I recently had the opportunity to pick up an older Hill that is most interesting. It has "Falcon" on the lower limb. This could be a model, or a name specified by the person ordering it. I contacted Craig Ekin and he could not tell me anything, because the bow has no model initial, bowyer initial or serial number. He said that sometimes the person ordering specifies no markings, or it could have been refinished outside of the Hill shop. It certainly doesn't look like it was refinished... except that the lacing doesn't look as perfect as usually comes from the shop. One thought I had was that someone may have gotten a bow with a grip too deep and just worked on that and refinished only the grip area. Who knows for sure.

In any event, the bow is similar to, but not the same as some of the lesser known non-bamboo models still offered. It has a hickory back and two lams of red cedar. I was told the riser was shedua, but on receiving it it is obviously walnut. This leads me to think that Craig might have made it... he likes walnut and often uses it when no other wood is specified. Anyway, this bow is all native woods, no bamboo, and in that is like the "Crocodile", "Rhino", "Bighorn Sheep" and "Wasp". The Hickory back on the Falcon is very light and I thought it might be a Wasp with a honey locust back, but the seller was very specific as to the woods.

The bow is 68" and, per the seller, is 60# @ 28". I'm trying to get more info from him now that I have the bow and can frame more specific questions. It pulls right at 51# for me at 25", and seems to retain quite a bit of snap, even with that degree of underdraw. In any event is it one sweet shooter. This bow and my yew Redman make me wonder whether the consistent preference for bamboo in bows is as much of a cult thing as it is a real factor. These two bows are darn nice!

So, OK, you want picures... here they are: