It was so long ago when I put my name on the
ACS waiting list that I had forgotten about it. I got an email from them saying my time has come - to shut-up or pay up.
My last bow was the BoB Lee Signature T/d L/B. I like this bow so much, it fits me like a glove, is fast and smooth and I'm driving tacks with it.
However I had always thought that the Adcock bows were the best and I want the best. What do I do boys and girls???? Please give me some advice.
It is the three piece Adcock that I have ordered, and I like three piece bows the best. I only shoot 43# which is not much for out big Aussie feral swine. Will I get the extra speed from the Adcock, as opposed to my Bob Lee?
It represents a lot of money to get one of these down to Austrlalia. I have never even seen an Adcock down-under, let alone held or shot one.
I need advice from those who have shot both.
Do I whack the dough on the table lads, or do I let my name pass by, save some dough and keep the Bob Lee.
sutto
If your shooting good with the Lee---pass on the Adcock. Its a great bow, but if you are doing well with the one you have, why? Do we really need the big name bows just to be cool?
Fixed the "typo" for you. VM13
Keep the Bob Lee unless you have just got to have
the ACS. A really nice bow for a shorter wait time is Black Swan. I got on the list also. Going to take my name off.
Your performance gain measured in dollars is going to be huge. That said however, the Adcock is a very nice bow; well balanced, extremely smooth, quiet with speed as advertised. No hand shock what so ever. In spite of those narrow limbs it seems fairly stable and forgiving as well. All things considered, if you want the best this is probably it. It will feel easier to draw than your Lee pound for pound, and will be noticeably faster. To match the Adcock's speed you'd probably need to bump the Lee's poundage between 10-15 lbs of draw weight in my experience. Other shooting differences will be less obvious.
Dave
Kawika, JBiorn likely meant " pass on the ACS."
He would not have intentionally spoken so harshly in front of our children. Dang typos.
Killdeer. :campfire:
I'm going to go against the grain...if the Lee "fits you like a glove" and you are shooting it real well, there is a good chance you may not like the CX, totally different grip, slightly more reflexed riser, and the truth is, Bob Lee's are a very smooth drawing bow themselves. The CX will be faster, but as to whether it it will be as stable and forgiving for you as the Lee, well, that may not be your experience. And yes, I've owned and shot both.
I believe when you find a bow that you shoot well, and it fits your style of shooting, stick with it. You can trade around and buy alot of different bows, but you'll probably come back to "That One". At least that's been my experience. Jr.
Keep the opinions flowing folks - this is great stuff. I need to hear from people who have owned and shot both. I know the final decision is mine - but there is no chance of me shooting one of these first, in Australia. All I can do is ask lots of questions - or I just might (as they say)"blow my dough"!!
Sutto
You will see some gains in performance. Only you can deicde if it will be enough to justify the expense. On the other hand, jsut because it will be faster, doesn't mean you will shoot it better. I would personally go with the Adcock bow, but I know that they fit my style of shooting better than any bow I have shot so far. If you don't need to sell the Lee to finance the purchase, you can always get the Adcock and form your own opinion, in a side by side comparison. Then if you don't like it, you can sell it. You definately won't lose any money on it. Of course if you decide to pass, it would move me one notch closer, as I am currently on O.L.'s list also! LOL!
If it is one of OLs bows than I would buy it. The Lees are great bows but OLs bows are very nice and ya can get your money back on it. The A&H bows are great bows, but just not for me. I agree with Larry though, the CXs are finicky for some people. Shawn
You might be able to drive needles with the ACS you never know until you try it. I've got one on the way and I intend to try all the top notch bows before I hang it up.
I dont care for the grip on ACS...and if its OLs...well thats just too long!!! BoB lee all the way!
Ya mean OL is actually workin on his list??Funny I didn,t see to many names left before me and yours wasn't one of them.If OL is actually making you a bow ya might wanna grab it if your so inclined because it likely will never happen again.I'm officially at 5 yrs and quite frankly thats BS....sorry for the vent I better just shut up
Congrads on your up coming toy I hope it's all that ya want it to be and more! Keep the Lee an extra bow around that ya shoot good is a good thing
Both bows preform very well. I have shot BLs a lot and own 3 ACS 3 piece bows(well my son did take one of them).
Both are smooth, fast, well behaved bows. But the ACS has the edge on performance and that buttery beautiful feeling draw.
The grip I hear some people talk about does not strike me as being any different from what is being put out by Morrison, Lee and others on R/D longbows these days.
Philip I have never shot a ACS but now have two Bob Lees and had another.When I had quit smoking for 11- months I took my wife to Shrevport La. and brought my wife on Mardi Gras eve.We ate a great steak and she shopped the next day at the new mall.I went to the Bob Lee factory and ordered a new Bi-cent bow with 3-sets of limbs great bow fits me perfect and Rob even redid the grip to get it just right. The bow is beautiful and the colors are reversed from the regular Bi-cent.The bow cost a good amount of money (not including the motel,steak and shoping)and I will never sell it but I hunt out of two camps and found a used longbow Bob Lee (fraction of the price) but use recurve limbs more often and wanted a spare bow to leave at one camp so as not to have to haul so much gear b/c it is a 1 1/2 mile bike ride to the camp no trucks.I bought this bow and it is a smaller riser no longer made by Lee but fits me perfect and I find I do not leave it at the camp, I intended it for instead bring it home to hunt at my other hunting area also.My reason for typing all this is to say if a bow fits you what more do you want.If you found a great bow I would not spend the money on an expensive bow that may not fit you. My .02.Kip
You said you wanted the best, get OL's. Mines the smoothest I've ever owned in over 55 yrs.
Adcocks bows are great bows. They perform well.
And will out perform the Bob Lee if it is a longbow. I shoot a Bob Lee Recurve and love it but when it comes to longbow shooting I grab my Adcock.
One of the big reasons O.L.'s list got so long and out of date is because he ran into medical problems because of the glues and solvents used to build bows and developed an alergic reaction that put him down for some time.
Anyway, the New ACS bows are also great bows...the metal riser adds weight that is great for stabilizing the bow.
So depending on which one you want...I'd still say get the Adcock. If it turns out you, for some reason, don't like the bow you will be able to sell it for whatever you paid for it without any problem.
Art
Shoot the Lee. No bow is worth more than my old truck. I`d have to sell it to buy an acs.RC
Why fix what isn't broke? If you're shooting the Bob Lee well, I'd stick with it.
When you get a bow that fits you well and you shoot it good your search should be over.Personally I would save the money and shoot what you have.Some fall in love with the ACS bows but just as many don't care for them for one reason or the other.That is a lot of money just hoping you fit into the first group. :)The only way I would spend that much on a bow is if it was in my hand and I liked the way it was shooting.I would then buy THAT bow not get on a list for one I hoped shot like that one. jmho
I have owned adcocks and a a&H they were nice but i LOVE the Bob Lees and own 3 of them i shoot them way better than anything good luck! I must add i have owned nearly 140 bows.
The comments regarding the grip concern me the most. I am very pedantic when it comes to the grip. To me a good bow is 85% grip and the other 15% for the rest of the equation.
I have had some awesome bows but had to ditch them because of the grip. The only grip that has fitted me like a glove is my new Lee. Even Dan Toelke made me an awesome bow and put so much into getting the grip right - it is almost there - but not as good as the Lee, which has a standard grip. Unbelievable!
My problem is that without being able to shoot the ACS I could go thru all the financial and emotional strain just to get something that I had to flog off because of the grip.
I am tempted to heed the advice of so many on here - if it is working, why change it. However I have been on that list a very long time, and to have my name come up and to finally turn it down is a big deal.
Does OL offer a high-wrist grip option on the wooden riser version?? I am on holiday in Thailand at the moment and the computers here at the internet cafe, don't appear to be able to open his attachments for me to research further?
I wished I lived in America (I could shoot one first)!
Sutto
One thing that's also important to me is, in case of an accident, the availability of a new riser or limbs. Here Bob Lee is a clear winner in my eyes.
I have bow-shopped around like many others and found my bow to be a Bob Lee. It's quiet, fast and forgiving.
John
While I do definately agree that getting a bow that is right for you is the important thing, how do you know what the right bow is for you until you have shot one.
Having said that your location and the cost involved would make it a very expensive experiment. I have the same problem living in England. I already have an A&H ACS and got an email a few days a go saying I was top of the list for another, I'll have already sent my order in as I know what great bows they are.
sutto -- i believe in your situation, you should stick with the lee. in all reality the last thing you'll need to do is add 10-15 lbs to match the adcock, closer to 2-3 lbs at MOST (see blacky's tests if you don't believe me) match strings and make it an apples to apples comparo and you get all of 3-4 fps more speed with the adcock which is hardly worth the risk in not liking the grip, then again if you don't like it you'll have no problems selling it. then again it might float your boat, but the lee's have as durable a takedown system as is available and from what i've seen, you will definitely get years more out of the glass bows vs the carbon bows, in a word, 20 years from now you'll shoot the lee and lucky if any carbon bow has not had a compression failure. if i were you i'd put the money into a short recurve, with the figured bubinga from bob lee. it's pretty sweet and you and they both know the grip you like.
mark
Stay with the Bob Lee.
In TBM's bow reviews, the A&H ACS was 4 fps faster than a Bob Lee one piece maple core recurve (that might temper your performance expectations).
If the Lee shoots well for you, I'd keep it and save my money.
I get the feeling that you want to try what many consider the best bow available. We are not talking about a money difference but a presumed product difference. I don't think you'll be happy until you have one of OL's bows. You'll always wonder about the difference. Keep youur Lee and buy the ACS. If you like it, keep it. If not, you will not lose a lot on the resale. I've been there and done that. Not with an ACS, I've really never wanted one of OL's bows but with a BW. Got one, liked it and kept it. If I had not bought it I would have always wondered. Good luck in your quest. :thumbsup:
I'm shooting some of Bob's bows at the K-Zoo expo. Hope they are everything I expect. Keep your Lee. I shot a lefty Lee recurve (have not come across a righty yet)and hit the target even though I'm a right handed shooter. His bows have to be pretty decent!
My 2 cents,
-Charlie
It seems to me it boils down to how much disposible income you have and how you want to spend it. I'm in the same boat as you in that I have a BL td longbow which I really like, but I just bought an A&H ACS. I'm not a great archer, but at this point I can't tell a big difference between the two for me at least as far as shooting goes. Both grips fit me fine with the BL seeming "bigger". A big difference is the bow weight, with the BL being heavier, the wood ACS feels real "light" to me, something else for you to consider. If you have the only ACS in OZ it probably
wouldn't be that hard to resell if it doesn't work out. Some people enjoy trying bows and then reselling them, while others stick with one, so it depends where you are in the spectrum, but you'll never know unless you try one out. I didn't starve for a month to get an ACS, but I did spend some extra money to get a used one, which I may or may not keep.
My 2 cents,
Rick
Thanks for the advice guys - I have decided to let my order slip. Once again Mark (Centaurshooter) came up with the goodies.
As I said it was so long ago since I placed my order that I had forgotten the technical details of the ACX. Mark mentioned that they have a carbon limb - and as I remember correctly they do. I liked them at the time of placing my order - but after all the stuff I have read about carbon limbs, I don't want to spend all that money on something that may or may not go the hard yards. Thanks for reminding me Mark!!
I know my Lee will do that, and have decided to can the order and stick with the Lee.
A greater percentage of you also suggested keeping the Lee and canning the ACX - Sage advice that one may ignore at ones peril.
You may not realise too that the second-hand market for trad bows in Auss is terrible verging on non-existant. I have got some good bows I just can't sell. Bows that would be snapped up in the good old USA, but not over here. We have a very small archery fraternity in Auss - and 90% of them are wheelies. You can image the small niche market that one would be trying to flog a used ACX to. Too risky for such an expensive item.
Thanks so much for all the great advice. I can close the ACX chapter.
Cheers - Sutto