Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Bowhunting Decided to Switch Back to Traditional Bow Hunting this Year

I just order myself a New Long Bow . I used to hunt with a recurve but sold it after shooting my first compound. I could shoot the compound better, but wasn't that bad with the recurve . I decide i wanted to go the Longbow route this time. After the bow arrives next week i will start practicing and see how well i do after being so used to the compound. When i shot the recurve i shot 62 lb but i was young then so decided not to over bow myself. The 45 lb pull at 28 inch draw weight should be fine for Whitetail. The bow i ordered is the Samick SLB 69" Longbow, Draw Weight 45 lbs. Left Hand . I now will have to decide what arrow spine i will use . I have some PSE Carbon 300 and may use them. I use the PSE Carbon 200 in my Mathews at 60 lb and believe they may be to light or under spine for the Long Bow. Any suggestions on the proper arrow spine for this at 45 lb?

Hey!

Congrats, I started traditional about 12 years ago after about 20 years with a compound.

It is fun. Really fun.

Call Three Rivers Archery. They have a help line that I have used more than once and have always gotten good advise from. They will help you figure the correct spine even if you did not buy the arrows from them, I am sure. Great customer service - at least in my experience.

I may be wrong but I think in general longbows do better with weaker spine. My 60# Robertson Mystical longbow shot 2016's pretty well until I switched to woodies.

I will bare shaft shoot the 300 and see how well they do.

The 300 may be a little stiff, depending on how "clean" your release is.

Yesterday I was shooting 250's from my 50# @28 recurve. Off the shelf, split finger and a carpet rest on the shelf.

The 250's actually were flying better than my normal Easton XX75-2216's.

I also have the PSE 200 and will try them.

For safety of the bow the arrows need to weigh 8 grains or more per lb of draw weight,at your draw.I shoot Carbon Express Heritage.

Good luck with your longbow.Have you shot many longbows? Longer limbed straight limb bows tend to have more hand shock for thoes who are sensitive to it.Probably won't be bad anyway with a 45 lb bow.

I have some joint issues and can't shoot the bows with more hand shock.I know the arguement about proper technique but nothing seems to help with some bows.I shoot a Widow PL and enjoy it about as much as my recurves.

my first longbow and the Carbon 300 weight is 8.8 per inch

You should be good on weight.A 30" bare shaft would weigh 264 grains.Then add a 125 grn tip and maby 30 grains for feathers and nock and divide by 45 lbs,puts you about 9 grains per lb.Should be fine unless you have a very long draw.A bow should gain about 3 lbs per inch over 28.I went through the calculations to make sure we were on the same page.

If the bow seems shocky,a heavier arrow and possible a brace height change can help.

The IBO Traditional world Championship is at Clarksville TN in August I believe.Lots of vendors and stuff even if you aren't competing.I had a shoulder injury and won't be going this year.

I had to drop down to 150's in CE Heritages plus shoot with 200 grns up front to make them work. But, my drawlength is slightly under 28". This is with my 53# pronghorn. I can use the same arrow in my 51# Shrew- both longbows.

I shoot 28 to 29 inch draw and should be fine with the 300 Carbons and will fletch with 4 inch Feather

One thing I want to say to any new trad shooter is to not cut shafts at all untill you test them.You will have to add a lot of tip weight to make up even one inch of length concerning spine.It is much more important to have properly spined arrows than arrows one inch longer than your draw length.

Some trad bows seem to be much more tollerent to spine than others and trad bows require proper spine much more so than compounds.Improper spined arrows will always shoot either left or right when good form is used.

8.8 gpi is good. I have several traditional bows. I find my release and making sure my brace height was right has had about as much to do with arrow flight than spine though.

However, there is an excel spreadsheet that I like for calculating spine required with weighting adjustments for different tips and shaft weights and the whole shabang. It's only as good as your release though. And, you have to do some figuring to find the center cut on your bow that you are using. But all-in-all, it's pretty neat. If you are interested in it, it's available through the TradGang forum. If you want it and can't find it there, send me a pm.

I aim simply by looking at my target,however my arrow tip is always in line with my target when I use good form.With properly spined arrows,good form and release,I will never miss a target left or right.I may miss judge my distance and shoot low or high though. With an improperly spined arrow,I will always shoot left or right.

Being able to tune your bow and test your arrow spine will depend a lot on how tight a group you can shoot.It's sort of like sighting in a rifle.If you can't shoot a group you can't tune anything to move that group.

I will work with different nocking points and will start with the nock 1/2 inch above center. I shoot 85 gr Thunderheads in my Mathew Compound but will change to a two blade 125 gr head probably The Magnus Stinger with the Long Bow.

The 125 Stingers fly very good for me.Probably better than any of about 6-7 different heads I have tried.

That sounds encouraging.

One thing I can tell you is that the length of a head matters.A longer head tends to require a slightly stiffer spine.The 125 Magnus Stingers shot well for me from arrows that shot well with a 125 field tip.Some longer 125 heads might require an arrow that shoots well with 150-160 grain tip.

Again all this is splitting hairs and won't matter as much untill you get to where you have to shoot at 6 different 2" dots to keep from destroying arrows.

I will post how they do, the bow may be here this week or the first of next week don't really no. It won't be easy going back to a stick bow after all the years of compound shooting. Hope i can make the change and take a deer this year the old fashion way .

PM me if I can help in any way.I'll give you a phone #.I only peck type.