Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Bowhunting Martin Hunter

Was traveling for work and stopped in an archery shop that specializes in traditional gear. I have always told myself that I would shoot the next bow I purchase vs ordering but its tough to find a place that carries a lot of recurves; so I relished the opportunity. I shot a ton of bows (bear and a bunch of Martins); came down to either a 55 or 45 Hunter. The 55 was a sweet bow, smooth, well put together. Just too much weight, went with the 45#. It is very smooth drawing, no stacking whatsoever. Some hand shock after the shot, but increasing the BH a bit helped with that, seems to get better the more I shoot it. My 29" 150's tuned to my #50 grizzly are giving me a weak arrow reaction, so am going to try and tune the hunter to 400's with 50 gr added to the insert. Fired some full-length bare shafts and looks promising. I like simple lines on a recurve and a grizzly trips my trigger in the respect, but the 58" and my 28+ draw doesnt bode well. I really like this 62" hunter, think Ill grow to like the lines more 😀

Decent bows the Hunters.
Is yours new enough for FF?
Not a slouch if a B50 rig.

Had a couple.

Had a few Bear Grizzlies too, one was 56".

DH/Martin never gave me limb resonance like the Bears. Dampeners (like Bowtech wrap around or Sims mushroom) quiet the Bears down fine.
Kills the look though (IMHO).

Buddy got his first trad buck with a newer Hunter model, 42#. It was grey and brown lam, pretty thing.
The two I had were both 80's models. Kinda orange in color.

Yes the Hunter is strung with FF, where as the Grizz is B-50. I think this is why the 5 lb reduction in draw weight appears to be a wash.

I have a Hunter I bought in the 80s. Made my first bow kill with it. I have 3 recurves and it is the best one.

Grip is a biggie for me and the Hunters never felt right (to each his own).
Forget what my Superdiablo grip was, rosewood model........from 70's or sooner?
Have owned 30 recurves and shot those of my buds (also bow junkies). I quit wasting my time and $ and now stick to what work best for me.
Unfortunately, that's Black Widow.
Not gonna have a new one built til kid out of college.
Will run a used metal riser one til she graduates.

Had two Hunters, one 45#, the other 65#................that thing was a BEAST. I'd shoot it all afternoon, go inside and pass out LOL.
Made my 60# BW HS pretty comfy though.
Now 60# is too much. I'd consider 55# a heavy bow for me these days. Prefer to run 45-50#.

A 45# 62" recurve would be a dandy 3D rig...........and shooting that all summer, be a killer in the deer woods.

That's a good bow. When tuning carbons,start full length and tune by length. Don't cut a carbon to the length you want and try to tune by weight. They respond much faster by length than weight. It might take 100 grains to make up an inch.

Are you bareshaft tuning? Tell me your DL and tip weight you want to shoot and I'll give you a fairly good idea of deflection.

Started bare shaft tuning for a bit this evening before I ran out of light. Getting a serious nock high that hasnt ceased with the normal nock movement. I am going to try replacing the thin calf hair with a bear hair rest, seem to recall having this issue before and going to a diff rest allowed it to be tuned out with nock height adjustment.

Yea,if your shaft is bouncing off the riser you can get a false reading of nock high. Just cheap velcro cut to fit is some of the best longest lasting material you can buy for rests and strike plates. I like to use that thick double sided 3M tape under the velcro to create a pivot point. It's that tape that is spongy and a little more than 1/16" thick. Just stack a couple of pieces about 1/4" wide on top of each other under the velcro and it makes a little spongy bump under the velcro.

Another ussue is that you can only tune as well as you can shoot. Shooting bareshafts you need to shoot 10-20 shots and take the average before doing anything or you might be just chasing your tail. Any pluck on the string will cause nock high. Plus you shouldn't worry too much about nock high as long as it's not so bad as to keep the bareshaft from hitting the target.

If you get it good enough to group bareshafts with fletched arrows at 15-20 yards you have a pretty good tune. If you get good enough to group fletched arrows with bareshafts at 40 yards,you have perfected your tune and your form.

I cut my carbons a little long (not full length) and add point weight to get fletched arrows to make bullet holes.
Did try bare shaft after that once...........they flew fine.
GT35/55 for my lighter rigs, 55/75 for the heavier.
Have weights and inserts to dial 'em in.

While some folks go with extra long shafts and make them work..........I think that rather silly looking.
However, I'm sure some experiment with that stuff to get an arrow that works as a sight.
Overly long carbons was a thing some yrs back...........to the point of absurdity.

I don't give two hoots how long my arrows are or how they look. I'm concerned about how they shoot. Mostly I don't like adding a lot of point weight and having rainbow trajectories,so I approach from a different direction. I draw right at 30" so they aren't going to be absurdly long no matter what.

I may however be a bit anal about arrow tune but my bareshafts will group with fletched arrows at 40 yards.

Silly long was comical.
Eh fads come n go in archery. I don't subscribe to that stuff..............but indoors, man those guys sure do (entertaining at least to watch).

I don't play the extreme FOC game, and am not a 3D guy anymore, so am content to run medium weight arrows.
They shoot flat enough for me and blow through my deer. 15-21% FOC

Lucky you to have the 30" draw. I'm only a little over 28"

Yea,I always thought that extreme FOC stuff was silly and a way to make just about any arrow fly. I think it's sort of like launching a rock with a string attached when you add enough weight,but you are also loosing a flatter trajectory. I would rather rely on tuned arrows in spine and keep tip weight moderate.

For targets I shoot arrows as light as possible with my ILF bows. They will handle 5 gpp but I've never been able to spine anything correctly under around 6 gpp. For hunting I like the Carbon Express heritage arrows which are fairly heavy at 11 gpi and very durable,along with a very moderate 125 grn tip.

Didnt mess with the 400's, have some carbon express 150's flying well. Getting used to the bow, really like the draw cycle though mine likes a bit more brace height than suggested by martin. Their suggested maxes at 7 3/4, Im using 8 to 8 1/8. My season starts Oct 2 and ends the 4th, hoping to put a doe in the freezer.