around 550 to 600 grain. 1 3/8 at the fades to 3/8's stiff tips stiff handle. I TILLER ALL MY BOWS BACK INTO THE FADES. THIS ONE WAS THE SAME.
  It shot 184,186 and 187 fps.

  I have a nice clean release and uselly (99%) can out shoot speed wise people with there own bows.
  CHONO your bow the way you release. Then do it by releaseing with the third finger down first. I grantee you you'll get 6 or 7 fps or more faster. WORKS EVERYTIME and as won many 5's and 10's at shoot and back yards byout shoot people with their own bows.
 It don't only increases speed but your groups will tighten to a lot. Instead for jusy plucking your fingers open. By releaseing third finger down first your other 2 fingers automaclly found suit. End result you do same thing EVERY TIME.
  THIS IS HOW HOWARD HILL RELEASED.

I've made a couple OSAGE bows 50,51 ,52#'s. that shot in the high 160's to 170 fps. But you never now I've made some nice looking bows that were dogs. That should have shoten good.
   WOOD IS WOOD YOU JUST NEVER KNOW.

[BowEd]

Like Marc said the bows have to be tested with a standard arrow and string to compare bow to bow,and from the same person shooting,and maybe a witness too..........LOL.It's the only fair way.I think it's a good enough comparison standard plus and here's the kicker you can try to improve your bow making skills.That's what's it's all about.

[dwardo]

Then do it by releaseing with the third finger down first. I grantee you you'll get 6 or 7 fps or more faster. WORKS EVERYTIME and as won many 5's and 10's at shoot and back yards byout shoot people with their own bows.
 It don't only increases speed but your groups will tighten to a lot. Instead for jusy plucking your fingers open. By releaseing third finger down first your other 2 fingers automaclly found suit. End result you do same thing EVERY TIME.
  THIS IS HOW HOWARD HILL RELEASED.

Is this in one kind of motion? Does the hand move upwards in some way when this happens? Bit more info please bud

[BowEd]

He's dead now but I would have loved to meet him.The fella Jay Massey.He shot very fast 58" recurves composed of hedge and sinew.I looked to get his Bowyers Craft book on line on amazon.com.Wheeeuuuu.They want 60.00 bucks nowadays.Life is short really I bought one.......LOL.

[Marc St Louis]

I haven't used my chrono is a few years but when I did make a practice of using it I would weigh my arrows so that I knew what I was shooting and not guessing.

Flight shooting is an art.  You can't just pick out a light arrow and expect it to go far even though it shoots faster than a hunting weight arrow.  If your light arrow doesn't come out of the bow clean then it will not travel far.  When I first started shooting ultra light flight arrows out of some of my bows, 10~15 years ago, I was quite disappointed that they would only go slightly farther than my hunting arrows.  I was using highly reflexed sinew backed recurves, these bows would shoot 10 GPP arrows at more than 180 fps and out to 250 yards.

[Badger]

  I am trying to figure out what osage bow is being reffered to in the first post? I don't have my book here. Of all the bows I have tested none have been faster than Mark St Louis bows.
  Flight shooting actually is an art and the bow is about 1/3 of the equation.. Arrows are most important. This past shoot a few weeks ago I took some of my arrows and a couple of Allen Cases bamboo laminated arrows of similar weight and his arrows outshot mine by about 70 yards. Mine were flying very clean but just didn't have the hang time.
   I pissed myself off at the 50# broadhead contest. I missed the record by 9". Thinking back someone told me I was standing about 6" behind the line when I was shooting, and I could have used 1/2" longer arrows with 1/2" high fletching instead of 3/4" fletching for a slighlty longer shot. Very important to pay attention to detail.

[Pat B]

  I have a Jay Massey bow and it definately was not built for speed. I also copied Jay's Medicine Bow(sinew backed hickory with painted rawhide covering), and its not designed for speed. Jay built bows that shot well and were durable in the field. He was a hunter. At the draw weight he preferred he got good speed as a benefit but I don't think that was his main goal when he built a bow.
  IMO durability in a hunting bow that will be shot at ethical hunting distances is way more important that the speed your arrow can travel that 15 or 20 yards.
  If you are target shooting or shooting for distance you are in a totally differant game. When I shoot 3D or just practice at the butt in my yard, or if I'm shooting at squirrels or hunting whitetail or elk(on a few occasions) I shoot the same bow and bow and arrow combo. All of those activities are directly geared towards hunting. I'm not a target or flight archer.