• The SH Membership has gone live. Only SH Members have access to post in the classifieds. All members can view the classifieds. Starting in 2020 only SH Members will be admitted to the annual hunting contest. Current members will need to follow these steps to upgrade: 1. Click on your username 2. Click on Account upgrades 3. Choose SH Member and purchase.
  • We've been working hard the past few weeks to come up with some big changes to our vendor policies to meet the changing needs of our community. Please see the new vendor rules here: Vendor Access Area Rules

Taking recurve out of hibernation

DelaWhere_Arrow

DelaWhere_Arrow

Well-Known Member
SH Member
Joined
Jul 16, 2019
Messages
2,595
Location
Delaware
Due to extenuating circumstances, my wife hasn’t shot her recurve in about 3 years. It was shooting great then, but has spent all that time in its original packaging in the barn since. Being the overly cautious weapons owner that I am, I thought maybe I shouldn’t just throw the string on it and go shoot. She doesn’t hunt and I don’t hunt with recurve but we’ve been wanting to shoot as a family again and my job is equipping the wife and kids with functional gear so they can show me up on the range. I do like to fiddle with it though, and May one day take up hunting with a tradbow.
What should my inspection of the bow be like, and what should I keep in mind before/when re-stringing it or while shooting it, what should I be listening/feeling/looking for that I wouldn’t have had to worry about while the bow was getting steadier use?
Just for reference, it’s a Samick Sage 45# and we’re shooting the factory string. Her draw length is about 28” and mine is 26” on my tallest day. Bought it in 2014 and it’s shot maybe 100 arrows since. Cabela’s Stalker Xtreme carbon arrows with 4” (5”?) feathers, 500 spine and 100gr tips. Probably full length. I reiterate, she does not hunt with this bow. I realize the conversation about hunting arrows is much more involved, so don’t worry about it. This is just for target shooting purposes.
Excited to read what y’all say! Thanks in advance.
 
I feel your pain, my wife is taller, has longer legs, has longer fingers, and from what my father-in-law tells it, was a hawkeye with a firearm before she became 'a girl'. She would of made a great archer but barely touched the bow I gave her....anyway

I would personally get a new string as soon as you can. Many of the members here can make you strings @Razorbak66 makes mine but I heard @Red Beard started to make his own string now too. Or 3rivers or Ebay have strings.

But if you don't already have one, get a stringer! Very important with recurve bows.

Then slowly pull back the limbs little by little until you fully draw it.

Feathers are your friends, honestly until you get really good at it, stay away from bare shaft as it can be one of the most frustrating thing you can do. Especially for newcomer as our forms are so bad, it make bare shaft tuning unreliable.

A lot of the same compound bow principle applies. Close your eye when you test draw, if sometime is wrong with the limbs, you can probably hear it. Also do the cotton swab against the limbs to see if any crack or splinter developed, but honestly recurve bow limbs are pretty durable, especially if it been unused in storage.
 
HuumanCreed said:
I feel your pain, my wife is taller, has longer legs, has longer fingers, and from what my father-in-law tells it, was a hawkeye with a firearm before she became 'a girl'. She would of made a great archer but barely touched the bow I gave her....anyway

I would personally get a new string as soon as you can. Many of the members here can make you strings @Razorbak66 makes mine but I heard @Red Beard started to make his own string now too. Or 3rivers or Ebay have strings.

But if you don't already have one, get a stringer! Very important with recurve bows.

Then slowly pull back the limbs little by little until you fully draw it.

Feathers are your friends, honestly until you get really good at it, stay away from bare shaft as it can be one of the most frustrating thing you can do. Especially for newcomer as our forms are so bad, it make bare shaft tuning unreliable.

A lot of the same compound bow principle applies. Close your eye when you test draw, if sometime is wrong with the limbs, you can probably hear it. Also do the cotton swab against the limbs to see if any crack or splinter developed, but honestly recurve bow limbs are pretty durable, especially if it been unused in storage.
Click to expand...
Hahaha yeah I’m “shooting” way out of my league, like Frodo getting with Galadriel, or Dopey Dwarf sinking Snow White. but let’s don’t remind my wife of what she already knows…
Thanks for the tips! I do have a stringer, thankfully. I will definitely be looking into in a new string sooner than later. Thought that might be the case anyway. Was going to call Lancaster or 3Rivers but @Razorbak66 @Red Beard feel free to PM me with info if you’re interested
When you’re done shooting, do you take the bow down every time or do you store with limbs and/or string still on? I was cautioned against leaving the string on by a grizzled old archer but I dunno best practices and just take it all down every time.
 
Unless the bow was stored in extreme heat or dampness you don’t have much to worry about. Get a new string, draw it a few times and start shooting.

I never unstring my recurves. I have bows that have been strung for 30 years that still scale the same weight listed on the limbs. Never store it leaning in a corner sitting on the bottom limb. You will end up with a twisted limb over time if you do this.

@thedutchtouch, just because they're cheap, and why not. I personally would probably shoot the same string after inspecting it but it is the one thing that would be susceptible to bugs, rodents, etc. I’ve seen a string or two chewed partly through by mice.
 
Last edited:
GCTerpfan said:
Unless the bow was stored in extreme heat or dampness you don’t have much to worry about. Get a new string, draw it a few times and start shooting.

I never unstring my recurves. I have bows that have been strung for 30 years that still scale the same weight listed on the limbs. Never store it leaning in a corner sitting on the bottom limb. You will end up with a twisted limb over time if you do this.

@thedutchtouch, just because they’re cheap and why not. I personally would probably shoot the same string after inspecting it but it is the one thing that would be susceptible to bugs, rodents, etc. I’ve seen a string or two chewed partly through by mice.
Click to expand...
never heard of the limb twist thing. Yikes.
Do you hang/store by the string with riser downward, or hang by riser with string downward? Or something different?
 
DelaWhere_Arrow said:
Do you hang/store by the string with riser downward, or hang by riser with string downward? Or something different?
Click to expand...

Yes :)

Really, you can hang them about anyway.

Here's my current rack. There are some other pics in that thread also. You can see people hang them lots of different way.

Trad Bow rack

My 21 yr old son just moved out last weekend. This opened up a new room to move my office/bow room into. I’m in need of a new way to hang my stick bows on the wall. I currently have 8 or 9 bows and I see that number I increasing in the future. I currently have them all hanging vertically on two...
saddlehunter.com
 
Okay you guys are the best.
Took the bow out, screwed the limbs in, gave the string about 20-25 twists and set it, nocked an arrow and closed my eyes to draw…voila! Silence. Silky smooth silence. Opened my eyes with the anchor to my upper cheek and my hold about 12” below aim point, released, and at a whopping 5 yards I’m draining the 8” bullseye! :laughing:
Damn this thing is fun to shoot. I realized after a few shots that I was bare-fingered and that the serving will indeed eat your skin down to nothing, so I found the shooting glove and got back to work at 5 yds. Probably will get a new string but it does seem to be quite like-new still. If I get too excited I’ll be looking into hunting arrows by Christmas (cue evil laughter). Guess I should be able to shoot to at least 15 before then though.
My wife may not get this bow back…
 
We may have an issue.
Well…three or four tiny hairline issues.
E37CFB99-9F2E-483A-90CA-933A78490192.jpeg39294F10-E010-4819-971E-C14EDDED573A.jpeg
The circled portions are cracks in the grain, not separation the lamination. Really thin, can’t get my actual pinky nail to stick but it makes a soft click when I run it over the otherwise smooth surface.
Is there a quick DIY fix? Is it shootable? Should I be worried? I decided toothpicking super duper wood glue in there willy nilly was maybe not the best idea…or was it?
 

Is the riser really under that much stress with these sage takedown bows? I would probably just shoot it as is and not worry about it. Maybe get a syringe and squirt some super glue in the cracks, but I'd bet it's just cosmetic. But let someone that knows recurves better than me weigh in first.
 
thedutchtouch said:
Is the riser really under that much stress with these sage takedown bows? I would probably just shoot it as is and not worry about it. Maybe get a syringe and squirt some super glue in the cracks, but I'd bet it's just cosmetic. But let someone that knows recurves better than me weigh in first.
Click to expand...
This is what I was thinking. It seems like natural separations in the fibers of the grain itself, like any piece of wood might experience over time. For all I know they’ve been there since day one lol. I will shoot it and keep my eye on them for growth. May squirt some glue in there too.
 
Damn, I forgot how much more violent missing the target can be on your arrows when shooting a stickbow. One shot will sink into the bullseye, exact same shot but you’re off on your form by a couple of centimeters or puffs of breath in your chest, and that arrow hits the inner trunk of the chestnut tree and banks off never to be seen again. I need a bigger backstop lol. And about 3 new arrows :grin: If this was a whackyTop Shot challenge I’d be aces. If it was shooting a whitetail I’d be the best friend a deer could ask for.
 
DelaWhere_Arrow said:
This is what I was thinking. It seems like natural separations in the fibers of the grain itself, like any piece of wood might experience over time. For all I know they’ve been there since day one lol. I will shoot it and keep my eye on them for growth. May squirt some glue in there too.
Click to expand...
CHOOT IT
 
Seep some thin super glue in the cracks and let dry then lightly sand it then do it again put some blue painters tape around it as a border so it doesn’t get everywhere and then shoot it some more then go kill a deer or 3 with it as nothing wrong hunting with it and I will say that you will get more satisfaction killing with a trad bow than anything else
 
A bit late to the party but... if trad archery is a family pursuit, you might make a Flemish twist jig and get some B55 and center serving from 3Rivers, and make some bowstrings with your family. I took the dive last year and there's a bit of technique involved, but still pretty straightforward.
 
Iron_llama said:
A bit late to the party but... if trad archery is a family pursuit, you might make a Flemish twist jig and get some B55 and center serving from 3Rivers, and make some bowstrings with your family. I took the dive last year and there's a bit of technique involved, but still pretty straightforward.
Click to expand...
Never would’ve occurred to me. Thx!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top