[Larry Hatfield]

justin ma sent me a modern chinese bow to shoot at this years world flight competition. that is red snakeskin on the back. interesting bow and i hope to do well with it!
thanks again, justin! will miss seeing you but good luck in the shoot in china!

 

[Easykeeper]

I'd love to see a strung picture of your bow, looks interesting. Is there a special technique you need to use to string it?

 

[Larry Hatfield]

this is the best way. and, by the way, thats not me.

 

[Phil]

So .... what's the story here Larry ? Has the bow been made specifically for you for the championships. Are you going to shoot it "as is" or is there some tweaking to be done? Also, what's your arrow specification going to be.....

It'll be really interesting to see how this develops ... flight shooting is a strange and complex archery discipline ... not for the faint hearted

 

[Larry Hatfield]

actually, the bow is a spare justin had in hand and it will make two weights at various draw lengths because it is around 65# at normal draw. justin is part of the american team going to qinghai, ledu for the international archery festival and won't be able to compete this year.
the bow will be shot at 35# and 50#. no tweaking. arrows are still a work in progress. alan case, a fellow competitor, is helping me with those. he is the most giving person i have ever known and makes it possible for me to be competitive!
here is a link to a contest in mongolia. the star of the film and some other members of their team set some new world records shooting with us at the salt flats. he is very strong! one of the great people i have been able to meet while participating in world flight.

 

[Phil]

Sounds like a really interesting project Larry.
Be grateful if you'd keep us up to speed on the development of the arrows. Flight arrows are the real dark art of the archery world.

 

[Larry Hatfield]

sent you a p.m..
some general stuff about the arrows i use. most are split bamboo, hand crafted by alan case, usually 4 piece with taper in the body of the shaft.
i also experiment with heavy bows and short draws. this does not work on most bows because the draw curve is not beneficial to that scheme.
my venom bows gain evenly from the first movement of the string to 30" and they work well doing that.
for the modern chinese bow the arrows will be either carbon or bamboo.
longbow arrows must be wood or bamboo only , and i have shot wood with success also.
the balance of the arrow is just even or slightly towards the point. about 1/8" towards the point from physical center is as far as i go. prefer dead center or just barely past that point. thats contrary to what some people believe as far as cast goes but i have shot thousands of flight arrows and found what works for me. if you get behind the center, towards the nock, and the arrow is not stiff anough, it will turn about 40 yards out an come back like a boomerang or break.
i will try to take a picture of one of the bamboo arrows and post it.

 

[Phil]

Thanks Larry