Newsletter ILF 23 Feb 17

Website:	www.quicksarchery.co.uk
Email:	quicks@quicksarchery.co.uk
Telephone:	02392 254114
Fax:	02392 251519

Recurve Limbs & Handles with the ILF Fitting

Some Backgound to help with Limb & Handle Selection

What is the ILF fitting and what does it do.

Many bows are made in a take apart design, and Bow Limbs use a fitting to attach them to Bow Handles. The International Limb Fitting or ILF was first designed and producted by Hoyt USA in the mid 1980's as their own limb fitting. Before this time the many different manufacturers all had different limb fittings and they were not interchangable. Some manufacturers had different limb fittings for every model of bow.

Today Hoyt call this fitting on their bows the 'Grand Prix' fitting. Over time Hoyt have refined the Grand Prix design in the light of experience to give a very high quality of bow with added fine adjustment to allow for fine tuning of limb fit and alignment.

Eventually other bow makers replicated the Hoyt fitting on their Limbs and Handles and it became known as the ILF Fitting. Today there is a wide range of makers producing bows with the ILF fitting.

This has meant that now there is a way to choose from a range of limb and handle makes to build up your ideal choice of bow in different colours, styles, materials and price points. In addition the ILF provides a good upgrade path from quality entry level bows to the top line limbs used in the Olympic Games. On the way to having a common fitting the cost of a quality entry level bow has become much more affordable for those buying their first set of equipment.

There are drawbacks however which are best kept in mind. The fact that each manufacturer replicates the design of the ILF has meant that there are slightly different dimensions and tolerances between manufacturers. So if you mix and match munfacturers take care to check the fit of limb to handle. Not all handles will easily take all makes of limb. If you encounter this sort of difficulty, it can usually be more or less easily overcome. As a matter of course we always try to check the fit and alignment of limbs and handles before bows leave our premises.

Limbs and Handles come in a wide array of types and prices, here is a brief guide to current models:

- Entry Level Bows
- Mid Price Bows
-Top Performance Bows