anyone hunt with recurve

Been bow hunting 20+ years now and have killed everything from ducks to elk. I'm not getting bored with it but looking to up the challenge as the compounds seem to be like shooting a rifle now days. Anyone knowledgable on recurve a and can suggest or educate me on what to look for? Thanks in advance

When I first got into archery I started out with a fiberglass long bow and then moved up to a 52# recurve bow.
I hunted with it for several years as that was when compounds were in their infancy. I'm dating myself here!
The one constant with any type of primitive bow is Practice, Practice, and more Practice.
You have to develope muscle memory and confidence, and know what your limited effective range is going to be.
Take my word it's a whole new ball game as compared to the modern compound bow.
I've always had great admiration and respect for the guys who can harvest game with a recurve or long bow.
Stick with the old original brand names would be my recommendation, but there are several newer manufacturers out there someone may chime in.
A fine recurve is kind of like a nice fly rod, and the cost can vary from cheap to high dollar, so I'd stay with something in between.

When I first decided to give traditional archery a try I bought a 40 lb Samick Sage recurve from 3 Rivers Archery. It's very different from compounds and I highly recommend starting very light so that you focus on your form. Once I got comfortable shooting it I decided to move up to a custom long bow. Last year I sold my compound and this year I am committed to the long bow. I'll warn you, it's addicting. Good luck with it!

I have hunted with all of them, and for just plinking around in the yard I have a 50# Damon Howatt recurve I love. I have killed turkeys and hogs with it as well. But, something wired in my brain pain only lets me take a compound on a deer hunt. Like it has been said practice, practice, practice. Get that form down and develop the muscle memory and sighting ability.

I only hunt w/ my recurve. I can help out if you are in the Frisco area. I can help tune new arrows, form, etc...

I hunt with a take-down recurve and a crossbow. Like others have said, practice practice practice. Like the fly rod reference, when you are learning to fly fish, leave your other rods at home and only use the fly rod and eventually you will get it down. Practice and take some shots at your target in the backyard every night to help you get your form down and muscle memory. Then go out and do some ground squirrel hunting and stump shooting with some blunts. Anything taken with a recurve, horse bow or a longbow is a trophy. 3 Rivers Archery and Lancaster Archery are great companies to order from. I shoot off the shelf, use a 3 finger glove and use tapered shafts when building arrows so I don't get that bump. Tabs are also great to learn with. Just like fly fishing, you find yourself learning to tie flies and build rods. With traditional archery you will find yourself building arrows and if you are handy then building yourself a bow down the line lol. Going to Tandy Leather and getting supplies to make your own back quiver is also a lot of fun. Some people make incredible back quivers using stamps and leather tools. If you really enjoy traditional archery then build yourself a custom bow. I got in to building them from my buddy who builds them. Bingham Projects in Utah has all the supplies and tools to build yourself a beautiful bow. Once you have the press and oven built, the cost of the material to build one is under $175.00 . I built my first take-down recurve 16 years ago and still use it for hunting. Recently I ordered 2 Samick Red Stag take-down recurves from Lancaster Archery because they were on clearance and my friend has one and loves it. They are not a high end bow but they are pretty descent bows and I am using them for bow fishing. Keep us posted on what you pick up for a bow.

Here's my favorite bow.

I haven't gone into building bows or the arrows yet but do enjoy traditional archery. I had not shot a Recurve in several years and shot a Bear Kodiak Magnum and fell in lust with that little bow. Now have a couple of them and those are my favorite bows to shoot. For pure enjoyment of archery I'll take my Recurves over any others I have shot. Haven't killed any deer in way too long with them but have a short range stand setup this year for that purpose. If the wind is right on the days I get to hunt I will be in that stand with the little magnums.

I do!!

Thanks for the info. I took the plung and bought one yesterday. I am fired up and love shooting it. Need to practice a bunch now cause I think I suck after just shooting 12 arrows at the shop. Now my question is what is a good back drop for your target when learning to shoot these things? No way do I feel safe with just a block target right now.....

You can hang a doubled old carpet.

Ya think just 2 pieces of carpet would stop the arrow?

two pieces of carpet might do it if hanging so they can swing when the arrow hits. The rubber horse floor mats work also.


When first getting started try this
Shoot at 5 yards a lot, paying close attention to form and arrow placement. Get really good at 5 then move back to 10 yards.
Get good at 10 and move back to 15 yards, then 20, 25 and 30. As you are backing up still shoot at the shorter ranges as well. Build up that mussel memory and consistency and if concentrating on form and function it might not take as long to get pretty good.

I usually tell new traditional shooters this is a good time to get started to be ready for next year hunting

So I just shot about 30 arrows from 8-10 yards. I'm getting good groups of about 3" however I seem to be 5-8" left. I can aim to the right and be ok but I just don't feel right doing that. Any thoughts of what causes a guy to be left?

Anchoring to the right of your eye.

Check your form. You may be holding the bow too tight and twisting your wrist on release.
I come to that conclusion because you said if you aim to the right it's ok.
Also check your release. It could also be due to plucking the string. You should have a smooth release and your hand should only move rearward toward your ear after the arrow is released.
Try those two and see if you improve.

Just got back from CCR. String set up. New shelf pad. New arrows. Time to find out just how terrible I am. But I hope I haven't completely lost my ability to shoot. We shall see.

Are you shooting instinctive, aiming with tip of arrow, gap shooting? If instinctive a fun thing to do is get a birthday candle and go out tonight and set it in front of your target about three feet. Shoot out the flame. this focusses your sight and makes you pick a spot. You will be surprised many times you will shoot it out.

Instinctive. And I stinct. I think I have figured out a repeatable solid anchor. I need to make sure my bow hold/cant is consistent. I could put an arrow in a deer vitals at 15 yards. But I'm not going to hunt until I can shoot about 3" groups at 20 yards.

Yes shooting instinctive. I think the plucking thing was my issue. Seems to have corrected things. I have read about the candle thing in the past and may have to give that a shot. This recurve thing is a blast and has reenergized my passion to bow hunting!

Shooting instinctive I like to shoot various distances like shots could be when hunting. I will shoot a few groups by pulling the arrows out of the target and throwing them then shoot from where they landed. Some days I just shoot better and I will not hunt with my Recurve on a say that multi range group is over 6 inches, otherwise the compound or crossbow goes hunting. If you are shooting from a ground blind practice from a chair like you will be shooting from, it does make a difference.

if you pull a 65lb compound, what lb recurve?

I'd suggest a 45# to 50# recurve.
Anything heavier in a traditional bow is over kill on the archer and a form killer, and you will never achieve the flat trajectory of a compound that you are used to.
Once you have developed a good shooting form then you can experiment, but a 45 to 50# bow is a good all around hunting bow weight.

Well I played around online for some ideas for a back stop and this is what I came up with. Went to local carpet store and got old carpet for free and had scrap wood laying around. Few beers later and this is what I got.

Well I feel better. I don't need a back stop that big to keep the arrows in my yard.

Lol. Kinda seen that coming. I do have a 15, 12 and 10 year old all shooting bows now so I went big

Oh I didn't say the wood fence doesn't take a round or two on occasion. It's good to have those young ones shooting. Beats the heck out of video gaming.

Y'all google Old Archery Photo. Go to there Facebook page and watch some of those old videos and shots they pulled off. CRAZY!!!! Actually some of the old interviews with Fred Bear Howard hill, etc. are very interesting but the trick shots some of the people did ....well just go and see!

Well I was fortunate enough to spend the weekend with Marty Thomas, owner operator of Big Oak bowhunting ranch. He is an impressive recurve shooter to say the least. The stories of hunts in Africa as well as here at home can keep you mesmerized all afternoon. However his advice, coaching and encouragement helped my shooting tremendously. My anchor point was causing me issues. Changing that has me hitting a 3" bulls eye consistently at 15 yards and as often as not at 20. I'm working on the shooting sitting down as it seems a little more difficult for some reason but I feel confident I can kill one of the does at my feeder with my recurve on my next hunt.

I've found that if I spread my feet wide apart rather than sitting as you normally would sit in a chair it's a little easier.

Will try that.

The feet spaced and left knee pointed toward target. Good advice, thanx. I'm shooting better now that I'm getting my bow arm follow through more consistent. Shot out at twenty yards today and group size there is improving. I'm almost ready to hunt. I'm going to put limb savers on my limbs to reduce some vibration noise first.

I use mole skin on the limbs at the groove where the string contacts and beaver balls in the string. Those help a lot on my Recurves for vibration and noise. There is a company that also makes a rubber stick on piece for Recurve bows to catch the string at the groove that works better than the mole skin.

Have put these on Excalibur crossbows and they do help some with noise on them and bet would on the other Recurve bows. Link

Aim small miss small. Samick Red Stag.

Saw some neat ones in the Black Widow online catalog. May buy some of those later on but got some limb savers today. Fixin' ta start the install now.

Samick bows seem pretty popular. Any luck with the stag yet this season?

Bought a Samick Sage off of a guy on TBH. Shoots better, faster and quieter than my Bear. Although I can't blame the bow for my 5 misses so far.

Do you have any idea why? Reason I ask is maybe we can help.

Well the first I shot at an alert doe from too far. The second third and fourth I didn't account for a loose leafy jacket. The last I was so flustered I didn't pick a good spot. Lessons learned.

But when it finally works I'm going to fall out of the tree with relief.

1. It happens!
2. Dang it!
3. See number 2
4. Refer back to 2 & 3
5. Be careful, that abrupt stop is what gets you!

Been there, done that!
It just makes it that much sweeter when you finally put it all together.
Hope you get one soon!

In the target rich environment that is my lease and my ranch I'm sure I will finally kill something. If only a pig.

Makes a person want to experiment, thanks

I actually picked up two of the Samick Red Stag recurves that were on clearance from Lancaster Archery last January. I am using one for bowfishing/upland bird hunting and one for hunting. I build my own T/D recurves so this is the first traditional bows that I have bought already made. They are great bows and I had to pick them up after my buddy raved about how smooth they were to shoot. I picked up a couple of Legacy one-piece quivers for them. They seem to fit well. I am going to try to get a hog on the ground with it this year.

I'm going to make another attempt at getting a deer or pig on the ground this week. All of my deer lease set ups are for a compound. I had one I was trying to make work for my recurve but all it netted was a miss and a gut shot doe. I found her but not until the next day. The ranch we just bought I set up stands I can trad hunt out of easier so this week I will head there and give it a go.

There are some great bowyers in Texas. You'll have to get a custom bow eventually. My Predator Longbow has made a big difference in my shooting. Easy pull, no stack and fast for the draw weight. I shoot a 56" carbon limbed longbow at 50 # draw weight. This bow has increased my effective hunting range by nature of the fact is it's easy draw and no stack. Osage orange footed doug fir shafts with 125 gr zwickey broadheads.

Already got a Osage tree drying.

Mine is an old Fred Bear Grizzly

Good bows. I have a Bear Black Panther Hunter I'm waiting on a string for now. I like how short it is for in the blind use but it gives me some issues shooting fingers because of the length and an issue with my ring finger on my string hand. However it shoots the same arrows as my Samick Sage so I intend to work with both bows so I have more options for when I hunt.

For that short in the stand I really like the Bear Kodiak Magnum. The little 52 inch bow does pinch the fingers a little when you have a 29 inch draw like I have, but I shoot those bows better than any Recurve I have tried so I now have a 45 and 50lb KM and love shooting them. I start the draw with one finger above and 2 below, but relax the top finger off the string at anchor then shoot. I also play some with an old Hotshot rope release that works well with the recurves but some how doesn't feel traditional enough

One of mine.

Supposedly the Black Panther hunter is the Sears/Montgomery Wards retail model made by Bear of the Kodiak Magnum.

The Sage is really not a bad bow. It leaves a lot to be desired in the looks department though. The new one pieces look much better.

My Sage is more accurate than I am capable of being. It's quieter then some of the high dollar custom bows that friends have.

Instinctive Shooting by G. Fred Asbell. Read this book. It will answer your questions and make you a better shooter . It is a great read and I promise you will be glad you did it.

Become the arrow by Byron Furgeson is supposed to be a good one is well.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Both those books are worth the time and investment to read and have in your collection.

Reading is fine. Shooting, and shooting a lot, is a key to muscle memory and maintaining good form. Fortunately I enjoy shooting my bows. Always have. With or without wheels.

On TBH they have a separate forum for traditional shooters. Pretty tight knit group that helps each other out and guides fng's through the tough stuff. Hopefully we can get some interest going here to do that as well. It is so fun to shoot with no sights, off the shelf, watching the spiraling feathers, just willing the arrow through the deer . . .

Bought a used Black Widow PSA today. 53lbs at 28. I'm at 26.5ish so I figure around 48lbs for me. That's an 8lb increase for me and although not the model I want to end up with it's a dang nice bow.

didn't try yet.

I have been thinking of getting in to it. need suggestions. Starting out, traditional wood or the other stuff? which is better t/d or standard?

I still have 8 or 9 trad bows. After two back surgeries and two bicep surgeries I do better with bows with let off these days. But I still get out and target practice some. My favorite is probably my old 70's Super Kodiak because it's only 40# and easy to shoot.

Buy a low poundage, low cost bow and a half dozen arrows to match what you and your set up are. If possible find someone near you that you can shoot with and learn from. Doing it on my own was tough at first.

thanks, will do.

Hoyt buffalo shooter here . love a recurve, ive shot a compound for 24 years and just lost the fire. its wasnt a challenge for me anymore, a trad bow re lit that fire and its as fun as ever .

Love the back yard rig! Glad to see you getting after it. I went from compound to a long bow and never looked back.