Just received my new Vixen longnow from James Berry. Wow, what a bow! Of course anyone that knows James already knows what a craftsman he is. This bow is more than I expected. Bubinga (sp) with bamboo limbs under zebrawood laminated. The bow is superbly balanced and the grip just fits my hand perfectly. 51# @ 27.5".... I draw 27 and shoot 29 inch arrows. This bow absolutely fits me, my hand perfectly.
Didn't have any arrows made up for this bow yet but I couldn't wait so I strung her up grabbed a handful of bare shafts and started shooting.
This bow just shoots an arrow where I look. Shot it about 40 times to set the fast flight stretch, unstrung it and set the brace height to 6 3/4 inches and nock at 1/2 and started tuning. Noch high...moved bock down... continued until I was getting great flight... checked the nock it wound up at 1/4 inch so my shaft is almost parallel! I usually have to have it at 3/8''. Then I started experimenting with bare arrows shaft started with 35/55 gold tips and they flew great just a little weak with the FOC I want to shoot. Grabbed some 55/75 and bareshafted them.... perfect. Then I grabbed some old 55/75 golf tip arrows Fletcher with three 5'' feathers that I normally shoot out of my 70 pound recurves.... perfect! THEN I DECIDED TO GRAB SOME 2018 ALUMINUM AND SOME HEAVY ASH 70/75 SHAFTS.... ALL FLEW GREAT. It took me about 5 minutes to get the bow zipping arrows perfectly and exactly where I am looking..... tuning was easy.
This bow stores a lot of energy and likes heavy spine. Anyways I started shooting at 17 yards and was able to keep 80% of my shots in 3 inch groups! Now for me that is just awesome. Then I got a little confident and set up a dime... first shot 17 yards dead centered it!
Over the years I have shot a lot of bows but I have never had one shoot such a variety of spines and point weight this good. The bow is dead quiet and no vibration... and I haven't even put any string silencers on it.
Anyone looking for a very well made hunting weapon should give the J.D. Berry Vixen a hard look.... yes you can spend a lot more and opt for some carbon laminated wonder bow.... but I doubt you'd find one any easier to tune and certainly no better at placing a hunting weight arrow exactly where it needs to be
I am extremely well please.... great bow!
Will post pics soon.
AWESOME! JD makes a great bow, I know a few guys who are real fans of the Vixen and Misty Dawn. My Vixen is a nice shooting bow as well. I am sure you can agree JD is a hell of a guy and really knows his stuff.
You are correct, the bow is dead in the hand ... and real quiet as well.
Good on ya man, you have a great bow!
:archer:
Bob.
Well said sir. Cant say enough good about mine. One could easily pay more for less. James like has been said is a great guy and really knows his stuff. Not many out there been buildin bows as long as james. And time to me , means experience.
Great job on the Vixen. I absolutely love my Vixen and Misty Dawn. But the Vixen is my Go-to bow and when I decide to shoot its the Vixen that goes out the door. Dead in the hand, throws a good arrow, quiet and beautiful. What more could you ask for.
Yep i really like my Vixen. I'm shooting gols tip 35/55 with it. it shoots those very well.
Congrats!
I'm really enjoying my Misty Dawn. I'd like to try a Vixen, but first I'd like to get a Hill Style TD. Maybe if I can make Comptons this year, someone will have a Vixen there that I can try on for size.
MikeNova, how heavy and how long is your Vixen? I have one coming (52@28) and I am hoping that I can shoot the GT 3555's through it. DaveT1963, from what you are saying, it should shoot them fine... sounds like a wide window of arrow spines may work. Hope so. I cannot wait for my Vixen to be finished!
JW
I wound up shooing mine some more yesterday with 33/55s cut down to 29 inches with 200 grain field tips - bareshafted perfectly - waiting to get my 3 Rivers order so I can put some arrows together and start testing broadheads with field points (that is how I pefer to tune anyways)
How do you attach pics here?
Dave you first need to load them to photobucket at large size (640) then copy and paste the Img link to the reply box. Or email me the pics and I'll do it for you
(//%5BIMG%5Dhttp://i1164.photobucket.com/albums/q561/elk77/100_1047.jpg)[/IMG]
I seen your comment Brian and I also always had trouble down loading a photo onto TradGang. So I tried it here and nope. Oh well. Happy shooting Dave
I don't have access to photobucket
Just email them to brianlocal3@yahoo.com and I'll post them tonight after work
OK - I will try to get some better ones tonight as well - thanks Brian!
I just got them (on iPhone) I'll upload to MAC after work and post them.
(http://i1166.photobucket.com/albums/q618/brianlocal3/file_zps0ed8517e.jpg)
(http://i1166.photobucket.com/albums/q618/brianlocal3/file_zps85ed9d97.jpg)
(http://i1166.photobucket.com/albums/q618/brianlocal3/file_zps83f3c792.jpg)
(http://i1166.photobucket.com/albums/q618/brianlocal3/file_zps73c9c350.jpg)
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Wow, beautiful bow!
Bob.
That is one sweet bow! Glad to see the pics.
As for arrows... sounds a Vixen at 52# will throw the 3555's just fine. My Argos is on the money with a GT Trad 3555 29.5" shaft with a 175 grain point. Thanks for posting!
JW
I really love the color contrast in the bow
Great looking bow.
Awesome. Glad u got the pics up. Thanks. Good lookin bow. Think im gonna do some roving with mine after i get done with the milkin tommorow.
Great looking bow!! Congrats!!
Very nice looking bow! :thumbsup:
:bigsmyl:
That is a sweet lookin bow. Could we get a strung profile photo? Love the looks of his longbows!
Dave did not have access to posting pics up so he sent them to me. I did not get a braced pic from him. Here is a couple from my vixen. Sorry for the bad pics
(http://i1166.photobucket.com/albums/q618/brianlocal3/file-61.jpg)
(http://i1166.photobucket.com/albums/q618/brianlocal3/file-45.jpg)