Bow Testing 2023 / 2025

[simk]

I sometimes bring my shooting machine to the bow fair in Eigeltingen and request all bowmakers to bring their fastest bows. Rules are: 40# bow +/- a few #. I then measure exact drawweight and pick the arrow that brings the bow closest to 8gpp. Then shoot it on the machine. The results were published in the German "Traditionell Bogenschiessen" Mag.

In 2023 we wanted to test just "longbows" according to IFAA which also includes D/R profiles as long as they fully stretch out at brace. The "winning" bows were a classic 66" Longbow made from yew, maple and bamboo and a D/R glassbow which both measured same speeds. Wooden bows are brown, glassbows blue.

[simk]

In 2025 we dropped the restriction on "longbows" and allowed any bow. We had a compound bow (dark blue), recurves, longbows and asiatic bows made from glass (light blue), some of the most sophisticated carbon-superrecurves (grey) - beneath selfbows (light brown), wood composites (medium brown) and horn-sinew wood composites (dark brown). The weather was very hot and humid which certainly affected the performance of the horn-sinew composites. I never build my bows for max speed or flight - I do sell my bows and not want them to come back to me. Durability and successful target-shooting are the main goals. With 3d bows I'm looking for a little more speed than 20y target shooting. Hunting bows must be short and tough in the first place.
 

[Tuomo]

Great tests, and very good wooden bows! Hopefully you will continue these in the future.

Testing different bows at the same time and with the same setup is the best and really the only way to get accurate speed measurements, because only then are the results truly comparable.

Were the wooden bows new or used?

[willie]

The "winning" bows were a classic 66" Longbow made from yew, maple and bamboo and a D/R glassbow which both measured same speeds.

nice test and study. can you comment on the side profiles of the top 10% of wood bows?

previous research has led me to believe that a deflexed recurve of moderate proportions.   plus and minus 30mm or so should be up there and hold their own again  more radical bent wood designs.