# Anyone shoot a recurve bow?



## deerjackie (Sep 22, 2012)

I have always shot a compound bow since age 14 and now a Ben Pearson Rogue shows up and i have no idea about it just its in great shape and i have got to find a shielded quiver to fit it.


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## PA Plumber (Sep 22, 2012)

deerjackie said:


> I have always shot a compound bow since age 14 and now a Ben Pearson Rogue shows up and i have no idea about it just its in great shape and i have got to find a shielded quiver to fit it.



I gave it a whirl one season. Purchased a lightly used Great Plains takedown recurve. 
Put about 1400 arrows across the rest, harvested a couple of ground hogs, and thought I was ready. I was not. 12 yarder on a very nice doe. Clean miss over her back.

Had another opportunity that evening and didn't take it. Went back to training wheels for hunting!

I do still like to shoot the takedown once in a while.


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## fubar2 (Sep 22, 2012)

Hitt Huntsman and Bear Kodiak here. I've had the Hitt for forty years, the Kodiak about twenty.


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## jdc123 (Sep 23, 2012)

I've always wanted to try it, but it seems like the recurves I like cost as much as a high dollar compound. Black Widow etc. Guess I could start with a cheaper one to see if I liked it and then move up.


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## fubar2 (Sep 23, 2012)

jdc123 said:


> I've always wanted to try it, but it seems like the recurves I like cost as much as a high dollar compound. Black Widow etc. Guess I could start with a cheaper one to see if I liked it and then move up.



Start out with something lighter than you would hunt with, say a twenty or twenty five cause its gonna take a lot of shooting. Try to get an old Pearson Stratojet or a Jet bow, they are next to indestructible. A thousand or so arrows later you'll begin to think like one. I've seen Jets in Goodwill stores before for ten bucks. I started with a Jet when I was maybe ten years old or so. You do the thousand arrow thing and you will be able to think them to the target.


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## chuckp (Sep 23, 2012)

*got rid of the compound*

I went to a recurve. Opened up a new sport for me. I love to shoot. Had to learn all over again.
That's all I use now. Shot lots of deer with it. 
The recurve is deadly at 20 yds. or less. Pass throughs all the time. A sharp broadhead and skill are what you need. I've developed a dislike for wheelie bows, and a downright hate for cross-guns.


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## fubar2 (Sep 23, 2012)

chuckp said:


> I went to a recurve. Opened up a new sport for me. I love to shoot. Had to learn all over again.
> That's all I use now. Shot lots of deer with it.
> The recurve is deadly at 20 yds. or less. Pass throughs all the time. A sharp broadhead and skill are what you need. I've developed a dislike for wheelie bows, and a downright hate for cross-guns.



I bought a used wheeler about six years ago after a lifetime of using recurves. I haven't touched it since three months after I bought it. There just ain't no challenge in them.


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## PA Plumber (Sep 24, 2012)

I don't know if you folks were shooting sites or instinctive. Those 1400 + arrows were instinctive.

I do enjoy shooting the recurve. The training wheels bow gives me almost twice the range, and the confidence of excellent accuracy out to 32 yards.
I never got that confident with instinctive shooting.

I know there are people out there who revolve their lifestyle around traditional archery, and are fantastic shooters out to 30 + yards. I know some personally and have met one of the best instinctive shooters in the United States at a traditional meet in Maryland. I haven't taken the time to shoot nearly every day to attain, or maintain, that level of accuracy. 

I have shot tens of thousands of arrows through sites and across the rest of a training wheels bows, and am very comfortable with where the arrow is going to end up within my yardage range of ability.

In order for me to have an enjoyable time in the woods, I have to be comfortable that I can harvest an animal humanely and don't want to be limited to just a few yards at my given ability (or non-ability as the case may be) shooting instinctive with the recurve.

Good on you guys/girls out there who are excellent traditional instinctive archery shots. I know it takes a tremendous amount of commitment/hard work/dedication to get accurate at longer ranges. For those of us who know we just don't have it, and need the help of cams/wheels/pulleys/cables, we can enjoy our time is the woods just as much.


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## PA Plumber (Sep 24, 2012)

Here are a few pics of the bow. It is smooth, not too bad for noise and tensions up very well. 
I have some other bows I practiced with before I started shooting this one. At 57 lbs, it took me about 3 months before I could shoot it correctly.
Haven't shot it in a while, might not even be able to pull it back now!!




PA Plumber said:


>


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## mater (Sep 24, 2012)

*shooting recurve*

I shot them for a couple years and then started building them. Ive built just about a hundred of them now. Ive built bows out of trees I cut myself. It makes a good story at hunting camp. Mark


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## fubar2 (Sep 24, 2012)

PA Plumber said:


> I don't know if you folks were shooting sites or instinctive. Those 1400 + arrows were instinctive.
> 
> I do enjoy shooting the recurve. The training wheels bow gives me almost twice the range, and the confidence of excellent accuracy out to 32 yards.
> I never got that confident with instinctive shooting.
> ...



Hey make no mistake here. I am not an excellent shot. Never have been nor will I ever claim to be. I am a capable and confident shot, nothing more. I don't use sights on the recurves. Don't know if that makes me traditional or not. I am self taught and my stance makes most bowmen cringe, but it fits me. I have killed many dirt clods in a plowed field and lots of hay bales in the baled ones as a kid, that is how I learned. Actually I would be considered an archer by looking at my stance but I can take em down all day at at a reasonable distance and that is good enough for me. I'm getting older also and the curves are getting harder to pull but I am letting the wheels rest until the day comes. I thought I wanted wheels when I bought them and they are are faster with more punch but there is just something lost in using it to me. Like I said before there just ain't no challenge in them.
Excellent shots are the ones who can do Robin Hoods till they run out of arrows, that ain't me.


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## fubar2 (Sep 24, 2012)

PA Plumber said:


> Here are a few pics of the bow. It is smooth, not too bad for noise and tensions up very well.
> I have some other bows I practiced with before I started shooting this one. At 57 lbs, it took me about 3 months before I could shoot it correctly.
> Haven't shot it in a while, might not even be able to pull it back now!!



Pretty bow ya got there. BTW.


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## wooddog 066 (Sep 24, 2012)

been shooting a recurve the past 4 yrs with 3 spring gobblers and 4 does no bucks and i love it but.....you gotta shoot alot and have patience like 20 yds and under IMO but i got tired of kisser buttons and so forth with the pulley puller and wanted to go back with the way i learned and i LOVE IT needless to say it means soo much more when ya harvest something with the STICK EN STRING!!!:msp_biggrin:


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## WidowMaker1 (Oct 20, 2012)

used to shoot a recurve, love my compounds tho, love hunting ....shooting a Hoyt Vector Turbo, & Hoyt Vector 32 , Instinctively!


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## benp (Oct 21, 2012)

fubar2 said:


> Pretty bow ya got there. BTW.



Agreed!:msp_thumbup:



I love shooting instinctive and would love a recurve. 

I am completely turned off by today's bows. They have almost zero appeal to me as a fingers shooter not to mention $$$$. 

I used to work at a small archery shop in DE in the mid early-mid 90's. 

During the slow winter times I would grab one off of the rack, throw a rest on it, and head into the little 10 yard indoor range we had. I would then poke q-tips into the backstop and shoot instinctively at those. 

I became fairly proficient at that. Aim small....miss small. 

2 of the most fantastic archery shots I have ever witnessed were by instinctive shooters. 

1. I watched my hunting buddy skewer a doe on a fast trot at 30 yards. He was shooting a High Country with just a rest and fingers. 

2. I was at a large 3d shoot in PA with a group of 5. We had come up on a standing bear across a ravine at 50 yards. This old boy came up behind us carrying a Black Widow wearing a shoulder quiver. He asked if he could shoot through since none of us had gone yet. 

Yep sure. 

He walked up to the stake, whipped out a cedar arrow, and SMOKED that bear in the chest. All in one fluid motion. My group erupted in cheers for him. Very cool. 

Prettiest thing watching that white barred Turkey feather arrow in flight. 

I would love to get a recurve or one of the hybrids and most likely will. 

In my eyes, for the most part, recurve/instinctive shooters are like the man with one well worn pistol.


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## fubar2 (Oct 24, 2012)

benp said:


> Agreed!:msp_thumbup:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


If you have a tireless arm and a sense of humor get or make a flu flu and take a bare recurve and go bird on the wing shooting. Provides hours of stimulating entertainment and costs little to nothing to do.


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## SquirrelMan (Oct 28, 2012)

mater said:


> I shot them for a couple years and then started building them. Ive built just about a hundred of them now. Ive built bows out of trees I cut myself. It makes a good story at hunting camp. Mark



I found alot of material online. Do you have a site you recommend or a technique? How long do you let the wood dry? I am thinking of trying with the next good hickory i cut


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## mater (Oct 28, 2012)

try tradgang for a site and let your wood get down to 9 or 10 % moisture. There is a place called binghams that have videos for getting started. Thats how I started.


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