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New Recurve for my son (Edit: and soon to be two for me)

GCTerpfan

GCTerpfan

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Aug 11, 2017
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Location
Garrett County, MD
A little background, when I was in high school my dad got into traditional archery and building recurves. I think he built close to 70 bows for friends, family and coworkers before a combination of tournament bass fishing and a bad shoulder changed his interests and he quit building. I've told my story on here in the past about going away from Trad for 20 years and then coming back to it and killing a deer this fall. Well, my 18 year old son decided he wanted to start shooting a recurve with me. So for part of his graduation present I convinced my dad to give bow building another shot.

My son picked out the Desert Camo action wood from a website and none of us were too sure about it when it showed up but, we all ended up liking it when it was complete. This was the first 64" recurve my dad built as my son is 6'4" with a 31+ draw. Below is a couple of pics of the process. The last pick is my son with the finished bow.

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Here are some pics of another bow that he built at the same time. It's a 60" bow with a 15" riser.

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The coolest part is that for years my dad hasn't been able to draw a bow. But, as he was building these two bows he was occasionally drawing them (with pain), until one day he picked one up and realized that he was drawing it completely pain free. Now he is planning on going back to Trad also.

I'm currently in the process of picking out the wood for my next bow....and the next one....and the next one ;).
 
Last edited:
GCTerpfan said:
A little background, when I was in high school my dad got into traditional archery and building recurves. I think he built close to 70 bows for friends, family and coworkers before a combination of tournament bass fishing and a bad shoulder changed his interests and he quit building. I've told my story on here in the past about going away from Trad for 20 years and then coming back to it and killing a deer this fall. Well, my 18 year old son decided he wanted to start shooting a recurve with me. So for part of his graduation present I convinced my dad to give bow building another shot.

My son picked out the Desert Camo action wood from a website and none of us were too sure about it when it showed up but, we all ended up liking it when it was complete. This was the first 64" recurve my dad built as my son is 6'4" with a 31+ draw. Below is a couple of pics of the process. The last pick is my son with the finished bow.

View attachment 26745 View attachment 26746 View attachment 26747View attachment 26750 View attachment 26749 View attachment 26748
View attachment 26751

Here are some pics of another bow that he built at the same time. It's a 60" bow with a 15" riser.

View attachment 26753 View attachment 26752

The coolest part is that for years my dad hasn't been able to draw a bow. But, as he was building these two bows he was occasionally drawing them (with pain), until one day he picked one up and realized that he was drawing it completely pain free. So now he is planning on going back to Trad also.

I'm currently in the process of picking out the wood for my next bow....and the next one....and the next one ;).
Click to expand...
Wow that's fantastic. Very special talent. What an awesome gift.
 
JAYBO said:
Wow that's fantastic. Very special talent. What an awesome gift.
Click to expand...

Thanks, he built some beautiful bows in the past. Rattle snake backed limbs, antler knobs for limb bolts, some exotic woods, etc. I have a feeling that as long as he is willing to keep building I am going to develop a heck of a bow collection.
 
I couldn't let my son have all the fun, so we just got the wood in for two new bows for me. The risers will be Bocote and Ebony dymondwood with Bocote limbs. One bow will be in the 40 to 45 lb range and one will be in the 50 to 55 lb range. Both will have carbon in the limbs.
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So there was a slight delay in my bows being built due to a table saw accident. My dad's right thumb is now about an inch shorter then his left. Thankfully it wasn't worse.

But, he started back at it this week. Here is a couple of pictures of my bocote and ebony wood risers he's working on as well as some limbs he glued up for my daughters boyfriend's bow.

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I posted some of these pics in the Trad thread but, thought I would finish this thread by posting the pics of the final bows.

My daughter's boyfriends bow:
gbow1.jpg gbow2.jpg

My two bows:

bow1.jpg bow2.jpg

bow3.jpg bow5.jpg

bow6.jpg bow7.jpg

bow8.jpg
 
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