Hand shock longbow?

[Nance]

Hi everybody,

Today I shot a bamboo backed, triple laminated longbow and it had a huge amount of handshock. It hurt my elbow when it tried to race the arrow to the target. It was a full compass, 43 pound bow.
The draw weight was no issue for me.

Is this a normal occurrence in longbows? It's my dream bow but if it's that much of a beast to shoot, maybe I should change the dream.
My joints are very loose and repeated strain can cause them to swell and ache.

[PEARL DRUMS]

The bow was poorly designed, poorly made and poorly tillered. Your findings are far from normal. A wood longbow should be as smooth, or more smooth, than a glass bow.

[Del the cat]

What Pearlie said, unless you were shooting extremely light arrows.
Pictures?
Del

[Nance]

No pictures. I did shoot very light arrows. The bow was made by a company that makes warbows. I've heard only good things about them. That's why i tried one of their bows before starting to save up the cash. I must say that I was saddened by the bow's behaviour. I don't remember this from shooting longbows before,  but then again my experiences may have been seen through rose coloured glasses. Maybe I didn't notice it then? My elbow was sore after just 6 shots.

[PEARL DRUMS]

Even very light arrows wont hurt your joints, maybe the bow. The bow isn't well made.

[paulsemp]

Sounds like you're either gripping or drawing at the wrong spot or this bow was made by one of the many companies that tries to mass-produce wood bows.

[PatM]

"warbow" makers often struggle to scale things down and make a shootable lightweight bow.

[Dances with squirrels]

My guess is the limbs weren't balanced in strength relative to how you held and drew the bow. This causes the limbs to be unsynchronized upon their return at the shot which causes unnecessary vibration and felt recoil. Several other factors can magnify it, one of them being light weight arrows. Some others are too much mass left in the outer limbs, limbs tillered to bend too much near the handle and too little further outward, low brace height, a tight grip on the handle, etc.

Not always, but sometimes you can move the nock point enough to affect relative limb balance and help with it, especially if you raise the brace height, loosen your grip on the handle and such too. You may even try altering where you're applying the most pressure to the grip... for instance, if you're shooting with the pressure low, on the heal of the hand, try shooting with a higher grip... or vice versa. Sometimes if you come to full draw with a relaxed grip on the handle, you can feel how it wants to balance in the bow hand. Don't fight that. Allow it to balance there, with your fingers wrapped around the grip just tight enough that the bow doesn't fall from you hand at the shot.

It's possible though that the relative limb strength is disproportionate enough that you and that bow may never get along.

[Nance]

It was a very narrow bow and I'm not used to that. My flatbow has a bigger grip and no hand shock so I just thought the problem was my puny muscles. The draw weight was really easy to handle though. I could have gone up. With the flatbow and my hazel bow, I'm not having any major form issues.
I had some difficulty gripping it properly in the palm of my hand. I didn't grip it really tight or something like that. I used the leather grip and nocking point that were on the bow. As soon as I let the arrow go it went off slightly to the left, the string slapped a welt on my arm through two layers of leather and the shock ran from my hand to my elbow. Like punching a brick wall. After 6 shots my arm felt numb and my elbow ached. Brace height looked normal.

I cant really tell you anything about the bow. I have no pics and usually the bows by this particular bowyer are considered top notch. That's why I was feeling really down about this whole experience. I really like LIKE the elb. I have shot other elb's that didn't have this much recoil, but maybe they were lightweight wannabe elbs and this has been my first real experience.

Thank god I didn't buy it haha. There will be a renaissance fair this month so I will spend most of my time shooting different bows there. A lot of bowyers from the Netherlands and Germany will be selling their wares there and at reasonable prices too.

[Badger]

   Was this bow an ELB style with a full arc of the circle tiller? Sounds typical for that design. Lighter bows really need to have more bend in the middle and outer limbs and more stiffness in the center or they will break your wrist with the shock.

[Nance]

The bow bent through the handle so that would make it a circle tiller? Like a warbow, but only 43 pounds.

[bradsmith2010]

i suggest getting someone to make a bow for you,,, rather than a mass produced bow,, you have a better chance with someone that makes bows,, in getting one that shoots well with no hand shock,,,, a good bow maker will shoot and hand tune the tiller,,for each bow he makes,, making it smooth to shoot,,

[Del the cat]

Ah! You didn't buy it... whew, that's the main thing.
I've only really experienced any discomfort with heavy bows and that's generally a jarring of the elbow which heavier arrows always seemed to smooth out. Do you hold the bow upright or tilt it over a bit, maybe tilting (canting) would help? (It helps to avoid locking the left elbow, which may be a contributory factor?) I always cant a bow as I figure the only reason for holding one upright is if you have sights on it and we all know sights are for wusses
Del

[Nance]

I did cant it. I shoot my flatbow canted too.

Yes REAL MEN shoot bare. No training wheels too

[Badger]

   Just another case of " You need to know what you are doing to make a good bow"  Just making it bend without breaking is the most basic step.