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John,I would have to agree. Those 3 piece A&H ACS longbows I've shot were just as fast and shock free as any recurve. I still prefer the less delicate recurve limb though.


For anyone looking to get started a 17" Dryad ILF riser would be a good option. You could get limbs from Dryad or a set of cheap ILF limbs for about $100 and not be out too much initially. Someone new to trad archery would likely be better starting with cheap low poundage ILF limbs and when shooting form is established ,getting a heavier set of better quality hunting limbs from Dryad.

Good stuff, R H - I bought an A&H ACS a number of years back and they are a great bow. More recently, I decided to go down the ILF route when Lancaster was closing out Trad Tech carbon recurve limbs. I ended up with the Dryad Legend 17" riser to mount them on and that is the bow I'm shooting the most right now. I really want to try the ACS static recurve limbs on that riser.

Though I still enjoy shooting longbows more, I've always shot recurves better...

Same for me. My favorite hunting rig right now is a DAS Dalla 17" riser with short maple-carbon limbs,no glass at all. I mostly shoot a 25" Spigarelli barebow riser with medium Win & Win Winex carbon-foam limbs during the 3-D season. Both sets of limbs are so stiff you can't torque them by hand even at the tips and they will safely shoot arrows lighter than I can spine. My target bow shoots 215 fps with just over 7GPP. I do have a 29.5" draw though which helps with speed.

Anyone new to stick bows,should really try one of the ILF risers and limbs.

Nicest longbow I ever owned was a Toelke Whip 33# 64". Man that thing was sweet and pushed a lightweight arrow right along. Should have kept that one......

+1 on the ILF thing, makes limb swaps a breeze. You can own one nice riser and several sets of limbs. I have been shooting Hoyt's Satori since it came out early this spring and have a couple sets of Tradtech Blackmax 2.0 limbs. Very nice rig. Easily adaptable from target to hunting rig.



Just waiting for Aug. 30 to shoot something a little bigger!

Any luck yet ?

Put me down. Spend a lot of time behind my Zipper Zipstick and have a set of longnow limbs on ordet for my Zippet SXT riser. I've shot most of what's oit there and would probably shoot Toelke bows if I couldn't use my Zippers.

3 hrs of acetone scrub to get the spray camo off the '75 Blackwidow HS I got this weekend.
Epoxy fill where somebody drilled for quiver.

Trying to decide if I send it in for refinish, or spray camo the limbs and black the riser, or black the limbs and send riser off for film dip
(is my backup bow).

Don't know buddy. Widow does a good job but I expect they are expensive. Film dip riser sounds good. At one time lots of folks used a peel and stick "limb skins" product. I think I have a set somewhere I bought to put on some target ILF limbs but I have never tried them.I liked the idea of the thin vinyl layer to protect from dings in carbon or glass,and I liked the idea of an easy removal.

I did try Limb skins, and they stuck good but the little white edge from the cut irked me.
Bought some gloss black spray paint and it matches super good.
Now at 6 hrs of labor and about 20 bucks in materials.

My OCD had me pretty much ready to clean up an resell.........I'm no restorer, but do a pretty fair job. Have done several bows and gun stocks and made them much better (usually losing money even after improvement). This one is looking good enough I might just keep it Hang it next to my minty HF.

Didn't sand out all marks, just the most offensive. It's a hunting bow, will get more. I did like the old "spider web" bumpy finish they had in the 80's.

I'll order a Bear/Delta quiver and K tech 3" Mathews S coil module stabilizer (plus a new B50 string and wooly whispers).

Make it look like my old one

Nice bow. I would show you my Widow PL if I had anything going except Photobucket. Looks like you did a great job.

Never used Photobucket.
Imageshack back in the day.

Imgur doesn't work here.
So I use Post Image. 2nd link pasted in on full editter here


The latest one before clean up (pic from seller).

Thanks, might yet spray camo the limbs.

It's a 300 dollar bow

imgur works fine, it's what I use.

Imgur gives me fits here, but not elsewhere.

Hookeye, what riser is that?

The non vented riser in a couple of my pics is a Blackwidow HS
My primary hunting bow is a Blackwidow HF 1225
(they made a shorter model of vented riser known as the HF500).
There is another "hollow" riser for hunting known as the HF1200.
The 1225 and 500 models have supports in the hollow sections.
There are vented 1225 target models (riser not the same- can't swap limbs) and a couple different solid risers for target too.
They even made some with integral overdraws (the grip forward).

The HF1225 is neat, but was only in 60 and 64" IIRC. The HS could be had from 58 to 62" ? (maybe 64" I dunno).
Prefer a 58" for hunting.

Passed on some HS 60".

BW no longer makes limbs for the old metal riser bows. I might shoot some paint one last time on the HS riser. It's good enough now, just want it to not wear through as easily. I'm gonna shoot it a lot (hopefully).

The BW HS is a freakin' tank of a bow and the grip is different than the HF.
I love it.

Really would be cool to find a last run radius shelf riser, and 50# FF rated limbs.
Both of the HS and even my HF, are all old models that can/could only run B50.

Like em anyway LOL

If my back/shoulder hold up I might have a new Widow built.
A greybark PCH model, 56" and around 43#.
Have had three greybarks built over the years, MA2 62#, SA2 55# and PSA2 57#.
They all went to other homes........tried to buy my last one back............no deal.

3 recurves would be enough, but a short skeleton HF500 would be cool. Maybe 4 would be tolerable.
Always wanted an HF1225.

Even if my shoulder or back blow out........it will stay on my wall.

if you can't get new limbs I wonder if you can convert one of those risers to an ilf rig?