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Vintage recurve on the way! Edit: cracked, new thread made/close this one please

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thedutchtouch

thedutchtouch

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I've been wanting to try taking off the wheels for a while now, and found a bow on the book of faces for a song, so just sent off my payment and should have a sage range master heading my way shortly. It's a 66" Sage range master, From the small amount of research I've done, looks like this bow was built in the early 60s, before sage was bought by Shakespeare, nothing too special, but should be good enough to learn on. I was attracted to the length as a beginner as the internet tells me longer bows are more forgiving, particularly at longer draw lengths, and my draw length should be around 29 inches. Bow is sold as 39# @28, so a little higher # than what I was aiming for for the first one but I'm in my late 30s and I'm no bodybuilder but I think I'm strong enough to learn on this bow, can always buy a 20-30 lb sage next month if this turns out to be the wrong bow for me to start with. I will try to video myself and post on here/tradgang from the beginning, as I'm sure there will be form mistakes to correct.

I do NOT plan on hunting with this specific bow at the moment, though I would like to hunt with trad bow(s) in the future. Not sure if I'll hunt at all next season with trad equipment, it all depends on how much practice I get this off season and how comfortable I feel with it. I'm keeping my compound and HC mini, and will hunt with them as archery hunting has already been hard enough with that equipment.


Next step is buying some target practice arrows to shoot and a glove/tab (and a forearm guard). And a quiver I guess, though I can do the same as my practice compound arrows and use the box they came in at first if need be. If anyone has recommendations for those items I'm all ears.

I am going to try 3 under to start with, though I'm sure there will be some split finger attempts and such as well as I start learning to shoot fingers and figuring out what feels good to me.

Thanks, I'm not sure what questions I will have yet, but please feel free to treat me like a complete newbie, I have thick skin and would rather be directly told that I'm doing something wrong/making poor choices now while it's easier to correct than in the future. Perhaps I've already learned bad form from teaching myself to draw a compound and it'll show up even more without the training wheels, like I said, the only real way for me to know is to video myself and get your feedback.

I will add some photos when it arrives, these ones from the seller basically just establish that it's a bow. It's been refinished so I'm not expecting a beauty.
received_594777922557708.jpegreceived_578499037533290.jpegreceived_121302290878028.jpeg


Edit-: I won't be offended if it turns out this bow is a POS, I didn't spend much on it so feel free to share your opinions, good or bad. I was somewhat wary of buying a refinished bow- hiding cracks or delams or whatnot but it was cheap enough to go for it.
 
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Looks good, I have a handful of old Bear and Herters bows from the 60s and 70s that I love, I started bow hunting two years ago and have been trying to take a deer with an old Herters 70” 65lb longbow.

I found starting out I needed a thicker tab for shooting anything 40lb or over, I like the Ominivore Quivers tabs. I shoot three under, it’s what’s most comfortable for me, it also lets me shoot my Bear Kodiak Magnums at 52” with a 29” draw, I probably couldn’t get away with that shooting split finger.

Don’t worry about a quiver for now, a 2 foot piece of 3-4” PVC and a flange works great for practice. Otherwise the 3Rivers hip quiver works great for 3D shoots. You’ll have to decide if you want a bow mounted quiver (Great Northern, Eagles Flight, and Selway are all great) or something in the tube style like a Palmer or SafariTuff quiver.

Arrows, just go on 3Rivers and their spine chart and buy a half dozen that will be close. If you get close and they’re a little stiff spined you can alway increase the point weight and your brace height.

Get a bow stringer, the Selway Limbsaver is the best one I’ve used.
 
That riser is sweet. Finding a local mentor, and paying for a few lessons really helped me when I first started in trad.
 
Congratulations. Looks like a sweet bow. I had been looking for a similar bow over the years but haven't seen one in good enough condition at a reasonable price yet. I have a couple Shakespeare and an old root Rover. The shelf has no real radius and if you want to shoot off it you will probably just need to add a hump above the deepest part of the grip or use an elevated rest. Good luck.
 
Wow nice looking bow. I tried a tab and a glove and liked the glove better. Same with split finger vs 3 under. I know you will experiment and get comfortable. I started with cheap arrows to learn on. I talked to the folks at Lancaster Archery about arrows to learn on and they helped me out.
 
Congrats! Learn to enjoy and make it fun! Dont limit yourself to target blocks. Honestly I recently found shooting at the ground is pretty fun too. I would stand on the deck, have my daughters throw colorful balls from their ball pit at random places. I shoot at the ball wherever they land. Usually I don't hit it the first shot, but I usually get really close at the 2-3 shots by gap aiming. Its a fun activity especially for the kids too. Only do this with suitable grass area of course, but even at 40lbs your arrows not going to go too deep, you only need to wipe the dirt off lightly afterwards.
 
Thank for the feedback everyone! Practicing at home is one of my biggest issues, I live too "in town" to shoot in my 1/4 acre back yard, all my neighbors houses are somewhat close, and I have a neighbor that unfortunately has the code compliance and police numbers on speed dial it seems. No option of moving any time soon so it is what it is.

That said, there's a public archery range (Adelphi Manor if any of the Marylanders have heard of it) with multiple targets and the ability to back up to 60+ yards about 15 minutes away so I'll get plenty of practice in there, just no elevated/shooting at random spots options (unless I'm there solo I suppose).


Patiently waiting for a long box to show up on the porch, and hoping to carve some time out soon to drive up to lancaster
 
thedutchtouch said:
Thank for the feedback everyone! Practicing at home is one of my biggest issues, I live too "in town" to shoot in my 1/4 acre back yard, all my neighbors houses are somewhat close, and I have a neighbor that unfortunately has the code compliance and police numbers on speed dial it seems. No option of moving any time soon so it is what it is.

That said, there's a public archery range (Adelphi Manor if any of the Marylanders have heard of it) with multiple targets and the ability to back up to 60+ yards about 15 minutes away so I'll get plenty of practice in there, just no elevated/shooting at random spots options (unless I'm there solo I suppose).


Patiently waiting for a long box to show up on the porch, and hoping to carve some time out soon to drive up to lancaster
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Can you shoot in your garage. Shooting 6 or 8 yards gives you a great chance to work on form. Not as much fun as outdoor shooting maybe, but hugely beneficial.

Also, shooting at really close range with your eyes closed is great for working on form. You can "feel" your form very well that way and can improve the muscle memory of proper mechanics.
 
Phopkins said:
Can you shoot in your garage. Shooting 6 or 8 yards gives you a great chance to work on form. Not as much fun as outdoor shooting maybe, but hugely beneficial.

Also, shooting at really close range with your eyes closed is great for working on form. You can "feel" your form very well that way and can improve the muscle memory of proper mechanics.
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^^^^ this is the correct answer.
 
Phopkins said:
Can you shoot in your garage. Shooting 6 or 8 yards gives you a great chance to work on form. Not as much fun as outdoor shooting maybe, but hugely beneficial.

Also, shooting at really close range with your eyes closed is great for working on form. You can "feel" your form very well that way and can improve the muscle memory of proper mechanics.
Click to expand...

Yep, though I would recommend a 3 or 5 spot target to avoid breaking arrows.
 
Phopkins said:
Can you shoot in your garage. Shooting 6 or 8 yards gives you a great chance to work on form. Not as much fun as outdoor shooting maybe, but hugely beneficial.

Also, shooting at really close range with your eyes closed is great for working on form. You can "feel" your form very well that way and can improve the muscle memory of proper mechanics.
Click to expand...
Garage? What's that? Something rich folks have? Lol unfortunately no indoor space, I have a small shed and my "basement" is a cellar/crawl space, not tall enough to stand. Very small house, it was supposed to be a starter house that we fixed up moved out of 5 years later. Coming up on 7 years, not many of the fixes happened, the we is becoming me, and I'm staying here for the foreseeable future to maintain the same school for my kids. To the range I will go. I have a 5 circle foam target that I usually bring with me there for my compound/crossbow, the targets get pretty torn up with public use each season.
 
thedutchtouch said:
Garage? What's that? Something rich folks have? Lol unfortunately no indoor space, I have a small shed and my "basement" is a cellar/crawl space, not tall enough to stand. Very small house, it was supposed to be a starter house that we fixed up moved out of 5 years later. Coming up on 7 years, not many of the fixes happened, the we is becoming me, and I'm staying here for the foreseeable future to maintain the same school for my kids. To the range I will go. I have a 5 circle foam target that I usually bring with me there for my compound/crossbow, the targets get pretty torn up with public use each season.
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got a hallway? ;)
 
Lol I've debated and have a mental image of how I could hang up a few moving blankets as a backstop/ricochet control. If I stand on one end of the house I can thread the needle through two doorways and shoot into the kitchen, it may happen one of these days that the kids are with their mom and I'm bored. But I've got enough projects without putting my own holes in the walls lol. I've been wanting to move the kitchen door to make more room for cabinets though, if that happens it's a much easier shooting lane. I'll be sure to take some photos and post if I do this, particularly if I miss...

The close your eyes and shoot from really close is a good idea, I could pull that off at home.
 
Have you ever shot a trad bow regularly before, or is this your first one?

If this is your first, my recommendation is this:

Stand no more than 3 steps away from the target. Pick the smallest spot you see on it, fix your gaze on it, draw back & release the arrow. Why?
-At that distance, you don't have to worry about missing the target.
-you can concentrate on developing your form-draw sequence, sight picture, anchor point, release, etc.-you know where the arrow is going, so you don't have to worry about it.

By doing this, you're training your brain to align the bow to what you're looking at.

Once you get a nice tight group of 3 in that spot, move back no more than 3 more steps, (or 2 steps if you're worried about missing,) & repeat the process.

The nice thing about this is that all you need is a block target & a chair to set it on-it can be done inside the house.

...before you know it, you'll be at 10 yds. Do the same process to get to 15, then 20.

Whenever I start a practice session, my first 3-6 shots are from 3 steps away. It tells my brain that "now we're shooting the bow."

Be very careful...trad archery is a serious addiction... ;)
 
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