When I first started building bows, I knew I wanted to build one for my friend Tom Ireland. Tom and I got acquainted through the Howard Hill Longbowmen email list. A couple of years ago, Tom said he was going to Bob Wesley's "Whisperin' Winds Shooting School" to learn Howard Hill's shooting technique as taught by Bob, who learned directly from Howard. Being a brash individual, I asked if he'd mind company. I'd wanted to go, but it's a bigger trip from Seattle than from Baltimore, and I needed the kick of someone else going to get me in gear. Even though we'd actually never met, Tom took a chance and said, "Sure, come along." I flew to Washington D.C., on what really was the flight from Hell. I was in transit all day and half that night, on several planes as they variously broke down and /or were late. Poor Tom spent the day in the Washinton airport waiting for me. I didn't get in till 11 o'clock that night... more than 12 hours late! After all that we had to drive to his house near Baltimore. Believe it or not, our troubles weren't over. On the way to his house, at about 2 a.m., the freeway was stopped for a long time while a team of cranes jockeyed into position and lifted a section of a new concrete overpass into position. We finally did get to his place and got some sleep, before taking off to Bob's school in North Carolina the next morning.

After that rough beginning, we had a ball! Even though we'd never met, we found we got along like old school chums, and the entire experience, traveling together and learning from Bob, was wonderful. We haven't gotten together since, but have remained good "internet buddies".

I didn't want to build a bow for Tom right away, since it would be tacky to send something and say, "Here, but don't tell anyone I made it!" After I finished "Flapjack" I felt I was ready and decided that the next one, Bow 7, would be for him.

I wanted a longer bow, hoping for 66” but was willing to settle for 64”. However, I had a heck of a time getting a layup to come out as heavy as I thought would be suitable. Tom shoots 42 at 26 and thought I’d aim for 40. I didn’t make it… best I could do was 38# at 26” on a 62” bow. Given that I use a bit longer than normal riser and thus get proportionately shorter limbs, it looks, to me, a bit stubby. It also draws a bit stiffer than it otherwise would, front loading some of the weight. That structure does give it a bit of extra speed, though. Because of my short draw, i don't get good chrono speed readings from my bows on hand release, usually between 110 and 125 fps. "Road Trip" blew me away... five shot average of 142.8 fps, hand release from a 25" draw. That's as good as I get from some of the custom R/D bows I have. The construction on this one is taken from Howard Hill's own preferred building style for his personal bows... all lams full working in front of the riser, only the glass going up the fades and no wedges or overlays to add weight weight to the tips.

The layup on this one is .040 glass, .130 osage, .050 bamboo, .120 osage and .040 glass. The riser is paduak. As a Hill style, I’m sure you’d expect it to have a shelf, and I did give that thought. However, more of my OPA bows than not have been no-shelf models… what I call the “Classic”, i.e. no-shelf, shoot off the fist type bows, like my own first bow in my teens and like the original Project X bow that Craig Ekin at Hill Archery built for me. I happen to like shooting that style, and Tom and I have talked in the past about how it is an option for lefties, since the two sides are symetical. (Note: Tom is left handed.) I shot this bow that way, right handed since I can't shoot leftie, and it shot great, so I decided to go that way.

Overall, this is the best I've done yet. It's a good looking bow and shoots well. I named it after our trip together.