Falco longbows

What makes Falco bows stand out?

Our aim is to make bows with the best price/quality  ratio on the market. All Falco longbows are hand-made in our workshop in Estonia. Everyone is welcome to come visit us at our workshop to see how we do it. Falco buys materials (wood, glass fiber, epoxy, etc.) in their original form  and composes these in-house to your bow of choice. Our production is led by the CEO Siim Talmar, who makes operations of every single Falco longbow with his own hand. 

Falco longbows feature a sleek design that is aesthetically balanced, while providing great utility to the customer. For example, we have put extra attention on making the grip comfortable and supportive of correct archery form. Our signature high wrist grip was developed and perfected over the years by Mati Vaikjärv - a former Soviet olympic recurve team member and several-time participant in Olympic games, who has coached many contemporary top archers. Falco bows further stand out by using the best of materials, probably the highest customization options in the whole industry and for having well-rounded corners all across the whole longbow - a level of attention to details most other bowmakers do not provide, and especially on bows of the same price range. 

Meanwhile, Falco longbows are also among the most successful competition bows in the world, winning at least 15-20 podium places at national and international championships every year. 

Which model to choose?

From the longbow catalogue section above you see that Falco has eight different longbow models. These can be divided into four main shooting purposes:

1) Competitive archery and hunting: Force Vintage, Trophy (Triumph) Vintage, Spirit. Bows in this section are built for speed, performance and endurance. Competition days are long and often require over 100 arrows per day. Our top models help you with ensuring that each of these arrows is shot perfectly. Triumph is a special standardized version of the Trophy manufactured exclusively to be sold by JVD. In their basic build, these bows are the same.

2) Hunting and horseback archery: Storm. The Storm is a short fierce bow which is capable of providing good power in tight spots. This bow is perfect when you really need to make a few arrows count (such as trick shooting, hunting, horseback). Its shortness allows for comfortable archery even in the tightest of places.

3) Recreational archery: Legend, Twin. The Legend and the Twin are perfect for the Sunday back-yard archer. They are suitable for the whole family while providing great endurance and fun. Perfect bows for those whoare taking their first steps in this wonderful world of archery. Nevertheless, even an experiences archer will not be disappointed. NB! Legend and Twin are NOT IFAA-accepted models as they have a slight recurve in the limbs when strung

4) Kids' archery: Robin. The Robin is a perfect bow for children. It is built light and comfortable even for kids at the age of 3-4. 

All four sections are completely hand-made by Falco craftsmen in our Pärnu workshop. Made with love and care, we recommend them all. However, it is wise to choose the bow that best fits your purpose. For example, if you are an adult, you have tried archery a few times and would now like to buy your first bow, the suggested choice would probably be The Legend.

What draw weight to choose?

If you are an experienced archer, you probably know the answer already. 

For beginners and recreational archers, the general rule is: the lighter the better. Some background before: as a standard, the draw weight of a bow is measured at 28" draw. Hence if you buy a 40 lbs (pounds) bow this means the bow would have a draw weight of 40 lbs if you had a draw length of 28".

The number one mistake when choosing your first bow is picking a too heavy one. This especially applies for adult men. Bear in mind that draw weights are very different from for example your dumbbell exercise weights. 20 kg in the gym does not sound like much but on a bow, it is really a lot. Choosing an overly heavy bow makes it very difficult for you to hold the bow at full draw for enough time to learn your perfect shooting stance, too heavy a bow also tires you a lot making your shots sloppy and taking the fun out of archery. As with any sport, the athlete must really control his/her equipment and not let the equipment control them. 

For adult males small to mid-build, a suitable bow to start with would be in the range of 30-37 lbs (13.5 - 16.7 kg).  For strong build, you may choose a slightly heavier bow (up to 40-45 lbs). For the especially tall people, remember that you draw some more weight out of each bow and therefore you can choose a slightly lighter bow.

For adult females, a suitable bow weight starts from 25 lbs (11 kg) and depends a lot on your build. However, women are generally shorter than men and thus draw less poundage out of a bow.

For children we make bows starting from 15 lbs (6.75 kg).

When you have a chance to try a bow out, know that in order to fully control the bow, you should be able to hold it at full draw for at least 7-8 seconds without starting to shake and/or feel extreme muscle fatigue. Therefore you should choose a bow that enables that.

 

What bow length to choose?

The most common length for a longbow is 68", which is also the standard length for our models Spirit, Legend, Trophy, Triumph and Force. Storm and Robin come in 54" which is a given. Myth is produced at a 61" length by default.

In customizing bow length, the general rule is: the taller you are, the longer your bow should be. This is because tall people normally also have longer arms and hence a longer full draw length. With the longer draw length, they bend the limbs more which makes the bow slightly more uncomfortable to shoot and somewhat more likely to break as well. 

Therefore if you are taller than 1.92 (6 ft 3"), you should switch from the standard 68" to 70" length. This does not necessarily apply for shorter people, although using a shorter bow gives you more speed on your arrows. Therefore you might consider going shorter.

As a general rule: longer bows have a smoother draw and are more forgiving to different mistakes in shooting. At the same time, longer bows provide slower arrow speed.

If unsure, always ask us what is the best length for you!

 

What draw length standard does Falco use?

Falco uses the AMO standard to measure draw length. For home-measuring, on most longbows, this corresponds quite closely to just measuring your length from the front end of the bow like this:

Is a string included in the bow price?

Yes, all Falco bows come with a string that is custom made for the particular bow.

 

Do left hand bows cost more?

No, all Falco models (except Twin) are available both in RH and LH and they both cost the same. Falco Twin (see picture) enables shooting for both handedness on the same bow.

 

Which exotic woods do you have?

Some of Falco models can be ordered with an exotic wood handle and laminations in the limbs. Exotic woods are available in these models: Myth, Force Vintage, Trophy (Triumph) Vintage, Storm, Robin. Exotic wood handles are usually made from two different types of wood - one as the main and the other as secondary (one inlay or two as accent).

 

Handle Design

Falco currently offers the following selected on exotic hardwoods for use in the handle:

Cocobolo (many different shades)

Zebrano

Curly Birch (max 45#)

Palisander

Padouk  (max 45#)

Wenge

Lacewood

Beech (max 45#)

American Walnut (max 45#)

   

   

 

All these woods can also be used to make stripes in the main handlewood as shown on the pictures. Additionally, stripes can also be made of ebony which is not available as the main handlewood.

Falco also offers the unique actionwood handle which is essentially layers of colored wood glued together. There are 13 different colors to choose from and these can be combined in any way you like. See example on picture:

The  performance of the bow is not influenced by your choice of exotic wood in the handle or in the limbs as lamination.

 

Limbs design

Falco also offers exotic wood laminations under clear glassfiber on the limbs to provide added esthetic value to your bow. See the full list of options featured in the galleries of models that have this option (i.e., Saga, Force, Storm II, Myth, Trophy and Storm)

 

Do you offer carbon in the limbs?

Yes, the following models support adding of carbon layers in the limbs for extra speed and performance: Myth, Force Vintage, Trophy (Triumph) Vintage, Spirit, Storm.

Each bow can have up to two layers of carbon in it. The default number for all models (except Force Vintage) is zero and each layer of carbon costs a little extra. Force Vintage already comes with one layer of carbon in it.

What is Diamond Carbon?

In 2014, we introduced the Diamond Carbon, which is a special layer of extra high density carbon that can be added as the front layer to the following models: Force Vintage, Trophy (Triumph) Vintage, Spirit, Storm. Compared to regular carbon, Diamond Carbon has an especially increased effect for arrow speed. Depending on the bow draw weight, adding a layer of Diamond Carbon can increase arrow speed as much as 5 - 7 fps. Diamond Carbon renders a dark front surface which slightly glitters in direct light.

Diamond Carbon is a material that we introduced to archery in 2014 ourselves. As such, this material is to our knowledge not used by any other bowmaker.

What is bamboo core?

In 2015, we introduced optional bamboo core on our Force, Trophy, Spirit or Storm models. Bamboo core means that the regular maple material (default) is replaced with bamboo. This improves the arrow speed of the bow because bamboo is lighter, but snappier. Put simply, the same poundage bow shoots faster with the bamboo core.