Thoughts on the Covert Hunter....
First off, the thing is beautiful. Great craftsmanship. Real art.
Particular customizations. Lots of custom bowyers around, most of them make really good bows. I've bought 3 custom Predator recurves, and I think they're all pretty solid conventional designs, with pretty good performance considering standard limb profile. My 70# recurve hurls a 560 grain arrow at 198 fps with a 18 strand Fast Flight Plus Flemish Twist string. My 54# 'Velocity' riser throws a 432 grain arrow at 200-201 fps with a 20 strand 8190. My 59# recurve, throwing 600 grain wooden arrows is one of the quietest things I've ever heard. Custom? I got to select the woods in the riser laminations, and I got to ask for a very specific draw weight. With my velocity riser, between JB weld, nuts, bolts, washers, and a purple erasers, a Dremel tool, and spray paint, I was able to get the bow to be mostly what I wanted. I did have the option to get limbs with a carbon foam core, which Ron Pittsley actually suggested I forget, since as he pointed out, there's still fiberglass sandwiching it, and in his opinion, it wasn't worth it. I've got to say, I love to hear honesty like that. They come standard with bow quiver mounts, and you can also get ATA sight inserts and stabilizer bushings. This level of customization is pretty standard for most bowers. Some will allow you to specify 3 under or split finger tiller, (which is kind of interesting since they don't tiller the bow specific to how you position your bow hand, which would, I would think, similarly affect tiller/nock point adjustments). Some will also offer high, low, or medium grip, which is nice too.
Border Archery gave me a whole lot more options...
First off, the thing is beautiful. Great craftsmanship. Real art.
Particular customizations. Lots of custom bowyers around, most of them make really good bows. I've bought 3 custom Predator recurves, and I think they're all pretty solid conventional designs, with pretty good performance considering standard limb profile. My 70# recurve hurls a 560 grain arrow at 198 fps with a 18 strand Fast Flight Plus Flemish Twist string. My 54# 'Velocity' riser throws a 432 grain arrow at 200-201 fps with a 20 strand 8190. My 59# recurve, throwing 600 grain wooden arrows is one of the quietest things I've ever heard. Custom? I got to select the woods in the riser laminations, and I got to ask for a very specific draw weight. With my velocity riser, between JB weld, nuts, bolts, washers, and a purple erasers, a Dremel tool, and spray paint, I was able to get the bow to be mostly what I wanted. I did have the option to get limbs with a carbon foam core, which Ron Pittsley actually suggested I forget, since as he pointed out, there's still fiberglass sandwiching it, and in his opinion, it wasn't worth it. I've got to say, I love to hear honesty like that. They come standard with bow quiver mounts, and you can also get ATA sight inserts and stabilizer bushings. This level of customization is pretty standard for most bowers. Some will allow you to specify 3 under or split finger tiller, (which is kind of interesting since they don't tiller the bow specific to how you position your bow hand, which would, I would think, similarly affect tiller/nock point adjustments). Some will also offer high, low, or medium grip, which is nice too.
Border Archery gave me a whole lot more options...
- I went with HyperFlex composite core limbs over the standard wood, just because. The bow was expensive enough stock that I figured, why save a little to leave me wondering.
- I got to choose my woods (though one of them had to be shedua, which I understand, as it means they can get you exactly the limb weight you want by selecting from their stock in limbs, and ensure that it matches not only your bow, but anybody else's). I can't say I prefer the limitation, as it means that I only got to choose one of my wood laminations, (the other a dark Indian Rosewood), and the highlight color, which I chose as red.
- Sight insert. While I don't use a dedicated sight mechanism, I like bow quivers that mount to ATA sight inserts. This is not an uncommon customization for any bower, but Border put it in exactly in the requested height relative to the shelf. Why? So it would match the sight window position of the Predator Velocity I had *******ized, and gotten used to. I gap via the sight window, since my point on distance with a 30.5" arrow is 60 yards and as such, the arrow tip itself is utterly useless as a reference under 50 yards or so. As such, I want my peripheral sight picture to be as consistent as possible, for shooting 'gapstinctively', or with a particular explicit gap. Less to remember, less to adjust, less to screw up
I could have just gotten used to whatever they arbitrarily decided to do, but it was nice to be able to choose.
- Stabilizer insert. Also, not unusual. With such a deflexed riser, which is supposedly more forgiving and therefore more accurate on the whole, the weight of the bow at rest wants to fall slightly back if sitting in a loose grip. As such, I plan on putting some kind of stab as a counter weight, as I'd prefer that the bow simply sit Interesting note. I tried shooting with a 12" bee stinger, with who knows how much weight up front. The arrangement put the center of balance towards the front of the shelf. You can hold it level with minimal effort, but the balance, in a loose hand, is just so ever forward. I figured I might want a little something in there for tuning, and this was available. I shot it once. It was horrible. Bow rolled forward something awful, though the shot, it seemed. I put in a small bolt with some washers instead, and it was fine, so I think there's hope for some degree of stab (I plan to make something that resembles a short bayonet (a true 'stab'), but this is not the bow to convert to a full on FITA rig On a positive note; in addition to seeming to work well with a minimal stab, for the sake of mass allocation and balance, and maybe vibration absorption and/or minor torque resistance, this bow shoots great just plain naked! I could probably achieve what I want in balance with a slightly forward bow quiver. Maybe it will come to that
- Plunger insert. The 5/16 past center cut shelf allows the use of a plunger button, as well as a wide degree of tuning options by building up a strike plate area. I asked for the plunger button insert, mounted to allow me to shoot off the shelf. I liked it lots with my Predator Velocity, and while I know it sounds a little weird, to forgo an elevated rest, but then use a plunger, but I like it. Easy to get an arrow onto a shelf, and keep it there. Easy to do fine tuning with a plunger. I may not, in the end, even use the plunger, based on how well it tunes with a simple strike plate near center shot with the Nemesis 500 shafts, but it's an option, and I'm glad to have it, the way I want it.
- Customized sight window . This was a big deal for me. With a relatively long point on at my preferred anchor, I resort to the position of the target within the sight window, one way or another, including relations to the point. I first clued in on this when I realized that with my Classic Predator bows, with their crescent shaped sight windows, that if I canted the bow so that the point was under the edge, at 20 yard, the arrow impacted almost exactly halfway between the point and corner of the sight window. At 30 yards, the arrow dropped another 6-8" or so. This was really useful. When I got my Velocity riser, that shape disappeared, and even shooting instinctively, my vertical spread opened up. There was a corner on the limb mount I could see, but the spread was too wide, too peripheral, and visually I got kind of lost. I threw some JB weld, after seeing Rick's work with limb pockets, molded in a crescent shape, this time smaller, only as big as I needed to see my arrow trajectory, and things got more familiar again, and far easier. I could gap using the top, the arrow tip, halfway between the two, one third from top, one third from bottom. I gave border the important specifications on dimensions, namely 5/16" cut past center, corner of sight window 2 1/2" high, and 3/16" before the center line of the bow, and included some pictures of what I had done myself. It came in a slightly different shape (which I actually like better), but with specifications were spot on. What is more, if I want it ground down a little more, for fine tuning, they said they'll do it for only the cost of shipping. Flippin' fantastic.
- Custom grip. I don't mean high/medium/low. I sent them a Hoyt High Ortho grip, which I really like the feel of, and they duplicated it as best they could given the dimension requirements of the material. (The Hoyt was made for an aluminum riser, and as such, could be made thinner). What I got is pretty much exactly what I wanted. I may end up doing a little grinding in the thumb rest position, and the top right above my index finger metacarpal, then take them up on their modification offer for refinishing, but it's pretty comfy as is, so I'm going to sit on it for now. I'm a little hesitate to mess with something that works as well as it does.
- 46# of draw weight. Why 46 instead of 45? Dunno. 4 is 2/3 of 6, both are even, the sum is even, half of that is 23, and 2x3 is 6, plus it's one more than 45. Just seemed like a better number
- Tungsten Carbide in the bow. I like a relatively heavy riser. I haven't weighed the finished bow yet, but it does have some heft without any weight added. I wouldn't call it really heavy. Part of that is because the limbs are so freaking light. This is good, from an efficiency and hand shock standpoint. The bow, as is, is heavy enough so that I can shoot it naked and it feels good, but not so heavy as so that I can't put a little more stuff on it, like a bow quiver, and a small stab, for weight distribution, without making it unwieldy. I like this option, a lot.
- Bolt Down limbs. I went with these for several reasons. First, because they were available, while the ILF versions are still in development. Second, because they get a little better performance. Third, because, while it is not a given, Sid said that they are potentially quieter. I don't have anything ILF to compare them to, but I will say that I really like how they implemented the bolt down limbs. These things are precise, but also easy to mount (you don't have to be really careful getting things seated), have a nice cushy gasket, between the limbs and the risers, just rock solid.
