Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Bowhunting Longbow or Recurve? opinions please

The corner of your mouth is not some arbitrary anchor point. This actor has been in use for many many years in both traditional archery and Compound archery with Finger shooters.

Outside of people trying to convert you to a recurve there has been a lot of good information given to you. You know the saying? You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make a Jack_ss drink!

No bow has zero stack so don't buy into that line of crap. Some bows (limbs) stack more than others. Some stack smoother than others. But all have stack. You can't change physics.

As far as spending money that is something you have to figure out where you are at. I can tell you that a Toelke is worth every penny.

Well I've pretty much come to the thinking that if I continue down this path, the smart way to go would be a custom made bow, with considerations given to my geometry. I did visit Toelke's website. Nice looking bows for sure, and no doubt they perform well.

That does leave the decision to how much am I willing to spend.

First thing though, I need to see what kind of resolution I can get from 3Rivers or Bear.

Marine,

Even though I'm in the business I regularly suggest that folks just starting out buy a good quality used bow instead of one of our new ones. After any new bow is "driven off the lot" it's worth less. Lots of people buy and sell used bows all the time. Several places for you to check but *bay might not be the best place. Maybe TradGang? In any event, you can often find a high-quality bow for half price. Might be worth a consideration.

That's a good idea. Being a lefty, and tall, that kind of narrows things down, but still worth looking around.

Just checked and Tradgang has a classified section strictly for LH bows. I'm sure there are other sites and places to check but not a bad place to start. Also, Big Jim is a TG sponsor and he sells LOTS of used bows. Here's a link to his used bow section: https://bigjimsbowcompany.com/product-category/bows/used-bows/

Thanks!

Used bows....

I've bought some from:

Recycled Recurves (Lonnie- his info on Bowsite's "Leatherwall")
The Footed Shaft
Tradtalk forums "classifieds".

Lots of stuff listed at the following:

Big Jims
RMS gear

Haven't bought from them yet, but I keep lookin' LOL

I spoke with 3Rivers yesterday. They didn't hesitate to say they will give me a refund on that bow.

They want me to ship the bow back to them, and they will send it to Bear for examination.

take the money and run ! get a new Black Widow custom made bow that fits you. my son had one of those new bear bows too we got rid of that bow too.good luck

What you need to do is find some trad events so you can try some bows if at all possible. When I started,the kind of bow I thought I wanted was way different from what I wound up with.

I started trad w a 45# Ben Pearson Hunter 2. Nice little bow but pretty slow. Got a rosewood DH Superdiablo 46# next. Stunning looks....hated the grip. Hoyt Huntmaster takedown .....shot well for a cheap import....55#. limb tip overlay problem. Said screw it and ordered a Blackwidow MA 2. $475 bucks back in 87. 62".....62# and all inserts. Shot it a few yrs and went a little shorter and lighter. Don't care for inserts in my risers and like 58" bows best.......what i ended up preferring. Had other bows.....maybe thirty or so. 38 to 65#. 56" to 69". Lots of fun experimenting/testing..........but for me i think im done. My fave bow so far is the old metal riser Blackwidow HS. Shame they dont maKe limbs for em anymore.

2nd'd

Good luck finding a worth less Toelke. Compound market yes you can find steals. Recurve and Long Bow market for the run of the mill yes. Top end stuff from guys like Toelke very very rare, you are going to pay!

You should call Dan, maybe even see if you can take a ride out to see him. I have heard he will give you some great pointers which never hurts! His bows are magic, I have shoot a lot of bows and I can tell you his are second to none. Even if you don't buy from him, at least you will have a Benchmark to compare to.

crazy things can happen with compounds too. i was hunting from a tree once and came to full draw, because it was super cold and i wanted to confirm i could still draw the bow in the cold. i slowly started letting off on the bow, when unbeknown to me a twig from the cedar tree walked the string off the cam. the bow exploded in my hands. that ended the hunt and i was off to the bowshop, amazingly enough, there was no permanent damage to the bow from the sudden release of all that stored energy. still, that experience helped hasten me along to my recurve. I really like the KISS principle when it comes to bows.

Shane,

Sorry to hear about that blow up. That sucks.

I can highly recommend Sarrel's Archery. They make recurves, take-down recurves and longbows.

I was lucky enough to go to their shop and shoot several of their bows. They're works of art and smooth as glass.

Whatever you get, good luck.

God Damn man!!!

She came apart at full draw. I can see where a guy could develop a flinch if that was a regular thing.....grin.

3Rivers sent me a UPS label to send the bow back to Bear for examination, so it's in transit now. 3Rivers also said they will refund the bow. Still waiting on that.

I'm going to roll that money into a custom Toelke. Their bows look to be highly regarded in craftsmanship and performance, and they are truly stunning to look at. I'm leaning toward a 64 Super Static recurve, or a 66" Whip. 40-45 draw weight.

Good deal. I’ve seen compounds blow up, never a stick bow, scary shiit especially if a broadhead is involved.

That accident could have been much much worse. You have a guardian angel