Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Bowhunting recurve bows

Jeffery Archery builds light recurves and longbows, takedowns, custom bows of all types.
Owen Jeffery worked for several of the greats, and designed many of the great Bear bows.

Son Tom is also a champion archer and their shop is a hangout and mecca for bowhunters.

www.jefferyarchery.com/

thanks for the re[lys looks like i have a few to check out

I bought a Martin Hatfield #55 a few years back and it has always been good to me. I love shooting it with some 500+ grain arrows.

A good way to try some bows out is to go to a Traditional Archery rendevous. Most shoots have lots of vendors and bow makers there that will let you shoot their bows and give you advice on what you may looking for. Pick up a copy of Traditional Bowhunter magazine, lots of info there. Your upstate NY as I am in NY too, Denton Hill PA archery rendevous last part of July gets alot of folks from the NE. Look over the yard sales, etc. in the spring and also ask around. Lots of folks have a stick bow around they don't want anymore for various reasons. I did last spring and my neighbor GAVE me an original Howatt recurve basically unused that he said he couldn't shoot anymore. Good luck!

Anyone of the following would be superb.
Blactail Elite VL, Morrison Cheyenne or ILF, Robertson Stykbow, Schafer Silvertip.
Very expensive and you can have a considerable wait to get one, but darn well worth it!

-Mike-

That is good advice catsranger.

At the rendevous, a guy could look the long bows over, too...;

I'm shooting a Wes Wallace "Mentor" Takedown built with a Cocobolo riser. It really is a finely crafted piece of work. On a side note, I just about died when I looked at the prices on his website. I couldn't even buy a set of limbs at the current price for what I paid for the complete bow about 14 years ago.

http://www.weswallacebows.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=recurves.mentor

Wow...

Who was that guy who said something like "any old stick will make a bow, its the arrow"...

"Witchery of Archery" maybe, don't remember.

A friend and I glued up some bows that shot pretty well and some were pretty fast relative to their kind. Mine kinda looked like a dowel with a finish...

Were I just starting to shoot sticks, would buy a moderately priced bow and save the bigger bucks for a later expenditure along the learning curve.

I should've added that I bought that bow off the original owner....I didn't have it built for me.

Tom, do you go to the Traditional Bowhunters Expo in Kalamazoo? I usually make the drive with my brother but don't know if we'll make it this year.

At the show last year I shot a bunch of bows (there were something like 100 bowyers on site) and the one that stood out in my hands that I shot very well was a "Super Shrew Little Favorite" from Ron Laclair. I would really like to save my pennies and pick one up.....but it's been hard to save any pennies lately. LOL.

I haven't gone to anything for years. Used to be focus #1 and I'd shoot instinctive year round to stay up with it....now am a lazy ass and shoot rifle for fun.

The only bow that I have left (besides the trash we made) is a rawhide backed Yew longbow. I don't remember who built it but it is a beautiful thing to look at and to shoot. Whoever it was, returned some of the money I paid for it. I aked him why, and he said it was because his advertised price was marked up to keep from making more bows than he wanted too.

I probably should go and take my son. When is it?

Tom, it's actually next weekend. Here's a link.

http://www.tradbow.com/public/mgcal.cfm?calID=1&caldate=1/30/2009

Yikes...they don't have them outside anymore?

Appreciate the info, Brad.

Your welcome Tom, and it's all indoors...even the range.

I have been shooting a Blackwidow for about 20years a few years ago I got a Trailsend by Dale Dye great bow, looks and performance. If you are close to Michigan the tradition archery get together is the last weekend in January at the Kalamazoo fair grounds. You will se alot of bows and makers

The Trad-Tech bows are coming on strong from Lancaster Archery. I have a friend, who shot in college with the owner of Lancaster Archery. He also got me into recurves. A lot of the ultra tradionalist have purchased the new Trad-Tech bows. I am still hanging on to an old Bear Bow and a Hummingbird by Ben Graham. I just love fancy custom wood. I have been to several traditional bow shoots and I have never seen such a friendly group of people.