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[JSchroder]

Hey guys (and gals),

I have just recently been registering with a few different bow forums and wanted to say hey and tell you all a little bit about myself. I just got into bows and bowhunting in about the last two years with my dad and neither of us can seem to get enough. He has actually had the chance last summer to go hunt in South Africa and had a blast (though now they might have to re-establish the game population, haha). I am currently a senior mechanical engineering student at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Tx.

Anyway, my real purpose for joining a few of these type forums is so that I can do some research. I have proposed and been approved by the ME department here for designing a new compound bow for my senior design project!! I will be giving a presentation on my groups design at the start of may this year. All this being said, I wanted to see if anyone on here would care to note some issues with compound bows such as:

-Pros/Cons of any different styles and makes of bows you have shot
-what characteristics you look for when purchasing one(ie. size, speed, comfort, smoothness, aesthetics, etc.)
-price range willing to pay for a quality bow
-and basically if you could describe in words what your perfect bow would be like.

Anything from you would be great and help a lot. If my design is to be effective I need to try to hear from as many archers as possible.


Thanks to all who post, I look forward to some good conversation!

-Jon Schroder

[Hannah]

Just a tip...all of the bows out there get bought...anyone serious will pay up to AUD$1200 for a bow...you are better off going direct to some bow manufacturing sites. The only other stuff you are likely to get is people saying how wonderful their bow is. Good luck.

PS - you need to give specifics as to what you want otherwise you sound like you have no idea what you are talking about anyway in which case any technical jargon may be presumed to go over your head (ie archery specific acronyms - all sports 'ave 'em).

[Hannah]

Bow sites include:

bowtech (http://www.bowtecharchery.com/)
pearson (http://www.benpearson.com/home.html)
diamond (http://www.diamondarchery.com/)
hoyt (http://www.hoyt.com/)
matthews (http://mathewsinc.com/)
martin (http://www.martinarchery.com/)
pse (http://www.pse-archery.com/)

Can't think of anymore off the top of my head...there are more, just can't think of them. I personally wouldn't go near pse or martin...and highly recommend bowtech.

[primal]

i wouldn't copy alot of PSE's or martins offerings, and you have to be careful of patents, as alot of technology on the bows is patented or pending patent, so be carfeul what you copy.
or seek permission for exanmple darton own the patents on hybrid and binary cams i'm pretty sure and mathew own the patent of the perimiter weighted single cam. and some other dude owns the paptent of modules for single cam bows.

[JSchroder]

Hannah, I am not worried about getting responses from anyone who would like to tell me how great their bow is, that is fantastic and I would like to know why they believe it is so wonderful. I have been to every bow manufacturers website that I can find and gone over the type bows they sell but you will never hear of anything bad from them, I want to try and hear from as many people who have shot various types/brands of bows as possible. This is the customer needs research necessary in any design produced.

Yes, all of the bows out there do get bought, but I am looking to find out directly why they have been. I implore everyone to get as technical as they can, I may not know all of the archery acronyms but I do understand the nonlinear dynamic systems at work in these compound bows.

I am familiar with bowtech more than other bows and like you, hannah, would also highly recommend them. What is it about both pse and martin that you disagree with in their bow lines?
___________

primal-- thank you for the caution in regards to the patents, I agree it is something that I have to keep a close eye on. I am familiar with the ones you noted, as well as some of the ones by oneida and blade runner bows who seem to boast some of the most "out of the box" designs in their bows. I do have a current design in progress right now with the other two members of my team, and other than using a dual cam system I can promise you that there is nothing out there like what we have been coming up with. Our current design in theory will cancel out all reactions in the bow during release (other than reaction force of the accelerating arrow), allow the draw string to align perfectly centered along the riser, no side-pulling or torque on the strings at all, shorter limbs to lessen vibrations and noise, and allow an unheard of short brace height with no interference. These are some of the characteristics of our design, with our main goal to achieve the highest efficiency in energy possible.

I just realized how long this post is getting, i'm sorry, i'll end it here.

Please, all do tell me about your bows and i'll try to have a more specific set of questions asap!

[Erika]

Well Marcus would laugh... cos I think that colour is important (blue or black).

- Speed (shooting 60# and the wind still kills me)
- solid back wall (can't shoot a spongy wall well, it messes with good back tension)
- a small grip (maybe this is just me, but my hands aren't big and too much contact is a bad thing)
- good balance (some bows tend to be top heavy and cant on their own, it takes a fair bit of muscle to correct that... much better if you don't have to)
- try not to over complicate the design... the less breakable bits, the less to go wrong.
- and don't discriminate against midget drawlength!! it's amazing how many bows don't go shorter than 27 inch draw
- module adjustment for drawlength rocks, it's very frustrating to have to change strings and cables just because you needed a different cam.
- no nock travel
- avoid making it too heavy (mass weight) you can always add weight with stablisers

I'm not so good on the technical talk, but that's what I like in my bows.

[Liam]

- and don't discriminate against midget drawlength!! it's amazing how many bows don't go shorter than 27 inch draw


Right on!