I bought an entry level recurve when I first got the bug, and then within a month, I found two decent long bows used for sale in exceptional condition. I never shot the entry level again. I just recently I bought a new Toelke Whistler and I am behind in love with it! I wouldn’t recommend going over your draw weight, but upgrading with used is my recommendation. I am also a lefty, so trying to find bows to shoot is a pain in the butt. I love my 3 bows. Might give away my recurve. Good luck!

 

keep me in mind if you want to give away a lefty recurve brother :darkbeer: LOL

 

You could get a nice ilf rig in that price range, and limitless options

 

You will have first dibs Sir. Cheers!

 

If I could go back 6 months in time to give my self a tip for a good "beginner" bow, I would tell myself to go get a 23" White Feather Lark riser and a set of Uukha EX1 Evo2 limbs...and just keep on practicing with that bow. I would have just spent roughly $500 on a high-quality bow instead of spending $$$$ trying out every good-looking risers (to me) and limbs which are waste of time.

 

Go to an archery shop like Lancaster-follow their advice. Preferably try them before you buy. We can give you all the worthless advice you need and as we are all different,we have different needs,so what works for me may not for you etc?

 

"mid level takedown recurve" ,,,,sounds like there's an ILF in your future but you need to decide if you want wood , metal or carbon , then the limbs become endless. There are frequently very nice custom and custom production type take down recurves that appear but usually if you want to try other limbs it involves a significant additional outlay.

 

Shop Lancaster, pick-out an ILF riser that YOU like that is regarded as good quality. Take a look at the Trad Tech ones, they're fairly popular. Same with the limbs, most people like the Trad Tech Blackmax 2.0 limbs (wood/glass are the least expensive and work very well I hear.) Pickup a string that fits the length of the bow you built and you're set as far as the bow is concerned. I'm not sure if the risers come with rest material or not. Fast flight Flemish strings are popular, and I believe most ilf limbs can do fast flight strings.

Just my thoughts. Good luck

 

I echo the ILF route pick a good riser even spend the most money on that with a good wire rest and plunger, cheaper limbs to start and upgrade when you are ready. I like 25 inch riser cause it give the greatest variety of bow AMOs you may like longer or shorter but this give you the most options. I'll plug my favorite -- Win and Win but there are lots of good stuff to chose from so if you can get somewhere to shoot a variety of risers and limbs that would be best. Don't know where you are from but if you withing a reasonable distance of a big archery supply like Lancaster it is worth a long drive... not so much Cabelas for recurve variety..whatever you choose you adapt to it, make it work and move on from there. Good luck.

 

Problem is the weight. So buying a nice custom that you will eventually work in to will be a tad heavy to learn good form in the beginning.

I did what you are proposing to start, I bought a custom Morrison ILF riser and some limbs that go from about 46-54#

This bow

I thought I was shooting OK with it...until I started shooting with some guys that knew their stuff...and they gently told me I was full of horse puckey.

I bought a set of light limbs-30#-35# cheap $60...and got some lighter spined arrows and it took me all of one week to realize my folly with a heavier bow. I could actually feel back tension, and improved my release. All the while I would take a few shots with the heavier bow...until I could feel the back tension in the heavier bow.

A guy can do this process with a custom...and a cheap/light starter bow that you just sell in the classifieds for about what you paid once you work up to the weight.

....

 

It is difficult to properly recommend a bow without understanding what your archery objective is. Also your draw length, which could be estimated close enough using your height.

Do you envision yourself as a recreational shooter, competition shooter, re-enactment/period shooter, bow hunter, or more than one?
Do you feel that you will be committed to really learning how to shoot, or mostly shooting occasionally for fun?
Are you partial to any particular material: wood, metal.
This along with draw length will tell us a bit about what length bow would make the most sense.
Without the answers to these questions, I could not tell you which advise already provided is right for you.

 

Hi Hank, Thanks for the questions! I'm in san francisco bay area and am going to go to the pro shop where I've started shooting (ohlone archery in san leandro, they're a traditional archery range, no compounds). I'm down for taking lessons for a few months since they offer them, at least until I start to feel comfortable on form (Having practiced several martial arts, and played musical instruments, I get learning form and technique up front pay off in spades down the line). Most likely I'm going to be a recreational shooter (perhaps I'll get a little into competition, but with kids, a wife and a stressful job, 1-2 times a week shooting is about all I'll have time for). In terms of bows, aesthetically, I've a distinct preference for wood, metal just doesn't do it for me. I did the calculations on draw and currently I believe I'm a 28" draw, my guess is 60-62" will make the most sense, I think the loader bows are 60", but will go to the pro shop maybe this weekend and get all that confirmed. I know they sell bows, but I don't get the sense that the selection is particularly wide, and one of the bows they distribute uses a metal rise, which I really don't like. Would love to maybe get a bow elsewhere and have them do my arrows.?
Cheers

 

What Hank said!!!

And who suggested Lancaster? Great suggestion if Ghost lives in PA, but he didn't put his location. Most proshops know nothing about bows. They know compounds and if you go there for a bow they'll sell you what they have, which may or may not be good for Ghost. I'd call Lancaster before going to any old archery shop.

ILF is really the way to go. If you go low poundage you can switch limbs without much cost.

Bowmania

 

I recently started shooting archery again after a 15 year layoff. I am fortunate
to live close enough to Lancaster Archery that I decided to visit them and bought
a bow, arrows etc. I had a great experience and got a Gillo G2 riser and Galaxy
Gold Star limbs. They installed a Spigarelli ZT rest and Spigarelli clicker button.
I went with 32# long limbs, which are fairly comfortable to shoot.

I am relearning archery again after years of shooting heavy bows prior to my
layoff. I wanted a bow that I will shoot for years to come. That is why I bought
what I did. I felt that what I got was reasonably priced and I am enjoying it.
I am 60 and I have had some shoulder problems, not archery related.
I may bowhunt in the future, but probably not.

 

Will do, but I'm a rightie (sry), that said, I've been toying with the idea of seeing how I shoot lefty. I'm somewhat ambidextrous writing was wondering how far that extends.

 

If you are not a hunter then recreational/target standards would suggest a 66 to 68 inch bow for your draw length. My wife has a 28 inch draw and shoots a 68.

The shorter bows are designed for hunting. Longer bows are more comfortable to shoot and easier to learn on since the string angle at full draw is greater. They are also less sensitive to grip and finger pressure variations that cause imbalance.

So unless you really plan on using the bow to hunt with, I would go longer.

I would check out Lancaster Archery Supply on line for equipment. They have great technical support and can help you choose a suitable bow.

Much of the equipment you find at other archery stores comes from Lancaster since they serve as a distributor in the US in addition to their direct internet sales and brick and mortar store.

There are some excellent archery ranges up in the bay area and some very good traditional archers. Maybe a few will jump in. Otherwise, send me a personal message and I will give you some references.

 

Lancaster Archery supply sells the tradtech trident riser in 21 inch if you have to have wood. You could check out their website, then call them and get recommendations from one of their people that specialize in recurves. They can help you with arrows and ship it all to you. This week a lot of them are at the Classic but I’m sure someone there can fix you up.

 

People keep saying go ILF and they are right
I recommend getting a good riser, chances are your going to out grow your limbs fairly quickly as you move up in weight (your starting weight and your goal regular weight will depend on your strength and your form). If you think you're already at a draw weight you will be at a while then you can drop $300-$400 on limbs

You don't sound like you are in it for hunting so unless you really like short bows go with a target length riser (23",25",27" depending on your height)

On risers you can spend $300-$500 for a very nice riser and theres a lot to choose from in this bracket, lancaster is a great place to look and see what out there in the US and then do some research on the ones you like the sound of

 

Thanks everyone for the tips. I’m going to look at longer bows and also after a few conversations I’m going to consider metal as opposed to wood. Looking at hoyt and win win. Probably go with Lancaster!
Cheers

 

Recreational shooter...Hanks right...go with a longer bow per his recommendation. ...66" 68"

Great shop in Newark....Archery Only...though they lean more towards compounds. They do stock some of the Samick sage type bows...and it might be worth scheduling a trial with one of those to get your feet wet.

Wayne and the gang are excellent in that shop.

____________

 

Thanks! Will try and get out there.

 

What ever you do, do not get a recurve that is too strong. That's what I did. Now, that 45# OMP is hanging, unstrung, in my garage. I finally bought a Samick Sage 30# (62 inches long) and man, what a great shooting bow - comfortable in the hand, too. I have an WNS ILF bow (38#, 66 inches long) and prefer my Sage to the heavier weight WNS bow - in fact I'm going to sell it. After shooting the WNS ILF bow, the Sage feels like a feather.

BTW, I just bought another Sage, a 35# one, on Amazon for 89.99. It comes with a string and rest (I say that because, when if bought the WNS ILF bow, it didn't come with a string, nor a rest.)

AND some have said to get a longer bow for target shooting and a shorter bow for hunting. I can't speak to that because I don't bow hunt (I'm in a wheelchair), but i can place 10 out of 10 arrows in a regular-sized grapefruit from 10 yards away, easy, and all my recurves are 62 inches long - I've done it. Didn't try 15 and 20 yards away, may try that tomorrow. Seems like a fun day.

 

Yes, just picked up a 30# draw gillo. Excited to try it out this week.

 

I you know how to, post a picture of it.

Take care,
Bobby

 

UPDATE: I got a Gillo GQ 25 L from lancaster and love it. Set it up with some 30# limbs to start out with while I get my skill level up. I will admit, it was a bit heavier than I expected, the loaner bows at the range are wood and cheaper made, so perhaps I was used to that. Is really smooth and I had the range pro shop make some carbon arrows for me. Couldn't be happier. Boss wants to go turkey hunting which I'm open to, but want to be a more consistent shot, and may invest in a hunting bow at some point if I go with him.

 

Id go ilf. Tradtech. Call lancaster and have them set u up

 

Totally

Sent from my SM-G973U using http://bit.ly/Archery_Talk_app

 

As a teenager, I learned to shoot on an all glass #45 Shim-Bow...I shot righty, closing my dominant left( amblyopia) I did alright but struggled. Fast forward 30+ years, I returned to hunting, using a crossbow . It was too damn easy . To reclaim the magic of bow hunting I bought a Samick Sage and became a lefty. Killed a nice 8 pointer my second year. The crossbow gathers dust mostly. I have limbs from 30-60#... I practice with the 60# leading up to the season and hunt with 50#.I upgraded to an ILF rig(Samick Discovery) Now I am weening myself off using a bow sight, learning to shoot instinctively. I give a lot of credit to those who shoot well using only their minds for reference..... Where was Archery Talk 45 years ago!You are in good hands my friend.