New Recurve Bow Question, Possible Damage

Unless you heard a "crack!" sound, its fine. I have the same bow, and love it..I have tried several others, but my grizzly the "go to" bow.
Great snap and shoots pretty quiet for its speed.
Good first recurve choice.
 
I haven't seen any mention of the "Trad Gang" forum yet so I'll recommend it (www.tradgang.com). Just about any question you might have on bows (adjusting, maintaining, repairing, making) as well as arrows (length, weight, spine, etc.) and countless other traditional archery topics are discussed there. They also keep a current listing of upcoming trad shoots all over the country and follow them up with picture heavy reports from shooters that attended.
 
Shane Wink, gunknifenut, and tango alpha sierra, again, thanks for the advice and help. I have a heckuva lot to learn and I appreciate y'all being so willing. I am about to order some of the stuff I figure I'll need like brass nocks, nocking pliers, bow square and such, but the biggest mustery right now is arrows: length, weight, determining the weight, material, and such. Some of this I'll probably be able to glean from imnternet searches but it's great to have people here to talk with about it too. I love that bow and it's clear now that it hasn't been damaged. Heck, even when I'm not shooting it I just love to hold it and enjoy its aesthetics. Tango Alpha Sierra, the website you recommended looks great and I'll definitely spend a lot of time there. Shane, once I get everything I need, especially a supply of proper arrows, I may well send you that PM. Thanks again, everybody.
 
You dont need the pliers or brass nock sets. you can tie dental floss or a strand of serving up to be the nock. It is lighter and adjustable up or down by rotating it left or right. It very easy to tie as well. Go to the local proshop and ask for a 12" piece of braided serving material. They will prob just give it too you and if they dont have any or want seveal bucks for it just PM and I will mail you a piece. Here is a link for you to read on how to tie it. I put this nock on all my bows and those I mail out.

http://bowsite.com/bowsite/features/practical_bowhunter/tieone/index.html
 
Yeah, I was originally going to tie on and I bought some dental floss just for that purpose, but then I read something that made me think brass would be the way to go. Since posting this, however, I've read up on it considerably and found that the majority of shooters, at least traditional shooters, seem to prefer tied nock points. That's what I'll do, thanks for the link.
 
Landlocked, sounds like you and your son are having a great time. I too recently picked up recurve archery. Although not dedicated to traditional archery like tardgang, another for Archerytalk.com has a wealth of information including forums and other articles. Another source of info I have found helpful can be found in the archers reference by Murray Elliot.
 
I've shot a bare-bones recurve since the late '50's-early '60's (still have my NCAA medals somewhere). I've seldom given much thought to tweaking limbe during stringing by using the step-thru method. Yet I've never tweaked one. My old Bear and Pearson bows have spent a lot of time over the years standing on end in a corner of a room or closet. Usually unstrung, but not always. I use a "lightweight" bow, 35-45#. I've been accurate enough with them for my hunting and powerful enough to take down whitetail deer and hogs and of course small game. If I do my part in fletch and broadhead maintenance and placement. I do add brass nock points nowdays but can get proper allignment without them if I take my time. I do have new strings fitted and nock points done by a bow shop, when one can be found that knows how to work on something besides bows with training wheels. :D
 
I'd check those Bear and Pearson bows for limb twists. That can happen with standing them in a corner for a long time. Easily corrected with hot water and a gentle twist of the limb, but better to just not have to fix it in the first place. :)
 
FortyTwoBlades said:
I'd check those Bear and Pearson bows for limb twists. That can happen with standing them in a corner for a long time. Easily corrected with hot water and a gentle twist of the limb, but better to just not have to fix it in the first place. :)
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The Pearson had a slight twist when I bought it. I tisked and pointed it out to the lady in the pawn shop. I bought it for $15. A bowyer friend put the otherwise flawless classic in his padded vise, clamped a counterweight, heated it with a hairdryer and I picked it up the next day. Been good ever since. I know it can happen. As can cracks and delaminations. I've just never found it to be an insurmountable problem. Maybe because of the lessened stress of the lower poundage bows I use. I tried more complicated bows. Counterweights, flippers, sights. I couldn't use them. I still shoot off the shelf with no sights and hit more often than not.
 
I have a couple recurves that I had from years ago. One is a 45 lb Bear Grizzly and don't recall what the other was, but it is a 40lb of similar quality. These are from the 70's. I find them to be pretty cool, and was the source of a lot of fun then. But have little use for them now.
 
Hey, to some of you good folks here who took the time to help deliver me from my considerable ignorance of all things archerey-related, I thought I'd take a few minutes to report back on our progress. We still don't know a lot but we're learning, and this forum is where that began. I do see now that a lighter draw weight would probably have been better to learn proper form with, but we're coming along nevertheless. We've gotten our bows roughly tuned (brace heights, nocking points, and such) and have gotten tolerably good at hitting what we're shooting at. With the 50# draw weight it's easy to get sloppy in our form, but when we take care to do things right the results can be extremely satisfying. Our regular game is to set up a 20 oz. drink bottle at 20 yds. and see who hits it first and we're getting to where we hit it pretty regularly. Below is a picture of two of my arrows, three shots apart, through the SAME HOLE! (I will allow that there may have been a wee measure of luck involved in that).

2012-08-26_19-11-18_666-4.jpg

2012-08-26_19-13-26_590-1.jpg


Still have a ton to learn -arrow selection is still a big mystery- but we are having a blast and may try for a deer this season. Thanks again for all the help.
P.S.: I plan on building a proper backstop this week.
 
A lighter bow does help. Have you noticed wiggling of the aim point if you try to hold a draw while sighting? I learned to concentrate on the target and not draw until I was ready to release. Draw, aim and release is all one fluid motion. Having developed a consistant grip and anchor point is a must. My anchor point is touching my first thumb joint to the corner of my mouth. Others have different anchor points, but consistancy is what matters. Soon it becomes like throwing a rock. You just concentrate on the target, think the arrow there, draw and release. My worst shots on live game were when I was "made" just as I was ready to draw and tried to hold the draw while waiting for the critter to step or look away. It may well be different for folks using sights, kisser buttons, releases, etc., and there are certainly different styles than mine.

It does look like you are approaching "minute of squirrel" accuracy at that distance. :thumbup:
 
Codger_64, as you said it's draw, aim, and release, I don't even try to hold a sight picture because that screws me up and the other way seems to be working well. My biggest inconsistency is maintaining the constant anchor point which I realize is essential for any kind of accuracy. That's where the heavier bow sometimes is a problem because my arm gets tired after a while and I find myself releasing before fully anchoring, but I do expect that to get better as my strength improves. I can control it now even when tired, I just have to take a little more care to make sure I do it. But when proper form is used I've found the results can be amazing. With a firearm, point shooting doesn't work for me; if I don't use the sights, I don't hit. But with the whole body effort involved in shooting an arrow, it is, as you said, like throwing a rock. I'm loving this, I tell you what!
 
For some variety (and to help your range estimating) you can do some stump shooting. The modern version is to scatter some paper or foam plates at various distances from a trail and do a walk-thru shooting. To make misses easier to find, buy some judo or dum-dum points. On cedar arrows, I just use spent pistol cartridges. As for arrow selection, go with a bowyer's recommendation for now. Later you may want to go with feather fletches, but for now the plastic ones are more forgiving and easier to replace when you goof. And you will. If you begin to notice arrow wobble, roll them down a tilted board and watch to see if they are bent. A good bowyer can easily straighten them for you.
 
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One thing to keep in mind with that heavier bow, is to keep your elbow up, especially when you start to get tired. You can do a lot of damage to the rotator cuff muscle if you get tired, and draw wrong. Take a brake when you start to get tired, and let your muscles recover. Practice good form even without drawing to build good muscle memory. I cheat with all my training wheels, and release aid, and I still know before I let go of the arrow if I've drawn wrong. Keep it up man, its looking great! Instinctive shooting is all about muscle memory. I learned to shoot instinctive, and now that I have sights, sometimes I screw myself up trying to do both ways at once!
 
Good info about the risk of shoulder injuries gadgetgeek, thanks. That's important because of my age (58) and because my son has already had surgery on his right shoulder shortly after getting out of the Marines. And like you said, I almost always know an instant before the release whether it's going to be a good shot or not. I'm still experimenting to find just the right anchor point, and once it's found my main focus is to practice putting it there every time.
 
Sounds like you've got the right idea, and don't need nearly as much help as you think. I just can't help the habits formed as an archery coach and throw in advice even if its not needed!
 
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