Ages ago I had a 90# Howard Hill Big Five longbow that I used as a trainer bow for my then-usual 75-80 hunting recurves. Ah, to be young and that strong again.
In fact, the very first pronghorn antelope I ever shot was taken with an 82# Archery 2000 SST recurve, while hunting in NW Wyoming with none other than this forum’s Charlie Lamb, who was living in Pinedale, WY at the time. Charlie said go here and have at it. I did.
Then a funny thing happened. With each passing decade I seemed to drop about 10 pounds in preferred hunting-bow weight. I’m not sure if that was atrophy or wisdom. Probably both. There was a long time when I couldn’t imagine dropping below 70# in a traditional hunting bow. Then, gradually and quite reluctantly, I had to admit that Fred Bear’s 65# felt good. Slowly, 60# came to make sense. And today, something around 55# seems like the ticket. In twenty more years I figure I’ll be shooting deer with a lady’s target bow.
When, for no particularly good reason, I began collecting old hunting recurves in the mid-1970s, one of the first bows I acquired was a 1959 Bear Kodiak from a man in Hawaii, of all places. He’d ordered it by mail from Bear Archery, but hadn’t shot it much. “Never did like that bow,” he told me. “Too hard to string, man.”
I still have that ‘59. And while not in the monster-weight range, it’s definitely stout.
Bill Krenz
Colorado
Topic: Heavy Weights? (Read 819 times)
