Takedown Recurve Bow Advice Please

Uncle Timbo

Uncle Timbo

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Nov 23, 2005
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Hey guys. I'm looking for a 45# takedown recurve and I'm trying to keep the price as low as possible. I've found the Samick Sage for around $140ish and then it would need and arrow rest. I'm thinking the whisker kind? This would be for fun and survival times. I'd purchase some carbon arrows.

I'm open to any constructive advice. I'm a novice at takedown recurves. I do like the Samick over the PSE because it doesn't require an allen wrench to assemble/tear down.

I have an old Jennings 4 pulley that I've had since the 70's but she's waay too heavy to pack.
 
You can shoot the samik off the shelf, take it to someone that knows about Traditional archery and get some bear hair or leather on the shelf.

JMHO, a "whisker kind" of rest on a trad bow be it recurve, long, flat, self or whatever is a bad idea.

Good luck, sounds like you may want to get a bit of experience before you have to use that stick and string in a "survival time" situation.

have fun
 
Samick is an excellent choice, I also agree about ditching the whisker biscuit and going to either off the shelf or a flipper rest. With carbon arrows you'll likely need to have the fletchings redone as they typically with be 2" plastic and not enough for a trad bow. I'd recommend 4 or 5 inch either plastic or feather.

-X
 
Store more rice and beans (recommended anxiety cure) or get some backyard chickens/rabbits (for acute anxiety of a more long term nature) if you are worried about food security.

Hunting (especially bow hunting) is not calorie efficient and natural game stocks are not nearly as deep as TV fantasies would have you believe. Both hunting and husbandry will involve red tape, licenses and regulations.

If you just want to learn about archery or you need to have a takedown bow then that samick looks like a good choice. :thumbup:
 
Simplicity is good, I'd go with shooting off the shelf, its more stable, and less fiddle factor. Where I work we've replaced the rests on the bows with bits of toothbrush. works pretty well and keeps the wear down. You can get arrows with longer feathers, or purchase bare shafts and have the shop put them on. you can also go with aluminum or even wood if you want to make your own.

I'm guessing you shoot your jennings from your fingers, so that won't change. But take advantage of the bow, and shoot from different positions, and draws. Have fun with it.

One last thing I'd recommend is to to use a bow stringer to string your bow. While the under-the-leg method works, I've seen a lot of takedowns get a warped limb over time because the limbs don't get set the same at the beginning, the lower limb gets flexed more.
 
Under the leg stringing was never a good thing.

At 45# you can place a limb tip in the inside of your left foot, and your lefet hand on the grip and slide the string loop up the top limb until it reaches the nock. It doesnt bend the limbs to the side and with practice its easier than a stringer.

Go to a traditoonal archery shop or a 3D shoot, theres usually some traditional shooters there, and get some advice and instruction in person.

If you dont know what you're doing its kinda hard to tell whats good info taking advice of the net.

Good luck, but in my opinion hunting even with a gun for survival is an easy way to starve to death or find out what delicacies like sea gull taste like.

Theres a diferance between making and building arrows.
 
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Thanks guys, I love this place! Yes gadgetgeek, I've always shot with my bare fingers! How in the heck did you know? Whenever I'd practice in the 70's or 80's, I'd never shoot more than 10-15 shots at a time to give my fingers a rest.

Thanks everybody for the advice on the stringer. I would of prolly just used the old leg method and screwed up a good bow.

Thanks also for steering me away from the whisker rest.

Now, how big of a problem is leaving the 2" plastic vanes on vs. 4-5" feathers?

Also, I know this is NOT going to be a major food supplier. But how can it help if you don't have one and know how to use it? Plus...I've always wanted one after having the Jennings compound all my life.
 
It was just a good guess, mostly because releases are a fairly new thing as far as compounds go, and older bows were built to be shot from fingers. Get a good shooting glove, or make one up, it will make life easier.

I think the theory on longer vanes is they will stabilize a slower arrow better. But it may not matter as much. I like feathers more than vanes, I find they ride over stuff better, the only disadvantage is they don't like being wet. But that's not a concern to me.
 
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I have a Ragim Impala hunting bow with 55lb. weight. A nice powerful hunting bow in a small package.
Bought mine for 250$... Well worth the money.
I also have a Black Widow Archery recurve.. Vintage white one.
An old vintage Shakespeare archery recurve... Target bow.
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Martin Phantom... This one is one hell of a bow. I can hit a tangerine from 30 yards with this puppy. 65 lb draw.

I would suggest a Martin Traditional or Mathews Traditional. An acme quikee quiver. Easton aluminum LOGS with 300 grain broadheads and 3-4 inch long feather vanes or synthetic feather..
An arrow fletching jig, arrow fletching glue, insert or cavity/glue nocks. A stabilizer is not needed, a tiny one doesn't hurt. I would advise shooting from a leather pad. Go to a archery pro shop and let them take care of you there. A bow is not something you cheap out on, you will thank me when your in the woods with the best. Your taking the time to make that bow an extension of you; mind and body until it is almost spiritual. It is worth the extra money and waiting. If you are using wood arrows, go with Bodkins brass tri blade broadheads. I shoot with Damascus leather shooting gloves, they are the best. I would have an extra bowstring made, and wrap it around your top limb. Maybe a twist tie to secure it. A sight may be a good thing to get unless you plan to go full primitive. If you buy a sight, go on ebay and buy a vintage one... Make sure that you buy one that is drilled to fit your bow. You can use glow powder and epoxy to make your sight pin tip glow. Just a tip. I would also use a recurve peep sight. These help a lot.
I have been an archer for about half my life. If you'd like any advise or have questions feel free to message me or shoot me an email. Take it easy.
-Zemapeli
 
Zemapeli - You sound like you've been there and back. I have a few questions. Why aluminum over carbon? Which is more durable if the target is missed and the arrow is recovered? Also, what kind of vintage sight are you talking about?
 
Interesting stuff Zemapeli, Just out of curiosity do you shoot your release off the string, or off a loop? Correct me if you are thinking differently, but in my experience aluminum shows damage better than carbon fiber. I think all of the carbons that I've heard of failing, failed off the shot, and caused some...excitement. Wood will fail catastrophically, and fiberglass will give you a warning, and a quick tap test will let you know its cracked. An alloy shaft will fail if its creased, or has a hole in it, (generally from another arrow impact) but its pretty easy to see when one shouldn't be shot. That said I shoot carbon off my bow, and probably wouldnt bother with anything else. Thats me, YMMV

I shoot pretty often with two bows. my own, (stock kit PSE stinger) and the bare recurves I teach kids on. My suggestion to anyone shooting two bows is to use the same sighting system on both. I find that even when my form is good, If I have only been doing demos (I don't really aim for a technique demo) and then actually do all the shooting with my bow, I really loose my instinct for shooting the recurves. I have not shot my bow now for about a month, picked up one of the heavier 30lb recurves and was dropping a two inch group on our 7m range (yeah shooting fish in a barrel) but I think it was because I had the compound out of my mind. I think I took 9 shots today total, and all were pretty well where I wanted them. I could probably do that every day if I didn't shoot my compound with a peep. (but whats the fun in that?)
 
All this makes me think, my Jennings had and still has, sights on her, but I never used them. I guess I used the old Jedi trick for sighting and never thought twice about it. It just felt natural.

Now, after all these years, after I thought I was such a good archer, I'm told the old 4 pulley bows were a very forgiving bow to shoot? So it wasn't me? It was the bow? Has anyone ever heard this bull? :)
 
No bow is forgiving to shoot. either you can shoot, or you can't. That said, there are some bows that are difficult to shoot, and so are difficult to shoot well, but its like a rifle, you still have to put the work in, it doesn't aim for you.
 
You should definintly take an intro class to traditional archery. I've been an instructor for a few years and the fundamentals are the most important part. Once you have those shown to you, you just have to shoot a bunch until your comfortable. You should look into blemish goldtip arrow on the bay, they are sold by the dozen or half dozen and cost about half as much as nonblem. Go with feather or synthetic feather fletch for shooting off the shelf and leave the arrows full length. THe Samick is a good bow to start with Ive had the sage and redstag, they were tough and shot well. I have a Hoyt buffalo and several other high dollar bows but I find myself shooting the 35# redstag the most, it's great.
 
When I teach new archers, they usually want to start pretty far back. But I recmend starting about 5 yards away with three arrows and shoot those three over and over untill ou can get them in about a 3-5 inch group, once that's easy and consistent, move back another 5 yards. This will get you familiar with the arrows flight pattern and drop at different distances while avoiding the frustration that can occur when you start too far from the target.
 
I usually recommend people stay away from sights at first, if you can shoot a recurve off the shelf with no sights you can shoot any bow. Another little trick is to stab the threads of your points into a bar of soap before you put them on your shaft so you can unscrew them easily when they need replacement. Look into the correct spine and point weight for the draw weight how you get.
 
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