I’ve had some high end compound bows in the past. As the beard gets grayer I tend to be drawn more to the traditional way of things. With that said, I’d like some suggestions on a traditional bow. My uneducated guess would be a recurve bow around 56# 29~30 draw length. Besides that I lm at a lost. Thoughts / suggestions. Thanks

Are you looking for a modern trad bow (take down), or a full on hand made trad bow ?

What’s your budget?


Might want to start researching ETAR for next year

I recall Fla has a pretty large hardcore trad following .  

This is what I’m runningHoyt satori

ILF are takedown bows. Great for throwing in a back pack or for travel . Can get very pricy but have all the modern tech of an Olympic bow.

Long bows are hand made . Lots of reputable bowers around the country, mostly it’s just finding one you like.

Archerytalk /traditional is the ARFCOM of archery.

3rivers archery has a pretty good size rabbit hole for you to go down.

If you go to ETARS web sight ,at the bottom it has a vendor list . This is a good list if you’re looking at a full on custom long bow.

Feel free to PM me if you have any questions , I’ll send you my #

You will love the freedom of traditional archery.

Samic sage

This is a great bow for the money to get started in trad shooting/hunting.

I'd look for a 1960s-70s recurve.
Martin, Ben Pearson, Browning, Hoyt...just find one you like the looks/feel of with no stress cracks in the fiberglass.


https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=browning+recurve

This is another opportunity to "get both".  IMO the ILF bows are the best place to start as you can relatively cheaply experiment with pull weight and bow length by purchasing limbs for $50-$200/set.  After you determined what you liked it would likely be easier to sell the ILF limbs you didn't want due to their interchangeability. Here's a short read on ILF riser/limb combinations and draw length http://peteward.com/2009pages/articles/ILF%20Guiude.html.  Once you figure out the bow length and weight you like then you could order up a custom or other recurve/long bow to your liking if those interest you, they can certainly be works of art.

I depends on how traditional you want to go.

If you want “traditional” but still want to use a pin sight and a rest, the Samick Sage is hard to beat.  Don’t go crazy on the initial draw weight.  25-30 pounds is plenty.  Unlike a compound bow, a recurve isn’t very tolerant of poor form and it’s easier to develop good form with a 25-30 pound draw weight.  

Once you get competent with it, but an extra set of 40 to 45 pound limbs and then keep working on your for, dropping back to the lighter limbs if you start having accuracy issues.

It you want to go really traditional, shooting off the shelf with no sights, you might as well go all the way and get a long bow.  

The Bear Montana is mid priced at around $400 and isn’t a bad bow for the money, and it’s good starter longbow with good maple core limbs faced with black or brown fiberglass. Start with a 30 or 40 pound draw weight, get good and develop the required muscles before stepping up the weight.  If you can’t hold it at full draw for at least 30 seconds, it’s too much bow for you.


Then there are some really nice shooting and very pretty bows in the $650 range,  For example, Kota Bows are made by a bowyer in North Dakota.  Their Prairie Fire longbow is made using three layers of bamboo for the core with various exotic wood veneers front and back, and finished in clear fiberglass.  Very pretty, very smooth, and no stacking.  It’s also a high reflex/deflex bow that is efficient  by long bow standard and is fairly easy to shoot.  My 42 pound Prairie Fire is much smoother than my 40 pound Montana and feels a tad lighter at the same draw length.




I also have a BlackTail Colombian with a 46 pound draw.  It also has a three layer bamboo core with exotic wood veneers and a clear fiber glass finish.  It’s even prettier and is also really pleasant to shoot.




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With a traditional bow shooting off the shelf and without a sight, you’ll be shooting softer spine arrows (500 is a good start), with points that make them fairly heavy - a minimum of 8 grains per pound of draw weight, with many shooting better at 10-12 grains per pound.  You’ll also leave them full length to allow the point to be used to sight in the target more effectively.

I depends on how traditional you want to go.

If you want “traditional” but still want to use a pin sight and a rest, the Samick Sage is hard to beat.  Don’t go crazy on the initial draw weight.  25-30 pounds is plenty.  Unlike a compound bow, a recurve isn’t very tolerant of poor form and it’s easier to develop good form with a 25-30 pound draw weight.  

Once you get competent with it, but an extra set of 40 to 45 pound limbs and then keep working on your for, dropping back to the lighter limbs if you start having accuracy issues.

It you want to go really traditional, shooting off the shelf with no sights, you might as well go all the way and get a long bow.  

The Bear Montana is mid priced at around $400 and isn’t a bad bow for the money, and it’s good starter longbow with good maple core limbs faced with black or brown fiberglass. Start with a 30 or 40 pound draw weight, get good and develop the required muscles before stepping up the weight.  If you can’t hold it at full draw for at least 30 seconds, it’s too much bow for you.


Then there are some really nice shooting and very pretty bows in the $650 range,  For example, Kota Bows are made by a bowyer in North Dakota.  Their Prairie Fire longbow is made using three layers of bamboo for the core with various exotic wood veneers front and back, and finished in clear fiberglass.  Very pretty, very smooth, and no stacking.  It’s also a high reflex/deflex bow that is efficient  by long bow standard and is fairly easy to shoot.  My 42 pound Prairie Fire is much smoother than my 40 pound Montana and feels a tad lighter at the same draw length.




I also have a BlackTail Colombian with a 46 pound draw.  It also has a three layer bamboo core with exotic wood veneers and a clear fiber glass finish.  It’s even prettier and is also really pleasant to shoot.




——-


With a traditional bow shooting off the shelf and without a sight, you’ll be shooting softer spine arrows (500 is a good start), with points that make them fairly heavy - a minimum of 8 grains per pound of draw weight, with many shooting better at 10-12 grains per pound.  You’ll also leave them full length to allow the point to be used to sight in the target more effectively.

these Bob Lees are nice

https://bobleebows.com/

Had a Bob Lee longbow in the late 90s but sold it in 2005 due to a shoulder injury. They are really high now. I'm gonna hit the archery shop this week and shoot some bows & see what they have. Will probably get one upper end bow and a lighter Samick Sage for the family to shoot.

True.  The Southwest Archery Spider takes it a step further.  More refined but still economical.  It's what I started with and still have.
Spider