[sylvan]

There was a discussion recently about ILF hunting bows that were available prior to them becoming popular in the last decade.

I came across a few more pictures of various Hoyt GM risers in factory camo. These appear to be from the mid 90's.

 

[sylvan]

Not all lightweights either...


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[sylvan]

Lefty...



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[Harpman]

Sylvan....My Gold Medalist was the same as the riser in the first pic, grey leaf camo...I popped the grip off mine, and put a thick buckskin grip on it, laced up the front, so that it had a soft, warm low wrist grip, and laced up with synthetic sinew, and a couple little glass Trade beads, it was very "Trad"................Jim

 

[sylvan]

Sylvan....My Gold Medalist was the same as the riser in the first pic, grey leaf camo...I popped the grip off mine, and put a thick buckskin grip on it, laced up the front, so that it had a soft, warm low wrist grip, and laced up with synthetic sinew, and a couple little glass Trade beads, it was very "Trad"................Jim

That's almost sacrilegious.

Did you happen to notice the weight on those limbs. If I'm not mistaken, those are extra-shorts. 65# is nothing to sneeze at.

 

[Harpman]

That's almost sacrilegious.

Did you happen to notice the weight on those limbs. If I'm not mistaken, those are extra-shorts. 65# is nothing to sneeze at.

The limbs for the camo'd Talon that you posted a pic of have to be Xtra Shorts, the Talon is just a 23" Radian riser.....Regular length Shorts would make a 64" bow...This bow is marked as 62" AMO...I've never shot a Talon, but shot a few different sets of Short limbs on a 23" Radian riser, and for my draw length, figured it to be a real good bow for just about anything......Take care......Jim

 

[the other DWS]

The Camoed Gold Medalist I have seen was called the Talon. It was the standard long GM riser with no lightening holes like your top pictures and a basic woodland camp finish. it was sold with very short, (guess they'd be called X-short or super-short now) high poundage ILF maple and fiberglass limbs in a matching cam pattern. I've owned 3 sets, still have one set in my collection somewhere. All 3 were in the 55#-65# weight.

I think their were super short because of the long length of the GM riser. Longer limbs would not have appealed to hunters. And many of the hunters of that era were heavy bow guys who regularly "over-drew" their bows and just learned to live with "stack".

I searched but I was never able to find a GM/Talon riser I could afford to go with my Talon limbs, so I traded off two sets. I had tried them on various WARFS but they stacked like crazy on short risers and even though the poundage was high they were not much faster my 50# Hoyt FX limbs that were a whole lot sweeter to shoot.

The bow you picture second looks to be a later riser version that the GMs I have seen, I have never seen one quite like that. It looks real interesting. Yre the pockets part of the main riser casting or are they added on?
I know the Easton-Hoyt had a habit of carrying some names over different models and variations

A bow-generation or two later they also used their OLY / ILF riser Radian or Avalon (I tend to confuse them) for a hunting bow; but with bolt-down (Limb bolt and peg) black anodized pockets rather than the ILF. That riser was in a rather bright hard-anodized camo-pattern and called it the Desperado.
At about the same time they created a delightful little shorty version using the same bolt down limb system and called it the Tracker. I have owned two of them. One in the same bright hard anodized camp as the Desperado, and another in a more natural subdued paint or film dip camp.
I imagine someone could easily remove the bolt down pocket and add the ILF pockets and create an ILF Desperado. For all I know the factory may have offered it. Switching the pockets would be real easy to do.

The only other ILF hunting bow of that era I have had was the PSE/W&W Jackal, basically a strangely camoed version of their midrange FITA bow outfitted with 50-65# wood glass limbs in the same camp pattern

 

[Harpman]

Wayne....The Talon was a 23" camo version of the Radian, and Desperado was was a camo 23" Avalon riser....A buddy of mine had a PSE Jackal, it was a 23" riser also..Win & Win made the limbs for that bow, it was a solid bow...I can see where the 23" Radian or Avalon would get "Stacky" real quick, even at my short draw length, the standard old-school Hoyt Short length limbs start to run out of draw length on my 23" Radian riser, with the limb bolts wound in...I have a set of Hoyt 1st Gen. carbon/wood "Short" limbs here, and on my 25" Radian, they probably get real stiff past 28"......Take care!......Jim

 

[sylvan]

Harpman is correct. The "Talon" was a hunting version of the Radian. Depending on the year, the Gold Medalist came in the factory camos shown my first picture, as well a Treebark version.

 

[Sam Dunham]

The differences of so called Olympic rigs etc. is just a stereotype and actually could be used to kill deer and critters no matter the color or style if a BH is on the end of the arrow.

 

[sylvan]

The 23" Elan came in a camo hunting version also.

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[John in NZ]

Was there a mid 90's Hoyt called a Vixen or a very similar name?

I'm sure that was the name of the riser/bow I saw in a shop in Sydney Australia back then.
Apparently it was only made the one year but discontinued due to cracks appearing in the risers.

John.

 

[Daniel L]

Those Talons actually look pretty nice!

 

[Grantmac]

Was there a mid 90's Hoyt called a Vixen or a very similar name?

I'm sure that was the name of the riser/bow I saw in a shop in Sydney Australia back then.
Apparently it was only made the one year but discontinued due to cracks appearing in the risers.

John.

Sounds like the Avalon, which was an Oly riser that developed cracks.

-Grant

 

[the other DWS]

This discussion is really helpful. I'm glad to get the Hoyt hunting ILF bows straightened out, thanks. Its always been a little confusing for me, I and a couple of friends been trying to figure out the sequence and approximate dating for years. It seems they were produced in pretty small quantities which has made it hard to track
It might help to start with a sequence for the Post-GM FITA bows and append the hunting versions.

Hoyt Hunting ILF bows:
so in order please correct me if Im wrong

a camoed version of the GM: Did it have a specific name? Were the limbs the same at the Talon with out decals (I seem to recall that one of my limb sets did not have a decal name on it. so it appears that my super short limbs that were decalled "Talon" were actually for the later riser and NOT made for the hunting camo-version of the GM right??

Radian/Talon Did it share the super short limbs with the hunting GM, but decalled as Talon?

Avalon (?) As I recall the Avalon developed cracks and was quickly replaced by the Avalon Plus.

Where in the sequence does the Elan fit in?

Was the Desperado ever offered with ILF pockets. I'm assuming the Desperado/Tracker were contemporaries with the Radian based on the same bright hard anodized camp which looks very similar to the Talon pictured in the thread----though perhaps a bit more gold in the background. color (Might t be just a photo light color temp. thing too) My Desperado is currently out "on approval" for a pending sale so I can't really compare the lightening holes pattern.

 

[the other DWS]

does anyone have a photo of an Elan.

I have a long heavy Hoyt machined riser that started as a compound I'm also trying to figure out----it MAY have been a Pro-Vantage but not sure about that name- and I'm wondering it it started as an ILF rig. I'd appreciate any thoughts or comments on it. I had SamD ILF/Warf it a couple years ago.

It has black pivoting pockets with small axles on the out board ends. The draw bolts anchor into a large round axle/pin that allows them to remain in alignment as the draw bolts are wound in and out. On my right handed bow, the left ends of the axle pins are counter bored as if one could mount a long bow quiver to it.
It is solid gold/brown anodize, with two open, alternating with two webbed, rounded triangular holes (similar to the ones shown in the Talon) in the sight window and 3 open ones below the grip, and one open at each end below the pocket. It has the short small wood grip like the Talon. however between the lower edge of the trio and offset the cable guide rod mounting boss it has a deeply inset golden apple medallion. it is really a pretty elaborate piece of machining I'd love to see the jig set up that must have used to produce it.
I'll try to take and post a pic later today

 

[sylvan]

This discussion is really helpful. I'm glad to get the Hoyt hunting ILF bows straightened out, thanks. Its always been a little confusing for me, I and a couple of friends been trying to figure out the sequence and approximate dating for years.

does anyone have a photo of an Elan.

Here is a listing of the Hoyt ILF risers, design dates, year of introduction.

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[sylvan]

"Formula Excel" and "Excel Grand Prix" (ILF)

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[rusty craine]

I hunted a 25" GM for several years. this was before internet. if you were not in a group that knew about such stuff it was hard to get nformation on them. you had no idea what you were looking at. i had a friend in a college archery program that gave me the basic. I just adapted it to hunting.

Ain't the internet a hoot. now i can get the info

 

[Dave Holquist]

The 24" SKY Conquest riser was manufactured in factory camo. There are a couple of examples in this current thread in the classifieds: http://tradtalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=45879