Griffon GL Longbow Review

Griffon GL Longbow Review by Pete Ward
article copyright

History: For those not familiar with Border Archery, these fine bows come from Scotland with a long history in Bow making. Border Archery has been making quality bows in Scotland since 1940. During that time the Company has had various names.

These are:
Border Archery Ltd 1975 to date a direct descendant of:
Border Bows 1973-75
Kings of Kelso 1969-73
Royal Scots Bows 1963-69
Galloway Bows started 1940

As you can see Border Archery is not a new kid on the block. They have been in business for 67 years and are well known in the archery world both in Europe and North America. Today Border Archery is a modern company with 14 full time employees, and uses the latest in today’s technology to produce state of the art bows. Border Archery makes every effort to ensure that the exotic woods that they use are sourced from sustainable forestry practice.

Sid and Ann Ball are the owners of Border archery, and will gladly work with you to make sure your bow is exactly what you want.

Review: The Griffon GL longbow has been with me for many weeks now and I feel I am at the point where I can write this review. This bow has a few more features than the standard Griffon. It has the new GL option, which is a double carbon limb with wood veneers and replaces the old model Griffon and Black Griffon. This bow has Indonesian Rosewood veneers and matching riser.

The core is Black Walnut between Bamboos. This bow is one of the nicest bows I have had the pleasure to shoot. Its lightweight is a delight to carry. It is not cut past center, making it a legal bow for true longbow shoots like N.A.L.S., the North American Longbow Safari, an event I will be shooting the Griffon at this year. If you attend this or any other 3D shoots this year and see me, just ask and you can take it for a test drive.

The workmanship on the Griffon is flawless. Every glue line is perfect, and you cannot find a mark anywhere. The finish is perfectly applied like it was on fine furniture. The standard grip is a lightly contoured low wrist style with a matching fine leather wrap that is cut away on the backside to show more of the riser. This is a bow with simple lines that are wonderful to look at and to hold.

Being a 66″ bow it was a different feeling for me to get used to and the low grip also was different, and I like it. The long 66″ bow has a very nice draw with lots of early weight, something that is always a sign of good performance. The length is also a bit of an advantage for shooting accuracy, and the Griffon GL is certainly an easy and accurate bow to shoot. I had very little difficulty in finding an arrow to shoot very well from it. I have found that most longbows shoot best for me with a brace of 7 1/4″, but the GL is doing a very good job at 6 ” to 6 1/2″ brace height. For me this means I can take all of its performance and don’t have to sacrifice any to extra brace height.

Shooting light arrows of 8GR/pound it is very fast and has only a hint of what could be perceived as shock. With heavy arrows of 10 gr/pound or more the shock, if that is what it is, has gone and there are no vibrations at all. I don’t really even like to use the word shock as it is so minor it is not really noticeable to most shooters or myself. It is better said that the bow is shock free and it has a very slight feel when you shoot it.

Pages: 1 2