Experience hunting with a recurve

[FLS]

I’ve been hunting with single string bows since 97. I enjoy the simplicity.
There is a ton of good info on line, but you’ll have to dig thru a mountain of crap to find it. My advice is focus on form then fry different aiming methods till you find what works for YOU. Instinctive, gap, fixed crawl, string walking all are proven methods to get an arrow to the target accurately. I’m a “gapstinctive” shooter. I am aware of my arrows position related to the target but I don’t really measure the gap. I see the sight picture I want and shoot.
Arne Moe has some very good YouTube videos on form. He shows how and why without nerding out on the biomechanical / mental aspects.
Best of luck on your archery journey.

 

[TxRcrvHunter]

I've been focusing on the mechanics of my shot, trying to gain muscle memory on my draw for each shot. Like you mentioned, I've going with instinctive aiming and I have been comfortable shooting that way. I'm afraid to try other methods and ruin what I'm actually most comfortable doing already, but then again, I am ignorant as a new recurve shooter. Thanks for the input!

 

[Howie]

Salting away the compound and resurrecting the 40-some odd year old recurve is truly a tonic. Simplicity, as mentioned, weight, and the automatic return to the roots of hunting, seems to slow everything down and add appreciation to the whole experience. You come home refreshed and calm....... It's really cool .

 

[MEG2]

Successfully shooting traditional is all about practice and IMO it takes way more practice then with a compound to become proficient. The more you shoot, the more comfortable you will become. As with any athletic movement, it is about muscle memory and the only way this is accomplished is with repetition. When the moment of truth comes, you don't want to be thinking about form (staying out of your own head), but focusing on where the arrow will go and let your body do what you've trained it to do.

 

[Firedude]

So, I'm no purist by any means with a traditional bow. However you may like this. One of the old men who was around when I was little taught me to flintknap. He made primitive bows for fun later in life. This is an osage orange bow I made from a log he cut in Texas. Weeks of scraping and shaping from both me and him went into this bow. He always wanted to shoot something with a bow he made. He died before it happened. So now for the last 3 years I've been trying to do it with this bow and arrowheads from his supply. The closest I got was last year I missed an antelope doe opening morning by inches. I remember thinking I would be more proud of a doe with this than a buck with my compound.

I get the obsession. Keep practicing. Mine is going into the Turkey woods tomorrow. While it can handicap you in some ways it's greatly fullfilling.

That being said, this old man's wife was a state champion archer back in the day with a recurve. I WATCHED her put 3 arrows in the x ring at 30 yards with a single pin. At the time she was about 60 years old. The only thing she said was, "I'm not as good as I used to be. One of those in within an inch of the line." The x ring is just under 5 inches across. Her bow was made by the old man in th 70's from a kit. The sight was put on with wood grabber screws. She shot aluminum shafts with plastic vanes. I pretty much just assumed she was a badass with super powers.

Pretty much the point being is good form and lots of practice and you'll do well. It's all about repeatability and control.

 

[TxRcrvHunter]

So, I'm no purist by any means with a traditional bow. However you may like this. One of the old men who was around when I was little taught me to flintknap. He made primitive bows for fun later in life. This is an osage orange bow I made from a log he cut in Texas. Weeks of scraping and shaping from both me and him went into this bow. He always wanted to shoot something with a bow he made. He died before it happened. So now for the last 3 years I've been trying to do it with this bow and arrowheads from his supply. The closest I got was last year I missed an antelope doe opening morning by inches. I remember thinking I would be more proud of a doe with this than a buck with my compound.

I get the obsession. Keep practicing. Mine is going into the Turkey woods tomorrow. While it can handicap you in some ways it's greatly fullfilling.

That being said, this old man's wife was a state champion archer back in the day with a recurve. I WATCHED her put 3 arrows in the x ring at 30 yards with a single pin. At the time she was about 60 years old. The only thing she said was, "I'm not as good as I used to be. One of those in within an inch of the line." The x ring is just under 5 inches across. Her bow was made by the old man in th 70's from a kit. The sight was put on with wood grabber screws. She shot aluminum shafts with plastic vanes. I pretty much just assumed she was a badass with super powers.

Pretty much the point being is good form and lots of practice and you'll do well. It's all about repeatability and control.

That is a beautiful bow!!! Thanks for sharing, best of luck in your hunting season this year!!!

 

[BrokenArrow]

Awesome thread!
I'm about to purchase a used long bow and see how it feels.
The journey begins....TXRCRV good luck on yours

 

[Lmwmihunter76]

Reading this thread makes me want to dig out my longbow and start shooting it again!! TXRCRV good luck and have fun

 

[MN_Bowhunter4]

I'm enjoying the good advice on this thread. This is my first year shooting a recurve and I'm hoping to be at a point of bringing it into the woods this fall. Love the idea about pingpong balls!

 

[squirrel]

Traditional pics tend to have smaller antler size yet bigger smiles. There is a reason. It used to be very special to be able to harvest an animal with a bow, any legal animal. Met a guy last fall who had pins to 120 yards. Personally I've got no business shooting instinctively past 20. Don't let preconceived notions of what archery "can do" with what you think you should do or practice doing, although just practicing never hurt much except your pride!

For this pic I needed a camera operator badly, but it was a very cold solo adventure.

 

[Greyman]

Nice Squirrel!

Yea, pin sights have been used since way before "traditional" was a thing. Back then, it was just called bowhunting.

 

[ZBB]

Traditional pics tend to have smaller antler size yet bigger smiles. There is a reason. It used to be very special to be able to harvest an animal with a bow, any legal animal. Met a guy last fall who had pins to 120 yards. Personally I've got no business shooting instinctively past 20. Don't let preconceived notions of what archery "can do" with what you think you should do or practice doing, although just practicing never hurt much except your pride!

For this pic I needed a camera operator badly, but it was a very cold solo adventure.View attachment 109386

is that a multi pin site? That’s way different then the rag tag sh!t I have on my bow. I glued a bead from my daughters bracket making kit to a plunger.

 

[Mossy-Back]

I’m in a similar situation.

Bow Hunting newb

After 20 years of rifle hunting I decided to try bow hunting. I shot bows as a kid and early teen, bowfished for carp, but never hunted with one. My setup is kind of funky, as I am shooting a alloy riser recurve and using a 3 pin sight, so not really “traditional”, but not quite modern. I’ve...

www.hunttalk.com

First year bow hunting and I really like the simplicity of the recurve. I decided to use a pin sight on mine and I’m much more consistent with it than using gap or string walking. I can pretty consistently shoot sub 6” groups at 30 yards. I’m only shooting a 40 pound bow this year for deer but if I like it I’m wanting to go up to a 50 pound bow next year and hunt elk.

 

[TxRcrvHunter]

Traditional pics tend to have smaller antler size yet bigger smiles. There is a reason. It used to be very special to be able to harvest an animal with a bow, any legal animal. Met a guy last fall who had pins to 120 yards. Personally I've got no business shooting instinctively past 20. Don't let preconceived notions of what archery "can do" with what you think you should do or practice doing, although just practicing never hurt much except your pride!

For this pic I needed a camera operator badly, but it was a very cold solo adventure.View attachment 109386

What an awesome photo, something you'd see in an older edition of Field & Stream!!! Can you tell me about the photo???

 

[Dan O]

If your interested in traditional equipment get the book by Fred Bear " Fred Bears Field Notes" and Glenn St Charles "Bows on the Little Delta". Both are great reads and are a motivator to getting competent with a recurve or long bow. I started bow hunting in 1974 with a #55 Darton take down recurve. Got my first archery deer a muley doe with it. I was darn proud of the deer and it lit a fire to continue. From there it was on to compounds until the early 80's and the recurve idea bit me again. In 1980 I got a cow Elk with my compound and then decided on using the recurve. I ordered a Schaefer take down built off a metal Bear riser with Paul's limb's. They were 81#'s at my draw length. It took 1 1/2 years to work into these. In 1982 I scored a 6x6 Bull in the Bob with this set up. Then my career took over and practice time decreased and it was back to the compound. I've taken Deer, Elk and a Bear with the compound since then and I'm proud of them but the recurve kills are forever special to me because of the work involved to get ready for the hunt.

Dan

 

[squirrel]

What an awesome photo, something you'd see in an older edition of Field & Stream!!! Can you tell me about the photo???

I believe I put the story on this site under sheep. Title of "chilly sheep" (quite a while ago) The pic itself was shot on self timer off a Minolta Maxxum film camera wedged on top of some grass/rocks (at way too low an elevation) Of course back in those flintstone days you didn't know what kind of pic you got until 2 weeks later when the prints came back!

I was just really excited to have my first archery bighorn on the ground.

That bow (bear hunter takedown 65#) had bushings for putting a pin sight on and having pins was not cause for immediate hanging back in those days like it is now. Personally I shoot a recurve pretty well with sights, it is the instinctive that kicks my ass.

His name is "Rambo" and he is the smallest but favorite, "trophy" aint about the size...

 

[BAKPAKR]

I believe I put the story on this site under sheep. Title of "chilly sheep" (quite a while ago) The pic itself was shot on self timer off a Minolta Maxxum film camera wedged on top of some grass/rocks (at way too low an elevation) Of course back in those flintstone days you didn't know what kind of pic you got until 2 weeks later when the prints came back!

I was just really excited to have my first archery bighorn on the ground.

That bow (bear hunter takedown 65#) had bushings for putting a pin sight on and having pins was not cause for immediate hanging back in those days like it is now. Personally I shoot a recurve pretty well with sights, it is the instinctive that kicks my ass.

His name is "Rambo" and he is the smallest but favorite, "trophy" aint about the size...View attachment 109604

squirrel, that is a great collection of Bighorns. Congratulations!

 

[TxRcrvHunter]

I believe I put the story on this site under sheep. Title of "chilly sheep" (quite a while ago) The pic itself was shot on self timer off a Minolta Maxxum film camera wedged on top of some grass/rocks (at way too low an elevation) Of course back in those flintstone days you didn't know what kind of pic you got until 2 weeks later when the prints came back!

I was just really excited to have my first archery bighorn on the ground.

That bow (bear hunter takedown 65#) had bushings for putting a pin sight on and having pins was not cause for immediate hanging back in those days like it is now. Personally I shoot a recurve pretty well with sights, it is the instinctive that kicks my ass.

His name is "Rambo" and he is the smallest but favorite, "trophy" aint about the size...View attachment 109604

Just awesome Squirrel, thanks for sharing. Inspiring!