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What design is it call when limbs are attached to back of riser? Is there a benefit?

HuumanCreed

HuumanCreed

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I just saw pictures of take down bows but the limbs are attached to the back to the risers instead of the front like most ILF, Sages, etc. What design is that call and is there any benefits? I see some selfbows are designed like that too now that I think of it.

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I'm guessing Black Widow started it. Black Swan also used it. Doesn't answer your question, but that's my origin story.
 
The benefit is that the grip, or the pivot point of the bow is forward of the limbs. This makes for a more stable/forgiving bow with a slight decrease in speed.

Another way to visualize it is if you hold the bow out flat and try to rotate it or spin it with your wrist, the harder he bow is to rotate the more forgiving it is. A straight bow like a hill style longbow is easier to rotate and therefore less forgiving.
 
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GCTerpfan said:
The benefit is that the grip, or the pivot point of the bow is forward of the limbs. This makes for a more stable bow with a slight decrease in speed.

Another way to visualize it is if you hold the bow out flat and try to rotate it or spin it with your wrist, the harder he bow is to rotate the more forgiving it is. A straight bow like a hill style longbow is easier to rotate and therefore less forgiving.
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^^^^^ Yep. Reflex and Deflex and Straight Risers, all have advantages and disadvantages. Also applies to compounds BTW.
 
Just a 3 piece take down with belly mounted limbs. Stalker is also making that style along with the others already mentioned. @GCTerpfan covered the pros/cons.
 
other pros...it's different, looks cool, and makes a takedown look more like a 1 piece (although that's partly due to riser sculpting as well)
 
GCTerpfan said:
The benefit is that the grip, or the pivot point of the bow is forward of the limbs. This makes for a more stable/forgiving bow with a slight decrease in speed.

Another way to visualize it is if you hold the bow out flat and try to rotate it or spin it with your wrist, the harder he bow is to rotate the more forgiving it is. A straight bow like a hill style longbow is easier to rotate and therefore less forgiving.
Click to expand...

Interesting, I'm curious. Has your father built any bows with that design? The few that you showed during the last meet up look like the more typical takedowns. This sound like a great style for beginners who would be ok with trading speed for forgiveness. Or is that something that a beginner would not be able to tell? That these fine details is something you will learn and notice with experiences?
 
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HuumanCreed said:
Interesting, I'm curious. Has your father built any bows with that design? The few that you showed during the last meet up look like the more typical takedowns. This sound like a great style for beginners who would be ok with trading speed for forgiveness. Or is that something that a beginner would not be able to tell? That these fine details is something you will learn and notice with experiences?
Click to expand...

I don't have a lot of experience with bows with belly mounted limbs but, a lot of people love their Black Widows. For me personally, I have always wanted one because I want a bow as forgiving as possible. I think the limiting factor with a beginner shooting one of these bows is all of the bows I know of with this design are high end custom bows and are a lot of coin to try something new.

Funny you should ask about my Dad though. I've been trying to get him to build a riser with belly mounted limbs for a while. I thought I had him convinced but, he recently decided to tweak his current riser design to move the grip forward 1" instead. Below is a picture he just sent me this week. The bow on the right is his current riser design. The bow on the left is a pine 2x4 he carved as a sample with an additional 1" of deflex. The bow string in front of each one represents a straight line between the pivot point of the limbs and highlights the difference in the grip. He's going to try this design before making the bigger change of reversing the limbs.

IMG_20220128_083244.jpg

The pic below is the one I sent him shortly after he sent me the pic above to show him the wood combination I want with his new riser design.
Screenshot_20220109-174952.png

I'll work on getting him to build a belly mounted riser for next years bow :)
 
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Just from a layman logic, the belly limb design make more sense because the whole limb is pushed against the riser instead of against a bolt/spacer/washer....whatever the combo is called.

You're right a lot of the high end bow are belly limb so I assume its a harder bow to make in general, seem like the high end bows also are able to produce a lot of lbs too. Seeing Black Widows in the 70-80lbs range. But that just might be the quality of the limbs I guess.

From my uneducated eyes, having the limb flexing INTO the riser is more secured then the tip of the limb LIFTing against riser. Not possible with ILF obviously.

On another note! Nice bow in the picture! I like how the limbs and riser flow together, how did he do that? Did he carved the whole bow and then turn it into a takedown?
 
HuumanCreed said:
On another note! Nice bow in the picture! I like how the limbs and riser flow together, how did he do that? Did he carved the whole bow and then turn it into a takedown?
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No, he carved the riser separate but, you are right the arch in the riser does match the angle of the limbs. I think it looks better also. I'm anxious to see what the final product looks like.
 
GCTerpfan said:
I don't have a lot of experience with bows with belly mounted limbs but, a lot of people love their Black Widows. For me personally, I have always wanted one because I want a bow as forgiving as possible. I think the limiting factor with a beginner shooting one of these bows is all of the bows I know of with this design are high end custom bows and are a lot of coin to try something new.

Funny you should ask about my Dad though. I've been trying to get him to build a riser with belly mounted limbs for a while. I thought I had him convinced but, he recently decided to tweak his current riser design to move the grip forward 1" instead. Below is a picture he just sent me this week. The bow on the right is his current riser design. The bow on the left is a pine 2x4 he carved as a sample with an additional 1" of deflex. The bow string in front of each one represents a straight line between the pivot point of the limbs and highlights the difference in the grip. He's going to try this design before making the bigger change of reversing the limbs.

View attachment 60929

The pic below is the one I sent him shortly after he sent me the pic above to show him the wood combination I want with his new riser design.
View attachment 60930

I'll work on getting him to build a belly mounted riser for next years bow :)
Click to expand...
Cocobolo is legit ;)
 
The deflex risers are sweet shooters not a speed queen but will make a great shooting bow granted you can get some serious brace height on these types. I find belly mounted vs back mounted are easier to shoot they just feel nicer and I feel less handshock. I’ve had many many many types of these bows My quickest ones were black swan and a older check mate bow They were the first to shoot over 200 fps for me with a 9gpp arrow
 
I have owned and shot several of each type. For the belly mounted; black widow and hill country bows. For a "regular" style bow I have owned, centaur, bob lee, big river, one I made, toelke, as well as a couple others and I can honestly say I have never seen an increase in accuracy with any style bow. I use to be a pretty good 3D shooter and I would regularly post the same scores with both. My best rounds every were posted with a "regular" style longbow. I don't think your average archer will ever see a difference in accuracy between bow designs. I think you'll see a lot more benefit to dropping weight and working on form.


Also FWIW, if there were a great benefit from shooting a belly mounted bow I can assure you that the olympic archers would be shooting them!
 
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