[OTHER] Best starter traditional bow style

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4d4m

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Hi. I've only been doing archery for 9 months, shooting a sighted recurve but I have since I was about knee high wanted an ELB. However a clubmate suggested that an AFB might be a better starter for a traditional style bow. He let me shoot a couple of ends with his which was really fun to shoot once I got used to the hand shock. Only took a couple of arrows really but the first one made me jump!

This will be for fun, relaxation at the club, garden shooting and having a go at instinctive style shooting, antidote from the technical side of recurve etc etc. But I will still be shooting the recurve for the time being.

As a starter traditional bow, I don't want it to cost the earth but the thing is my draw length is 33", so I'm starting to think that for any kind of wooden bow I'm going to have to have something custom made. However I was talking to the guys at Aardvark about the Samick SKB horsebow I noticed on the rack and they said these happily draw 33" and are fun to shoot. I quite fancy one of these as it won't break the bank.

My recurve is currently about 41 lbs on the fingers (sorry I can't quite bring myself to use the Americanism of the hash symbol to indicate poundage) :blush: I can now draw that all day and hold it for some time at full draw, so maybe something that draws 45 at that length might be suitable?

This isn't meant to be me committing to any bow style. I'm loving archery so much at the moment I can't imagine limiting myself to only one bow. :poulies: :archer232 I shoot air rifles and pistols and have recently cut down my collection to "only" five rifles and 11 pistols! :eye-poppi

So are reasonably priced AFBs available that draw 33"? Sounds unlikely to me but you never know. Should I hang in there and save for what I really want, a custom ELB? Or what the hell, the SKB sounds like fun. Or something else entirely?
 
D

Deleted member 7654

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Dunno why you got hand shock with an AFB... maybe arrows too light?
The horse bows are V long draw and smooth, but can be a bit twitchy, of course they are made of modern materials rather than traditional, but one has to be pragmatic. They are certainly V popular, one guy I shoot with uses one and shoots V well with it. Several of our longbow club members have one as a second bow.
Hard to beat 'em in terms of cost effectiveness.
I don't expect you'll find many AFBs quoted to 33", but if they are glass/carbon etc they will probably make it but wouldn't be guaranteed. They will all be (or should be) faster than a self wood longbow.
Del
 

4d4m

Active member
Thanks Del. Arrows were some carbons he had with him so more than likely. The wood ones he brought had the wrong nocks on. The bow was about 40 lbs I think.
Yes the horsebow option is more traditional style than traditional per se. I'm sorely tempted I must admit. But I'll also need arrers. Wood ones, I'm not shooting A/C/Es out of a horsebow, and a cover and probably a different tab and bracer and.... it never ends!
 

Corax67

Well-known member
Wen I potter around with one of our club AFB's I shoot my usual Aluminium arrows, tab & bracer - as Del said I haven't experienced any hand shock either.

My preferred bow is marked 40lb draw @ 28" and it's nice to hit a 50yd target with the arrow pointing at the ground on release, one day soon I will have a little go at string walking for aiming rather than spotting a tuft of grass.

We have a few horse bows on a Saturday too - mostly off eBay - and they all shoot really nicely but I don't think any of our guys have a draw as long as yours to offer recommendations.


Karl
 

4d4m

Active member
Not decided on anything yet. Last night at the club for a mess around I took all the sights and stabs off my bow and shot a few arrows barebow on the indoor range (about 13 yards). I was trying a "traditional" canted bow hold and I did notice that had the effect of making my head lean forward a little more which in turn had the effect of taking up to an inch off my draw as far as I could see.

Hard to make definite conclusions on that basis but raises questions. Is it common for example that someone's draw for target recurve going to be longer than a different style? Where is draw length measured on traditional bow styles, the back of the bow?
 
D

Deleted member 7654

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Traditional bows (longbow, primitive etc (not sure of AFB) have draw measured to back of bow.
Del
 

Raven's_Eye

Active member
Ironman
Yes draw lengths will differ with traditional/primitive bows. This is due to how the handle is made. An English longbow your hand sits differently to a modern recurve. But also can differ between bowyers e.g. A longbow made by Bickerstaff is more chunky than an Adrian Hayes bow, so draw length may differ slightly.
 

4d4m

Active member
I went AFB in the end. A Bucktrail Blackhawk was delivered on Friday; a lovely little bow for a shade over ?90. I also got wooden shafts, taper tool, brass piles, feather fletches, taper nocks ... and now the smell of white spirit throughout the house! :)

A couple of weeks ago I had mentioned the Bucktrail to the same club member, who promptly said I've got one of those as well, I'll bring it on Sunday and you can see what you think! Marked up at 35lb, it was very sweet to shoot, though this example was apparently a few pounds lighter than stated. As I found that one so easy I went for 40lb.

I'm now trying to learn the black art of wooden arrow spine selection!
 
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