I have Miller Old Tom string follow 55#@26. I keep hearing that string follow bows are dogs and a gimic. What if anything would be gained if it were a straight limb bow instead

Mine not a dog it named "Shadow." From Howard Hill Archery its a Tembo. Its 66" 45@26 and uses 45-50 Douglas Fir shafts from Sherwood 125fp 26 3/4 length to BOP. They weight 485gr and figures out to 10.85 GPI. When I shoot I still can't catch the arrow when I run after it. In all serious my reason for buying the string follow is because of my arthritis in my drawing hand. To me it is smoother drawing and gives me the roll of my shooting fingers when I shoot. I also have no pain in my elbow from the back set bows or hand shock. As with all D type longbow I like watching the arrow. In just figuring with the Hill advertised formula 115 plus bow weight 160fps. My recurves were only 170fps. I have not used a chronicle machine to see how fast its pushing an arrow. I do know this that I'm hitting where I'm looking now with a lot more consistently than with my recurves. For me this is a good fit.

Steve Turay says the difference between his regular Classic and string follow Shelton is about 3-5 feet per second.  I would imagine it may vary some from one maker to the next.  Howard Hill bows don't have as much string follow in the limbs as Northern Mist has.

Since I have owned a couple of Hill SF bows and the NM as well and also their respective straight or backset bows, I can say that I personally don't see that big a deal with the SF design.  It's pleasant to shoot but I like the regulars just as well.

Here is the Hill Big Five string follow on the right and the NM Shelton on the left.  You can see the difference in degree of deflex in the limbs.

I think theres very little difference between a stringfollow and a straight limbed bow. The stringfollow may feel slightly smoother to draw, maybe a tiny bit slower, but not much. I like them both.

Just send that old dog my way...  I'll take good care of her  

I just built a double carbon Frontier 66 in string follow. Its a dog. I think they call them greyhounds. Grin.
The string follow can be considerably picked up in speed and still retain the great attributes of a string follow bow. Carbon helps but so does riser length and limb design .
God bless, Steve

Based on the bows I own, you may gain 2-3 fps by moving from the string follow to a slight reflex limb. My bamboo limb Classic is 2 fps faster than my bamboo limb Shelton and 3 fps faster than my elm limb Shelton at the same gpp of course. The bamboo limb Whisper reverse handle (same limb design as classic) is 4 fps slower than he classic. So both Sheltons are faster than the Whisper. My bamboo limb  Hill is the same as my elm limb Shelton. So there is 5 bows that are within 4fps of each other. You probably can not shoot consistently enough to notice the difference. What I can notice is that the Sheltons are easier to start the draw and feel smoother and  are softer and more quiet at the shot.

This guy didn't notice any difference; HH Wesley, string follow.

4fps isn't anything at hunting ranges. And that 8pt buck never would have noticed the differance Nice Buck!

Steve,
How fast do you figure your EagleWing double carbon Frontier 66" string follow shoots?

I'll bet it's quiet, smooth, and FAST.

QuoteOriginally posted by Sixby:
I just built a double carbon Frontier 66 in string follow. Its a dog.  

Now Steve who would want a double carbon string follow     a bow that's easy to shoot, easy to string, light, quiet, has no handshock ,is forgiving and will keep up with mild
R/D bows.   Sounds like a good hunting bow to me

The irony of string follow bows is that bowyers who make selfbows try like heck to avoid any string follow yet some laminated builders actively build them that way    

Which is better is the personal preference of each individual shooter.

Moots: How fast do you figure your EagleWing double carbon Frontier 66" string follow shoots?

Enough      
I honestly do not have a clue. but its faster than the single carbon.

It cut the stack from 350/. to .300 for 65 lbs and that is a true 66 in bow/ Its also a forward riser on top of being a string follow. So theoretically it has everything going against it.

However it gains in shootability and lack of thump or vibration associated with most D bows. So I made up for the loss of speed with a unique limb design and the addition of carbon.

In this case the double carbon is by request. I honestly thought it would not add much. Buttttt It added a lot. The .300 stack for a true 66 in longbow is just unbelieveable to me/ I expected to hit about 50 lbs with it and thought that was pushing it.

In contrast my first Frontier with single carbon had a stack of exactly .300 and it was 37 lb. This adds .020 carbon and gains 30 lb of draw weight. That is kind of mind boggling to me./To me it means the efficiency of the bow went way way up.

Tell you what, I am seriously falling in love with these string follow bows.

God bless you all, Steve

The irony of string follow bows is that bowyers who make selfbows try like heck to avoid any string follow

Not all of them.I have seen SF selfbows,that shoot better and faster than straight limbed self bows.Its all in the limb mass.